The May Revision is out and the marathon to meet the constitutional deadline of passing a budget by June 15th begins.The Governor’s 2023-24 proposed state budget includes a $306 billion spending plan, the budget’s shortall is greater than projected in January by $9.3 billion leaving the state with a $31.5 billion shortfall. Much like we saw in the January proposal, the May Revise includes budget shifts (that is shifting funding from one source to another), and delayed implementation, revenue borrowing and/or reduction of funds to programs. It is clear that our budget problem is nowhere close to what we saw in 2009 given that years of cautions budgeting leading up to an economic downturn are reflected in the state’s reserves. The May Revision reflects $37.2 billion in total budgetary reserves which include: $22.3 billion in the Budget Stabilization Account, $10.7 billion in the Public School System Stabilization Account, $450 million in the Safety Net Reserve and $3.8 billion in the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties. All of this to say, the Internal Revenue Service’s decision to delay 2023 tax filing deadlines adds an additional level of uncertainty given that we won’t have personal income tax numbers until then.
The May Revision includes a total of $127.7 billion for all K-12 education programs. We appreciate and applaud the Governor’s commitment to education, specifically the $20 million one-time appropriation for the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program which uses a “grow your own” approach to address the bilingual teacher shortage by allowing eligible local educational agencies to apply for state funds in order to provide professional learning opportunities to increase the number of bilingual authorized teachers.The Governor also keeps its January commitment to the $300 million ongoing Proposition 98 General Fund to establish an equity multiplier as an add-on to the LCFF to focus on closing opportunity gaps. We also appreciate the additional time for planning and implementation of the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program.