In summary
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to use the California budget surplus to confront the crises facing the state, including COVID-19 and climate change.
The Legislature has a chance to modernize the state’s alcohol shipping laws and allow consumers to buy distilled spirits like they do wine.
In 1986 when the Legislature allowed the wine industry to ship their product to consumers through direct mail there were roughly 700 wineries in the state generating about $5 billion in sales. Now California is approaching 4,000 wineries that generate $40 billion a year.
Backed by soaring revenues amid the pandemic, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday proposed a budget that would pay for the health care of all the state’s low-income residents living in the country illegally, while cutting taxes for businesses and halting a scheduled increase in the gas tax later this summer.
IN SUMMARY
As California deals with new waves of crime and COVID-19, the Legislature reconvenes and must decide how to spend a multi-billion-dollar windfall of tax revenues.
After a four-month sabbatical, state legislators returned to Sacramento Monday for a new session that will be dominated by several seemingly contradictory factors.