Catholic lobbyists are both pleased and pragmatic about the recent passing of California’s new budget. While the $105.4 billion budget avoided deep cuts in services to the state’s poor and restored naturalization funding, it required significant borrowing to make up for no new tax increases.

Experts estimate that the new borrowing will result in a $10 billion deficit within approximately two years. Adding to the dilemma two years hence, groups agreeing to forgo money from Sacramento this year, such as local governments, public universities and the prison guards union, expect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make good on his promise to spare them from future cuts.

“We view the final budget as a victory for the poor in California, but we realize that the structural budget gap has not been resolved,” said Al Hernandez, a lobbyist for the California Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops. According to Hernandez, the state Legislature “bought off another year” due to borrowing.

However, Hernandez is “pleased and satisfied” that the $1.5 million set aside for naturalization funding survived the line-item pruning process. He led a broad coalition of religious groups and social service agencies, including the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative, the National Council of La Raza and Catholic Charities of Stockton, to push for restoration of naturalization programs, helping immigrants become citizens.

Hernandez reported that welfare recipients will receive cost-of-living increases. In early drafts of the budget, proposed cuts to monthly cash grants for families on CalWORKs ranged from five to 25 percent. During final budget negotiations, legislators agreed to delay cost-of-living increases for welfare recipients beginning in November.

According to Sister of Social Service Simone Campbell, executive director of Sacramento-based Jericho, an interfaith advocacy group lobbying on behalf of the state’s poor, the final budget is an improvement over the May revisions of the original January draft.

“It wasn’t as bad as it started out to be,” she said. “The Democrats did a good job of protecting the most vulnerable in tough times.”

Before signing the budget July 31, Schwarzenegger used line-item veto powers to cut $116 million in health and human services, education and environmental programs. Sister Campbell noted she was perplexed by the governor’s cut of $17 million from foster care and additional child welfare programs run by the counties.

“It makes no sense to cut foster care funding at a time when everyone says services should be expanded in this area,” Sister Campbell said. She believes that the Legislature will eventually have to approve new taxes “if we’re ever going to fix this (budget shortfall).”

Catholic Conference lobbyists also hope that discussions will be “reopened” on the subject of raising taxes to deal with the state’s fiscal crisis.

“Corporate taxes have remained steady for the last 10 years,” Hernandez said. “It’s time for corporations to step up to the plate and do their share for the state.”

Paula Doyle is a staff writer for The Tidings, weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

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