Thanks to a multibillion-dollar windfall of income tax revenues, California's new budget signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger June 30 was able to maintain, and in some cases increase, funding for important social programs.

But, say Catholic lobbyists, legislators were remiss in failing to apply a small portion of the budget surplus toward expanding much-needed health coverage to children.

The $131-billion budget, the first to be passed on time in six years, benefited from a $7.5-billion surplus, of which nearly $5 billion was partially directed toward repaying the state's debt. The 2006-07 spending plan also repays billions borrowed from public schools in recent years to deal with budget shortfalls.

"This budget was fiscally prudent, yet we are somewhat disappointed that in the rush to get the budget out on time, important programs like expanded healthcare for children fell by the wayside," said Al Hernandez, lobbyist for the bishops' California Catholic Conference.

Though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators backed the $23-million provision expanding health coverage to children not currently eligible for coverage through the Healthy Families or Medi-Cal Programs, Republicans balked at the idea that a portion of services would benefit children from undocumented families.

Out of the estimated 800,000 uninsured children in California, about 120,000 kids are undocumented, according to a July 6 Los Angeles Times editorial, which lambasted legislators for putting "budget-compromising over insuring 3-year-old immigrants."

Though Catholic lobbyists lost the fight for expanded health coverage for low- income children, they are grateful the new budget allocates more than $22.6 million to counties for a coalition-based outreach and enrollment of over 400,000 children who are eligible for Healthy Families and Medi-Cal. "It's a good public/private joint effort," said Hernandez.

The budget's inclusion of federally-funded cost-of-living adjustments for individuals receiving financial assistance through the Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payment programs, as well as increased funding for foster care, child welfare services and CalWORKs recipients, is also good news for Catholic social justice lobbyists.

"One of the important gains in the budget was the SSI increase, which can amount to $40-50 a month more for some families. It means a lot for those individuals," said Steve Pehanich, executive director of Catholic Charities of California.

According to Pehanich, two factors helped bring about a "better budget" this year: the budget surplus and upcoming November elections. "They did a fairly good job on the budget," he said. "However, the longer-term issue of structural deficit was not addressed." The Legislature's budget office projects that budget shortfalls will hover in the $3 billion-plus range for the rest of the decade.

Pehanich believes Catholic Charities' co-sponsorship of a pending naturalization program bill helped to convince the governor of the importance of approving the increase in this year's naturalization funding from $1.5 to $3 million.

"Finally, everyone takes [naturalization] seriously," said Loc Nguyen, immigration and refugee department director for Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, who has seen a 30 percent increase in requests for citizenship assistance over last year. His department has added more staff and conducts parish citizenship workshops.

California Catholic Conference officials are enthusiastic about the budget's allocation of $400,000 toward a family visitation program offering free transportation to families of women serving sentences at the two prisons located in Chowchilla.

The first-time funding will allow children, spouses, guardians and other family members, as well as foster children and foster parents, to participate in the monthly bus transportation program. Initial plans call for an average of six buses each month leaving from both Northern and Southern California cities beginning in October.

"This funding represents a huge victory," said Hernandez. "We tried to get it last year, but couldn't get it in the budget on time. "