Committee Chairman Mark Leno (courtesy of Creative Commons)

State Senate and Assembly Democrats have refused this week to approve millions of dollars in cuts to health care and social services proposed by Governor Jerry Brown, promising instead to make cuts in areas that would produce a lesser impact on their constituencies.

The Senate and Assembly budget committees will each consider more portions of the state's $85 billion budget bill on Friday before holding joint hearings next week. That conference committee will eventually break off into final negotiations with Brown before bringing the budget measure for votes in the full Asssembly and the full Senate as early as March.

Brown has called on the Legislature to approve $12 billion in budget cuts before they consider his plan to put a measure before voters in a June special election that would extend sales, income and car tax hikes for five years.

On Thursday, the Senate's budget committee approved taking away $500 million each from the University of California and the California State University systems.

The Senate panel already approved increases in the price of prescription drugs as well as medical, dental and hospital care for Medi-Cal patients, which will save the state about $580 million annually. Medi-Cal reimbursement cuts of 10 percent were also approved which will save the government $700 million, according to the LA Times.

Although many health care cuts were approved, Democrats removed an additional $200 million in cuts which would limit the number of physician visits for Medi-Cal beneficiaries, cap medical supply costs and strip away vision coverage from people in California’s Children’s Health Insurance Program. They have yet to publcily say where those $200 million would be cut from instead.

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Democrats who control the Assembly's budget committee plan on Friday to go even further than their Senate counterparts, rejecting cuts to welfare aid for children and In-Home Supportive Services. The Assembly Democrats' plan is to trim Brown's proposed reserve fund for the state from $1 billion to a mere $300 million. 

Some small cost reductions were approved by the senate committee including eliminating $32 million in subsidies for county fairs and a $2.2 million reduction in Medi-Cal coverage for over-the-counter cold medicines. Another approved cut was suspending reimbursements to local governments for state mandates, including the Brown Act.

The Brown Act requires local governments to post information about public meetings in advance. Local governments, though, are not required to follow state mandates if not reimbursed for cost incurred while carrying them out. So, if this cut is signed into law, local governments would not be required to share as much information.

"I haven't heard of any cities trying to take advantage of the loophole when it comes to the Brown Act," Dan Carrigg, legislative director with the California League of Cities, told the AP earlier this week, according to California Watch. "But the locals are facing budget problems as well, so that's not to say that if there's a way down the road to do something more efficiently, that some city might not look at it."

California’s deficit is currently around $25.4 billion. If tax extensions and increases aren’t approved by voters in June, other measures would have to be taken to balance the state’s budget. Those measures could include larger class sizes, fewer police officers and college tuition increasing 7 percent to 10 percent, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

In order for the proposed cuts to go on a ballot in June, two-thirds of Legislature needs to approve it.

The Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to meet again 9:30 a.m. Friday to discuss other ways to cut the budget. It is led by San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno. Friday's discussion include revenues, redevelopment, realignment and K-14 education.

Neither chamber has given too much indication of how they will vote on the proposed elimination of redevelopment agencies, which has been one of the most explosive pieces of Brown's budget proposal.

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