On Monday, Governor Newsom signed the State Budget Package for Fiscal Year 2020-21, which included the main budget bill, budget amendments, and eighteen (18) bills related to budget implementation. RCRC staff prepared an analysis of the 2020-21 State Budget Package and key impacts on California’s rural counties in the latest RCRC Rural Rundown, available here. The Governor’s press release, issued on Monday, addresses the approach to balancing the budget, noting that the 2020-21 budget is balanced through a combination of reserves, triggers, federal funds, revenues, borrowing/transfers/deferrals, and canceled expansions, updated assumptions and other solutions. In his remarks, Governor Newsom states that “the budget makes critical investments to save lives and promote economic recovery while closing a $54.3 billion budget shortfall caused by the COVID-19 recession”.
It is expected that further revisions to the State Budget Package will be addressed in August once the State of California fully counts personal income tax receipts (the tax filing deadline was extended until July 15th). Furthermore, several issues still need to be addressed before the Legislature adjourns on August 31st – measures pertaining to public safety, realigning juvenile justice, enacting a vaping tax, reform of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and expenditures from the state’s Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds.