Local state legislators didn’t go into details about California’s budget outlook at a Santa Barbara event on Friday except to say the obvious.

“It’s bad,” State Senator Monique Limón said.

How bad is a matter of some debate. There’s a “discrepancy” between the Legislative Analyst’s Office financial projections and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s take on it, Limón said.

Legislative budget analysts released a report in December saying the state faces a $68 billion deficit for the next fiscal year, while Newsom this month introduced a budget that assumes a deficit of about $37.9 billion.

The January budget proposal isn’t final. A new version will be released in May, and the state budget isn’t final until the Legislature votes on it.

“This is the toughest budget year I will be facing in my eight years,” said Limón, who served in the state Assembly before the state Senate.

She said the state’s reserve funds will “help us get through this deficit.”

Assemblyman Gregg Hart said the state revenues rely heavily on wealthy individuals, so the system is variable year to year. The state needs to fix that someday, but that’s unlikely to be anytime soon, he added.

Hart is chair of a new oversight audit committee to make sure the state “does a better job using taxpayer dollars efficiently,” he said. “The timing is perfect.

“There will be more attention than ever on making sure money is spent effectively and efficiently.”

Santa Barbara County and local cities will adopt their 2024-25 budgets in June, and policymakers typically start making funding decisions in early spring.

Central Coast Issues: Housing and Childcare

Hart and Limón spoke Friday at the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce Legislative Summit at the Cabrillo Pavilion.

They both talked about the importance of the Central Coast Caucus they co-founded to give this region a bigger voice in the Legislature.

It includes representatives from San Benito County to Ventura County.

“We are now much more visible to our colleagues,” said Hart, who credited Limón with the idea.

The Central Coast has a smaller population than other regions of California, so representatives “need to work together more closely to elevate that voice,” she said.

They also talked briefly about policy and funding efforts on housing and childcare.

Hart said the state was using “an ax” not a scalpel to deal with housing shortages. There is a “huge deficit in the production for housing that’s persisted for decades,” he said.

Local governments are frustrated with the state mandates for housing development – such as the thousands of units in the county’s Housing Element Update – which Limón referenced.

“We’re not as aligned as we’d like to be with cities and counties,” she said, adding that there is “healthy debate” on the issue.

California basically assigns housing development goals to each region, and the counties and cities have to zone and allow that much housing in each 8-year cycle.

Santa Barbara County has never built as many apartments, condos and homes as it has in its plans.

The state also has passed policy changes to streamline housing development review and approval.

On childcare, Limón said a bill to add a tax credit to businesses providing childcare “died in Appropriations (Committee) yesterday.”

Now that she has a toddler, “I have a lot of things to say about childcare,” she said.

Congressman Salud Carbajal said there is a federal bill on a childcare tax credit for families with some support from both parties. He couldn’t attend the event in person, and sent a video talking about that and federal funding for local infrastructure projects.