Lawmakers pressure CA Governor Gavin Newsom to ‘Step Up’ on Racism as a Public Health Issue, & address inequality in society and the health care system
Lawmakers Pressure Newsom to Step Up on Racism as a Public Health Issue physiciansweekly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from physiciansweekly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“The biggest hardship that we’re facing right now is really getting the governor to support investments to community-based organizations to focus on health equity and racial justice interventions within healthcare,” said Ron Coleman, the managing director of policy for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN).
After the killing last year of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared racism a public health crisis. The governors of Michigan and Nevada quickly followed, as have legislative bodies in Minnesota, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom. | Nic Coury / AP
With California’s finances buoyed by unanticipated tax revenues and a $27 billion boost from the American Rescue Plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom on May 14 rolled out a proposed $267.8 billion budget he called “historic” and “transformational,” with infusions of funding for housing, education, healthcare, infrastructure, environmental justice, and immediate relief for families and small businesses.
Incorporating parts of the upcoming 2021-22 budget as well as anticipated spending in future years is the governor’s $100 billion California Comeback Plan, termed “the biggest economic recovery package in California’s history.”
This year’s “May Revise,” updating Newsom’s January budget proposals, reflects an expected $75 billion in tax revenue paid mostly by the state’s high earners. It contrasts sharply with the picture a year ago when in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic a $54 billion budget hole was projected.