California governor to release budget amid growing revenue

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Jerry Brown is preparing to release his last state budget proposal.

His revised spending plan to be published Friday will kick off a month of negotiations with the Legislature about how to spend a growing budget surplus.

The Democratic governor last pegged the surplus at $6.1 billion in January and proposed spending almost none of it. He preferred to direct all but $300 million to reserves.

Since then, revenue during the busy April tax-filing season came in even higher than expected.

Brown has consistently warned that California is riding a wave of economic growth and the budgetary good times will eventually end. But he’s facing pressure to increase funding on a wide variety of legislative priorities including higher education, child care and firefighting.