Groups Press Governor To Use Tobacco Tax Funds To Increase Medicaid Reimbursement Rates
The budget released by Gov. Jerry Brown in January instead directs the money to shore up the program as a whole.
KPCC:
Doctors And Dentists Say Brown's Budget Misuses Tobacco Tax Funds
Groups representing California's doctors and dentists joined with Planned Parenthood Wednesday to call on Gov. Brown to use most of the revenue from the new statewide tobacco tax to increase reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal providers. The California Medical Association, the California Dental Association and Planned Parenthood of California say that's the intention of Prop. 56, the measure approved by voters last November. (Faust, 5/10)
In other news from Sacramento —
KQED:
Soda Industry Targeted Legislature’s Latino Caucus
As California lawmakers continue to kill soda tax proposals, a new analysis found that the industry has disproportionately directed campaign contributions to members of the Latino Caucus in Sacramento. Maplight.org, a nonprofit that tracks campaign spending, found that the soda industry gave, on average, twice as much campaign cash to members of the Latino Caucus as to the average member of the state Legislature in recent years. (Lagos, 5/11)