If you are a California skipper, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants you to pay the state more and get less in return.

That’s a very small item tucked away in the massive, revised $307 billion state budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

It’s the kind of thing that is easily overlooked. There was no mention of it during Newsom’s two-hour budget presentation

press news

conference with reporters Friday.

And it begs the question: How many other little goodies that affect people are buried somewhere in the sprawling budget proposal?

We in the news media dutifully report the highlights of every annual state budget, its size, the governors’ priorities, any tax increases, but most things are never mentioned.

Another example:

Newsom deserves credit for this. He wants to increase benefits for the elderly, the blind and the disabled, who have historically gotten the shank when a governor pulls out his budget-cutting knife.

These mostly impoverished people are among the politically weakest in the Capitol. Powerful unions or business groups don’t fight for them.

But first about the blow to pleasure craft.

Okay, I admit I’m biased because I’ve been addicted to powerboats since I was 14.

There are 2.6 million recreational boats in California and more than 4 million boaters, according to the State Division of Boating and Waterways.

Recreational boats contribute several billion dollars annually to the state and economy [state] investments help strengthen this economy through our many grant and loan programs, the division’s website states.

But Newson wants to increase boat registration fees while apparently nearly eliminating subsidies for launching facilities.

No boater should be complaining about increased registration fees, even if the governor proposes to quadruple them. They’ve been ridiculously low: just $20 for a two-year sticker. Newsom advocates jacking them up to $80. And they would be re-evaluated every four years

then afterwards

.

Required to be registered are powerboats and sailboats longer than

eight 8

feet. No canoes, kayaks, rowboats or floating houses.

Fine. But if you pay a higher usage fee, you normally expect something in return. Or at least the same level of service. No program abuse.

Newsom proposes cutting $6 million from the grant program to build and improve boat launch ramps. The budget statement reads as if the program will be completely eliminated, but I couldn’t find anyone willing to answer that question directly.

Grants for launch facilities will be funded as needed and as funds are available through the annual budget process, I was told in an email by the Newsom administration. That sounds like old-fashioned, vote-buying pig politics.

Newsom also proposed saving $5.3 million on efforts to eradicate aquatic invasive species, such as floating plants that can clog waterways and burn boat engines.

My email said the state will now only cover navigable waterways used by recreational boaters. That seems reassuring, except I suspect not every penny-pinching bureaucrat will agree on what constitutes a navigable waterway.

However, there is praise for Newsom’s generosity to the elderly, blind, and disabled 1.1 million mostly poor people on SSI/SSP (Federal Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payment).

The federal Social Security Administration handles this program and the state supplements it with benefits. Newsom budgets $3.6 billion for SSP in the next fiscal year. That’s not a huge government expense by Sacramento standards, but it’s vital to the recipients.

Historically, when there is a state budget, Sacramento has defrauded the elderly, the blind, and the disabled by cutting their state subsidies by an amount equal to the cost-of-living increase provided by the FBI.

But Newsom doesn’t do that this time. He proposes to increase state payments.

At the beginning of this year, federal and state benefits rose 8.7% and 10.3%, respectively. That increased total monthly subsidies to $1,134 for individuals and $1,928 for couples. Now the governor is proposing to increase state subsidies by another 8.6% in January at an annual cost of $292 million.

In his revised budget, Newsom also reinstated $40 million he had previously proposed to cut in juvenile foster care.

So he’s somewhat chivalrous, assuming all that it seems, given that Newsom is projecting a $31.5 billion deficit in the fiscal year.

The governor’s fiscal luck has run out. For the first time he faces a real setback, inflation, rising interest rates, bank closures that depress the economy and reduce the state’s tax revenue.

The Liberal Democrat can’t play his usual Santa role in May, but neither can he, except for pleasure craft behaving like

a

miser. He is trying to slip through this with a minimum of pain with borrowing and spending postponed.

The legislator faces a June 15 deadline for approving a core budget.

In a very significant action to his credit, Newsom flatly rejected the idea of ​​a major tax increase and indicated he would veto such a bill.

Senate Majority Leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Senate Budget Committee Chair Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) have pushed for a corporate tax increase from 8.84% to 10.99% on net income in excess of $1.5 million.

Newsom noted that the state government previously had huge surpluses.

How do you raise taxes when you’ve had an operating surplus of $177 billion in the last 24 months and you just sent $18 billion in tax credits and look people in the eye? the governor told reporters.

I don’t think it’s the right thing to do at the moment.

I would say the same about

not

help build ramps for launching boats

dingy size sloop size

cost.