Budget experts are predicting a potentially severe drop in anticipated State revenues for the upcoming 2020-21 fiscal year and beyond. Governor Newsom’s record-breaking $220 billion January State Budget proposal included several initiatives aimed at addressing homelessness, health care costs, and climate change. The impending recession brought on by COVID-19 likely means most if not all of those proposals are off the table. In fact, the Department of Finance has sent letters to legislators, agency secretaries and department directors warning that they “should have no expectation of full funding for either new or existing proposals and adjustments.” While specific cuts have not yet been proposed, CAFP is urging legislators to maintain health programs that will help get us through this crisis and beyond, such as the Song-Brown Physician Training Program.
