California audit finds the state is broke

(The Center Square) – California just filed its 2021-2022 audited financial statement, 350 days past the filing deadline. In its filing, the state admits that COVID-era unemployment fraud cost the state $29 billion that must be paid back to the federal government, and that in 2022, the state had $256 billion more in liabilities than it had in unrestricted resources.

After accounting for restricted resources, such as purpose-specific state trust funds and bonds, the state still owed $55 billion more than it had.

California currently faces a $73 billion deficit for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, to which the Democratic legislature has responded with a proposal to cut this year’s budget by $2.1 billion and a proposal to spend $12 billion, or half the state’s rainy day fund. 

With the state reducing 2023 jobs growth from 325,000 to just 50,000, revenues are likely to be much lower than expected. 

With a significant expansion of benefits, including expanding taxpayer-funded MediCal to all illegal immigrants, and a major shift in illegal immigration from heavily-enforced Texas to California instead, state expenditures could end up being higher than expected. 

TheCenterSquare.com

Marxism in California

A 54% Marxist Tax Rate Proposed By Democrats

The Marxist Confiscation of Wealth

(CNBC)  -  A proposal to raise taxes on California millionaires would result in a top tax rate of nearly 54% for federal and state taxes.

Democrats in the California state legislature this week proposed a tax hike on the state’s highest earners to help pay for schools and services hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. Legislators say the tax hike would raise more than $6 billion a year, and would redirect funding from the wealthy to those who have been hit hardest by the Covid-19 crisis.

The plan follows proposals in New York state to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for a widening budget deficit. And it adds to a growing debate over expanding inequality during the pandemic and who should pay the soaring costs to government.

Yet the California proposal would raise the highest state tax rate in the country even higher, and renew the possibility of wealthy Californians fleeing the state.

California’s top marginal tax rate is 13.3%. The new proposal would add three new surcharges on seven-figure earners. It would add a 1% surcharge to gross income of more than $1 million, 3% on income over $2 million and 3.5% on income above $5 million.

So the top tax rate would be 16.8%, on income of more than $5 million and the combined state and federal tax rate for California’s top earners would soar to 53.8%. With the deduction on state and local taxes capped at $10,000 under the Trump tax cuts, the top-earning Californians wouldn’t be able to deduct the new taxes from their federal returns.

CNBC.com

Joe Rogan moving from California to Texas for 'more freedom'

Joe Rogan is moving to Texas in search of "a little bit more freedom."

Rogan announced the news of his relocation from Los Angeles to Texas Friday on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

The move likely comes as little surprise to Rogan's fans, given that the popular comedian and commentator has previously hinted at relocating to the Lone Star State, according to The Hill.

Rogan cited overpopulation, traffic, economic despair and his need for "a little bit more freedom" among the reasons for his decision.

The 52-year-old, who also is a UFC commentator, reportedly stands to save millions of dollars in taxes due to the move.

Rogan signed a deal in May with Spotify for more than $100 million to air his podcast exclusively on the streaming service beginning this September, according to The Wall Street Journal.

While the deal would be subject to a 13.3 percent income tax rate in California, Texas forgoes individual income taxes, resulting in $87 million in tax breaks, Newsweek reported.

Rogan retains ownership and editorial control of The Joe Rogan Experience, which reportedly brought in $30 million in revenue in 2019 on YouTube, according to Newsweek.

Rogan has not revealed where he will be based in Texas.

Read More . . .

Bags of cash to be handed out by Newsom to illegal aliens

California Goes Full Communism

• The wealth of the workers is to re-distributed by Gavin Marx Newsom to illegal alien law breakers who are citizens of other nations.
• Free health care, free education, government services, taxpayer funded lawyers and so much more.
• And the moron voters keep re-electing Leftists and giving away their money.

(KGTV) - Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal includes a plan to set aside funding for San Diego-based nonprofit groups and other community organizations that are helping migrant families as they arrive at California’s border.

According to the Los Angeles Times , the governor’s plan calls for $20 million to be allocated to migrant services and immigration rapid response programs. If approved, the funding would begin July 2019 and continue for the next three years.

Additionally, Newsom is asking that $5 million be available to address immigration-related emergencies that may occur during the 2018-19 fiscal year.

The LA Times reported a good percentage of the state funding would go to San Diego groups -- collectively known as the San Diego Rapid Response Network -- that provide aid and shelter for asylum-seeking migrants that are allowed legal entry into the U.S. but are then released into the community as they await asylum proceedings.

Many local groups have asked for more help in recent weeks, as thousands of migrants make their way to the border to seek asylum in the U.S.

Earlier this month, the groups’ leaders took the issue directly to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, and the board voted in favor of putting a plan in place to address the problem.

The governor’s budget proposal also includes a $260 million expansion of Medi-Cal that would provide health coverage for migrants who are young adults and lack legal status in the U.S.

10news.com

Democrat gas tax starts this week

Another Democrat Screw Job

• The People's Republic of California's cap-and-trade policy for gasoline and diesel fuel goes into effect Jan. 1, and will show up quickly at the pump.
• If warming gasses are bad just ban them.  But in this case warming gasses are just an excuse to re-distribute the wealth of the people to the government and to the Elites anointed by the State.

(Press Enterprise)  -  California’s long-disputed and often-misrepresented cap-and-trade policy for gasoline and diesel fuel goes into effect Jan. 1, and it will show up quickly as a roughly 10 cent-per-gallon increase at the pump.

That follows months of market actions in the United States and around the world that have dropped the global price of crude more than $50 a barrel since June and created the longest recorded consecutive-days fall of fuel prices.

The average price-per-gallon for regular unleaded gasoline in the Riverside-San Bernardino metro areas stood at $2.68 by the middle of last week, down almost 94 cents from a year ago.

The cap-and-trade increase, which will appear within days, is well below the 16 to 76 cents per gallon that the Western States Petroleum Association had forecast as recently as August.

Conversely, there will indeed be a price hike at the pump directly linked to the state’s cap-and-trade policy.

California’s Air Resources Board officials had suggested earlier this year that the petroleum industry was unnecessarily passing along those added costs to consumers, a contravention to standard business practices.

In this latest round of cap-and-trade, petroleum industries that produce greenhouse gases above a set standard — the cap — must either buy through auction the allowances (also called permits) equal to their emissions to allow them to continue operating. If they go below the cap, they can offer their unneeded allowances for sale to others - the trade.

There have been plenty of emissions over cap-and-trade during the months leading up January 2015; not all of them have been carbon dioxide.

“Robust debate is valuable, but that debate is undermined when the public is told either that this change won’t (or shouldn’t) cost them anything or that the cost will be many times higher than the most reasonable estimates,” Severin Borenstein, professor of business administration and public policy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and co-director of the Energy Institute at Haas, wrote in an August article.

Borenstein’s estimate of a cap-and-trade-caused price increase of between 9 and 10 cents a gallon was echoed by ARB spokesman David Clegern, who said earlier this month that consumers should expect an increase of 10 cents or less per gallon, adding it was up to suppliers to determine how the costs are passed along.

Jerry Azevedo, a spokesman for the California Drivers Alliance, the group responsible for the “hidden gasoline tax” ads that warned of the 16 cent to 76 cent-a-gallon increases, said Monday that the lower estimate was part of a “growing consensus.” The alliance was funded by the Western States Petroleum Association.

"From each according to his ability, to
each according to his need."
Democrat Party Platform

Democrats push a higher minimum wage for California

Free Money For All!

With cities across the Bay Area approving minimum wage hikes at the ballot box, state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is proposing upping the state minimum wage to $13 by 2017.

Leno introduced legislation Monday that would raise the state minimum wage to $11 an hour in 2016, to $13 in 2017 and begin annual inflation-based adjustments in 2019.

Under current law, the state minimum wage will increase $10 per hour on Jan. 1, 2016 reports the San Jose Mercury News.

The minimum wage in some Bay Area cities is already set to rise more than that. Last month, Oakland voters approved a minimum wage hike to $12.25 effective in March and San Francisco voters approved a gradual rise to a $15 minimum wage in 2018.

The Berkeley City Council also enacted an ordinance this year to raise the city's minimum wage to $12.53 on Oct. 1, 2016.

A statement from Leno's office today lauded the local efforts, but lamented that a quarter of California residents live in poverty.

"Raising incomes for millions of Californians will reduce poverty and provide them a better shot at the American Dream," Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon said in a statement. "Senator Leno's measure will make sure this opportunity is real for all of California's minimum wage workers."

I can see both sides
The Leftist Democrats think money is "magic" and can be put into worker's wallets with the wave of a government wand.
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On the other hand, helpless workers have seen the value of the dollar they earn shrink because of the insane inflationary monetary policies of both big government loving Washington D.C. parties.

California pushes to expand illegal alien health care

Marxist Political Whores

• Democrats choose to seize the wealth of American citizens of all races and re-distribute that wealth to the citizens of foreign nations.
• And the mouth-breathing Sheeple American citizen voters keep re-electing Socialists.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Associated Press)  —  President Barack Obama's executive order to spare some immigrants from deportation has galvanized Democrats, immigration groups and health care advocates in California to push for expanding health coverage to a segment of the population that remains uninsured.

The president's action excludes immigrants who came to the country illegally from qualifying for federal health benefits. But California has its own policy of providing health coverage with state money to low-income immigrants with so-called "deferred action" that allow them to avoid deportation. Immigrant and health care advocates say that means Obama's executive order will enable hundreds of thousands of low-income immigrants in California to apply for Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid.

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, said allowing this expanded group of immigrants to participate in the Medicaid program will enable people to get primary and preventive care, "rather than just at the emergency room."

The California Department of Health Care Services, however, has yet to receive formal guidance. A state official said it's too early to tell how the immigration program will impact the overall Medi-Cal program, which is consuming an increasing share of state funds.

Medi-Cal is a health program for the poor paid for by the federal government and the state. It has grown by about 3 million people in California under federal health care reform and now covers more than 11 million Californians, about 30 percent of the state's population. The federal government is paying for the expansion, but the state will eventually pay 10 percent of additional costs to cover low-income adults, many of whom are childless.

The state is expected to spend more than $17 billion of its own money on the program this year, up 3.5 percent a year ago, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.

"We are assessing what some of the potential impacts could be, but it would be premature for us to comment until we have more specific information available," said Norman Williams, a spokesman for the Department of Health Care Services.

The president's action has also emboldened a Democratic lawmaker to revive a bill that would provide health coverage to all Californians, regardless of their immigration status.

Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, plans to reintroduce his Health4All bill on Monday to open Medi-Cal to immigrants, as well as extending subsidized health benefits in a new insurance marketplace for those without legal status. The proposal, which previously carried a cost as high as $1.3 billion a year, stalled in a legislative committee last cycle and Republicans had criticized the cost of the expansion.

"The president's action covers almost half of California's undocumented population, but that still leaves over a million people with no access to health care. We can do better. The bill will cover those remaining uninsured that will not benefit from Obama's action," Lara said.

According to the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C., the president's action lifts the threat of deportation to as many as 1.2 million immigrants living illegally in California. There are an estimated 2.6 million people living illegally in the state.

The issue of benefits for immigrants who are illegally in the United States is a sensitive one.

Joe Guzzardi a spokesman for Californians for Population Stabilization, a Santa Barbara, California-based group that advocates for lower population, said the state is already more generous toward immigrants than most states and adding health coverage may attract more people to cross into California illegally.

"There are millions of Californians who don't have health care insurance or have to pay for their health care insurance out of their own pockets. So it seems unfair to have legislation that provides for people who came to the United States unlawfully to be rewarded with a health care plan," Guzzardi said.

California wants to take in more illegal aliens

Democrats Reward Criminals

• Marxist Democrat Jerry Brown wants to import even more illegal aliens into the People's Republic.
• Democrats want to reward these law breakers with free homes, free medical care, free food, free education and free lawyers at the expense of American citizens of all ethnic backgrounds.

People's Republic of California Governor Jerry Brown said Tuesday his state is willing to shelter more illegal alien children from Central America.

"I would do everything I could to make sure California will do its part to shelter any young children that are in need of protection," Brown said after meeting with more than a dozen Central American religious leaders and Los Angeles Catholic Archbishop Jose Horacio Gomez in Mexico to discuss the surge of unaccompanied Central American youth and families illegally crossing into the United States reports the Sacramento Bee.

"I would support additional shelters to deal with this particular immediate challenge we have," Brown added.

A Naval Base in California's Ventura County known as "Building 267" is one of three shelters set up by federal government officials to house hundreds of Central American children. There are also shelters in Texas and Oklahoma.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/28/6588996/california-governor-sets-more.html#storylink=cpy

The governor said the surge of children migrants can't be considered a military issue and that the United States could better spent its money by investing in development programs in Central America.

"The United States government is spending $20 billion on the border, and a fraction of that invested in other problems in Central America might create a lot more security," he said.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/28/6588996/california-governor-sets-more.html#storylink=cpy

Democrats Screw African Americans
Insane liberal Democrats bow down and worship illegal aliens and hand over American jobs to the citizens of foreign nations.  Democrats are telling unemployed American citizens of African, Hispanic, Asian or European heritage to go fuck themselves.
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Meanwhile the GOP falls all over themselves to import millions for "legal" immigrants for their Masters in business who want to flood the job market and lower wages.
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No one is standing up for the American worker.

Sandra Fluke Offers To Teach Libs How To Be Community Organizers

Loser Alert!

• Democrat State Senate candidate Sandra Fluke wants to teach young skulls full of mush the much needed job "skill" of being a Community Organizer.
• In typical Fluke-like leech fashion, she wants the schools attend to pay for it.

Via Stand With Sandra (campaign website):

Sandra Fluke’s career has been about standing up for the public interest and fighting for social justice.  She is determined to continue this work in the California State Senate, and you can help!

We’re excited to launch the 2014 Organizing Fellows program and have the opportunity to train the next generation of organizers who share her passion for fighting the good fight.

The Stand With Sandra organizing fellowship will begin in April and run through the first week of June 2014.  Based in Los Angeles, fellows should expect to gain hands-on campaign experience while working in a fast-paced environment on one of the most exciting races in Southern California.

As a fellow, you will:

- Strengthen your leadership abilities

- Develop relationships with supporters in communities across the district

- Learn skills in community organizing, grassroots outreach, and issue advocacy

This program is designed to give you real world organizing experience that will have a concrete impact on this election and beyond. No prior campaign experience is necessary. 

Fellows must be able to commit to a half day of training on Sunday May 4th and at least 10 hours per week.

We strongly encourage applicants to apply for class credit and school stipend programs, and will work with you to ensure you have what you need in that process. To apply, just fill out the questions below.

(Weasel Zippers)

 

This is a Test
Are the voters of the 26th State Senate District in Los Angeles dumb enough to elect someone with no real job skills, no meaningful contribution to her community and the desire for endless "free" crap paid for by taxpayers?
.
I say yes.  She is the perfect Democrat.

 

Democrats ram oil tax through Senate committee

More Democrat Taxes

• Leftist Democrats want a new oil tax . . . and take a guess who will really be paying the bill at the pump as the tax is passed on.

A Democrat proposal to charge a tax on oil pumped from the ground in California was approved Thursday by a state Senate panel on grounds that it would help fund higher education in the state.

The Senate Education Committee voted, 5-2, to advance the bill that would levy a 9.5% tax to raise $2 billion annually to be divided among state universities and colleges, state parks and human service programs.

“California is the only major oil producer in the world that does not collect taxes on oil production,” Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) told the panel. “As a result, California is losing out on billions of dollars in revenue amounting to a massive subsidy to big oil companies, and as a result our children are suffering.”

Wow - The "think of the children" bullshit.  Nothing ever changes.

Committee member Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego) said the education panel, with its narrow purpose, had to approve SB 1017: “There can be no question that higher education needs additional funding,” Block said in the Los Angeles Times.

The measure was backed in testimony by dozens of students from systems that would benefit: University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges. Money would also go to the State Department of Parks and Recreation and the California Health and Human Services Agency.

The measure was opposed by the Western States Petroleum Assn. and some local elected officials, including from Kern County, a major oil-producing area.

“We depend on petroleum to move goods and people around California,” said Kern County Supervisor David Couch. He said unemployment in his county was already 13%. “A nearly 10% oil severance tax would cost thousands of jobs in California,” Couch said.

The California Chamber of Commerce called the bill a “job killer.” Eloy Garcia, a lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Assn., said the measure would discourage oil production in California, where he said many people don’t want it. “We don’t want it, but we want the revenue,” Garcia said to summarize a viewpoint of some backing the tax. “You can’t have both.”

Senate Republican leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar said the goal of the U.S. should be energy independence. “This is obviously a bill that would fly opposite of that,” Huff said.

California city adpots the highest minimum wage in the nation

"Free" Money for Voters

• Richmond Democrats vote to take money from business owners and to give away the "free cash" to voters in the form of an $12.30 an hour minimum wage.
• As usual the Marxists give no thought to job creation.  What new business would deliberately locate in Richmond? and how many existing businesses will move to Nevada, Texas or Mexico?

The People's Republic of California  -  When you rob Peter to pay Paul you will always get Paul's vote.

The Democrat run Richmond City Council gave initial approval to the ordinance in a 6-1 vote this week; it is scheduled to formally adopt it next month. If adopted, it's believed Richmond would become only the third city in the state to establish its own minimum wage, after San Francisco and San Jose, raising fears among some local business leaders that businesses may leave or avoid the city and quell hiring.

The ordinance would gradually raise the minimum wage in the city to $12.30 an hour by 2017. Any business with 10 or fewer employees would be exempt from the minimum wage requirements, though that was not enough to quell the objections of business leaders who warn the city could lose local jobs.

Tuesday's vote came after Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, the foremost proponent of the plan, opted to rescind a previous directive to put a proposed increase on the November ballot reports the Contra Costa Times.

"It's clear we want a minimum-wage increase, so why not sooner rather than later?" McLaughlin said. "Why wait until November? It's a phased-in approach."

Richmond's attempt to pass a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages was trounced by voters in 2012, in large part because of concerns about the impact on local businesses and millions in anti-tax campaign spending funneled by beverage industry heavyweights.

The council considered three proposals Tuesday, for $11, $12.30 or $15 per hour.

The ordinance includes a provision that would peg the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area each Jan. 1, beginning in 2018.

The ordinance sets a transition period beginning with the effective date of the ordinance, usually 30 days after passage, and ending Dec. 31, during which the minimum wage would be $9. The wage would rise to $9.60 in 2015, and to $11.52 in 2016.

With its new minimum wage, a significant increase over the current state rate of $8 per hour, Richmond is taking a firm stand in a national debate over whether higher minimums help low-wage workers by giving them more money, or hurt them because businesses can't afford to hire as many workers.

Other Bay Area cities are doing the same: San Francisco's $10.74 minimum wage is the region's highest; San Jose's rate is $10.15. Berkeley and Oakland are also mulling possible minimum wage increases, and President Obama has urged raising the minimum wage nationally -- it is currently $7.25 -- but Republicans in Congress are opposed.

Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley Labor Center and co-editor of the book "When mandates work: Raising labor standards at the local level," said Richmond is set to become the 10th city or county in the nation to pass a higher minimum wage.



"At this point, $12.30 would put Richmond at the highest in the nation, but it is quite likely that by 2017 other cities will have set higher rates," Jacobs said.

Paul Levitan, CEO of Galaxy Desserts, said the increase would make it difficult for his 100-plus employee business to add jobs, and cautioned that the $15 option would force him to look to move his company elsewhere.

"If there is too great a difference between wages here and those of our competitors, we won't be able to compete and add jobs," Levitan said.

Asked whether the $12.30 level would affect his business, Levitan said the company may look to automate certain functions and be dissuaded from expanding its work force.

Sergio Rios, vice president of the 23rd Street Merchants Association and a small-business owner, said small businesses in Richmond will have a strong incentive to stay under 10 employees to avoid triggering the wage hike.

"I'm not necessarily against the increase, but the consequences will be real," Rios said. "A business may look to contract to under 10 employees or not expand to more than 10 in order to save money."

Eighteen percent of the city's 105,000 residents live below the poverty line, according to a staff report.

Democrat wants a 24 cent gas tax increase

Marxist Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg

Marxist Jackass of the Day

• Voters deserve what the get.  They were fucking stupid enough to elect these Marxist assholes, so let them pony up 24 cents a gallon in new Democrat gas taxes.

The People's Republic of California  -  A brand new carbon tax proposal outlined on Thursday by California Democrat Senate leader Darrell Steinberg would raise an estimated $3.6 billion in its first year. 

The Marxist Senator claimed the new wealth would be re-distributed into the pocketbooks of the state's "poorest residents" as well as public transportation - - - Translation. To union workers and businessmen who donate to his party.

The tax, which would apply to fuels like gasoline, would start at 15 cents a gallon in 2015 and rise to 24 cents a gallon in 2020, Steinberg said in a speech at the Sacramento Press Club.


Steinberg claims poverty in the state is growing and that he needs to steal the money of those who work hard and give it away to low- and moderate-income working people via a federal tax credit. It would also help plug funding shortfalls in public transit reports Reuters News.

The tax would halt plans to bring fuels under the state's cap and trade program next year, a policy that since the beginning of 2013 has regulated the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from large stationary sources, such as power plants and cement factories.

Cap and trade sets a gradually declining limit on the amount of greenhouse gases businesses can emit and allows for the trading of excess permits on the open market.

A carbon tax is a simper system to administer than cap and trade, but instead of setting an environmental target, it hopes to discourage driving by raising the price of gasoline.

Passage of the tax is considered a long shot given that California law requires any new tax to gain the support of two-thirds of members in both chambers of the state legislature.

The proposal was also met with resistance from environmentalists, who believe the current policies are well designed and should not be tampered with.

Democrats - Free Healthcare for Illegal Aliens

California of, by and for illegal aliens

• Our People's Republic exists to comfort, serve and subsidize all the wet-dreams of illegals aliens with mountains of taxpayer cash taken from American citizens.
• California illegals can get drivers licenses, government subsidizes to go to college and even work as lawyers.
• Illegals can break the law with the full approval of the Democrat Party.  But if American citizens dare to not pay the taxes needed to subsidize the illegals then Big Government will steal everything you own to pay that tax bill.

Immigrants who are in the People's Republic of California illegally should have access to health insurance through a state version of the Affordable Care Act, the Democrat head of the Legislature's Latino caucus said Friday.

Leftist loon State Senator Ricardo Lara (Socialist Democrat - Bell Gardens) said immigration status should be irrelevant if the goal of the federal law is to provide coverage to the uninsured, so he will introduce legislation to involve the state in providing coverage to those in the country illegally.

"Immigration status shouldn't bar individuals from health coverage, especially since their taxes contribute to the growth of our economy," Lara said in the Los Angeles Times.

The federal law bars those in the country illegally from obtaining coverage through Covered California, the state health insurance exchange.

An estimated 2.6 million immigrants are in California illegally, but many of them are insured through employer plans, so approximately 1 million might be left uninsured if no action is taken, said Ron Coleman, a manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center.

He and other activists are working with Lara on details of a coverage plan.

Alternatives they are examining include a further expansion of Medi-Cal, California's health program for the poor, or the creation of a separate program within or outside of Covered California that might provide subsidies from the state but not the federal government.

"By the end of this year, Covered California will be entirely self-sustaining anyway," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, an advocacy group working with Lara to fashion a bill.
 "It will not be federally funded, it will not be state funded. It's funded by a small fee on each policy sold."

Using Covered California could present legal problems, according to Timothy Jost, health law professor at Washington and Lee University's School of Law.

"If California wanted to set up its own completely independent healthcare program for undocumented aliens, it could certainly do that," Jost said. "But in terms of using Covered California, the exchange that is recognized under federal law as the Affordable Care Act exchange for California, I just don't see how they can do that."

Lara is also looking at another alternative, one already being used in 10 California counties, including Los Angeles, Riverside and San Francisco. They provide healthcare services for noncitizens.

In Los Angeles, the program Healthy Way LA Unmatched — named because it does not receive federal matching funds — pays for care for people who aren't covered by Medi-Cal, including those who don't qualify because of immigration status.

Another option would be to expand Medi-Cal to cover people in the country illegally, Wright said.

California has for decades covered legal immigrants not eligible for the federal Medicaid program, such as those who have been in the country less than five years. California pays all of their Medi-Cal costs instead of splitting the cost with the federal government as it does for most Medi-Cal patients.

"The same logic could apply to other populations" such as noncitizens, Wright said. "There is precedent for California to be a leader. There is precedent for California to piggyback on federal programs but take an extra step to expand to additional folks."

Lara, whose immigrant parents were once in the country illegally, said his proposal is a natural follow-up to last year's legislation allowing such immigrants wide access to driver's licenses and permitting them to practice law in California.

But Lara's idea drew swift criticism from some Republican lawmakers, including Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks, a candidate for governor.

"California cannot afford to create another incentive to attract people to come to our state illegally in pursuit of taxpayer-subsidized benefits," Donnelly said. "It's shameful that … Lara would trade on the plight of those who are ineligible."

 

Just say no!
GOP candidate for Governor Assemblyman Tim Donnelly says no to subsidizing illegal
aliens with the hard earned money of American citizens.