Democrats like Jerry Brown's budget but want to spend more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
It didn't take long.
Moments after Gov. Jerry Brown presented his $107 billion spending plan Thursday and urged the Legislature to help him hold the line on spending, Democratic lawmakers called for new spending on social programs.
"There is room in this kind of economy and this kind of budget to invest and reinvest in California's economy and its people," said state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.
Steinberg said he was mostly pleased with the plan but wants less money to go toward paying off debt and more money to restore previous cuts to social health and welfare programs.
Steinberg also has proposed a universal transitional kindergarten - a sort of preschool - for 4- and 5-year-olds. The program, not included in Brown's budget, would be phased in to serve 350,000 children at a cost of nearly $1 billion a year by 2019-20.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Democrats-like-Jerry-Brown-s-budget-but-want-to-5128962.php