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2007 Budget Agenda

After an almost record-breaking impasse, the necessary Republican votes were finally secured in the Senate to allow passage of the state budget. Three days later, the Governor signed the final budget package, which included $700 million in line-item vetoes.

As with all budgets, the final allocation of resources is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate our state's most important values and programs. The Governor used his veto authority to revise bill language and eliminate even miniscule amounts of funding from particular programs.

The following are budget proposals of specific interest in AACRE's core areas of civil rights, language rights, and immigrant rights. The final budget:

  • Maintains funding for the CA Department of Education's Clearinghouse of Multilingual Documents, a resource for schools to share translated written notices that can be disseminated to limited English proficient (LEP) parents. Translated information will lead to meaningful involvement of LEP parents in their children's education, resulting in greater academic success.
  • Re-appropriates $500,000 for the 2007-08 budget for statewide translations of educational notices that can be distributed to LEP parents. 
  • Vetoes $50,000 provided for a study of school best practices to involve LEP parents.
  • Rejects a proposal to eliminate cash assistance for children if their parents fail to meet certain requirements.
  • Provides both the federal and state cost-of-living adjustments for low-income elderly and people with disabilities who are receiving Supplemental Security Income assistance. However, the budget also delays the state cost-of-living adjustment to June 1 (instead of January 1) permanently.
  • Fixes an unintended gap in benefits for elderly and disabled individuals in the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants who become citizens and transition to Supplemental Security Income assistance. 
  • Vetoes the $2 million increase provided by the Legislature for the Naturalization Services Program, which provides grants to community-based organizations for assisting immigrants with attaining citizenship. The program continues to be funded at $3 million. 
  • Allocates $11.7 million to the Secretary of State for the costs of moving the 2008 Presidential Primary to February.  The funds will cover various activities required for the election, including state ballot preparation and printing, voter registration, voter participation, the voting process, and election night reporting.nbsp; County costs will be addressed in the 2008-2009 budget next year.

For additional information on other proposals in the budget, please download AACRE's analysis in the right column.