California bill would give cash to people with disabilities. Here’s how much.

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$250 FOR CALIFORNIANS WITH DISABILITIES?

Californians with disabilities would receive a new savings account with $250 in it, under a bill introduced by Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, and sponsored by California State Treasurer Fiona Ma.

SB 1362would also authorize the California Achieving a Better Life Experience(CalABLE) board to make additional financial incentives available to people with disabilities.

“Giving CalABLE the ability to incentivize accounts brings it in line with other state-sponsored savings programs and positions it for continued growth,” Ma, who chairs CalABLE, said in a statement.

CalABLE is a saving and investment program, where participants can save for disability-related costs by putting money into tax-advantaged investments.

The program currently has more than 10,000 accounts, with approximately $127 million in assets, according to a statement from Ma’s office. Under SB 1362, that number could exponentially increase and put millions of residents on the path to financial security, according to Ma’s office.

“This bill will encourage and assist disabled Californians to open a CalABLE account as a first step toward ensuring their long-term financial security. By better ensuring the financial well-being of individuals with disabilities, we can create a more inclusive and prosperous California,” Newman said in a statement.

Funding for the bill is subject to legislative appropriation.

BIDEN CANCELS MORE STUDENT LOANS

Via Gillian Brassil...

More than 13,000 borrowers in California will have their federal student loans canceled under the Biden administration’s new repayment plan, officials announced last week.

Borrowers who enrolled in the SAVE plan, have been paying their loans for over a decade and took out $12,000 or fewer to go to college are eligible for this relief, including $13,580 Californians. In total, these California borrowers will have about $114.8 million in debt canceled.

Across the United States, the Biden administration is waiving $1.2 billion in debt for 152,880 people under this new income-driven repayment plan. Recipients of the debt cancellation were emailed last week and do not need to take any action to have their debt discharged.

“When we talk about fixing a broken student loan system,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, “this is what we’re talking about.”

About 7.5 million people with federal loan debt are enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, according to the Education Department.

President Joe Biden introduced the plan in August after the Supreme Court blocked a sweeping plan to relieve up to $20,000 in student loans for some borrowers under a pandemic measure.

SAVE, like other income-driven repayment plans, sets monthly payments based on someone’s earnings and household size. However it makes monthly payments $0 for a single borrower who makes less than $15 an hour; about 4.3 million people on SAVE make no monthly payments, the Education Department said. The Department also estimates the plan saves those who make payments about $1,000 a year.

Parts of the plan have yet to roll out. Right now, monthly payments are designed to be 10% of an undergraduate borrower’s discretionary income: The Education Department will cut that to 5% in July.

The administration expects more people to have their debt wiped imminently under the SAVE plan and will be emailing people who are eligible but not enrolled this week, said Neera Tanden, the domestic policy advisor to the president.

With every $1,000 exceeding $12,000 taken out, borrowers can have debt canceled after an additional year tacked onto the decade of payments. And everyone on the SAVE plan can get relief after 20 or 25 years, depending on whether some loans are for graduate school.

The SAVE plan is one of several moves that Biden’s White House has made since taking office to reduce student debt, having approved forgiveness for almost 3.9 million Americans, totaling almost $138 billion. Officials are negotiating proposed regulations for greater debt cancellation since the Supreme Court struck Biden’s sweeping plan last summer.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Californians are waking up to Gavin Newsom’s complete failure as a leader. Under Newsom, gas and utility prices skyrocketed, people can no longer afford their groceries, homelessness and crime soared, our budget plunged into a deficit and we have the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. Running a make-believe campaign for president while ignoring the issues hurting Californians will only push Gavin’s approval numbers lower.”

- Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, discussing the governor’s tanking polling numbers in a statement.

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