Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget would boost spending on health and social services by about $1.7 billion over the current year, but it left advocates screaming for more to restore cuts made during the Great Recession.
The state’s tattered social safety net will be front and center in Brown’s negotiations with Democratic lawmakers from now through the June 15 constitutional deadline for enacting next year’s budget, wrangling over how to spend about $2 billion in better-than-expected tax revenues that aren’t already earmarked for other purposes.