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"California\u2019s cash flow is good right now, as the state has a $627 million surplus.Gov. Jerry Brown will unveil his spending plan on Jan. 10, but in the meantime, his budget elves are busy counting every last penny.The elves are really foot soldiers for Brown\u2019s Department of Finance -- more than 470 of them who are working overtime to crunch the numbers, and to make sure those reflect the governor\u2019s top two priorities for 2014.And those priorities are, \u201Cto continue paying down the budgetary borrowing of the past years, the so-called Wall of Debt,\u201D said H.D. Palmer, the governor\u2019s spokesman for the Department of Finance. \u201CAlso, building up a significant budget reserve for economic uncertainties,\u201D is Brown\u2019s other key concern, Palmer said.\u00A0One of those uncertainties is Wall Street. Right now, the Dow Jones is setting record highs, but if the market tanks, then California\u2019s capital gains taxes will also drop dramatically, hurting state revenues.Brown also wants a big reserve to pay for fires and other natural disasters, including earthquakes, which could crumble the state\u2019s economy.But there is plenty of pushback from doctors and health care advocates who have suffered because of California\u2019s low reimbursement rates for MediCal \u2013 cuts made during bad budget years.Reimbursement rates are currently so low that many doctors have stopped taking Medi-Cal patients because it costs them more to provide service than the government is paying them.\u201CAnd yet we\u2019re now implementing an additional 10 percent cut that was approved two years ago, but is now going into place,\u201D said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access. \u201CWe should cancel that cut.\"\u00A0When they return to the Capitol next month, Democrats will be pushing hard for the governor to spend more on welfare and other safety net programs that have been cut in recent budget years.Education lobbyists also want more money for California schools. The fight over funding will only intensify in the weeks ahead.Brown is being cautious about California\u2019s cash flow, because the state is very dependent on capital gains taxes, which are very volatile.Palmer told KCRA 3 that California\u2019s top 1 percent of earners brings in 41 percent of California\u2019s income tax revenue. So when Wall Street does well, California shines.But when the top earners sneeze, everyone catches a cold. \u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.kcra.com/article/gov-brown-faces-big-pressure-to-spend-more/6410042>