Legislature passes work-in-progress budget

California lawmakers technically met their constitutional deadline to send Gov. Gavin Newsom a budget on Monday.

The Senate passed SB 74, the Budget Act of 2020, by a 29-11 late afternoon vote. The bill passed the Assembly 61-15 earlier in the day.

But even high-ranking legislative Democrats acknowledged negotiations will continue. The passage of a work-in-progress budget is in part the result of rules that call for lawmakers to stop being paid if they don't pass a budget by June 15. There is no requirement for the governor to actually sign it by that date.

"The budget we are passing today represents a two-party deal between the Senate and the Assembly," said Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee Chair Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, while presenting SB 74 on the floor. "Although we are working hard on a three-party deal that includes the administration, today we have the possibility to pass a budget that stands on its own."

No Republicans voted for SB 74. Some said it did not make enough spending reductions.

"Colleagues, the recession Governor Brown feared and warned about is here, and it came on like a heart attack in just a matter of a few months," Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, said during the floor debate. "Regretfully, recessions have a way of staying for a few years."

Cuts to the courts budget would be about $183 million less under the Legislature's plan compared to Newsom's. But courts would see an additional $100 million in trigger cuts if the state doesn't receive around $14 billion in additional federal aid by October -- something few expect to happen.

Mitchell served three years in the Assembly during some of the worst periods of the great recession. She said Monday that experience strengthened her resolve to not make cuts that hurt "the most vulnerable."

This is reflected in the Legislature's version of the courts budget, which bars cuts to dependency counsel, self-help programs and other items designed to help low-income litigants.

-- Malcolm Maclachlan