California State Budget

Illegal Alien Medi-Cal and the Big Beautiful Bill

Illegal Alien Medi-Cal and the Big Beautiful Bill

Thanks to the Senate Parliamentarian, California will be spared the largest fiscal impact of the Big Beautiful Bill’s Medicaid reforms, but the state’s ability to shift the cost of undocumented immigrant Medi-Cal coverage onto federal taxpayers will nonetheless face limits. Between 2016 and 2024, the California legislature added groups of illegal aliens to the Medi-Cal...

By Marc Joffe

California accepts billions in federal funds for education while defying federal law

California accepts billions in federal funds for education while defying federal law

The California legislature passed the 2025-26 budget bill earlier this month and sent it to Governor Gavin Newsom for his signature. The bill amounts to $325 billion, marking a spending increase of 51 percent since Newsom first took office in 2019. Spending on education has similarly ballooned, despite the fact that enrollment in traditional public...

By Sheridan Karras