What Obama’s budget plan may mean for California

California stands to receive more than $1 billion from President Obama’s budget plan to help cover healthcare for the poor and the cost of jailing illegal immigrants.

The budget proposal includes $25 billion in additional Medicaid funds for states, of which California is projected to receive $1.5 billion. States received a funding boost in the economic stimulus bill that Congress passed one year ago. Obama’s budget plan would extend the funding through mid-2011.

The proposal also includes $330 million to help states pay for jailing illegal immigrants. The money has long been a priority for California officials, who argue that local and state taxpayers should not have to bear the burden of Washington’s failure to control America’s borders. California’s expected $90-million share would represent a fraction of the nearly $1 billion the state probably will spend this year on incarcerating illegal immigrants.

A spokesman for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said a bipartisan group of senators would be working to increase that funding.

Still, the White House’s inclusion of the money is an acknowledgment of the bipartisan support in Congress for the prison funding; last year, lawmakers rejected Obama’s effort to eliminate the payments.

The budget proposal drew a predictably mixed reaction from California’s fractured congressional delegation.

Cheering the proposed funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood) said: “After years of working to maximize funding that both Presidents [George W.] Bush and Obama zeroed out in the past, I am pleased to see President Obama responding to congressional priorities.”

On another funding matter, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) expressed concerns that a proposed cut to the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget could reduce the amount available for an important flood-control project in Orange County.

And Boxer, while expressing support for most of Obama’s budget plan, disagreed with his effort to end funding for Boeing C-17 military cargo planes that are assembled in Long Beach.

As for the state’s GOP delegation, Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands, top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, criticized the budget proposal for its tax increases and what he says is excessive spending. “In my view, this bloated, unbalanced budget request should be dead on arrival,” he said.

richard.simon@ latimes.com