Senate Floor

Good morning, Members. As we close out this long and productive week, we want to say welcome to Friday. Mister Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Thank you, Mister Secretary. Quorum is present. Would the Members and our esteemed guests beyond the rail and in the gallery please rise? We're gonna be led in prayer this morning by the Senate's chaplain, Sister Michelle Gorman, after which we're gonna ask all to please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Sister.

And let us center ourselves in God's presence. Gracious and merciful God, on this Memorial Weekend, we remember all who have died in the service of our country, whose hearts and hopes are known to you alone. Comfort those who grieve the loss of loved ones and let your healing be the hope in their hearts.

Hear our prayer of gratitude for those who put the welfare of others ahead of their own, and give us hearts as generous as theirs. May all who pay the price for our liberty experience courage, hope, and strength through our compassionate support and gentle love.

Help us to shape a world where we will turn our swords into plowshares for a harvest of justice and peace. You who created us, who sustain us, who call us to live in peace, hear our prayer this day. Amen.

Please join in the Pledge of Allegiance. [Pledge of Allegiance] Thank you, Sister Michelle. Members, without objection, we're going to recognize Senator Menjivar under motions and resolutions for a special Memorial Day tribute. Senator Menjivar is a proud marine veteran. She's going to honor those Californians who were serving in the military and died in the line of duty serving this country. Madam Senator, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President. Colleagues, I rise today because I want to make sure as we enter into our long holiday, that we really remember that it's not just a transition into the summer but a time to really reflect on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms and who are fighting for, hopefully, 100% of the freedoms for everybody.

You'll see on your desk I left a little card of a pin that I hope you'll wear this weekend to all the events that you will participate in for us to not forget. And additionally, there's a handmade poppy created by veterans as an additional reminder of those who joined the military.

Mister President, with your permission, I'd like to read the names of the Californians that have lost their lives since January as an important reminder of the phrase "say their name". They say we die twice. One when we are buried, and the second time when our name is no longer mentioned. So I want to make sure we say the names of those who we have lost.

Madam Senator, please proceed.

These names were obtained by CalVet, and I want to do a phone note that if we did not mention our loved ones, I hope Californians will let us know so that we can honor them in a future session. Navy Seaman Luis Emilio Mancera. Army Private First Class Justin Allen Hunt.

Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Joseph Pinlak Padilla. Marine Corps Private First Class Christian Lee Tillett Foreman. Army Staff Sergeant Aldo Alexander Gonzalez. Petty Officer First Class Navy Brandon Michael Gerber. Army Master Sergeant Colton Roger Sick. Marine Corps Sergeant Brandon Moises Diaz, who was a constituent of mine. Navy Ensign Richard O. Bell. Marine Corps Sergeant Philip Joseph Evans.

Army Private First Class Catherine Medellin. Army Sergeant Eunice Chung. Army Private Second Class Juan Antonio Padilla. Army Sergeant Austin James High. The following five names, colleagues, are not Californians, but rather the five Marines that perished about a month ago on our land here in California during a training exercise.

Marine Corps Lands Corporal Donovan Davis, Marine Corps Sergeant Alec Landon, Marine Corps Captain Benjamin Moulton, Marine Corps Captain Jack Casey, and Marine Corps Captain Miguel Nava. Again, colleagues, I ask that you say the names of those that you will hear in your district so that they may never be forgotten. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, those in the gallery, if all could please stand for a moment of silence. Thank you. Senator Menjivar, if you could please bring the names forward for formal recognition by the California State Senate. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, we're now going to be moving to privileges of the floor.

We're going to recognize Senator Caballero with some very special guests in the gallery. We'll come right back to Senator Caballero. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to be moving forward under item four on our agenda.

Messages from the Governor will be deemed read, messages from the Assembly will be deemed read, reports of Committee will be deemed read, and amendments adopted. We're now moving to item number seven, under motions, resolutions and notices. Item number one, pursuant to Senate Rule 29 D, the following bills are referred to the Committee on Rules: File items six, SB 828. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, we now would like to be able to recognize Senator Smallwood-Cuevas.

Thank you, Mister PT. I request that we move file item 18, SB 1282, to the enacted file.

Granted. Thank you so much, Madam Senator. Members, we're now going to be moving forward under consideration of the daily file. We're first going to start with three different sets of appointments under Governor. Appointments. For that, we're going to turn it over to Senator Grove. You prepared to present file items 2, 3, and 4? She's prepared to present. Madam Senator, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President. I apologize for the delay. Colleagues, file item number two is the confirmation of Jonathan Porat for appointment for the state's chief technology officer. Mister Porat, most previously served as a chief technology information officer within the Department of Technology Office and Digital Services.

He was also the City of Seattle's first information technology engagement manager, and he held positions of the US Small Business Administration Agency and Advocacy for the US Office of Management and Budget. He was approved on the Rules Committee on May 8 on a 5-0 vote. Respectfully asked for your aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. Senators, any discussion or debate on the floor? Final call, discussion and debate on the floor. Mister Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Mister Secretary, can you please call the absent members? We're gonna do this one more time.

[Roll call]

Ayes 37, noes 0. The appointment is confirmed. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate. We're now going to be moving on to file item number three under Governor Appointment. Senator Grove is prepared. Senator Grove, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President. File item number three, colleagues, is a confirmation of the following appointments. Captain Lynn Korwatch for the appointment to the Board of Pilot Commissioners. Chris Downey, Scott Lillibridge, and Luciana Profaca for the Commission of Disability Access and Tina Miller for the appointment of the Board of Barber and Cosmetology.

These appointments were approved at the Rules Committee on a 5-0 vote May 8, and I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Members, we're going to see if there's discussion or debate on the floor. Last call, discussion and debate on the floor. Hearing and seeing none. Mister Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Mister Secretary, can we please call the absent members once?

[Roll call]

Ayes 37, noes 0. The appointment is confirmed. We have one final item under Governor's Appointments. That's file item number four. Senator Grove is prepared to present. Please proceed.

Thank you, Mister President. Colleagues, file item number four is the confirmation of Doctor Ellen Junn for reappointment to the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education. She is the past president of Cal State University Stanislaus, having spent 37 years as a teacher and administrator with the CSU system.

She was approved by the Rules Committee on May 8 on a 5-0 vote. Respectfully asked for an aye vote.

Thank you, Madam Senator. Senators, we're going to see if there is any discussion and/or debate on the floor. Discussion and debate on the floor? Hearing and seeing none. Mister Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Aye 38, no 0. The appointment is confirmed. We're now going to be moving on to our Senate third reading file. We're going to first take up file item 21. File item 21, SB 1031. That's Senator Wiener. Mister Secretary, can you please read.

Senate Bill 1031 by Senator Wiener, enact relating to transportation.

Good morning, Senator Wiener, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President. You're doing a great job. Colleagues, I rise to present Senate Bill 1031, the Connect Bay Area Act.

This is a joint effort with my colleague from Hayward working together on this, and the Bill authorizes the Metropolitan Transportation Commission or an initiative petition to propose a revenue measure to fund, improve, and modernize Bay Area public transportation systems, as well as roads, and investing in a range of balanced transportation priorities.

I want to start, in addition to thanking my partner in this, the Senator from Hayward, I want to really thank the chair of the Transportation Committee and the chair of the Revenue and Tax Committee, the Senators from San Jose and Orinda, for working very, very intensively with us on this Bill, broad stakeholder work, and I'm very, very appreciative of their strong engagement.

Colleagues, additional revenue is critical to keep public transportation running and vibrant and strengthen it and modernize it in the Bay Area. Many of our highest ridership transit systems were structurally underfunded and overly fare reliant before the pandemic, and it's only gotten worse.

This is an unsustainable model as ridership continues to recover and transit agencies face major shortfalls. Through hard work in the state budget last year- thank you, colleagues- we were successful in securing bridge funding to prevent operating shortfalls through the middle of 2026.

Had we not obtained that money in the state budget last year, right now, today, we would be seeing massive service cuts at various of our largest public transportation systems in the Bay Area. Because of the work that this Legislature did in the budget last year, that was delayed, those service cuts, until 2026.

Now we have the opportunity to empower the Bay Area to engage in self help by going to the ballot to provide long term funding solutions for our transit systems.

SB 1031 does not only allow for a revenue measure, it also advances stronger regional network management reforms, better integration of the systems, a transportation demand management provision, and as you'll hear from my colleague, I'm sure, an assessment of the potential benefits of consolidation. Colleagues, this is a critically important measure for Bay Area public transit systems.

I also just want to stress that this is a work in progress. As anyone who's engaged in these kind of regional transportation funding work knows, it will continue to take a lot of stakeholder work.

I want to just publicly express the commitment that I've given to many, to all of our regional stakeholders, our counties, our public transportation systems, environmental and transit advocates, labor, business community, my colleagues in both houses in the Bay Area delegation, we will continue to work intensively.

I know that there are still a lot of folks who like parts of the Bill, who don't like parts of the Bill, who want to see changes. And you have my continued commitment that we will continue, continue to work through this, to try to get to a good landing spot on this Bill that we can all be proud of. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Weiner. We're going to go to Senator Wahab. Good morning.

Thank you. I rise to co present SB 1031, the Connect Bay Area Act. Public transit across the Bay Area is at a critical juncture. A number of agencies are dealing with looming fiscal cliffs.

We know if we cannot find funding to close these operational gaps, a number of agencies and riders will suffer, as well as the workforce that operate. Frankly, our region cannot afford that. We cannot afford the influx of vehicles on our roads, and many of those who rely on public transit cannot even afford a vehicle.

The Bay Area needs public transit not just to survive, but to thrive. That's why an assessment of the 27 agencies across the nine Bay Area counties is so important.

My vision is not just to aim for repairs, but for a system that connects us deeper in the Bay and one day in the future across Northern California. SB 1031 is setting the stage for that transformation.

The intent of the assessment is to, one, improve speed, affordability, safety and cleanliness, but also promote climate goals incorporate technology, improve accessibility, improve accountability, and reduce administrative costs. By identifying all the agencies and their governance structure, financing mechanisms, labor agreements and MOUs, and vehicle fleets, and assessing consolidation and enhanced coordination and their impacts.

We will not only create greater fiscal efficiencies, but improve existing systems to increase ridership, sustainability, the overall quality of Bay Area public transit, and the public's confidence in the management of our transit systems. The Bay Area deserves a world class transit system, and we did an independent assessment of all the agencies to help us get there.

With SB 1031, we're not just dreaming, we're doing. We're building a legacy of transit that will carry the Bay Area forward.

I do want to thank my colleague from San Francisco, as well as a lot of the Bay Area members that have sat on this working group for the past several months and the stakeholders that have been engaged in the conversation. Again, as the Senator stated, this is a work in progress.

We are looking for all input, but the goal is to make sure that our transit agencies keep serving the public in an efficient and better way. I respectfully ask for an aye. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Members, we have quite a few mics up, so let's go through that order. We're going to go to Senator Cortese next, then Senator Eggman, Senator Glazer, and then Senator Becker. Senator Cortese, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President and colleagues. I rise in opposition to SB 1031, and it pains me greatly to have to do this, both figuratively and literally. Literally, because I, along with my colleague from Contra Costa, spent hours upon hours leading an informal working group. Thank you again to my colleague for taking the chair role.

We attempted to help shape this Bill in a collaborative way. No such luck. As you can see from the analysis, the Bill still carries with it opposition from numerous entities within the San Francisco Bay Area region, including my own city, San Jose, and the mayor of San Jose, representing the largest city in the Bay Area.

The Transportation Committee staff that I lead worked very, very hard to bring sensible amendments forward in a thoughtful and a collaborative way, despite the many concerns outstanding in the Bill. The most important of those proposed amendments, direct return to source of a percentage of sales tax revenue, was rejected flat out.

That direct return to source, flat out rejected. You could read the Bill. All money in this Bill goes to the MPO for the Bay Area region, which is a metropolitan planning organization. I think most of you have one of those. They're a planning entity. They have never run transit or transportation operations ever in their history.

That's where the money goes for potential redistribution, depending on how well they think people have behaved. But we tried. That missed opportunity, combined with subsequent amendments outside of my Committee, created a Bill that threatens to literally break up the nine county Bay Area region into two separate regions.

Santa Clara County, with its GDP that leads a majority of countries in the world, is prepared to take 30% sales tax that it contributes to the region and go elsewhere, either forming its own MPO or joining one south of it.

Transportation, of course, is the lifeblood to the third largest city in the State of California and its people. Figuratively. It pains me that, given my admiration and respect for the joint authors of the Bill. But we've seen this before. Despite best efforts, some combination of Committee amendments and missed opportunities, and we end up here.

We end up with unresolved opposition. And in this case, I'd say the unresolved opposition requires us to start over. I believe my city in my county and the transportation authority, which, by the way, in our county is wall to wall. We have one operator. The rest of the Bay Area has 29 other operators. Nine county region.

We have one operator. The rest of the Bay Area has nearly 30. But I believe ours and all the people I've mentioned who are elected and represent policy interests in Santa Clara County would be happy to negotiate a better Bill if this one was off the table.

But with this one on the table, that's not going to happen. This is literally an existential threat to Santa Clara County, which has passed sales taxes in self help over the years that I've been elected to office. That now amount to over $800 million a year combined to support its own systems.

Because there was never help from the Federal Government, there was never help from the regional government. We pioneered in the Bay Area the notion of promoting your own sales tax and going out the hard way on a two thirds vote to do things like the BART extension into Santa Clara County and many other things.

Those measures, there are four of them. Three of them are coming up for renewal over the next several years. This measure before you today would impose a half cent sales tax at a regional level on our county. But it gets worse. It's not just a disruption or displacement of potential sales tax deployment in our own county.

The way the measure is written, it says that a majority of the counties by population in the nine county Bay Area can and will decide the expenditure plan for all of the sales tax money that's brought in. Half cent sales tax is about a billion dollars a year. The authors have indicated ambitiously that they'd like to see this measure raise a billion and a half a year over 30 years.

So 45, up to $45 billion over the next 30 years would go to an organization, an MPO, and be redistributed at their discretion, regardless of what other measures it displaces in the future, and regardless of what they decide that money should go to, subject to buckets that they have set up by definition. That's why I call it an existential threat. Santa Clara County can't put its own sales taxes on the ballot, and worse yet, have to plead and beg to get money from the MTC, the planning organization. That's not a good position to be in, to say the least.

That's why, and I'm just putting this on the record because I don't think it's fair to the public or anyone else to act like this is just my thought or my idea. That's why folks in Santa Clara County are looking at additional legislative remedies and legal remedies as well, as I mentioned, like pulling the county out so it's not put at that disadvantaged place.

Make no mistake, the Mayor of San Jose, County Supervisors, and other elected officials are rolling out the campaign against the measure, even though we haven't got into the Assembly yet because of the fear that when it goes on the ballot, people need to be organized and ready. That includes taking on political consultants and starting the earned media campaign. You will see that in the next few days. I know many of you feel that this is not your fight, it's not your region.

But good government is always our fight, and as we all know, if we support legislation in one area that disadvantages a community, they're probably coming for you next. No Bay Area County is safe or properly protected in this bill, not just mine. It's a dangerous bill, as in print. Let me talk about a little bit about why. The sponsor is the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the entity that gets the money. A billion to a billion and a half dollars a year over the next 30 years. I used to be a proud member and former chair of that organization until just recently.

If you come into my office, you'll see a plaque that I was given with some of the major accomplishments during my period, my tenure there. I'm embarrassed now and ashamed to be associated because of this power grab, and that's what it is, and money grab that's on the table and has been on the table for months and months despite our pleas to amend the bill to make it equitable and fair. Yes, we have a big GDP. We do.

60% of the people in our county are still employed by small business. That GDP is provided by a population that is 40% immigrants, and they produce 45% of that GDP. They're going to now, under this bill, send their money to San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area.

When they go to the cash register, they pick up another half cent tax, a regressive tax, that they have to be told now and throughout the future campaign is going elsewhere, not to their poor communities and communities of concern that they just need those dollars invested locally in equity and in jobs and in other things that local government can provide.

But let me tell you more about the sponsor, because, as I said, I chaired the organization. And I'll wrap up soon, but I want to close by making sure this is clear as well. This is an organization that was widely panned and will continue to be if this measure goes to the ballot for billions and billions of overrun dollars on the Bay Bridge. This is an organization whose past Executive Director was criticized widely by all Bay Area newspapers for taking first class airfare on junkets around the world. Taxpayer money.

Taxpayer money. This is an organization that we will soon find out, as more is disclosed, that has had massive litigation expenses for mismanaging tolls and FasTrak throughout the Bay Area and has kept that as quiet as they can. And this is an organization that says, we're such good managers that you, the Legislature, should empower us and give us $45 billion a year, over the $45 billion in the next 30 years, so we can manage all these other entities.

This is an entity that has a fairly new building in downtown San Francisco that they feel incompetent to manage themselves, so they broker the management out to corporate interests to manage for them. I was just told by an employee when I said I want to drop by and do a little homework the next time in San Francisco.

You can't do that, despite it's a public building without calling Cushman & Wakefield, the property manager, two days ahead of time to come into a public building and sit down and read your materials. This is the organization we're being asked to empower with $45 million over the next 30 years to teach other people how to manage their organizations.

This is what I say. I don't know if we can stop this from going forward. I don't know if I can stop it from going forward. If it comes back on concurrence, I will be asking for an amendment for an Inspector General, not that reports to the MTC, that is independent, that can oversee all of these issues.

Number one. And before we get there, as a member of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, beyond those examples that I just gave, I will be asking for an audit of the organization to make sure that we feel comfortable that we can entrust them with these kinds of dollars and investments.

I don't think they're going to pass that test, but of course, at the end of the day, it'll be up to all of you and then the voters to decide. I will say when that audit comes out and when some more information comes out in terms of basic management competency, many, many elected officials in the Bay Area, including many who have voted for this measure, are going to be asked, why did you do that? Why would you do that?

Why would you entrust an organization like that with a legislative vote to take responsibility for $45 million of our taxpayer money? Haven't you seen enough? That's where I think this is headed. I realize this will probably get off the floor today. We hear it's a work in progress. I've been listening to that in hours and hours of meetings up to this point. Again, trying to help out. I don't have any confidence that progress is going to be made. When the last set of amendments came in and set us back even further away from progress, it told me that we need to organize.

People in my area, the Bay Area, need to organize, and we need to make sure we do everything we can to put a stop to this. If it gets on the ballot, we'll see how it goes. I would urge your no vote, respectfully. And I understand, again, we have people here from every part of the State of California. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity. Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to present my case.

Thank you, Senator Cortese. Senator Eggman, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much. I'll be very brief, Members. I also write in opposition to this bill though. I had conversations with the author. I represent area people may have heard me talking about Valley Link, a train that we're trying to get connected. I have 150,000 people who commute every single day by car over the Altamont Pass to get to the Bay Area to be able to connect to a train over there.

The train that we have planned, Valley Link ,will connect from the Central Valley right up to the BART, where you get increased ridership, which is what BART needs to do, right? Increase ridership. We have ways to do it. We asked to be like, specifically included. I was told that you're not excluded.

If San Jose is not included and worries about it, what do you think is going to happen to Stockton, Lathrop, Tracy, and the district I represent? So I won't be able to support this today. I don't think it's equitable. I don't think we should continue passing laws to benefit San Francisco when the rest of us are suffering a little bit and ask for a little bit of help. So until there's some, I think, equitable distribution of this, I don't think it should move forward.

Thank you, Senator Eggman. Members, we're going to go to Senator Glazer, Senator Becker, and Senator Dodd. Senator, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. President. I guess my colleagues from outside of the Bay Area can get understanding that we're a very diverse family. It's a very big tent here in the Bay Area with a lot of good people and a lot of different views. But I want to just say a couple brief things. Number one is I want to thank the Senator from San Francisco and from Hayward for their leadership in this space. This is a very important issue to the Bay Area, transportation, and we all know how it affects so many things in our lives, from environmental quality to work and the rest in between.

But there's a couple points that need to be made. One is, and by the way, it comes out of being a part of this stakeholder group that probably had a dozen meetings with stakeholders over the last 30 days. So I've dug in a little bit to the challenges that these authors face in trying to bring everything together, and it leads me to two conclusions. One is that they've taken on a very complicated assignment, as you've already heard from the debate today.

I think they need the time and deserve the time to continue to work on this issue and try to find a way to bring everyone together, whether it's for the Senator from Stockton, the Senator from San Jose, and so many other stakeholder groups. You know, this doesn't happen quickly. Many of you are experienced in the law making process, and you know on complicated issues like this, you do need a longer landing strip.

And the authors have given me a very important assurance, and that is that if this bill gets out of the Senate today and they're able to work with all of us as it moves through the Assembly, that when it comes back, and if it comes back to the Senate, that he will allow both my committee and the Senator who chairs Transportation to come back and look at that product again and make sure it meets our test. And that's a very worthy commitment, and it makes me very confident that we should give them that opportunity. And that's why I'm voting yes and urge you to support SB 1031 today.

Thank you, Senator. Members, we're now going to go to Senator Becker and then Senator Dodd. Good morning, Senator Becker.

Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate the debate. I represent part of Santa Clara County, also San Mateo County. And certainly many folks who do have concerns about this measure, certainly we're supportive, and I'm supportive of providing additional resources for transportation in the Bay Area.

I'm also very supportive of improving coordination and collaboration among our region's operators, which is one of the big goals of this bill. We have 27 overlapping transit agency. I carried the Seamless Bay Area Bill two years ago that passed out of the Senate. And parts of that, some of that has already started to happen, actually, which is positive, and some of that is embedded here now in this bill.

And I think that is very positive. As we've heard, though, of course, there are real concerns, and some of my local agencies have significant concerns and have voiced those concerns in their letters and their discussion. I'm going to fall out on the side of my, as I said, friend from Orinda mentioned.

I do think this is very complicated. I know our Assembly colleagues have a lot of opinions on this as well, and I believe that it is worth moving this forward and continue to have those discussions because ultimately the Bay Area is a region, and we don't want BART to fail. We don't want... to fail.

We don't want Caltrain to fail. We really want to support all the systems in the Bay Area. I do hear my comments from my friend from Stockton. Personally, I think that's really important. That is where we have a lot of car commutes, and anything we can do to increase that connectivity out there, I think is also crucial.

But I will be supporting this bill today. I think there's important elements of the coordination which is critical. There's funding elements that clearly have a lot of work to be done, but I hope that we can move this forward, and I will be participating in those discussions going forward. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Amongst the hammering, we're going to turn it over to Senator Dodd.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. I wasn't going to speak on this today, but after some of the comments, I must say I'm pretty disappointed in the comments from my good friend from San Jose on this issue. Maligning the integrity of what, frankly, is probably what is nationally recognized, one of the best MPOs in the United States of America, and frankly one of the best executives that I've ever worked with in 25 years of public service. The former executive that he took on. This is really got about the MTC and the MTC leadership.

What we've got before us today is a bill that has been cooked pretty much, and we know how tough this is when you've got regional concerns, by this Legislature with some input from duly elected members of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. This isn't MTC staff behind the curtains holding up the puppets and making these decisions.

This is members of their commission. So what I'd like to just bring across is I think it's important to allow this thing to go over to the Assembly, and perhaps what we can do is get a bill that's less prescriptive, that will allow the locals, the nine Bay Area counties, to sit down at the table and to work, to work this out.

It's critically important. If we remember, last year we were in a situation where the Bay Area didn't get a large enough share of the Transit Shortfall Dollars. And that's why we're here. We run the very risk of these great transit agencies throughout the Bay Area of falling short and perhaps massively cutting services, which would be a real problem for congestion in the Bay Area.

So I'm hoping that we can do that moving forward and get a yes vote on 1031 and help the Bay Area not go down on the fiscal cliff. Regionalism is a tough thing, and I really do believe that the Bay Area can get there. We've done it in the past, as a past Chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

We've had some tough times and some tough negotiations. Even me when I was Chair of MTC, with future Chair from San Jose, we're able to work out a lot of tough, tough issues and I feel confident that this will work in the end. Respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Members, we're going to go to, we have two additional microphones up. We're going to go to Senator Caballero and Senator Durazo. Senator Caballero, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. I had no intention of speaking. Let me just say from the get go that I'm going to support this bill. But let me tell you how frustrated I am. Because if I had a public transportation system in my district that worked, that would be the biggest blessing in the world.

You know, we talk about reducing the traffic in, in the Bay Area. Well, hell, I'd like to reduce it going over Pacheco Pass and Altamont Pass. I'm going to join my colleague from Stockton, is that your folks are all moving into our community. And in many ways it's been great. It has raised the level of income. It's been good for our local communities, but it's been hell on our roadways. And not only that, vehicle miles travels means that, every time we build a house, it cost a lot more money because we have to now invent an infrastructure for public transportation.

Because, I'm sorry, but if you live in rural California, having a bike path, having a walking path, and throwing some money at a public transportation system that doesn't work if you've got to go to work or a medical appointment or you have an emergency. I mean, none of that works. And so we got to get this done.

I have a lot of faith in the author, and it's my hope that there is a budget dangling solution where we start looking. Because, so right now, all of these public transportation stop, they don't come into our region, and we've done these little kind of straws. The Altamont Express is one of them, but it's not here yet.

And the ability to hook... I take the train whenever I can. I won't drive in San Francisco anymore. It's just too crazy. And frankly, the train and BART does its job. But we absolutely need collaboration. We need the transportation agencies to think a little bit more broadly. And they got to figure out, okay, how do we stop now that we stop in Milpitas for BART, how do we get it down to Gilroy, and then how do we get it down to Hollister and Salinas?

And then how do we get something that will help get people off our overcrowded highways that nobody wants to fix because it is growth inducing. I got news for you folks. We've got so much to fix, and if we could get out of our cars... Forget electric cars.

Just get out of our darn cars, that could make a tremendous difference on the roadways. And so I'm going to support the bill today. I think it's the, the right direction. I want to encourage you to think broader on some of these. And I know when you're working on a bill, just getting it passed is important. But we really need to connect parts of our state that are housing people and that get the brunt of that development that becomes unmitigable because we're not building roads.

Thank you, Senator. Senator Durazo, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much. It seemed to me that I was not going to have a problem in supporting this, but when issues of equity come to the table, that grabs my attention. And several comments have been made here today. Our colleagues from various parts of the area, of the general area, have raised some really important issues. Now, if an area like Los Angeles with 10 million people and a massive public transportation system can work fairly well, there's a lot of issues, but can work fairly well, we've got to figure out to do the same thing in the Bay Area.

I think the most important focus that should guide us all is the fact that the worst and the biggest source of contamination in our air is from emissions. And so we don't want to encourage more cars, we need to be ahead of the issue here, which is our climate issue. It's a climate issue, and it's a move people. It's a move logistics. That's what's confronting us. But I will support today because so much of this came to light this morning.

But I am a big believer in the equity that needs to be, I think, more strongly demonstrated because if we have these kinds of differences now, something's missing. And so I would encourage that conversation, and look forward to a much better package that everybody could support when it comes back. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Dahle, floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. President. I want to rise just to, I don't know where I'm going to do on the bill at this point, but I want to make a point to my good friend from Merced and my good friend from Stockton. We spend a hundred, we're going to spend $100 billion on a train to nowhere in the Valley, and you're talking about trying to raise more money for the nine Bay Area counties.

Why don't we take the money that's misdirected over there, the billions of dollars, and spend it in areas where we can actually reduce the emissions, Altamont Pass, to Merced, to the areas where we can actually, we're building a train in the Valley that's going nowhere when we should be using those funds in the Bay Area and those cities outside of the Bay Area to get the people to move in there, that's where we could really save the environment and actually complete something for a lot better money. Just take that into consideration. We have the power to do that in this body, and we should.

Thank you, Senator. Members, good morning. We're going to turn it over to Senator Rubio.

Good morning, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, you know, I've been a strong proponent of regional collaboration for years, and I pride myself on so many things that we've done in the San Gabriel Valley to bring all cities together. And I also have been, you know, throughout the years here, I've been very respectful when it's district specific projects, you know, because only those that are in that region and those cities understand the projects better than we do.

And, but I do hear my colleagues from Stockton and Merced in that, you know, sometimes, when they're bigger regions, the little cities sometimes are left out. And this, I can't help but this reminds me of an issue I had a few years back where we debated a bill that was somewhat district specific for like 5 hours.

And, you know, it was really important to me because it was the same sort of concept. It was big cities leaving little cities out, and we were debating it for 5 hours because I was asked to let it out with the understanding that they were going to fix it along the way. And it wasn't fixed.

It was voted on. And here, you know, so it's harder sometimes for me to give those courtesies now because I know it happened, and you all remember what that issue was, and it's not always equitable, and these small cities are always fighting bigger cities. Now, I won't dispute the fact that big cities need a lot of resources, and they have a lot more to contend with in terms of traffic and crowding. But I do want to encourage the author, and I think I heard the author say that this is not done.

I do want to acknowledge the sentiments which are very strong from our colleague from San Jose. You know, I have to hear him in the sense that I was in that situation a few years back and, and there was nothing I can do. It was, you know, the little guy fighting the big guy. And I know that San Jose is a big city, but, but you're trying to contend with how do we fix them, something that's going to be equitable.

So I will support this, but with the understanding that everyone's going to continue to sit down. And it really pains me to let it out when I'm not fully comfortable because of what happened to me. But I hope that in his closing I get assurance from the author that he will sit down with these folks that have concerns to continue to try and figure out if there's a path to be more inclusive. And with that, I'll just sit down and ask the author to consider that.

Thank you, Senator. At this point, to be able to come back together as a body, I think we need to do a Go Giants. Okay, we're going to turn it over to Senator Wiener for his close.

Thank you, Mr. President. Boy, isn't regional transportation funding politics fun? It is fun, but it's actually unbelievably important. And I think all the different views we've heard today, which I respect, although there were some inaccurate statements made, and I will need to correct the record, I don't ever mind people disagreeing with me on anything or fighting with me on anything. I do have an issue with inaccurate statements, and I'll get to that. But I want to be very, very clear what this is about. This is about the future of the Bay Area, the interconnected nine Bay Area counties that are interconnected, including BART.

Everyone loves beating up on BART, which runs all the way through Alameda County and San Francisco, six stops in San Mateo County, and is going to go all the way down to San Jose because we as a region have prioritized funding for BART to San Jose, which is an incredibly expensive project. Well, we have done that because Santa Clara County, like San Francisco and like Oakland and like Santa Rosa, is part of our integrated region, and we're all in this together. This is about people's ability to get around. People who have no choice.

And if they're not able to access transit because we have massive service cuts, they will not be able to get to work or get to school or get to the doctor. And people who have a choice, who might be willing to drive less if they're confident that they'll be able to get where they're going. That's what this is about, making sure that our systems continue to be able to serve people and get better and better and better. I do want to just point out a few inaccurate statements that were made just so people understand. First of all, 40%, 40% of these funds, almost half will be directly allocated through the MTC, but the MTC has no discretion to counties, just a check cut to the counties, what we call a subvention.

40% of these funds will have to be sent to the counties with no discretion by the MTC whatsoever. This does have a return to source. It starts at 70%, and it goes up to 90% after five years. And yes, that direct to source also includes, for example, if a county benefits from a multi-county transit system like BART. So San Francisco benefits from BART, Santa Clara County will be benefiting from it, or Caltrain, which runs through Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, San Francisco County. But there is a strong return to source.

It may not be exactly the kind of return to source that some people want, and that will be a continuing conversation. I also, I do want to just say to my colleague from Stockton, and just to be clear, colleagues, I want to just express this. Valley Link is eligible for funding under this measure. It is. Even though San Joaquin County will not be paying taxes under this. It's the nine Bay Area counties. Even though San Joaquin County will not be paying taxes, Valley Link is eligible because it's important for Valley Link to succeed.

And I want to stress that if BART has to make service cuts, that is terrible for Valley Link because Valley Link depends on connecting to BART. And so it's in everyone's interest to shore up these systems. And I also just want to say, this is not just about San Francisco. I know it's really easy to take potshots at San Francisco. This is about all of the counties. This money is going to go regionally everywhere. And taking a pot shot at San Francisco because it sells well, it's not accurate and it's not appropriate, and I take major issue with that.

So, colleagues, this is about the future public transportation in the Bay Area. I want us to be connected to the Central Valley, and there are projects underway to do that, and I support those. I respectfully ask for your aye vote. And of course, we will continue to work intensively with all stakeholders, including Santa Clara County. I just spoke to the Mayor of San Jose a couple days ago and will continue to do that work. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

All discussion and debate having ceased, Secretary, please call the roll on file item 21.

[Roll Call]

Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 26, noes 10. The measure passes. Members, we're going to return to privilege of the floor. We're going to recognize Senator Caballero. Senator, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President. Members, it gives me great pleasure to introduce UC Merced CAPE Legislative Fellows, who are participating in a week long legislative trading training program. They were accompanied today by their professors, Doctor Nate Monroe and former Assemblymember Adam Gray.

They had to leave, so I'm disappointed they didn't get a chance to be recognized prior to this. But if you could give them a big welcome, they'll see it on TV.

Welcome on behalf of the California State Senate. Now, Members, we're going to move to special consent calendar file item 36. Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 896, 899, 914, 926, 945, 965, 972, 978, 980, 1000, 1014, 1033, 1069, 1090, 1098, 1100, 1101, 1112, 1163, 1176, 1214, 1218, 1233, 1281, 1288, 1322, 1339, 1415, 1425, 1455, 1459, 1469, 1463, 1477.

Secretary, please call the roll on the consent calendar.

[Roll call]

Please call the absent Members.

[Roll call]

Ayes 38, noes 0. Special consent calendar is confirmed. Now, Members, we're going to move back to motions and resolutions. We want to recognize Senator Glazer. Senator Glazer, the floor is yours.

Mister President, Members, I'd like to move file item 19, SB 1494 to the inactive file.

The desk will note. Members, if there's no other business, the dust is clear. Members, at this time we will hear closing remarks from our minority leader and our President Pro Tem. Senator Jones, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mister President and Members. Congratulations on a great week. I think we've done a very good job this week on the bills that were bipartisan. I appreciate the great cooperation from the entire body. On the bills that weren't bipartisan, I appreciate the professional debate.

And as each one of us represent the 1 million people that each of us represent, I think we bring that passion, we bring that intelligence, we bring that emotional support for our, for our constituents to this floor. We debate honestly with integrity. And I appreciate being associated with each and every single one of you.

Regarding the week specifically, I want to thank Pro Tem McGuire and Majority Leader Gonzalez for their great leadership this week. The floor team from the Democrat caucus that did a great job keeping the trains running on time. Wait, that might have been a bad pun today. But keeping the Bill presentations going and members on point.

We've had an efficient and effective House of Origin deadlines because of the planning and execution of that team. I want to thank the entire staff, floor staff, Bernie, Erica, the entire team for everything that you've done this week to also help keep things moving.

This place wouldn't run without the many staffers that spend countless hours making the Senate run like a well oiled machine. We've had a lot of emotional debate this week, and I think that goes to show how much we care about the State of California and how much we care about our constituents.

And I hope that as we move forward to the other House with our bills and their bills, come over here, that the Senators will keep that same candor and professionalism as we move forward and look forward to a great end of session when we are wrapping up in August.

Now let's go home, enjoy our families for the weekend, and please remember all of those that have served us in our military and those that have gave the ultimate sacrifice for keeping our country free and that flag flying. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Senator Jones. Mister PT, the floor is yours.

Thank you so much, Mister President, and Leader Jones, we need that pie for breakfast more than ever this morning, so appreciate all the carbs this week. Members, as you know, along with the budget and at the end of session, the House of Origin deadline is one of the most important pillars of the legislative year.

In this esteemed body, Democrats and Republicans alike, we met the challenge head on with grace, some grit, and a touch of spicy debate, moving over 344 bills to the Assembly this week. The Senate, we are committed, committed as a body to tackle the state's toughest challenges and lift up the communities and the people we are so honored to be able to represent.

And in many cases, as the Republican leader said, we are doing this in a bipartisan manner, putting politics aside and putting the needs of the people of California first. We owe you, each of the Senators in these chambers, a heartfelt thank you for your tremendous work this week.

You've all put in long hours with a lot of pressure, and we're incredibly grateful for your commitment. And I want to say thank you to the many people who keep, as the Leader said, the trains running on time and the operation smooth. Of course, to the one, the only, Bernie McNulty and the entire desk team.

We love you, Bernie. You are the best. My goodness. Secretary Erica Contreras does yeoman's work each and every day. Thank you so much, Secretary Contreras. We want to say thank you to our Chief Sergeant Katrina Rodriguez and the Senate sergeants. We want to say absolutely to the Republican and the Democratic policy teams.

Can we please give them a round of applause? To Republican Leader Brian Jones, thank you. Grateful for the partnership. I know that we may not always agree, but what we focus in on putting the people first, and I'm grateful for the partnership, Mister Leader.

I want to say thank you so much to our majority leader, Senator Gonzalez, our assistant majority leaders, Ashby and Wahab, and the entire floor team. Can we please give them a round of applause and say thank you for moving us forward and keeping us on time and candidly, above schedule each and every week.

Thank you to Senate TV and the IT folks. And I also want to say thank you so much to the entire staff team and the pro tem shop in our floor unit led by Nicole Baruch. Nicole, we couldn't do what we do without you each and every day. And sporting the penguin theme today as well.

I'm going to end it right here so that everybody can catch a flight. I think we can all agree many times our jobs are about what's next. And what's next is a ton of work. We are immediately going to pivot to the Budget and some tough decisions ahead.

After that, we're going to be working our bills in the Assembly, and we welcome hundreds of Assembly bills into the Senate. So there's a lot more in front of us. But I wanted to stop and acknowledge your incredible work before we move on to what's next. Thank you. Safe travels.

We hope you get to spend time with friends and family this weekend and to be able to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that all of us can live in a thriving democracy and freedom. Until Tuesday, May 28. We hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend. That's when the next floor session will be. Mister President, I'll turn it back over to you.

Thank you, Mister President Pro Tem. The Senate will be in recess until 03:30 p.m. at which time an adjournment motion will be made. We will reconvene on Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 02:00 p.m.