CSBA budget priorities

Funding

Advocacy will focus on fully funding LCFF COLA without cuts to grant funds

Spring flowers are blooming and budget season is picking up in Sacramento as the Legislature continues to hold hearings on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January Budget Proposal. Despite a stormier fiscal outlook than in recent years, many important TK-12 priorities were shielded from cuts in the Governor’s January Budget.

As budget hearings continue and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts further budget downturn for the Proposition 98 Guarantee, CSBA is committed to defending the historic gains made over the last several years, which have allowed school districts and county offices of education to fund academic interventions, supplemental services and mental health supports to help students rebound from the pandemic.

As negotiations move forward, here’s where CSBA is focusing its budget advocacy this year.

Fully fund COLA without cuts to other programs

While it’s encouraging that the Governor’s Budget commits to fully funding the statutory 8.13 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), the proposed reduction of the Arts, Music & Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant (AMIM Grant) by $1.2 billion would create challenges for districts that already have plans in place for that funding. The AMIM Grant is entirely discretionary, and many districts have bargained these funds for incentives to recruit and retain staff, planned to buy down pension obligations and health benefits (especially given recent rate increases), or planned to purchase HVAC system replacements, school safety surveillance equipment and instructional materials.

CSBA is urging the administration and the Legislature to not create any new categorical programs.

Recognizing the difficulty in ensuring no cuts are made to the Local Control Funding Formula, it’s understandable that these funds were targeted; however, other one-time multi-year funding that has yet to be appropriated can achieve the same goal of keeping LCFF whole without posing the same challenges for districts. CSBA is urging the Legislature and administration to reject the proposal to retroactively reduce the AMIM Grant and focus on other far less disruptive reductions to school districts.

Remain focused on sustaining existing programs

CSBA also applauds the Governor’s Budget for sustaining revenues for many large, transformative programs established recently that require multi-year efforts to ensure success, such as transitional kindergarten, the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and universal meals. It’s heartening to see that despite significant revenue reductions in the General Fund, the Newsom Administration has continued with the commitment to home-to-school transportation (a key achievement of CSBA’s budget advocacy in 2022) by including a COLA to the LCFF add-on, as well as the reimbursement of 60 percent of transportation costs.

Even while the Governor’s Budget largely protects previous programmatic multi-year commitments, some new, one-time proposals were introduced concurrently with the proposed reduction to the AMIM Grant. CSBA is urging the Administration and the Legislature to not create any new categorical programs. Doing so would limit eligibility for many districts at the expense of discretionary funds that would otherwise benefit all. With limited funding available this year, CSBA’s advocacy will emphasize the imperative to stay focused to ensure successful program implementation of all the large programs undertaken in recent years.

What’s next?

Budget hearings and negotiations between the Legislature and the Governor will be ongoing throughout the spring and summer. Gov. Newsom will release his Budget Revision by May 15, at which point negotiations between his administration and the Legislature will heat up significantly in order to meet the June 15 deadline for the Legislature to pass the budget bill. The Governor will then have until June 30 to sign the bill.

CSBA’s Governmental Relations team will be advocating for these priorities with the Legislature and the Newsom Administration over the coming months. In addition, hundreds of district and county board members will bring their knowledge of the real-world impacts of these budget decisions when they meet with legislators during the 2023 Legislative Action Week, taking place March 14-16. CSBA will continue to provide updates as details emerge, as well as opportunities for advocacy as the budget season continues.

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