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Following Gov. Newsom’s blistering critiques of housing and homelessness spends, so-called affordable housing programs got cut substantially in the state budget. Lynn La reports for Cal Matters about which programs came out on the short end in the budget negotiations.
• Affordable housing advocates: In a blow to efforts helping to ease the state’s housing shortage, the budget plan includes cutting $1.1 billion from various affordable housing programs.
• Health care workers: Not only will $746 million be cut from health care workforce development programs, but the budget delays even further a $25 hourly wage hike for health care workers. The pay raises were supposed to begin June 1, but now will be pushed back until at least October.Learn more about the wage hike in CalMatters’ FAQ.
• Cal Grant recipients: A proposal to grow Cal Grant, the state’s key financial aid program, by $245 million has been scrapped. The expansion would have added 137,000 more students by fall 2024. A pared-down plan to expand it to 21,000 more students also didn’t make the final deal.
• Climate change advocates: The plan guts $9 billion from the $54 billion spending package approved two years ago for key climate programs.
Read the whole thing here.
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