SACRAMENTO - Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) released the following statement in support of the 2017-18 state budget:
“This is a budget that does things for people, not to people. With this budget we keep our promises to students, patients, and voters, build on our reserves, and continue California’s progressive momentum.
“We fight poverty by expanding California’s earned income tax credit and increase access to early childhood education. We make college more affordable by preserving the Middle Class Scholarship and creating pathways that help students earn degrees with less debt. We are implementing badly needed government reforms—reforms that were identified by the Legislature performing our oversight role. And we maintain California’s fiscal stability by increasing reserves to $9.9 billion—the largest in recent history.
“With this budget, we will protect what we have gained and we will persist in moving forward.”
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
“The expansion of the CalEITC represents an important victory for working Californians. We congratulate legislative leaders and the Governor on reaching a budget deal that will allow well over 1 million additional families across the state to benefit from this critical support for workers with low earnings. By expanding the CalEITC to include eligible self-employed workers, while also lifting the income limit for eligibility, state policymakers will help more hard-working Californians to afford the basics and advance economically.”
- Chris Hoene, Executive Director, California Budget & Policy Center
“Life under the poverty line is hard for anyone. Life under the poverty line while self-employed is more difficult because of income is precarious. The EITC can help.”
- Jessica Bartholow, Policy Advocate, Western Center on Law & Poverty
“For over a decade, the eligibility levels for subsidized child care and preschool have been frozen. Updating family eligibility to address a more realistic and modern State Median Income preserves the ability for many minimum wage families to receive the child care parents need to work and their children need to thrive.”
- Camille Maben, Executive Director, First 5 California
“The California State Student Association appreciates the increased investment in public higher education and students that the Assembly leadership fought for in this year’s budget, including preserving the Middle Class Scholarship and $24 million in additional ongoing funding for the California State University system.”
- Maggie White, Incoming President, California State Student Association; Student at Stanislaus State University
"We are happy to see that the 2017-2018 state budget includes renewed funding for the Middle Class Scholarship, because it provides important financial support for tens of thousands of UC students and their families. We look forward to continuing to work with state policymakers to increase the affordability and accessibility of the University of California."
- Ralph Washington Jr., President, University of California Student Association; Student at UC Davis
“Blessed by a good economy and successive state budgets which have emphasized fiscal discipline, the days of IOUs and fiscal hemorrhaging are in California’s rear view mirror. Not only does this budget feature the Governor and my plan to pay down state’s pension liabilities, but it also boasts a rainy day fund that has grown to $8.5 billion. Smartly, this is money we are socking away to better weather the economic downturn that will surely come.”
- John Chiang, State Treasurer