Author: Daniel Weintraub

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation Monday that would have created a new program to replace the Adult Health Day Care centers the state is eliminating to save money in the budget. The centers serve mostly older Californians – about 37,000 people a year – who are at risk of being placed in nursing homes. In his veto message, Brown said the new program, while requiring less funding at first, would essentially be a duplicate of the one he was eliminating. He said he didn’t see the point of doing that.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation allowing undocumented immigrants who graduate from California high schools to receive financial aid while in college.

In an early and major step toward implementing the federal health reform bill, about half a million low-income Californians will soon be eligible for benefits that are expected to address their health problems before they reach an emergency room. Single childless adults with incomes up to about $14,500, who up until now have depended largely on emergency rooms for their care, will be moved into the health care system with a basic package of benefits paid for with an increase in federal funding.

The state budget Democratic lawmakers presented Tuesday relies largely on a newly optimistic revenue projection that assumes California’s economy will return to health with gusto in the coming months. That’s a big assumption, and if it doesn’t pan out, up to $2.6 billion in spending cuts will be automatically triggered early next year. But even if the tax revenue grows as much as the Democrats hope or the spending cuts are implemented, the state will almost certainly face a multi-billion shortfall a year from now.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of the new state budget Democrats passed this week represents a gamble that California’ deadlocked Legislature can find its way to a bipartisan solution that has evaded it all year.

Defenders of a program that provides health care to keep low-income people with disabilities from being hospitalized or placed in nursing homes sued today to block the state from eliminating the program. The Adult Day Health Care program serves 35,000 people, including many older adults. It is a benefit provided through Medi-Cal, the subsidized health program financed by a combination of state and federal money.

Hoping to lead an industry push toward more affordable health insurance, Blue Shield of California will voluntarily limit its net income to no more than 2 percent of its revenue, company executives said Tuesday. The cap will be retroactive, leading the company to let go of $180 million in income from 2010 that exceeded the self-imposed limit.

The good news for Gov. Jerry Brown is that Californians overwhelmingly agree with his proposal for a special election on his plan to extend temporary taxes to help erase the state’s budget shortfall. The bad news for Brown, however, is that those same voters are not nearly as enthusiastic about the plan itself. Many apparently want a chance to vote on it so they can vote it down. Those are among the findings from a new, independent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring California to reduce overcrowding in its prisons has triggered an outcry from legislators and the criminal justice community about the possibility of thousands of dangerous felons being released to the streets before the end of their terms. That’s not likely to happen.