California’s February Revenues Fall $146.3M Short of Projections

California's revenue in February was about 3.2% -- or $146.3 million -- below projections, according to an analysis by State Controller John Chiang (D), the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports (Yamamura, "Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 3/12).

Chiang said the shortfall likely is the result of a large increase in tax refunds that the state sent out last month (Wiese, Sacramento Business Journal, 3/12).

State lawmakers are awaiting tax revenues in March and April before considering cuts included in Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) fiscal year 2012-2013 budget proposal ("Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 3/12).

Brown's Plan

Brown's $92.6 billion spending plan includes cuts to several health programs, including:

• $946.2 million from CalWORKs -- the state's welfare-to-work program -- by limiting the amount of time most adults could be on the program from four years to two years;
• $842.3 million from Medi-Cal -- California's Medicaid program -- by merging services for beneficiaries eligible for both Medi-Cal and Medicare;
• $163.8 million from In-Home Supportive Services -- which provides services for the elderly and people who are blind or have disabilities -- by eliminating domestic assistance for beneficiaries in shared living environments; and
• $64 million from Healthy Families, California's Children's Health Insurance Program, by moving children out of the program (California Healthline, 2/28).

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