Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/530430
ByJudyLin TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO California lawmakers on Friday passed a compromise budget to meet Gov. Jerry Brown's demands for restrained spending, even as the pack- age sends billions more to public schools and increases spending on health care and social services. The Assembly approved therevised$115.4billionbud- getforthefiscalyear starting nextmonthwitha53-26vote, followed by the Senate on a bipartisan 30-9 vote. "Given that the nature of compromise is that no one gets everything that he or she wants, that's what's be- fore us," state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said in presenting the revised spending plan as vice chair- man of the Senate Budget Committee. Democrats who control both houses had sought more money for social wel- fare programs and ap- proved a plan Monday with $2 billion in higher spend- ing. But Brown, a Demo- crat, held firm against ex- panding many services, re- lying on a lower projection for state revenues. The budget now heads to the governor, who is ex- pected to approve it. Brown allowed Demo- cratic legislative leaders to keep some of their priority programs such as boosting the number of state-subsi- dized child care slots, giv- ing in-home support work- ers a raise, and expand- ing state-subsidized health care coverage to children from low-income families who are in the country il- legally. The governor said the state will pay for those ini- tiatives but still limit state spending next year by find- ing savings in other pro- grams, including fixing an accounting error in health spending. Brown also has called two special sessions to ad- dress how California pays for roads, highways and other infrastructure, and Medi-Cal, the state's health care program for the poor. Republicans said they supported the lower over- all budget figure and some voted for the compromise plan. Other GOP members pointed to the shortcom- ings of the spending plan. "The majority party has passed two budgets in two days that fail to address California's priorities — wa- ter, education and transpor- tation infrastructure," said Assembly Minority Leader Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto. Democrats weren't com- pletely satisfied either. Some said the revised budget doesn't do enough to help poor and disabled people. The spending plan leaves in place a cap on welfare payments for low-income women who have more children and it left out ex- tra support the Legislature had approved for transpor- tation, job coaching and housing for people with au- tism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. The new budget allocates billions more for schools — from kindergarten through community college — and channels additional money to schools with high levels of poor children and Eng- lish-language learners. Public colleges and uni- versities also will get more support. In addition, Califor- nia will add thousands of state-subsidized child care and preschool slots while increasing pay for teach- ers and caretakers in those programs. To provide some relief to the poor, the state will es- tablish an earned income tax credit that would help up to 2 million Californians. The state also will adopt an amnesty program for resi- dents who can't afford to pay off spiraling court fines and traffic penalties that have resulted in 4.8 million driver's license suspensions since 2006. There is also $40 million to begin extending health coverage to children from poor families who are in the country illegally. The amount will increase to $132 million annually once fully implemented. The most controversial provision allows state regu- lators to consolidate water agencies to help rural com- munities that are running out of water. Local govern- mentsarguethatcouldcreate unintendedcostsforagencies and their customers. It also suspends Califor- nia's strict environmental re- viewforsomerecyclingwater projects including a planned plant in Silicon Valley — a weakened version of a more sweeping proposal that envi- ronmentalists opposed. SACRAMENTO Legislatureapprovescompromise$115.4Bbudget PHOTOSBYRICHPEDRONCELLI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS ABOVE: Republican Assembly members, from le , James Gallagher of East Nicolaus, Shannon Grove of Bakersfield, Ling Ling Chang of Diamond Bar and Marie Waldron of Escondido, confer before the Assembly takes up the revised budget plan at the Capitol in Sacramento on Friday. LEFT: California Gov. Jerry Brown gestures to a chart showing the increase in education spending as he discusses his revised state budget plan during a news conference at the Capitol in Sacramento. By Ellen Knickmeyer The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO More than one-tenth of the larg- est wild population of threatened salmon in the Central Valley died after repair work near a power plant led Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to cut off a cooling flow of water into a creek, wildlife and utility officials said Friday. PG&E, the state's larg- est utility, restored the wa- ter flow on Wednesday to a remote stretch of Butte Creek, home to the larg- est of three surviving wild populations of Central Val- ley spring-run Chinook salmon. The death of 277 of the fewer than 2,000 adult chi- nook in the creek under- scored the vulnerability of one of California's most iconic species in a drought year marked by record low amounts of cooling snow melt. Salmon populations from Monterey on the cen- tral coast to the Oregon border are showing prob- lems related to low, warm water conditions created by the driest four years in state history. "As the drought wears on, it's just going to get worse," Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the Cali- fornia Department of Fish and Wildlife, said from the banks of Butte Creek, north of Sacramento. PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said utility crews rushed an emergency re- pair project on a canal to restore water flows into the creek as quickly as possi- ble. "I can tell you that ... crews worked every day to get that back in place," Moreno said. The problem began when the utility learned of leaks in a canal carry- ing water from a utility res- ervoir to PG&E hydroelec- tric plants. The utility shut down the canal May 29 to line a 500-foot stretch of the waterway, Moreno said. Without the cooling flow, a hot spell last week- end brought water temper- atures in the creek up to the 70s and 80s, fostering a rapid outbreak of deadly pathogens that afflict the gills of the salmon, cut- ting off oxygen, said How- ard Brown, Sacramento River branch chief of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Clint Garman, a biolo- gist with the state wild- life department, said ex- isting conditions from the drought would have killed some of the salmon in the creek outright, but the temporary water cutoff by PG&E increased the num- ber of deaths. Long-term, state and federal wildlife officials said, PG&E's release of wa- ter into Butte Creek has helped keep the stream's native salmon alive over the years. "There is a lot of very careful management" of water by the utility and regulators at Butte Creek, "and in a normal year it works very well," Brown said. "It's just the worst year for this kind of thing, and the timing couldn't have been worse." DROUGHT Threatened salmon die a er utility temporarily shuts canal MICAH ESCAMILLA — THE SUN VIA AP The Lake Fire burns for a second day on Thursday near Jenks Lake in Angeles Oaks. The Associated Press BIG BEAR LAKE A fleet of helicopters dropped loads of water on flaming tim- ber Friday as a huge fire churned through the San Bernardino National For- est, the largest among blazes burning in hot, dry California. The blaze grew to more than 17 square miles and was just 10 percent con- tained as it pushed east- ward through dense, old- growth wilderness in the San Bernardino Mountains, the towering range that lies between inland cities east of Los Angeles and the Mo- jave Desert. Helicopters were consid- ered the best option for at- tacking the fire. Weather conditions were too turbu- lent for air tankers, said Lyn Sieliet, a U.S. Forest Service fire spokeswoman. About 1,200 firefighters were working the blaze. None had been reported injured since the fire broke out for unknown reasons on Wednesday near one of the many permanent camps along State Route 38. The fire forced several hundred people to leave the camps and some vacation homes. The National Weather Service issued a heat advi- sory for high temperatures through Sunday evening be- cause of strong high pres- sure aloft. Mountain tem- peratures were predicted to range from 90 degrees at 6,000-foot elevations to 100 degrees at 3,000 feet. Humidity levels were very low, which makes vegeta- tion easier to burn. About 150 structures, in- cluding old cabins and out- buildings, were threatened, but none were lost, Sieliet said. The winds pushing the fire east carried the smoke even farther, into the des- ert and the Coachella Val- ley, where air-quality levels were reaching unhealthy levels Friday, the Air Qual- ity Management District said. Elsewhere in the state, a 60-acre fire that on Thurs- day burned three residences in Thermal, 135 miles south- east of Los Angeles, was 25 percent contained. Over 500 acres have burned in the Sierra Na- tional Forest, south of Yo- semite National Park, where firefighters warned the blaze fed by heavy, dry brush could double in size in the next few days. A 500-acre blaze sparked by a vehicle fire burned near the Madera County commu- nity of Cedar Valley. In Northern Califor- nia on Thursday, firefight- ers worked until midnight snuffing patches of fire and embers in a blaze that burned over 1,500 acres in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, east of Eureka. Its advance has been halted in virtually all areas, officials said. Huge forest fire continues to grow SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ELEVATIONS WORKSHOP: Figure Out What You Really Want to Do For Young Adults (ages 16-24) Two Sessions: July 8 or July 9 Job Training Center 718 Main Street, Red Bluff 8:30am to Noon Cost: $25 per person Online Assessment and Workshop Call529-7000toregister NeedaDoctor? Wehavetherightoneforyou. 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