On Friday, Governor Jerry Brown released his revised budget proposal for fiscal year 2018-19. The proposal includes total General Fund expenditures of $137.6 billion, an increase of $10 billion (8.3 percent) over the current year.

The revised budget proposal continues the Administration’s commitment to using the Proposition 56 tobacco tax funding to provide supplemental payments for Medi-Cal providers. However, because claims for physician payments for the designated CPT codes were lower than expected, expenditures in the current fiscal year were also lower than expected. The total dollar amount allocated for physician payments remains unchanged from the January budget at $1.3 billion, and any funds unspent in 2017-18 and 2018-19 will rollover for expenditure in 2019-20.

Governor Brown’s revised budget includes $40 million for graduate medical education (GME) as required by Proposition 56. The budget proposal also includes $55 million to support psychiatric GME programs in underserved areas, which is part of a larger package of mental health proposals that the Governor is putting forward. 

Beginning this week, budget subcommittees in both houses of the legislature will hold hearings to discuss these and other budget issues.

For more details, see CMA’s budget memo.

Contact: Michelle Baca, Associate Director, Government Relations, mbaca@cmadocs.org.