Democrats leading California’s Senate and Assembly announced a legislative state budget deal on Monday, but they remain at odds with Gov. Gavin Newsom on his sweeping plan to streamline major infrastructure projects and reduce delays in environmental litigation.

Newsom introduced a series of budget bills related to infrastructure last month after lawmakers already concluded committee hearings on spending proposals. Democrats in Newsom’s party have criticized the governor for the late arrival of legislation and expressed concern about not having enough time to act on potential impacts on communities and the environment.

“I just want to express my extreme disappointment that this has come at this time,” Senator Susan said

Talamants

Eggman, a Democrat who lives in Stockton and represents cities in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, at a Senate hearing last week. “It feels disrespectful to the process, to all the work we’ve done.”

Senate Pro Tem Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and House Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) said they “continue to negotiate and move forward” on a budget deal

with the governor. Lawmakers plan to approve their agreed budget Thursday to meet a legal deadline of June 15 and then amend the budget law after reaching a final deal with Newsom in the coming days.

While passing a tentative budget and following up on an amended bill later became commonplace during Newsom’s tenure, an estimated budget shortfall of at least $31.5 billion this year has exacerbated Democratic discord in the Capitol. Interest groups are lobbying to keep promised funding in higher-income years, and Newsom and lawmakers continue to argue over where to make cuts.

The legislature’s $311.7 billion spending plan unveiled Monday came after 120 public hearings over the past six months. The legislative budget plan increases funding for education, child care, public transportation and Medi-Cal above the levels Newsom proposed in his revised budget in May. funding for programs such as CalWorks and Medi-Cal during a recession.

Other areas that need to be ironed out with the governor include:

Lawmakers want to provide $1 billion in temporary rate increases for childcare providers. The legislative agreement rejects the governor’s proposal to delay the opening of subsidized child care for an additional 20,000 children and instead releases the slots on July 1, 2024. Newsom and lawmakers agree on using a tax on managed healthcare organizations, known as the MCO tax. to fund Medi-Cal at a time when the state is expanding eligibility to all eligible immigrants, regardless of their immigration status. But the two sides disagree on the timeline to spend the money. The governor wants to spend the tax revenue over eight to 10 years, while lawmakers push to invest $10.3 billion through the end of 2026 to improve reimbursement rates for health care providers and expand access to care. Lawmakers also want to reinstate a $2 billion reduction in transportation financing that Newsom proposed in May.

Newsom’s infrastructure plan remains the biggest bone of contention between the governor and lawmakers, who have questioned why the bills should pass now instead of through the regular and more deliberative legislative process on policy issues that concludes in September.

or even next year.

Newsom administration officials said the 10 bills proposed by the governor are critical to meeting California’s climate goals. The governor’s office called the bills California’s most ambitious permit and project review reforms in half a century and said the legislation could shorten project timelines by more than three years in some cases.

Some outside interests agree that the bills

are important

but also shared the concerns of the legislator.

Mary Creasman, a general manager of California Environmental Voters, said it’s clear California needs permits faster for clean energy projects and it needs to protect its rich biodiversity.

“We need a thorough policymaking process that doesn’t run through budget trailer bills,” Creasman said.

A bill in the governor’s plan aims to reduce the likelihood of lengthy delays in preparing documents due to lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act, which

construction projects can sink. Another proposal would speed up judicial review in CEQA lawsuits related to water, transportation, clean energy, and semiconductor or microelectronic projects.

The changes Newsom has proposed would also make it easier to complete his controversial plan to build an underground tunnel to transport water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California.

Newsom also wants to allow the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, known as IBank, and the Department of Water Resources to take advantage of and use federal funding for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For public transportation projects, his package would make it easier to approve environmental restrictions and permits for California Department of Transportation projects that impact endangered species or are located within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Newsom also wants to repeal state laws and reclassify several species that are “fully protected” to “threatened” and “threatened” under the California Endangered Species Act.

Another proposal would allow Caltrans to contract directly to build three wildlife crossings along Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County and to change the bidding process to expedite highway projects.

Newsom wants to allow the State Department of Water Resources and the California Department of Transportation to use a more flexible contracting process for up to eight major projects each.

Atkins said the Senate is reviewing the governor’s proposals and holding talks with the Assembly and the government.

It is important to my Democratic colleagues in the Senate and to me that streamlining is consistent with California’s commitment to environmental protection,” Atkins said.

John Casey, a Rendon spokesman, said the Assembly is doing the same.

“We are digging in to understand what specific issues the governor is trying to solve and are working on legislation that will address those issues in a workable way,” the speaker’s office said in a statement.

The governor’s office hopes a

last

budget agreement with the legislator this week.

Staff writers Liam Dillon and Hannah Wiley contributed to this report.