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As California faces a projected state budget shortfall in the tens of billions of dollars due to the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Newsom’s revised budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year includes significant reductions to programs and services that help keep Californians healthy. In particular, proposed cuts to Medi- Cal (California’s Medicaid program) could worsen health outcomes as well as undermine efforts to advance health equity at a time when the health and economic hardships from COVID-19 have disproportionately impacted Black and Latinx Californians, women and children in low-income households, and undocumented Californians. [...]

During this unprecedented health and economic crisis, many subsidized child care providers in California have stepped up to the challenge of providing early learning and care for families with low and moderate incomes – particularly for children with parents who are essential workers. While the state and federal government have both provided emergency funding to support subsidized child care providers, total support falls far short of the estimated level necessary to sustain child care providers. In addition, the Governor’s May Revision would cut provider payment rates by 10%. These rate cuts could be detrimental for child care providers who were already underpaid and operating on thin margins prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, during this crisis, providers are faced with dramatically higher costs due to smaller class sizes, increased staffing per child, and the added expense of keeping facilities clean as they care for and educate children. [...]

The share of California corporate income paid in state taxes declined by more than half during the past three decades. In the early 1980s, corporations that reported profits in California paid more than 9.5% of this income in state corporation taxes. In contrast, corporations paid just 4.2% of their California profits in corporation taxes in 2017, the most recent year for which data are available. California’s state budget would have received $11.2 billion more revenue in 2017 had corporations paid the same share of their income in taxes that year as they did in 1981 – more than the state spends on the University of California, the California State University, and student aid combined. Corporations pay less of their income in taxes today - even amid the COVID-19 economic crisis - than they did in the 1980s in part due to the reduction of tax rates by state policymakers. [...]