California debates public health spending as virus recedes

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2021, file photo, health care workers prepare the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for farm workers at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, Calif. California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend the state's extraordinary budget surplus on correcting the most widespread financial impacts of the pandemic, pledging to give $600 payments to most taxpaying adults while committing to pay off all of their outstanding rent and utility bills. But left out of the governor's $267.8 billion budget proposal last month: Money to rebuild local public health departments, whose staffing shortages and fragmented funding were exposed by the coronavirus, impeding a more coordinated response to the crisis. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, file photo, a healthcare worker tends to a COVID-19 patient in an intensive care unit during the coronavirus pandemic in San Jose, Calif. California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend the state's extraordinary budget surplus on correcting the most widespread financial impacts of the pandemic, pledging to give $600 payments to most taxpaying adults while committing to pay off all of their outstanding rent and utility bills. But left out of the governor's $267.8 billion budget proposal last month: Money to rebuild local public health departments, whose staffing shortages and fragmented funding were exposed by the coronavirus, impeding a more coordinated response to the crisis. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)