SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Millions of California families would receive cash rebates of $200 per person under a plan unveiled Thursday by state Senate Democrats, with additional boosts to those enrolled in government assistance programs and subsidies provided to small businesses that could be extended for a decade.
The effort to divvy up the state's towering tax surplus would be more far-reaching than recent proposals by Gov. Gavin Newsom and others to provide one-time cash payments in response to the recent spike in gas prices — ideas that have largely fallen flat at the state Capitol, even as a state gas tax increase looms on the horizon in July.
Instead, legislative leaders have insisted on a more broad-based approach in response to the impacts of inflation on Californians.
