(The Center Square) – During a discussion Wednesday about projected federal budget cuts, lawmakers in Sacramento said they would push back on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to reduce funding to programs that millions of Californians rely on, such as food assistance and Medi-Cal.
Budget reductions instituted by the federal government’s 2025 budget resolution, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are projected to cost just CalFresh and Medi-Cal an estimated $32.3 billion each year – $30 billion from Medi-Cal and $2.3 billion from CalFresh, according to the California Health & Human Services Agency and California Association of Food Banks. CalFresh is the state's version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Medi-Cal is California's version of Medicaid.
As members of legislative budget subcommittees discuss how much money to allocate, proposals were debated on Wednesday that would see less state taxpayer revenue pay for social services programs. Instead, plans are to push more of the cost onto county agencies.
“I seldom see the administration and counties agreeing on a number,” Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Moreno Valley and chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Human Services, said during the panel's meeting on Wednesday afternoon. “So we’re reluctant to support such a shift.”
Another hurdle to clear in formulating a budget is the state’s projected multi-year deficits as detailed in the Legislative Analyst’s Office's most recent report. That report, published in February, shows California faces a $35 billion a year structural budget deficit starting in fiscal year 2027-28.
Given those numbers, agency staff who testified in the subcommittee meeting on Wednesday said they are trying to be mindful of how crucial certain taxpayer-funded programs are when they make recommendations for cuts.
“As the administration stated, its proposal to shift the costs of increased hours to counties is not intended to reduce hours of service,” Karina Hendren, a fiscal and policy analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office, testified during the meeting. “That being said, the way that the governor’s [in-home supportive services] proposals will work in practice remains unclear at this time.”
Medi-Cal cuts could affect services provided by regional centers, which are state taxpayer-funded agencies that coordinate services for disabled individuals. Federal budget cuts could affect those peoples’ access to health care services paid for by Medi-Cal, and includes those who receive help from in-home health care workers paid by Medi-Cal dollars. Funding cuts could be made up by expenditures made by individual regional centers, Hendren said, but that could vary widely depending on the regional center.
“Many of the enacted and proposed state budget solutions in Medi-Cal focus on enrollees with unsatisfactory immigration status,” Hendren said during the meeting. “Regional centers have never considered immigration status as part of the eligibility for services, and this means that state budget solutions affecting Medi-Cal eligibility generally should not affect eligibility for regional center services.”
However, Hendren said, even if regional centers don’t themselves withhold providing medical care to illegal immigrants because of their immigration status, illegal immigrants dependent on Medi-Cal to pay for comprehensive health care could lose their only ability to receive that care because of the federal budget cuts to Medi-Cal.
“As we noted previously, loss of Medi-Cal coverage could create fiscal pressures for regional centers to pay for certain health care services for consumers at full cost to the state if no other source of health care is available,” Hendren said.
For some, losing that care could mean life or death for themselves or their families, one woman testified on Wednesday.
“Every single person in my house has a disability,” Ana Alonso, who depends on in-home care, testified at the subcommittee meeting. “We rely on Medi-Cal in-home support services and regional center services to survive. So when you talk about cuts, please understand, you’re talking about our lives.”
The governor's revised budget is expected in May.
