The state Legislature approved a budget Monday just before its Tuesday deadline to send a budget bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Three Republican legislators who represent parts of the Santa Clarita Valley voted against the budget bill, Assembly Bill 128.
“This is a fake budget to meet the state’s constitutional deadline of June 15,” said Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, in an email statement. “What (Gov. Gavin Newsom) proposed last month was all Band-Aids and buyoffs, investing in his own political future rather than California.”
Wilk said Democratic lawmakers’ Monday proposal was not much better than the governor’s proposed budget.
“It grew government and ignored solutions to the real problems facing Californians — affordability, rising crime and unabated homelessness,” he said.
Assemblywoman Suzette Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, said the approved budget “doesn’t come close” to “(getting) it right.”
“While there are some good items in the budget draft, we need to do more to get Californians the help they need—lowering the skyrocketing cost of living, addressing and making housing and healthcare more affordable and accessible, and fixing the problems that led to many workers not getting the benefits they earned,” she wrote in an email statement.
Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, said the state is spending “more money every year at an unsustainable rate.”
“It fails to sufficiently replenish our state’s savings account after withdrawing nearly $8 billion in anticipation of a budget deficit that never materialized,” he said.
The Legislature’s budget bill did include $4 million proposed by Lackey to create a grant program for law enforcement agencies.
“I am grateful for the increases in ending the sexual assault evidence kit backlog,” Lackey said. “My request for $4 million to aid the processing of these kits will finally bring justice to our survivors of sexual assault.”
The office of Sen. Henry Stern, D-Calabasas, did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
