Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections, Public Safety, Judiciary, Labor and Transportation

Today's agenda will take place in three parts Transportation, Labor, and Public Safety, and all items are vote only. The hearing will begin with public comment for all parts and then we will move to the vote-only calendar for each part. The issues we are voting on today have been discussed extensively in numerous Subcommittee hearings over the past few months, and I'm grateful to my colleagues on the Committee for all the many hours that we were here.

We have heard and appreciate the feedback from Members of the public in person or on the phone, in hearings, and through letters and emails submitted to the Committee. The actions we will be taking today represent the Senate's budget plan, which protects against harmful cuts and protects the progress we have made in the past and hopefully we will continue to make in the future.

I look forward to continuing conversations with the Administration and the Assembly in a collaborative and thoughtful manner as we move towards a final budget agreement in the next few weeks. Before we begin, let's establish a quorum. Consultant, please.

Durazo here. Newman here. Seyarto here.

Great. We will now move on to anyone wanting to provide public comment. Again, as a reminder, today's participant number is 877-226-8216 and the access code is 621-7161. Again, the public comment that we're going to receive right now is for all parts and then we will return to the vote only calendar for each part. Now let's begin with any witnesses in this room. Room 2100, would you please come forward?

Good afternoon, Chair and Members. My name is Mark Watts. I'm representing Transportation California Today, which is an organization of contractors, material suppliers, and allied labor. We did testify against opposed to the infrastructure package shifting of state highway account money to backfill some of the reductions. And with the additional 150,000,000 that's proposed to backfill with state highway account, the reduction in the freight program that was in the May revise.

We are even more concerned about the long-term effects on transportation funding and the availability of revenues for shop programs that are starting to go through the asset management program process and the state highway management plan process which leads into the shop. So we think we have a 10-year window and projects are starting out and now we're going to chop off funding at the rear end. We don't know how that's going to affect those projects, so I'll stop with that. Thank you. Very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee Members, Ginny Oshiro, on behalf of the Transformative In Prison Work Group, you'll hear us refer to it as the TPW. We appreciate all the Committee is doing to support the rehabilitation of incarcerated Californians. While the California model at San Quentin is a step in the right direction for California's approach to incarceration, it is crucial to extend these efforts to all correctional facilities in California.

We applaud the rejection of the San Quentin Capital Outlay Project because we believe the focus of the California model is not about the infrastructure, but about increasing family connections, rehabilitative opportunities, and positively impacting the culture of CDCR. We respectfully urge the Committee to increase support and state funding for community based in prison programs beyond San Quentin because every incarcerated Californian, regardless of their location, deserves access to rehabilitative and transformative programs and services. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, Keith Dunn here with two comments. First, I'd like to thank the Committee and the Members for recognizing the continued investment from the sales tax counties in our state system and capping the indirect cost rate which were charged from the Department for building their system. I appreciate the staff recommendation and the Committee's thoughtful process in that.

I'd also like to, on behalf of the District Council of Ironworkers, just again state and kind of back up, Mr. Watts, that we remain concerned about any issues that would shift funding from traditional shop programs into backfill of operations. We're, I think, working all of us, the Legislature and my clients as well, to make sure that we have a healthy transit system. I think there may be a path forward, but we want to make sure that we're not shifting any funds that would otherwise go to rehab our system.

Thank you. Okay.

Good afternoon, Chair and Members of the Committee. Alison Ramey on behalf of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, first want to thank you and your Committee staff for the support and express our support and gratitude for the restoration or the proposed restoration of the 1 billion in transit inner city rail program funds, bringing the General funded program support up to 2 billion for this year. The Bay Area's share of the population based distribution would be 400 million.

Those funds are essential to help deliver two generational projects BART to Silicon Valley Phase Two and BART TransBay core capacity and are needed to leverage an additional 5.8 billion in federal funds. So, again, thank you so much for that. On the other hand, we do have continued concerns about the transit operational proposal, which does not move the natal in terms of the transit fiscal cliff in the Bay Area.

Going over that cliff would be devastating for the more than 15,000 Bay Area transit employees and the more than 700,000 people who board Bay Area buses, rail cars and ferries every day. We urge you and others to continue looking to identify other funds. The funds are out there, but we recognize these competing priorities. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the room? Okay, seeing none. This is the motion moderator. If you would please prompt the individuals waiting to provide public comment, we can begin.

Thank you.

If you could give me a total number of people waiting to testify, please.

Sure. For public comment, you may press one and then zero again. That is one and then zero for public comment. And Madam Chair, we have about 15 in queue.

Go ahead, moderater

Thank you. We'll go to line 33. Your line is open.

Hi there. My name is Cyrus Hall. I'm a transit rider here in San Francisco. I depend on transit tickets around the city and around the region every day. I'm calling in support of the rejection of the proposed reductions to the population-based transit and intercity rail capital program, or TIRCP. Please reject the $2 billion reductions. This isn't sufficient.

But the ability to get this money back, and in particular, the ability to flexibly use these funds, including to support operations of local agencies, which significantly help our agencies avoid significant cuts. In San Francisco, we're looking at losing 20 bus lines. This would truly be catastrophic. Thank you for doing everything you can to avoid this. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we'll go to line 35. Your line is open.

Hi, Zach Lipton. I'm a constituent in San Francisco. I'm also asking you to please delay this decision and take action to restore transit operating funds. I'm someone who's done, frankly, what the state's leaders have asked of me. I don't own a car. I rely on public transit and access transportation to get around. And the idea of losing dozens of bus lines that I and my neighbors rely on every single day because of not risk management. But the effects of the pandemic is really unfathomable. So I really hope that we can restore this funding and that my neighbors and I can have the public transit service we rely on from this state. Thank you.

Thank you for calling.

Thank you. Next, we'll go to line 34. Your line is open.

Hi. Thank you. My name is Leanne Tang. I live in San Francisco. I use transit every day. Right now, I can't even walk because of medical mobility issues. So I'm truly transit-dependent. I don't have a driver's license or a car. I want to thank the Senators for proposing funding to address the fiscal cliff. But I also want to add the money is not enough to prevent service cuts and to enable agencies to improve service to regrow ridership.

After the pandemic, it's a really crucial moment when people are making decisions about how they're going to return to a new normal, what ways they're going to get around, how they're going to live. And if we lose this opportunity right now to help riders come back, it's a dreaded death spiral that we are all worried about. So more funding sources need to be on the table. So my ask is that you please delay the decision and keep talking.

Otherwise you're going to hurt riders like me, all of the staff, the agencies, our local economies, and all of that. Thank you. Thank you. Next we'll go, line 27. Your line is open.

Hi, good afternoon, Madam Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Emily Gartenberg and I'm calling in from jobs to move America. I'm calling to thank you for the work that you've done on Best Value Procurement and also the Zero Emission Jobs roadmap at JMA. We think that these two programs are really important as we work to achieve our carbon reduction goals for this state.

We also have to ensure that the workers, including manufacturers, maintenance and operations staff who are powering this transition aren't being left behind. Best Value Procurement has been used successfully across the state and clarifying it for local agencies is an important step in creating the green economy that we know we need to achieve here in California. So thank you so much for all of the work that's been done on these programs.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next we'll go, line 30. Your line is open.

Good afternoon. This is Amy Thompson with Transform. I'm advocating on behalf of a coalition of labor equity and climate justice groups to support transit agencies in securing additional transit operations money for the next five years as we put together long term financial plans for transit to not need to return to the Legislature for emergency funding. Again, I want to thank you guys so much for this crisis and thank you for restoring the $2 billion in Tursip funding from the General Fund to support transit capital.

However, there is a much larger need, and we hope that there are further conversations around really how to restore transit operations funding so that we can reimagine and save transit in line with our climate and equity goals. We strongly believe that state highway assistance funding should be on the table as a funding action as we continue these conversations. Thank you.

Thank you for calling.

Thank you. Next we'll go to line 26. Your line is open.

Hello, I'm also from San Francisco and I'm also calling to ask that this be delayed, that more funding can be secured for transit. I'm also a resident here in San Francisco who does not own a car. And one of the reasons I moved to San Francisco is I want to support and I also depend on transit to get around the city and the area.

And these cuts would be devastating to these agencies, which, to no fault of their own, are just still dealing with issues of the pandemic. This is a small fraction of the total budget and can easily be reassigned. The Governor has also given out rebates for gas to families, but I don't think there's been as much generosity to public transit and it's important for many people. It's also important for the climate and long term sustainability of our state.

I'm asking you to fully fund transit and also give them the flexibility so that they can redesign transit in a sustainable way. As we do recognize things have changed, but austerity does not help make transit sustainable. It's very likely we could have a desk file public transit across the state this budget. Thank you.

Thank you for calling. Next.

Thank you. We'll go to line 31. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. My name is Jason Baker with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group representing businesses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Thank you so much for proposing restoring tourista funding. That funding will help critical projects like park to Silicon Valley and barcode capacity and will preserve the ability to continue to attract billions of dollars in federal funding. However, that funding will not avert the pistol cliff in the Bay Area.

We do need significantly more funding to avoid serious cuts that may lead to a death spiral for critical public transit. Voters in the Bay Area have invested in transit repeatedly over the years. Businesses have made significant investments in developments near transit because it is critical to meeting the state's important GHG goals. But that doesn't work if the transit doesn't run. We need to ensure the transit continues to survive and thrive. Please keep all options open, including shifting highway funding to help meet this crisis. Thank you for your work.

Thank you. Next please.

Thank you. We'll go to line 18. Your line is open.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee Members. I'm Jordan Penland, and on behalf of Golden State Opportunity, we are calling in support of the excluded workers study. The Senate can continue prioritizing undocumented Californians by funding the labor and Workforce Development Agency workgroup to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers. This work group will lay the foundation for making a safety net for all a reality. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, in line 29. Your line is open.

Hello, I'm Brittani Baxter calling from Menlo Park about transit funding. Thank you Senators, for proposing funding to avoid the fiscal cliff. However, my understanding is the current plan doesn't go far enough to avoid service cuts. And I'm speaking today to urge you to please reject this plan to ensure that the cuts don't become reality. I've actually never called into one of these before, but I'm taking time out of my workday because I know how crucial this is.

Personally, I purchased my home in Menlo Park specifically because it's walking distance to the train, which allows me to get to work and social activities without a car. However, service cuts would force me and many others to drive at the exact time our climate demands action in the opposite direction. Additionally, of Menlo Park's workforce, a whopping 96% of workers needed from outside our city. If these cuts materialize, our roads will only become more clogged, as those who can drive have to do so.

And those without a car may have to quit their jobs, making our local labor shortage even worse. Constituents will be unhappy with the results of these cuts, whether they take transit or not. We're all affected. So please, for the sake of equity, our economy and the environment, don't let these cuts materialize and don't let transit die. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Line 15. Your line is open.

Hello. My name is Marcus Navarro. I'm a constituent from Stevinson, California. I do not rely on transit, but I recognize how important it is for the state, the environment, and everybody. Millions in California rely on these systems. And most of those people who rely on the systems are people of low-income people who are most vulnerable.

And cutting these systems out from under them will lead to people losing their jobs, will force people to drive when our roads are already almost at capacity, which would be a disaster for the climate. Public transit is a good climate solution, and we can't afford to let our public transit falter. And I think that everyone recognizes that transit is a public good that is worth the funding we put in, even though it does not make money.

It took decades of running these systems to build trust with the riders and allow people to build their lives around these systems. And taking it away now would destroy that trust. And I think that even if we decide to restore this funding later, it would take decades to recover ridership when people know that funding can be taken away at the drop of a hat.

I think we should create dedicated streams of funding for these services so they do not have to worry about things like this, and people can live confidently around public transit knowing that the service won't be taken away from them.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next we'll go, line 25. Your line is open.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair Members. Alchemy Graham with the California Transit Association. As an Association, we support the restoration of the full 4 billion for the transit inner city rail and capital program proposed today. And the proposed authorization flex a proportion of those funds for operations to help address funding shortfalls. As the budget continues to take shape, we continue to highlight that the funding needs for transit agencies statewide extends beyond the funding currently on the table for operations.

And we continue to respectfully urge you to identify additional funding, including cap and trade and the sales tax on diesel fuel, to address the full balance of our operational funding shortfalls. We also fully support the proposed actions on transit statutory release. Thank you for continuing to work with us and for your attention on our needs.

Thank you for calling. Next, please.

Thank you. Line 17. Your line is open.

Yes. My name is Michael Levinson. I've lived in Daly City since 1979. I am legally blind and use paratransit to get around and occasionally fix route bus from SamTrans or Caltran. And I would say that just from an Ada standpoint alone, this is indispensable.

And I hope that the funding is increased across the board for at least a couple of years because it will allow the transit agencies to plan ahead and not have to worry about what's going to happen next year, how many drivers to hire, how many vehicles to purchase. And I noticed that there was also funding in there for pedestrian walkways and traffic signals, which are very helpful to visually impaired. So, all in all, I just want to support transit because it's essential to getting around for a large number of people in the San Mateo County area.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next, please.

Thank you. Line 19, your line is open.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee Members. My name is Jessica Flores, and I'm calling on behalf of Siren Immigrant Rights. We are part of the Safety Net for all coalition. I'm calling to ask the Senate to continue prioritizing undocumented Californians by funding the Labor and Workforce Development Agency workgroup to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers. This workgroup will lay the foundation for making SacNet for all a reality. I urge the Senate to prioritize this proposal and work to ensure that it gets in the final budget.

Thank you. Thank you. Line 36, your line is open.

Good afternoon, Madam. Chair Committee Members. My name is Victor Flores. I am a Member of the Latime Young Democrats of the East Bay and a constituent of Assembly District 18. I want to thank you all for working to address the fiscal cliff. Unfortunately, I'm going to ask you all to delay because the money right now is currently not enough. And if we want to meet our climate goals, it is imperative that we fund public transit.

Most of our greenhouse gas emissions continue to come from the transportation sector. This is not just a health and environmental issue, but it's an equity issue because of the health impacts and the economic burden of private car ownership on community Members and working class people. If we want thriving, resilient communities, we need to prioritize public transit. So please delay and look for other sources of funding to cover the budget gap. Thank you so much.

Thank you. We'll go to 37. Your line is open. Good afternoon, Chair, Members of the Committee. I'm Emily Loper with Bay Area Council. We greatly appreciate you working towards a solution to address the impending transit fiscal cliff. But we're very concerned that the current proposal is simply not enough to avert severe service cuts which would truly grind our region to a halt. If we let these cuts happen, we risk losing our workforce and to other states and our economic engine along with them.

This proposal leaves very little for Barton Muni, where the need is the greatest in the Bay Area, and we urge you to delay the vote and work towards a better solution that's reflective of the transit needs and allocate funding based on some combination of revenues and ridership, not just population. We also need to invest in ridership regrowth strategies to build a better, safer, cleaner, and more reliable transit network going forward. This is not a bailout. It is your opportunity to invest in transforming our transit systems for the future, and we appreciate your leadership in helping us get there. Thanks very much. Thank you to line 40. Your line is open.

Julia Tuer with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit system. Thank you for continuing the important discussion in addressing transit operating budget shortfalls throughout the state. While MTS supports the actions listed today under Issue One, we'd also like to emphasize the California Transit Association's budget request to secure additional funding to support transit operating budget needs.

MPs is facing a structural deficit over $50 million in growing, and as a result of the COVID pandemic, our agency has seen impacts to ridership and revenue declines similar to the other transit agencies in the state. We greatly appreciate the Legislature continuing these important discussions and highly encourage consideration of providing additional funding as detailed in the CTA budget request.

Thank you. Thank you, line 41. Your line is open.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Members. I'm Dylan Fabris from San Francisco Transit Riders, which is a member supported nonprofit. Thank you all for the attention you've already given to funding transit to address the fiscal cliff. But the money being proposed is not enough to prevent service cuts and enable agencies to improve service to regrow ridership. More funding sources need to be on the table, including highway funding and cap and trade funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Electric vehicles are not enough to make the swift changes we need to address climate change. Please delay this decision and keep talking to find more funding for transit. Otherwise you're going to hurt the hundreds of thousands of transit riders across the state. We're constantly hearing from Members who are wondering when their lines will be restored.

And in San Francisco, lines that have had recent frequency improvements are actually above pre-pandemic flightership levels, in some cases proving that riders are there and that people want to take public transit. I believe we can build a greener and more equitable California, but first we need to fund public transit. Thank you.

Next we'll go to line 43. Your line is open.

Hi, my name is Paul Bickmore, and I'm calling because I depend on transit to get around. I don't have a car. I'm worried that the funding being proposed is not going to be enough to prevent a doom loop. And I really like the funding, not just because I depend upon it, but because more frequency results in more riders. And it's an investment that pays off as opposed to funding roads, which have an induced demand effect to them.

Where we widen roads and travel, demand begins exhibiting unit elasticity, and more people just end up filling in the extra space that we build on building roads. And so the money ends up being wasted. Find the money, particularly in road spending, to Fund something that really works, which is transit. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Line 44, your line is open.

Yeah. Hi. My name is Daniel Adelberg. I'm a resident of Berkeley. Typically I bike to work, but know, implement weather injuries and stuff. You can't bike and having a transit option is pretty vital in those situations. Yeah, it's just kind of disheartening that I am forced to drive even on routes that are very short just to get to work.

And I think we can do a little bit better about allocation if we just look at the breakdown between allocation to road infrastructure, which is an extremely inefficient transit model compared to proper transit like other developed countries have. It's a little bit embarrassing. So I think California can do better. And I would encourage you to reconsider the budget and consider funding transit appropriately.

Next, please.

Thank you. Line 45, your line is open.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Carlos Samado and I'm a Member of the Safety Net for all coalition and coalition based of over 160 organizations. I want to thank Chair Durazo for championing the unemployment benefits for excluded immigrant workers, and I want to thank the Senate for including this budget item as part of their priorities this year. We look forward to working with you all and look forward to seeing the Safety Net for all proposal become a reality. Thank you.

Thank you for calling.

Thank you. Thank you. Line 48, your line is open.

Good afternoon. My name is Laura Tolkoff. I'm with Spur. I would like to urge you to reconsider the funding sources presented in the Senate budget today. Flexing Tersip on a population base and Flexing LC top are inadequate and would leave a million riders who get on transit every day behind and jeopardize our climate goals. LCTOP only goes to service expansions and not to existing routes which are where it's needed most and are already used for operations in the Bay Area.

And the Target population-based funds are also inadequate. I'd urge you to consider other funding sources as presented by MTC and remember that it will cost us more to let transit fail than it would to solve the fiscal cliff. Thank you.

Thank you. Line 42, your line is open.

Hello. My name is Adina Levin with Seamless Bay Area. Sorry for the background noise. I am on a train, as previous speakers have said. Thank you very much for supporting the Circ funding. But the current funding being proposed for transit operations is not enough to prevent trust. The Committee has been really strongly supportive of regrowing transit ridership to make sure that transit recovers and is able to address our environmental goals, equity goals and housing. So in particular, please consider highway funding that is regionally determined.

Know that some regions do not want to use the highway funding. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission in the Bay Area is willing to do that. So please make that funding source flexible so that regions can use that in order to be able to Fund transit operations and prevent service cuts. Thank you.

Next, please.

Line 50, your line is open. Hi. My name is Kristen Acosta. I'm calling on behalf of the Women's Building, on behalf of the 160 organizations who are part of the Safety Net for all coalition. I'd like to thank Chair Durazo for championing unemployment benefits for excluded immigrant workers and thank the Senate for including our budget item their priorities this year. Thank you.

Line 25, your line is open. Do you have us on mute? I did. I'm sorry. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Members. Alchemy Graham. Again, on behalf of the California City Transportation Initiative, we would like to thank the Committee for their Consideration of funding for transportation infrastructure within the recently released budget plan. However, we have to urge the Committee to reject the proposed Fund shifts and reductions to the active transportation program because the ATP is oversubscribed and in need of additional funding.

Cities of all sizes simply cannot afford funding reductions from this highly critical program if they want to achieve California's transportation and climate goals. Providing adequate funding for the active transportation program would allow cities to continue making progress towards reducing VMTs and GHGs. And for that reason, we urge you to reject the proposal before you today and support maintaining funding for the ATP at the levels previously proposed in the fiscal year 20222023 budget. Thank you. Thank you. Next please. Line 54, your line is open.

Hi there. My name is Sasha Feldstein calling on behalf of the 160 organizations who are part of the Safety Net for all coalition in support of the proposal to have the labor and Workforce Development Agency workgroup to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers. This workgroup will lay the foundation for making a Safety Net for all a reality, and I urge the Senate to prioritize this proposal and work to ensure that it gets in the final budget.

Also on behalf of the California Immigrant Policy Center, also want to express support for the California Domestic Workers Coalition proposal to provide outreach and education funding. Thank you so much. Thank you for calling. Next. Line 51, your line is open.

Hi. My name is Brian Culbertson. I live in West Oakland. I'm calling today to thank you for proposing some funding to address the transit physical cliff. But it is not nearly enough because we must prevent service cuts and grow ridership if we're going to handle the climate emergency that is only going to get worse. I ride BART every day. I ride BART to work. I ride BART to visit my friends to do errands. I ride aft transit. I ride SF muni.

It is how I get around my city without a car. We talk about that. Transit riders are actually like when I'm riding on BART. There is a lot of transit riders. My BART lines are full when I'm going to commute. We need to increase capacity if we're going to continue enticing even more people. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next please. Thank you. Line 55, your line is open. Hi. My name is Megan Whalen. I'm calling on behalf of the California Domestic Workers Coalition. I'm calling to thank Chair Durazo for championing unemployment benefits for excluded immigrant workers and to thank the full Senate for including that budget item in the priorities this year.

The Senate can continue prioritizing undocumented Californians by funding the labor and Workforce Development Agency Work Group to also include stakeholders and impacted community Members to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers. This group will lay the foundation for making a safety net for all a reality. We also thank the Senate for their support in prioritizing the Domestic Worker Education Outreach Program. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments. Next please. Line 53, your line is open.

Hello. My name is Kyle Posey, and I'm an urban planning master student at San Jose State University. I would like to thank you Senators for proposing this funding to address the fiscal cliff. I would also allow you to avoid cutting any service because it would greatly negatively impact ridership as well as perception of public transportation. I personally rely on public transportation to get everywhere I need to go despite owning a vehicle.

I choose to take transit because it is cheaper, because it is cheaper overall, and in my opinion, it's easier to use. The funding proposed is not enough. However, we must find more funding and we must avoid touch to service. If we allow transit to be defunded, we will be hurting not only our GHC, but we will be stranding every person that relies on transit and we might inevitably force them into driving.

Public transportation is a public good and it is essential for everyone, even for those that do not take a transit because it reduces vehicles on the road. If transit is defunded, the death spiral will have a cascading effect that will end with highways and roads becoming glorified parking lots. I would like to direct this to the Senators in the room. I would like to ask, how much do we spend per month and per year on highways, and how much money do we get out of that?

Is there not a way to charge individuals using that highway, that public land, to fund transit? I would like you to not let our streets become glorified parking lots and not to force us to drive. Thank you very much for letting me speak today.

Thank you for calling next please. Line 60, your line is open. Hi, my name is Natalie calling in strong support of the safety net for all. I want to thank Chair Durazo and the Senate for including the budget item in their priorities this year. And the Senate can continue prioritizing undocumented Californians by funding the labor and Workforce Development Agency workgroup to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers.

I urge the Senate to prioritize this proposal and work to ensure that it gets in the final budget. This work group would lay the foundation for making a safety net for all a reality, because no workers should be excluded. Thank you. Next please. Line 63. Your line is open.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Members. Andrew Shane from Grace and End Child Poverty, California. Align myself with the comments from CIPC and the rest of the Safety Net for all coalition chairs. We thank you for championing unemployment benefits for excluded workers. We thank the Senate for including this in your priorities. But we know that even short term job losses can be catastrophic and no workers should be excluded. It's beyond time for this to get done.

But we hope the Senate can continue prioritizing undocumented Californians by funding the labor and Workforce Development Agency work group, lay the foundation, and make this a reality. And again. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for calling. Next, please. I'm sorry, moderator, could you tell me how many witnesses are still available? We have seven. seven. Okay, thank you. Okay, next. Thank you. Line 61. Your line is open.

Yes, thank you. Senator Durazo, this is Eli Lidman from Move LA. Thank you for letting me speak, and I just wanted to support what's been said before about the Safety for All and unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers. But I also want to say that you should reject the $2 billion cuts to Tersif now, allow that money to be flexed funds to transit operations, and also have additional money to Fund essential transit operations. You know this. I know this.

Immigrants, people of color, low wage workers are taking transit and did take transit during the pandemic, and they will be adversely impacted if their bus doesn't show up on time or at all. And so they won't be able to get to their job. They won't have access to their job. They'll be forced to purchase a vehicle. And in addition, this would impact thousands, if not tens of thousands of workers, mechanics, operators, maintenance folks who make sure that our public transit system runs every single day.

And then finally, I just want to ask and request that you include and make a permissible expense student transit passes. We're standing with our brothers and sisters at UAW 2865 in fighting for fairfree transit to create the next generation of riders that are going to help our transit systems thrive. Thank you, Chair Durazo. And that's it.

Thank you for calling next please. Line 66. Your line is open. Good afternoon. My name is Jessica Senders calling on behalf of equal rights advocates. Want to thank you, Chair Durazo, and the Senate for prioritizing safety net for all and calling in strong support of funding for the Labor and Workforce Development Agency workgroup to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers, which is a key step forward towards safety net for all, urging the Senate to prioritize this and work to ensure that it gets in the final budget. Thank you. Thank you. Next please. Line 62. Good afternoon.

My name is Janelle Milan with the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, also part of the Safety Net For All coalition urging you all to allocate funding for the labor and Workforce Development Agency work group to investigate Howard and Clement and unemployment benefits program. Foreign Documentary Workers thank you. Thank you. Next please. Line 69.

Hi. My name is Zach Subin. I'm a volunteer with urban environmentalists living in San Francisco. I live in a one car, two adult household and bike and use transit for most of my trips. I want to thank the Committee for Considering some transit bridge funding, but I urge you to provide more funding for transit to prevent an irreversible decline. If we hit a fiscal cliff, transit is critical for our climate goals.

To be blunt, we can fall behind one year in our EV goals and we can catch up. But if we let transit systems deteriorate, we can't easily get them back. The Federal Government has given the state unprecedented resources for transportation investments, and it's up to our state government to spend it wisely. Let's use it in ways that support our state policy goals and reallocate some of the highway funding to help save transit. Thank you.

Thank you. Next please. Line 65.

Madam Chair Members, Andrew Antwih here today on behalf of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, we support Senate Democratic plan to restore the $4 billion to TIRCP with language for flexibility. And we urge the Committee to go forward with that and then work on a larger solution that will be inclusive and responsive to transit fiscal cliff problems across the state and not tailored to any large reason.

Thank you. Next please. Line 70.

Good afternoon. My name is Ian Griffiths, Policy Director of Seamless Bay Area, a group that represents over 5000 transit riders in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thank you for proposing some funds in this budget proposal to address the fiscal cliff and for providing flexibility. But what has been proposed is simply not enough to avert huge service cuts.

We need to be looking at other options, and in particular, two very significant options for funding that can help avert service cuts are cap and trade funds and highway funding from the state highway account. We are working to transform transit in the Bay Area and across California. We need to transform transit to meet our climate goals, but there's just simply no path to transforming transit without near term security that we can continue the service that we have.

So we need to commit to this project of transformation. Thank you for supporting the task force that looks at doing that statewide, but we simply must continue to support transit funding with additional sources if we want to have that path to transformation. So thank you for that consideration.

Next please. Line 73.

Hi, Members of the Committee. This is Bob Down with Urban Habitat and the Thrive Coalition, just calling in to echo the comments on the difficult choices you face with the public transit funding package. We won't be able to reverse the impacts of this decision if we don't address the immediate operations.

Hello? We must have lost him. Okay, go ahead. And the last one in queue is 75. Your line is open. Hi, my name is Isa Pierre from the California Association of Food Bank. We're also part of the Safety Debt for all coalition. Thank you, Chair Durazo, for championing unemployment benefits for excluded immigrant workers. And thank you to the Senate for including this budget item in their priorities this year. Even short-term job losses can be catastrophic for California workers, and no workers should be excluded.

Last year, the Governor said that employment benefits for excluded workers should be considered and accounted for as part of the annual budget process. But this year, he didn't include it in his budget proposal. We must set up systems now to better prepare states for an uncertain future. The Senate will continue prioritizing undocumented Californians by funding the Labor Workforce Development Agency workgroup to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers.

This group will lay the foundation for making a safety net for all a reality. We urge the Senate to prioritize this proposal and work to ensure that it gets in the final budget. Thank you. Thank you for calling. Moderator are we one? Just queued up. They're getting their line number. If you would like to wait one moment here and then we'll cut it off after this next one. Okay, perfect. Let's see line 79. Your line is open. Yes, good afternoon.

My name is Vanessa Deran calling on behalf of 160 organizations who are part of the Safety Net for all coalition. I'm calling today to thank Chair Durazo for championing unemployment benefits for excluded immigrant workers, and also to thank the Senate for including our budget item and their priorities this year. Last year, the Governor said that the unemployment benefits for excluded workers should be considered and accounted for. But this year, he didn't include it in his budget proposal.

We're asking for the Senate to continue prioritizing undocumented California by funding the labor and Workforce Development Agency workgroup to investigate how to implement an unemployment benefits program for undocumented workers. We know that this work group will lay the foundation for making a safety net for all reality. We urge the Senate to prioritize this proposal and work to ensure that it gets in the final budget. Thank you very much. Thank you. Moderator we're going to move on now.

Just want a final check here with the public comment. Anyone here in the room? Could you please come forward? If you didn't make any comments, prior?

Good afternoon, Chair and Members. My name is Eduardo Lopez, Policy Fellow with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, here in support of the Safety Net for All Workers Coalition's request for a work group to be formed and create a report to support excluded workers. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Anyone else wishing to make public comment before we closed? Sorry, we thought we were just doing comment on section. Yep, everything's into one. Great.

I'm Emily with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. And we are urging the Committee to oppose the construction spending that is provided in the May revised 360,000,000 to rebuild at San Quentin State Prison. We are in strong opposition. We believe the money can be better used elsewhere, particularly around programming.

There is a dearth of programming in prisons across the state. San Quentin has a significant amount of programming. The plan is premature. There is no significant description. There was a Committee developed. There hasn't even had a chance for the Committee to meet to envision how to use that space. So we hope that the Committee will reject that spending and are happy to share more information.

One other piece is San Quentin is in a FEMA flood zone, A, which means it's one of the highest rated flooding areas in the state. And so it seems pretty ridiculous to rebuild a prison in a place that will likely be underwater in the next 25 years. Thank you. Next, please.

Good afternoon. Thank you all so much, Chair Durazo, for holding this meeting and holding these line items for us. My name is KD. I am with the California Coalition for Women's Prisoners, and I would like to speak in opposition to the funding that has been outlined for the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center as well. Just to keep it short. I'm formally incarcerated, and I would love, as a taxpayer, to see the money going towards more programs and things that's a little bit more realistic and more viable for people across the state, not just at this one prison where only certain people goes there. And this turns into this who deserves and who doesn't deserve rehabilitation and things like that. So thank you so much.

Thank you for being here. Anyone else? Hello.

Good afternoon. My name is Liz Blum with Decarcerate Sacramento and the Californians United for Responsible Budget Coalition. I'm here today in strong opposition to the 360,000,000 for San Quentin. If we're trying to I just want to say no way would not bend their budget in this way. So this is not a way to make our state a healthier and safer place.

Thank you.

Hi. Good afternoon, all. Courtney Hamson with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. And we're also a Member of California's United for Responsible Budget, also urging you to reject these hundreds of millions of dollars going to a rehabilitative approach when CDCR has had that word in their name for all these years and is historically probably the most overfunded Department in the history of this state.

And we desperately need these funds to go into community-based resources that will bring people home from incarceration and prevent people from going into the prison system to begin with. It's reckless. It's the wrong direction. What the LAO is saying about it is right on point, and you all shouldn't even be being asked to vote on something without this level of detail that you can actually scrutinize, especially in this climate with our economy and the fiscal struggles that we're all facing. So California is not Norway.

We lock up black and brown people in this state because they're black and brown. We lock up poor people because they're poor. We lock up survivors of domestic violence because they survived. That is in the fabric of the institution. And we need systemic changes, not more money going into that money pit that is the unaccountable, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Thanks. Thank you. Next, please. Hi. My name is Isa Borgeson. I'm the campaign manager with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. I'm also a member of Critical Resistance in Oakland, also urging this sub five Committee to not pass the $360,000,000 budget to expand and build the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. We don't need another prison by another name. We don't need a prison built on top of a prison.

Ella Baker Center is going to be releasing a report at the end of the month that's known as the Hidden Hazards Impact of Climate Change on Incarcerated People in California State Prisons. In this report that we did with UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, we found that San Quentin State Prison is in FEMA Flood Zone Area A, which means that in the next 25 years, San Quentin is going to be underwater.

We don't want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a prison by another name that's just going to be underwater. We know that people need access to programmings, and that's important. But we have the infrastructure today in order to be able to facilitate those programs. That money should go towards supporting folks, going inside and incarcerating people and facilitating their own programs. It shouldn't go towards building more cages in California. Thank you. Thank you.

Afternoon. My name is Philippe Kelly, the outside fellow policy for the Ella Baker Center and strong opposition of building a new infrastructure on top of one that's already existing. Yeah, I just got released not too long ago from San Quentin. And my opinion, yes, a little difficult to talk about, but my opinion, it doesn't matter.

They built a new infrastructure on top of it because I've been in prisons where the conditions were clean and the culture there still was terrible, and they still treated incarcerated people like there wasn't people. And so I experienced this as well in San Quentin. So it doesn't matter if you build another prison on top of it as long as the culture is bad.

And what I mean is you have correctional officers, you have Administration who perpetuate this entire system of keeping people inside of prison as opposed to really focusing on rehabilitation and transitioning folks out. Right? And so they have a sergeant there, lieutenant there, who was ordering his officers, his subordinates, to go around, write people up. He needed 10 write ups a week. And I know a few people who were victims of this practice. And so if the culture is still messed up inside of the prison.

It's not going to matter if you build a Norway type of style prison inside of another one that's already existed. I've been in the system since I was 15. That's when I got arrested and I just got out. And so I am very understanding of what it actually takes, and it doesn't take to build another prison on top of another one.

The programs are important, as Issa was saying, but at the same time, like $360,000,000, where that money can go into funding mental health services, creating jobs for young folks, as opposed to building another prison, which is probably going to be underwater in a few years anyway. So I am in strong opposition of creating another prison. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. All right, it looks like colleagues, any comments or questions? My colleagues on the Committee? No? Okay. All right, then we're going to move on here. Having heard from all Members of the public Members here on the Committee, we're going to move on to the vote only calendar. Here we go. Okay, so we're going to start with Part A, and the issues are 22 through nine. Issues two through nine. Issue 12, 13, 16 through 18 and 21. I have a motion to approve.

Oh, sorry. Okay. Senator Seyarto moved. Moved approval. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Can we have a vote now on these issues? Call the vote.

Durazo aye. Newman aye. Seyarto aye.

The next set of issues that we're going to vote on, issues 10, 15, 20 and 22, can I have a motion to approve? So moved. All right, consultant, if you call a vote. Durazo, aye. Durazo, aye. Newman aye. Newman aye. Thank you. Okay, that was, for our part, a now we go to part B. You are good. We will now vote on all items within Part B, the agenda on labor, workforce development, public employment and retirement. We will take three motions to adopt the staff recommendations. One for a vote of 30, one for a vote of 20, two to one, and one for a vote of 20. One abstain.

The first motion will be for Part B. Part B, issues 2, 8, 1,12 to 17, 19, 24 and 25, 27, 28 and 29, 31, 32, 40. 42, 45-47, 49, 50, 52, 53-60. Do we have a motion for these issues? Thank you. We will now Dr. Francis, please call the roll.

Senators Durazo aye. Seyarto aye. Newman aye. Vote ayes 3 no noes.

Great. The second motion will be for part again, Part B, issues one, three through 7, 9, 11, 18, 21 and 22, 33 to 36. 38 and 39. 41, 43 and 44. 48 and 51. Do we have a motion for these issues? So moved. Thank you. Dr. Francis, please call the roll.

Senators Durazo aye. Seyarto no. Newman aye. Ayes two, noes one.

Thank you. And the third motion for Part B are issues 23, 26, and 37. Do we have a motion for these issues? So moved. Thank you. Dr. Francis, please call the roll.

Senators Durazo aye. Seyarto not voting. Newman aye. Ayes two. no zero. No vote no. Not voting.

Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on now to the last part, part C, the Agenda on Public Safety, Corrections, and the Judiciary. We will take three motions to adopt the staff recommendation, starting with Part C, issues 2, 4, 5, 7 through 10, 12, 13, 17 through 19, 21, 23 to 28, 31, 34, 36, 39 through 53, 55, 56-58, 62 through 67, 72, 73, 76-77, 79 through 82, 85-87, 89-91, 92-94, 98-100, 102, 104, 108, 110, 112 through 114, 116 through 121, 24, 125, 127, 128, 132 through 134.

136 through 138, 140 through 142, 144 through 151, 52 through one, and 156, 161, 62, 164, 166, 174, 178. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations? Thank you. Moved by Senator Newman. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Consultant, please call the Role Senators Durazo aye Aye. Newman, aye. Senator Seyarto. Seyarto, aye. Thank you. The next motion will be for Part C, issues 1, 3, 6, 11, 14 through 16, 20, 32, 33, 35, 38-54, 59 through 61, 68-69, 71-74, 75-78, 83-84, 86-88, 93-95, 97-99,100 and 113, 115, 117, 111, 115, 123, 129 through 131, 143, 151, 157, 159, 165, 169 170 through 173, 176, 177, and 179. Do we have a motion to adopt staff recommendations? So moved.

Thank you. Ms. Consultant, please call the role Senator Durazo, aye. Durazo, aye. Newman, aye. Newman, aye. Thank you. And the last motion will be for Part C, issues 22, 29-3, 57-70, 96-106, 191, 211 212, 613-5139, 158, 161, 163, 167, 175, and 180. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations? So move.

Thank you. Motion is to adopt the recommendations. Consultant, please call the Role Senators Durazo, aye. Durazo aye. Newman. Aye. Newman, aye. Seyarto not voting. Okay, we all good. All done. Okay, so that's it for today. Thank you to all the individuals who participated in public testimony today. If you were not able to testify, please submit your comments or suggestions in writing to the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee or visit our website. Your comments and suggestions today have been very important. We want to include everyone's testimony in the official hearing records. Thank you for your patience, cooperation. Thank you to my colleagues again for the many, many hours that you spent here in this Committee. We've concluded the agenda for today's hearing ring. The meeting is adjourned.