California’s Uninsured Rate Stalls after Years of Significant Decline

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, according to a new report from the California Budget & Policy Center. As California faces an estimated $54 billion budget shortfall and policymakers are charged with helping people in the ongoing COVID-19 health and economic crisis, there is a substantial need for new funding and resources. One place policymakers can immediately look: corporate taxes. Corporations pay less of their income in state taxes today – even amid the COVID-19 economic crisis – than they did in the 1980s.

The California Budget & Policy Center, a nonpartisan, data-driven organization with a focus on evaluating public policies and their effect on Californians with low and middle incomes, released the following statement from Executive Director Chris Hoene following the release of Governor Newsom’s revised 2020-21 state budget. 

Millions of Californian workers are shouldering the burden of the COVID-19 economic slowdown, but workers with less education, people of color, and immigrants face the greatest financial risk, according to two new reports from the California Budget & Policy Center. The loss of jobs – evidenced by the record number of Californians who have recently filed for unemployment insurance – and cuts to work hours hit some households especially hard, and struggling to pay for food and rent during the pandemic is exacerbated by the economic, educational, and racial inequities many California workers already faced.

A first look at the Californians who may be facing economic hardship related to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis based on the industries and occupations likely affected by business reductions and closures. The sudden shutdown of businesses and industries that are significant sources of employment for millions of Californians leaves individuals and families who were already struggling to pay rent, buy groceries, and living paycheck to paycheck especially vulnerable right now.

The California Budget & Policy Center, a nonpartisan, data-driven organization with a focus on evaluating public policies and their effect on Californians with low and middle incomes, released the following statement from Executive Director Chris Hoene following the release of Governor Newsom’s proposed 2020-21 state budget: “Governor Newsom’s proposed budget advances a series of commitments to some of the most pressing needs facing Californians: a safe home to receive behavioral health services, accessing and affording health care coverage, and improving paid family leave so workers can care for their family members. The proposed budget also continues to strengthen the state’s fiscal health by building healthy reserves, paying down debts, and planning for the future.

The California Budget & Policy Center released a new report today showing that while California has significantly expanded its Earned Income Tax Credit – known as CalEITC – in the last few years, hundreds of thousands of immigrant families face social and economic disparities because they are excluded from the tax credit even though they file taxes. In the Budget Center’s latest piece – Five Reasons Why California Should Extend the CalEITC and Young Child Tax Credit to Immigrant Families and Communities we outline the strong equity and economic cases for making the credits inclusive of immigrant families.

Close to 3 million Californians did not have health coverage in 2018, according to a new report from the California Budget & Policy Center based on recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 2018 also was the first year since the federal Affordable Care Act was enacted that the share of Californians without health coverage did not drop.