Laura Pryor

California’s Persistent Poverty Crisis: 2024 Rates Remain Alarmingly High California’s poverty rate remains among the highest in the nation (17.7%), with children, people of color, and renters most affected.

Happy 175th, California 🎉 Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Coachella, tacos, beaches… and the nation’s highest poverty rate.

For California to be a place where everyone thrives, state leaders must take bold action to curb poverty and chart a new vision forward.
calbudgetcenter.org/resources/ca...

The Senate's budget plan maintains many harmful provisions to SNAP/CalFresh. Expanded time limits will make family budgets even tighter and put services like child care out of reach for thousands of Californians!!

In California, $30 can buy this basket of groceries.

For low-income undocumented adults, that same $30 could become the monthly cost of staying enrolled in Medi-Cal.

#Health4All #CABudget #CALeg

Cal Budget Center weighs in on the House budget proposal:

“Last night, Congressional leaders worked through the night, not to support communities, but to advance harmful cuts that threaten the health and well-being of millions of people across the country." @chrishoene.bsky.social #CALeg #CABudget

📣Hot off the press!

Dig into the @calbudgetcenter.org's summary of the May Revise, and our take on how the revised budget falls short.

tldr: increase state revenues!!!!

The breakdown of the Republican tax cuts are in.

If your household makes over $1 million, you'll get a $90,000 tax break.

If you're in the bottom 20% of income-earners, you'll get $90 and have your healthcare and food assistance cut.

Make it make sense.

The federal tax bill "singles out a tax benefit for low-and moderate-income people [the EITC] for this intense scrutiny, while doing nothing to address major tax non-compliance by high-income people and businesses"

Reason #368 why this upside-down bill harms working families to benefit the rich

🚨 It’s not a markup — it’s a teardown of SNAP.

Congress is proposing BILLIONS in cuts to food assistance *tonight* during bill markup. This would take away benefits for millions just to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.
#HandOffSNAP #SaveSNAP

The upside-down & costly federal tax bill is currently being marked up in the House Ways & Means cmte. According to the Joint Cmte on Taxation, more than 40% of benefits would go to top 5%, and the top 1% alone would get 1/5 of all benefits. www.jct.gov/publications...

If federal proposed cuts to Medi-Cal pass, a family in #SanBernardino could have to choose between paying for an inhaler for their kid, or groceries.

Medi-Cal is literally the difference between having food on the table or not for CA's children.

Healthcare must be protected! #FightForOurHealth

📢 Reminder: Cutting federal funding for SNAP just means California foots the bill. And if they can’t? Kids go hungry. And California will have to make impossible decisions about the $3 BILLION the state will be forced to address if a cost-shift proposal passes. #HandsOffSNAP #SaveSNAP

Today is #DayWithoutChildCare. Re-sharing this graphic, done with @femiwonk.bsky.social, highlighting what's at stake if families lose their child care. Meanwhile, Republican-driven tax breaks would exacerbate wealth inequities. The quotes (ty @ccrc4kids.bsky.social ) truly drive this point home!

The proposed $230 billion cuts to SNAP don't just threaten to take food away from families in need--they would also significantly harm workers, businesses, and communities across California.

Research from the National Grocers Association shows CalFresh dollars help fuel the food retailer industry

How would the $230 billion proposed federal cuts to SNAP impact California families? This graphic shows the groceries a family in Bakersfield would lose out on if their benefits were cut by 20%.

CalFresh helps millions of families and children and should be protected!! #SNAP #HandsOffSNAP

Q&A: What’s Behind California’s Rising Medi-Cal Spending? California's Medi-Cal spending is rising due to high drug costs, expanded coverage, and extended pandemic-era protections.

If you’ve been tracking #Medicaid in California, you’ve likely noticed the headlines — rising costs and big questions about what’s driving it all.

Today @calbudgetcenter.org released a new resource breaking things down.

calbudgetcenter.org/resources/qa...

The #CABudget could face a cost of OVER $3.1 BILLION to fund #CalFresh benefits under this cost-share proposal‼️ If implemented, this would put tremendous pressure on our budget and likely lead to cuts—taking food away from people in need.

More in our analysis: calbudgetcenter.org/resources/re...

Standing with @ccpucalifornia.bsky.social as they go into another round of contract negotiations with the state today.

Child care providers can't wait any longer to be paid the true cost of care. And, healthcare and retirement benefits are critical & need to be preserved.

Two California Families, Two Futures: The Real Cost of Federal Budget Cuts Republican federal budget proposals threaten critical programs for California families while offering tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%.

My most recent piece with @l-pryor.bsky.social and @hannahorbachmandel.bsky.social at the @calbudgetcenter.org juxtaposes the loss of Head Start and afterschool programs for a family in poverty against the luxuries a rich family could afford under the Trump plan.

calbudgetcenter.org/resources/tw...

‘I Know the Power of Head Start’: Laid-Off Worker Fears for the Program’s Future | KQED Head Start programs worry that the closure of a federal office in San Francisco could create delays in getting funding requests approved — and weaken their support system.

For 60 years, Head Start has provided care, a preschool education and support to America’s poorest families. The federal program has never been more in danger of being eliminated. My interview with a laid-off worker whose life was changed by Head Start.
www.kqed.org/news/12035966

On this #TaxDay2025, let's remember - If we really wanted to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse, we wouldn't be talking about things like the Department of Education. We'd be talking about tax breaks for billionaires.

California Needs Transitional Kindergarten Teachers. Preschool Teachers Want in | KQED California needs a lot more teachers and aides to fill transitional kindergarten classrooms, but advocates say early childhood educators who have the experience and desire to step into those jobs are ...

Fantastic reporting from @daisynguyen.bsky.social and @laist.com on the expertise of CA's early educators.

The incumbent ECE workforce is qualified to teach TK (where they are sorely needed), yet the current TK teacher pathways make this nearly impossible for them.

www.kqed.org/news/1203320...

How Republican-Led Budget Cuts Could Impact Californians in Every Congressional District Proposed Republican budget cuts could impact health care, housing, and economic security for Californians in every congressional district.

Head Start can be found in congressional districts across the US.

Check out the analysis of Head Start programs by congressional district in California by @l-pryor.bsky.social and myself here:

calbudgetcenter.org/resources/ho...

CalFresh is a vital tool in mitigating poverty across the state.

Harmful policies that would reduce benefits would make it harder for millions with low incomes to put food on the table.

⚡ We share more in our latest: calbudgetcenter.org/resources/ca...

✨"Credits like the #YCTC create better long-term benefits for children including better health & school achievement. The #YCTC together with #CalEITC lifted 225,000 individuals out of deep poverty in 2023. 500,000 more families would be helped by expansion." -Alissa Anderson, @calbudgetcenter.org

Is California a Donor State? Here’s How Much It Pays to the Feds vs. What It Gets Back California contributes $83 billion more in federal taxes than it receives in federal funding. See what this means for the state’s future.

NEW: @nishinair.bsky.social & I dig into CA's "donor state" status.

Bottom line: Californians' 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 generous federal tax contributions should be used to strengthen public services, not to help corporations and the rich avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
calbudgetcenter.org/resources/is...

Senate Republicans’ Opaque Budget Resolution Points in Troubling Direction | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The budget framework lays a path for a future budget bill that could pay for increased military and homeland security spending with harmful policies that take food assistance and health coverage away ...

Overnight, the Senate passed a partisan budget that lays a path for taking food assistance & health coverage away from people & making college more expensive -- to pay for defense & deportation funding &, later, costly tax cuts for the wealthy. 
www.cbpp.org/press/statem...

House Republican Budget Takes Away Health Care, Food Aid to Pay for Expanded Tax Cuts for Wealthy | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In a party line vote, the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee advanced their budget resolution to move forward legislation that would give tax cuts to the wealthy and partially pay for them.....

House Republican Budget Takes Away Health Care, Food Aid to Pay for Expanded Tax Cuts for Wealthy

How Republican-Led Budget Cuts Could Impact Californians in Every Congressional District Proposed Republican budget cuts could impact health care, housing, and economic security for Californians in every congressional district.

How Republican-Led Budget Cuts Could Impact Californians in Every Congressional District

Read more from @calbudgetcenter.org on the impact of federal cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and School Meals in your district:

calbudgetcenter.org/resources/ho...

Higher Wages for Early Care and Education Workers Builds a Stronger System Higher wages for early care and education workers in California is critical to expanding affordable child care.

The CA Assembly Sub 2 will discuss ECE provider rate reform this Wednesday. @femiwonk.bsky.social, @nishinair.bsky.social, & I provide insight into what's at stake.

Providers cannot wait 60 years for their wages to catch up to the median wage of all workers.

calbudgetcenter.org/resources/hi...