SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Democrats in the California Senate want to use a budget windfall to boost monthly welfare grants, university funding and efforts to address the state’s housing and homelessness crisis. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and budget committee chair Holly Mitchell outlined the Senate’s budget priorities Wednesday as they prepare to kick off negotiations with the Assembly and Gov. Jerry Brown. The Senate’s $140 billion budget proposal is about $2 billion more than Brown’s revised spending plan released earlier this month. The Senate is using rosier assumptions that put the budget surplus about $2.6 billion higher than Brown. Their plan, like Brown’s, would fill the state’s rainy day fund. Lawmakers have until June 15 to approve a spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.