Introduction
Protecting Priorities

This budget funds key priorities, including:

  • Fully funding the Proposition 98 guarantee at $56.8 billion. This is an increase of $1.8 billion from all funds and $378 million from the General Fund. The General Fund share of the Proposition 98 guarantee amounts to 40 percent of total General Fund expenditures in 2007-08.
  • Fully funding the Governor's Compacts with Higher Education ($346 million General Fund) and the state Judiciary and trial courts ($147 million General Fund).
  • Providing $52 million to expand Career Technical Education (CTE) course offerings and programs. In an ever-evolving economy, Californians need multiple pathways to rewarding and productive careers. The Administration remains committed to expanding opportunities for high school and community college students to take high-quality, academically rigorous CTE courses.
  • Fully funding the $217 million cost of providing cost-of-living adjustments for aged, blind and disabled SSI/SSP recipients.
  • Providing $58 million in 2006-07 and $193 million in 2007-08 for a comprehensive Sex Offender Management Plan including funds to implement Proposition 83 ("Jessica's Law"), the Governor's High Risk Sex Offender Task Force recommendations, and recently enacted legislation.
  • Providing necessary funds for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the federal court-appointed Receiver to improve the state's prison health care delivery system. Specifically, the Budget proposes to increase the budget set-aside for prison health care from $100 million to $150 million in 2007-08.
  • Providing $36 million to begin to implement California's landmark Greenhouse Gas Reduction Efforts.
  • Providing $95 million for the most advanced research in the world, as part of the Governor's Strategic Research and Innovation Initiative. The Budget provides $30 million in lease revenue bonds for the Helios Project, $40 million for the Energy Biosciences Institute, $19.8 million for the California Institutes for Science and Innovation, and $5 million for the Petascale Supercomputer project. These funds have the potential to leverage private and federal funding in excess of $1 billion.
  • Expanding health care coverage by providing $36 million ($17 million General Fund) and 9.4 positions in 2007-08 for SB 437 implementation activities and enrollment increases. SB 437 (Chapter 328, Statutes of 2006) establishes a two-county pilot program to allow parents to self-certify income and assets when enrolling their children into Medi-Cal and during the annual eligibility review process. SB 437 allows self-certification of income at the annual eligibility review process for the Healthy Families Program (HFP). In addition, when new children apply for Medi-Cal and are found ineligible, but appear eligible for the HFP, counties will be able to enroll them in the HFP so that the child's health coverage is not delayed.
  • Including $2 million to improve the state's food-borne illness emergency response capability, as well as $1.5 million to begin implementing the new environmental contaminant biomonitoring program authorized by Chapter 599, Statutes of 2006 (SB 1379). This funding will be used to develop sampling design and establish parameters for this program. This proposal is a collaborative effort between the Department of Public Health, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control.
  • Providing funding to implement two bills chaptered in 2006 that will provide millions of low-income Californians with discounted prescription drugs: Chapter 619, Statutes of 2006 (AB 2911), will deliver prescription drugs at prices up to 40 to 60 percent below retail prices for generic and brand name drugs to individuals. Chapter 720, Statutes of 2006 (AB 2877), authorized the California Rx Prescription Drug Website, which will provide information to Californians about available options for obtaining prescription drugs at affordable prices.
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CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS for Introduction Back to Top

 Paying Down the Debt
image of black pointing arrowProtecting Priorities
 Reducing the Operating Deficit
 Budget Reform
 The California Strategic Growth Plan

BUDGET OVERVIEW Back to Top
Overview of General Fund Revenues and Expenditures
The Governor's Budget projects General Fund revenues will increase by 7.2 percent in 2007-08 compared to the revised 2006-07 revenue estimate, and General Fund expenditures to increase by only 1.0 percent compared to the revised 2006-07 expenditure estimate.

 Budget Summary Improvements
As part of the Administration's effort to improve the understanding and comparability of budget expenditure data, the 2007-08 Governor's Budget Summary will now follow a more traditional agency format. In the past, some content in the Governor's Budget Summary was arranged by major program areas rather than by agency. Budget expenditure data will be displayed in both a summary format and a new agency change table format. The change tables are intended to provide the reader a snapshot of proposed expenditure and position adjustments in each agency, why those changes are being proposed, and their dollar and position impact.
PRINTABLE BUDGET DOCUMENTS Back to Top
Budget Summary - Introduction (pdf * - 9K) -
Provides this entire Introduction Chapter in pdf format.