OF BUDGETS AND BALLOTS: If a recent staffing move is any indication, things are looking tense for a health care tax ballot measure backed by some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s closest allies.
Newsom has yet to take a position on the November measure, which would require the state to spend billions of dollars in insurance plan tax proceeds on Medi-Cal. But his former chief of staff Jim DeBoo stepped away from the initiative campaign, saying he didn’t want to be involved if the coalition pushing the initiative and the governor’s office were at odds over it. “My agreement with the coalition from last March was always [that] if the Administration and coalition couldn’t reach an accord, I wouldn’t continue working on the measure,” DeBoo said in a text message to POLITICO, after a health care executive accused him of being pressured to resign. A coalition of major health care interests — including doctors, hospitals, health insurers and Planned Parenthood — has been advocating to use proceeds from the Managed Care Organizations tax on some health insurance plans to boost pay for doctors and hospitals in the state’s Medicaid program. And last summer, the health care players reached a deal on how the $19 billion — plus associated federal funds — would be spent. The November ballot measure would enshrine those spending requirements into law, making it difficult, if not impossible, for governors to tap the multibillion-dollar tax to backfill budget deficits — as Newsom proposed in his budget plan. The ballot measure coalition has publicly excoriated Newsom for his move on the budget. Still, it maintains DeBoo’s departure was a planned part of routine staffing changes and didn’t stem from any discord between the campaign and Newsom. The coalition is in the delicate position of trying to pressure Newsom on the budget, but sway him on the ballot measure. “Those are tense conversations because it’s a big policy issue,” said Jodi Hicks, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Action California and a leader of the ballot measure coalition. “All of the conversations are complicated, if we want to describe them as ‘tense,’ it's not because it's anything nefarious.” “We’re running a campaign where we’re actively trying to get support, but the governor has never said he’d be supportive of an initiative,” Hicks added. IT’S THURSDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to rbluth@politico.com. | 
