Assembly Approves Budget, Davis Expected to Sign
Ending an impasse that had lasted more than three weeks, the state Assembly yesterday approved a $101 billion budget for fiscal year 2001-02, sending it to the desk of Gov. Gray Davis (D), the Sacramento Bee reports. One day after the Senate passed the budget, the Assembly passed the trailer bills needed to implement the spending plan, with "Republicans who had previously opposed some of the bills putting up enough votes, in different combinations, to give them [the necessary] two-thirds majorities" (Hill, Sacramento Bee, 7/24). One of the trailer bills would provide funding to expand Healthy Families to parents of enrolled children. After the Assembly passed its version of the budget last Monday, Republicans objected to that provision, saying it would expand funding for abortions (California Healthline, 7/20). Davis "is expected to sign the deal later this week, though he plans to veto more than $500 million in spending to boost reserves," the San Jose Mercury News reports (Levey, San Jose Mercury News, 7/24).
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