State legislature passes budget that's slightly larger than what Brown proposed

Whether the governor signs the $92.1-billion package is another matter. Democratic lawmakers couldn't reach a deal with Brown on the amount of cuts to the state welfare program. The fact that a budget got through this early is largely the result of Proposition 25, which requires only majority vote passage instead of a two-thirds supermajority that was often difficult to line up. The measure also requires legislatures to forfeit their pay if they cannot pass a budget on time. From Capitol Alert:

While lawmakers sent Brown the main budget bill, Assembly Bill 1464, they did not send him the bulk of more than two dozen "trailer" bills that actually explain how to cut programs and raise revenues to carry out the expenditures. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said that is because legislative Democrats and Brown still must resolve "small but important differences." Democrats believe that they satisfied the Proposition 25 requirement by sending AB 1464 alone. Last year, Controller John Chiang cited their failure to pass all of the revenue-related trailer bills by the June 15 deadline as one reason to dock their pay, but his power to interpret their budget was curtailed by a Sacramento Superior Court decision in April.

The budget includes cuts in-home care, child care and welfare job training - as well as courts and state workers. It also assumes that voters will pass a November ballot initiative that increases the state sales tax and the personal income tax for the wealthy. If the measure does not go through, the state will have to make billions of dollars in additional cuts. Republicans say that the budget is full of accounting tricks and deferrals.