Senate Dems Hope To Sidestep Mental Health, First 5 Funding Transfer
On Wednesday, Senate Democrats plan to begin voting on a partial budget that could avoid reallocating funds from special state accounts for mental health services and early childhood health care and education, the Sacramento Bee reports (Yamamura, Sacramento Bee, 2/10).
In a May 2009 special election, voters rejected similar proposals to shift funds from Proposition 63 for mental health services and Proposition 10 for early childhood health care and education (California Healthline, 5/20/09).
The proposed package would address $6 billion of California's $19.9 billion budget deficit -- or less than one-third of the deficit -- including an $881 million cut to the health care budget for state prisons.
However, the proposal does not deal with most of the politically difficult cuts included in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) January budget proposal, and Democrats hope to delay debate on cuts to health care and social services until June.
The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review is scheduled to start voting on the proposal today, with another hearing scheduled for Thursday (Sacramento Bee, 2/10). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.