Senate Floor

Secretary. We'll call the row.

[Roll Call]

A quorum is present. Would the Members and the guests beyond the railing please rise? We will be led tonight by. We will be led in prayer by our sister, Michelle Gorman, after which, please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance.

Let us gather in God's presence. Spirit of God, giver of life, as you care for all creation, give us your peace. May our security come not from weapons, but from respect. May our strength come not from violence, but from love. May our own wealth come not from money, but from sharing.

May our path be not one of ambition, but of justice. May our victory be one of forgiveness, so that, unarmed and confident, we will be moved and committed to defend the dignity of all peoples on behalf of all creation. May we share today and always the bread of solidarity and peace. Amen.

Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the.

Welcome to our night session, Senators. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to recognize one of our Senators who just earlier today earned California's highest honor, where she was awarded the Order of California award, Senator Susan Eggman, for her tenure and her advocacy. If we can acknowledge the great Senator from Stockton.

Messages from the Governor were deemed read and messages from the Assembly would be deemed read. Reports of Committee would be deemed read and amendments adopted. Here we go. Our bread and butter consideration of the daily file. We have items one through 20 on the second reading file. Secretary, please read

[Second Reading]

Second reading file will be deemed read. Senators, we are starting with supplemental file number one. That's going to be items 191, 192, 193, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, and 201. Senator Wiener is prepared for all items and will kick us off with item 191. Secretary, please read.

Assembly Bill 160 by the Assembly Committee on Budget enact relating to the Medi Cal and making an appropriation, therefore to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget

Senator Wiener, you may begin.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, this is the first in a series of bills that we'll be taking up this evening as part of the 20242025 budget package. Before we get to the first Bill, I just want to say a few words on the budget agreement. The budget agreement includes $293 billion in total spending, of which 211.5 billion is General Fund.

The budget is balanced in both 2024-2025 and the 2025-26 fiscal years and includes over $46.8 billion in solutions in 2024 to 25 due to more than a decade of responsible budgeting and Reserve policies, and despite the challenges of the current budget, the state will maintain a $22.2 billion combined Reserve for future years.

Highlights of the final budget package include increased funding for k 14 schools. The budget funds Prop 98 at $1.9 billion above the May revision, and a deposit of $1.1 billion into the public school system stabilization account. The budget restores proposed reductions to core programs, including CalWORKS, foster care and in home support services.

It retains over 11,000 already awarded additional childcare slots and reduces the governor's proposed one year delay for developmental disability services to a six month delay. It maintains funding for active transportation and public transportation and it reduces the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget by approximately $750 million.

It protects many climate related priorities such as offshore wind, building, decarbonization and energy reliability programs. It rejects the May revision proposal to permanently eliminate over 2.4 billion in annual new health care investments scheduled to take effect next January, and it provides $1 billion for the homeless housing and prevention program.

Round six this is a budget deal encompassed by all of the bills that we will be voting on tonight, of which we can be proud, and it includes real and lasting solutions to balance the budget through 2025-26 while protecting the progress that we've made to core programs that support all Californians.

And so the first Bill that we are voting on tonight is AB 160, which is the managed care organization tax trailer Bill. The Bill increases the tax on managed care organizations to draw down additional federal revenue and achieves offsetting savings to the state's General Fund.

Based on updated federal guidance, the Bill increases the per enrollee tax on Medi Cal managed care plans to achieve the maximum benefit to the state allowable by the Federal Government.

This modification to the MCO tax will result in an additional net General Fund benefit of approximately $1.77 billion in the coming fiscal year and $1.92 billion in the following fiscal year, followed by 1.44 billion in 2026-2027. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. Right now I'm looking for discussion or debate on file item 191, AB 160. I'm seeing Senator Niello, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. I'll just make some overall comments. As my colleague from San Francisco did. I do not intend to speak on every Bill. We had a robust Budget Committee hearing earlier today, had lots of good discussion about that. But let me just stress, this is the majority party's budget.

As Vice Chair of the Budget Committee, I learned of this deal on a Twitter post, excuse me, an X formerly known as Twitter Post. Over the weekend. I was not provided any details by the majority party of the budget deal that the Pro Tem, the speaker, and the Governor had worked out.

And as I've said before, because of that, this budget certainly reflects priorities, as my friend from San Francisco said. But it ignores priorities of 8 million residents of this state because none of my Republican colleagues were involved in the development of the budget.

Sure, we can talk about it as we did in Committee today, but not the development of it. Now, again, my friend from San Francisco talked about a decade of responsible budgeting. If we had a decade of responsible budgeting, we might not have had the significant deficit that we've experienced last year and this year.

And it's easy to say that part of that is because of dynamics in the last couple of years. But we had a couple of years of unsustainable increase in revenue, and it could have been easy enough to recognize that unsustainable increase.

Indeed, the Governor has labeled it as such since, and if more money had been deposited to the reserves, we would be in a much better position now. But we stuck to the constitutionally required minimum deficit. And as I've said before, the budget is balanced nominally, but it is not sustainable.

I know you will hear different from the other side, but you can mark my word, when the Governor goes to introduce his January 25 January proposal in 2025, he will be dealing with a higher deficit than we are thinking of now. I think we're assuming we're running into maybe a $10 billion problem in the next budget year.

It will be higher than that. We are forecasting too much money in revenue, significantly billions of dollars higher than the alleged analyst. Other details of this budget, as I say, are that make it not sustainable. I've discussed that before. I won't belabor the point, but I just want to stress this is the majority party's budget, not a Legislature's budget.

Senator Alvarado-Gil, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. As someone who is highly critical of taxes, I want to speak specifically to this Bill. I do support Assembly Bill 160, which would generate new funds through self imposed tax on healthcare providers. I want to make it clear that this is not a tax on the people.

It would help to maintain and grow our healthcare workforce. It will also make critical advancements to access and quality care, especially in rural communities such as Senate district four.

Thank you, Senator. Senator Dahle, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. Members, I did not speak today in budget, and I'm only going to speak hopefully once tonight. So I'm going to use this opportunity to speak about all the budget bills and the budget in General. So this is the 12th budget for my tenure and my last. I know my colleague that just got an esteemed award is her last budget as well. But I want to just start by maybe giving you a little bit of history of why I came to the Legislature.

I came because in 1929, my grandfather came to California during the Great Depression, a real depression, where people were standing in line looking for food and looking for a job. He came from Idaho. He was one of 12 kids and looked for a job.

He couldn't find any work in Los Angeles, but he ended up up north and found out that in Siskiyou county, they were giving out land grants to veterans. And he put his name in a pickle jar and they drew his name out and he got an 80 acre homestead in Siskiyou county in Tule Lake, California.

He paid his taxes for five years. He built a one room house on there and moved his family from Idaho out to California. And that started the Dahle farm 94 years ago here in California, a small business. And with his seven kids, my dad was the youngest of the seven, was able to pick up some land in Lassen County, where my wife and I were fortunate enough to buy that from. My mom and dad. And I run that small business today. It's a generational thing.

It's a farm that is organic, is a farm that is dealing with a lot of things that happen here in California. And when I was in the Assembly, I shared with the Assembly Members that California is unique to no other place. It is the greatest place on the planet. And why is that?

Because we have the Pacific Ocean, we have the Sierras. The storms come in, it dumps snow on the sierras, we have the fertile valley soils. It's the greatest farming place in the world. And we have the greatest people. We have entrepreneurs, and we have the gold rush, and we have movies, and we have the tech industry.

And there's nothing in just what the Governor said in his State of the state last night about how great California it is. Great. But I want to talk about the challenges as a small business. That's what I want to talk about in this budget.

Members, if you're a convenience store owner or you're a landscape company or you're a salon owner or you're a family farm or a small business like me, you're faced with a lot of really tough challenges. We had the 60 hours workweek for agriculture when I was in the Assembly.

They passed a law that said we cannot use that anymore. And I was called a slave owner because I have farm workers on my farm. There are no slaves in California. You have the right to leave your job anytime. And I want to thank my employees who are awesome, who work for me.

In business, you have to know that you have to have great employees. You're only as good as your employees are. But this Legislature tends to get in between me and my employees a lot. So I want to give that my talk on the small business in California is that are being affected by the Legislature.

I watched the State of the State last night and the Governor said that if you don't believe in his the policies that he puts out, that you're a hater of California. The word hate was in his speech. I actually printed it off and highlighted it in my home. When I was growing up, we couldn't use that word hate because hate is a strong word and I don't allow my kids to use that word because it is really strong.

And so I take offense to somebody calling somebody else hateful when they just disagree with some policies. Now I'd like to talk to the budget and what it happens to do to my small business. During the COVID crisis, California gave unemployment out and unemployment is paid into by employers for the workers.

So when they're unemployed, they actually get unemployment. But California didn't do a very good job. They had problems in 2008 when we had the first crisis, but we didn't fix those crisis.

And we put out billions of dollars to people in prison and people fraudulently got $18 to $20 billion worth of worth of unemployment benefits they didn't pay. This budget does one thing. It pays the interest to the Federal Government because we borrowed that money from the Federal Government.

And all of us who have employees, which I know there are two of at least on this floor, I know my good friend on my left here has employees and I have employees. We're going to pay that debt back. We didn't give the money to people in jail. We didn't cause the problem. That's something I hate.

I hate to have to pay for something that I didn't do this. Legislature passed a $20 minimum wage for fast food restaurants. And you might wonder, how does that impact my local farm? Well, because it sets the bar at $20. Why would you want to work for 15 or $18 an hour when you can work for 20 at a fast food restaurant? So it moves it up for everybody that impacts small businesses in California. This budget also takes away the net operating loss really critical for agriculture. Why?

Because we have swings when the rains come or don't come, when the commodity markets are up and down. Some years we make, some years we don't. And we're able to smooth that net operating loss over time. That's a deduction that I don't have now. So it's a tax on my business to the tune of $15 billion.

It's going to cost California businesses. We have the California Air Resources Board regulating, enforcing businesses to transition to electric vehicles, taxes, fees, insurance, liability reporting and just General cost. And I brought up Members in the last time when we did the two party deal about the businesses that are leaving California.

See, I'm not going to leave even no matter how hard it is to run a business here. My grandfather picked, got a piece of land. I had the opportunity to live in one of the greatest states in the nation. And I'm not going to leave my kids on the hook, nor yours.

The next generation needs some stability when it comes to business. Businesses pay the taxes before you can do anything else in government. I love California and I just would hope that someday this Legislature would take a look at the small businesses. We're out there. We're struggling. We don't have a giant lobby to lobby. We're not unionized.

Nobody really represents me in this Legislature but me. I hear from my neighbors all the time that just want to stay on their farms. And I just want to say, you know, in closing, that I've been trying to always try to talk to the issues and never make it personal. It's one of my goals is to share the story because at the end of the day, it's just what we heard about, you know, Speaker Willie Brown. Politics is about relationships. So this is my last budget and I just want to remind folks that I am standing up and I am pushing back.

Doesn't mean that I hate California or that I'm slamming California. It means that I want to stay here and I want my kids, your kids and the next generation to have an opportunity to, to have that small business here in California. So I just want to close with saying, cut us some slack. Help us out.

Regulations and things that happen in this Legislature hurt, and it hurts the next generation. So for those reasons, I won't be voting. I'm going to be voting no on most of these budgets. But there is a couple I'm going to vote for. But I just want to. I want to tell the story because California is an awesome state. We just need to. We need to take a look at what we're doing to businesses because they're the backbone and the small business especially.

Thank you, Members, for enduring this talk with me, and it's been a pleasure to work on 12 budgets with you over the time.

Thank you, Senator Dahle. See no other discussion. Senator Wiener, you may close.

Thank you very much. I will just point out that well funded public schools and colleges, foster care in home support services for seniors and people with disabilities, and great, well invested transportation systems benefit both Democrats and Republicans. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 31, 8 noes measure passes. Moving on to file item 182, AB 161. Senator Wiener, Secretary, please read Assembly Bill.

161 by the Assembly Committee on Budget an act relating to human Services and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Madam President and colleagues. AB 161 is the human Services trailer Bill. It enacts the budget agreement to implement a permanent foster care rate structure, effective July 1, 2027. Foster care payments will be based on the child's needs and follow the child, not the placement.

This includes funding that will allow children in foster care to participate in extracurricular activities in the Calfresh program. The Bill establishes a state emergency Food Bank Reserve, extends the Calfresh Safe Drinking water pilot program, and codifies federal rules about replacing stolen food benefits in the CalWORKS program.

The Bill implements the budget agreement to hold intensive caseworker hours flat, requires reporting on the subsidized employment program, and requires the state to apply for a new federal pilot opportunity to measure outcomes of family well being. The Bill also makes other conforming and technical changes to align with the Human Services budget. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Discussion or debate? I am seeing none. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 39 no zero. Measure passes. Moving on to fire item 193. AB 162. Secretary, please read

Assembly Bill 162 by the Assembly Committee on Budget and accumulating to Developmental Services and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Senator Wiener.

Thank you very much, Madam President. Colleagues. AB 162 is the Developmental Services trailer Bill. It enacts the budget agreement to move the final phase of Developmental Services rate reform to January 1, 2025.

It codifies the master plan for Developmental Services and requires the California Health and Human Services Agency and the Department of Developmental Services to report to the Legislature on the master plan recommendations. It extends the option for families served by Regional Centers to hold their individual program plan meetings remotely subject to additional meeting parameters.

It allows infants and toddlers receiving early intervention to be concurrently assessed for provisional eligibility for Regional Center services. It requires Regional Centers to expand access to social recreation. It repeals Regional Center family fees and makes other technical and conforming changes. I ask for an aye vote.

Senator Grove, you're recognized.

Colleagues were getting a little too loud. A little too loud. Thank you, Madam Chair. Colleagues, I rise in opposition to this Bill. AB 162. I realize that there's always a negotiation when you come to a budget period. And I realize it's only between the Democrats in one party in this house and one party in the other house and the Governor. But there's no way we should negotiate the developmentally disabled benefits or their rate increases. It was said today in Committee, they were like, they're counting down the days, right?

We're going to be able to get that rate increase so that we can provide these services to our most vulnerable Members of society. And then we just rip it out from underneath it. Or you guys just rip it out from underneath them. Because it's not. It's just not right. There's a lot of ways we could cut this budget. It was not a substantial amount of money compared to some of the things that we have funded in this budget. And so.

And I know the budget sub three chair fought really, really hard, and she understands that there's negotiations that have to take place, but the volatility that we have placed on the most vulnerable Members of our society that are the developmentally delayed or developmentally disabled individuals is just heart wrenching.

And to see them come in and advocate for things that make their life better and make their life more whole that the state should provide to them be ripped out from underneath. And there are, like I said, a few good things in this Bill, like the budget chair said, but I don't think we should balance this budget on the backs of those that are the most vulnerable Members of our society. Respectfully ask for a no vote.

Senator Wiener, you may close.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Please call the absent Members Ayes 31 no zero. Measure passes. Moving on to file item 186. AB 166. Secretary, please read. No, it was Ayes 31 no seven yes. Measure passes. Secretary, please read file item 196 AB 166. Secretary, please read

Assembly Bill 166 by the Assembly Committee on Budget enact relating to housing and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Thank you, Madam President, colleagues, AB 166 is the housing trailer Bill. This budget reflects the recognition of two fundamental facts about state spending on homelessness. First, the homelessness crisis continues. So this budget, like the last three budgets, includes $1 billion for the homeless housing assistance and prevention, or HAPP, program, as well as new investments in encampment resolution.

Second, of course, no amount of money will be enough to achieve our goals if it is not spent efficiently and effectively. Accordingly, the trailer Bill before you includes not just greater accountability for how state dollars are spent, but also new mechanisms for tracking performance and requiring improvement.

Specifically, the Bill before you limits the amount that HCD may take from Proposition one for administrative costs to 3% of the bond proceeds allocated to HCD programs. It directs the Housing and finance agency to develop options for the future of the California Dream for all shared appreciation loan program. And it provides direction to HCD on implementation of adjustments to the regional early action planning grants. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Senator Nguyen, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As California homelessness crisis continues to grow, yet we continue to put more money at a problem that we just can't seem to be able to get a handle on. We can continue to add hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of more dollars that we've already spent over $24 billion in the last several years, but yet we haven't seen any tangible result. And all we've seen across the State of California is the homelessness crisis. Numbers continue to grow.

There's more and more tents in front of schools, more and more tents in front of parks, more people living on their streets, more people are living in their cars. It's heartbreaking and the desperation from these individuals. We need to help them, and we need to find a way that is actually tangible.

If we continue to keep on throwing money into a system that isn't working, when do we stop? When will we say, wait a minute, that program's not working. Let's find something else. If there's a program that works, let's put more money into it. But if it's not working, it's time to pull the plug and find a result, because we owe it to these individuals. They need to be housed. They need the help, and we need to help them.

A recent release report by the California State Auditor found that the state has failed to track or report the funding for homelessness programs. This audit confirms that what we know we're throwing money at a problem, but we are not seeing the results, and we're not asking for accountability to the counties or the cities.

This Bill doesn't create policies to help local governments and jurisdiction who are making these progress. There are no metrics and no way to measure true success. For me, true success is when we see less people on the street, when we and each of us drive in our district, less people on the street, less tents around.

That's when I believe that it is working. For that, I'm asking for your consideration to. We have to figure out a solution, a solution to put money into somewhere that will work. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator. Seeing no further discussion. Senator Wiener, you may close.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 31, no. Six measure passes, moving on to fire item 187, AB 168. Secretary, please read.

Assembly Bill 168 by the Assembly Committee on Budget enact relating to public safety and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Senators getting loud again. Thank you, Senator Wiener.

Thank you, madam President and colleagues. AP 168 is the public safety trailer Bill. The Bill stabilizes funding for the Community corrections performance Incentive grant. It clarifies processes around record relief available through the Department of Justice, removes obsolete references to closed prisons, and makes other statutory changes necessary to implement the Budget act. I ask for an aye vote.

Senator Wahab, you're recognized.

We are also focused on closing the loop by investing in reentry services, specifically substance abuse treatment and medical care, so that people returning home from prison have higher success rates and are less likely to commit new crimes. We also maintain $85 million in the budget year for local law enforcement agencies to combat retail theft, in addition to protecting funding for statewide enforcement and coordination at the Department of Justice.

While our goal is to invest in programs that prevent crimes from occurring in the first place, we are also committed to providing law enforcement with the resources they need to address crime as it happens. 10 years ago, CDCR's budget was $9.3 billion, with a population over a 135,000.

Today, CDCR's budget is 15 billion, with a population of around 92,000. And this population is projected to continue to drop by 86,000 by 2028. There's a lot of misinformation in regards to public safety and what the State of California is doing, but I want to be very specific. We are holding the line in regards to our public safety efforts. More specifically, this budget maintains over $150 million in funding to support survivors of crime.

In light of a federal reduction, we have stepped in to fill the gap by investing over 103 million, let me say that one more time, $103 million to support services such as rapid rehousing and crisis centers and response for survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault and other crime victims.

We have also maintained $50 million for flexible assistance to survivors. We have maintained our common sense budget investments against gun violence by preserving firearm relinquishment programs in our courts in order to disarm individuals who pose a danger to those around them, consistent with last week's United States Supreme Court decision.

Because we know the presence of a firearm in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500%, we have invested in additional resources to address complaints again about staff, and we are also focused on doing much more.

And all of this taken together, these investments in law enforcement, reentry services, gun violence reduction, and support of survivors is exactly what public safety means, a comprehensive and balanced approach to public safety, one that includes both prevention and enforcement. And I'm happy to support this budget package. Thank you.

Seeing no further discussion, Senator Wiener, you may close

Respectfully ask for an I vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 31 noes eight measure passes now on file item 198 AB 169.

Assembly Bill 169 by the Assembly Committee on Budget enact relating to juveniles and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget

Thank you, Madam President, colleagues, AB 169 is the public safety juvenile justice trailer Bill. The Bill makes various changes reflecting the closure of the division of juvenile justice and the realignment of juvenile supervision to the counties, including implementing a statutory requirement to shift all juvenile justice grants from the Board of State and Community Corrections to the Office of Youth and Community Restoration, requiring counties to report specified juvenile data and making other statutory changes necessary to implement the Budget Act. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

See no microphones up. Secretary, please call the row.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 32, no zero measure passes. File item 199. AB 170 is up. Secretary, please read

Assembly Bill 170 by the Assembly Committee on Budget enacting the courts and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget

Senator Wiener, the show is still yours.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, AB 170 is the quartz trailer Bill. The Bill enables the habeas Corpus Resource center to provide continuing representation for individuals who are sentenced to life without parole. It extends specified remote court proceedings until January 12027.

And makes other statutory changes necessary to implement the Budget act and support the operations of the court. Respectfully asked for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

measure passes. File item 200. We're on AB 171. Secretary, please read

Assembly Bill 171 by. The Assembly Committee on Budget and act relating to employment and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Senator Wiener, you may proceed.

Thank you, Madam President and colleagues. AB 171 is the labor and employment trailer Bill. It revises timelines for the expenditure and obligation of the California Jobs first program, economic development grants. It streamlines processes at the Department of Industrial Relations in order to address staffing emergencies that have resulted in challenges to the enforcement of state labor laws.

And it includes $337 million from the General Fund for a Prop two supplemental pension payment that will go towards the state's unfunded liability to CalPERS. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

See no microphones up. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

I 31 no. Seven measure passes. The last item on our supplemental file number one is file item 201, AB 173. Secretary, please read.

Assembly Bill 173 by. The Assembly Committee on Budget enact relating to transportation and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Thank you, madam. President and colleagues. AB 173 is the transportation trailer Bill. It requires the Secretary of transportation to prioritize funding grade separation projects that were previously awarded funding and existing state transportation programs. It clarifies the statutes concerning the Office of Inspector General at the High Speed Rail Authority, including specifying the IG's duties and responsibilities regarding contractors and defining, quote unquote, personnel issues.

It requires the Department of Transportation to annually report to the Legislature regarding the zero emission vehicles that the Department purchases, owns or leases, and it revises the determinations a law enforcement agency must make in order to request an ebony alert and specifies the CHP's role in assisting agencies and activating the alert. I ask for an aye vote.

I'm seeing no discussion or debate. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes. 31 noes eight. The measure passes. Good news and bad news, Senators. The good news is we don't have to wait. We have the supplemental file ready to go.

The bad news is you get no break, so we're pushing through Senate supplemental file number two are going to be file items 2042055206207208209210211 and 212. We're going to start off 204 in our Wiener. Drink some water. You ready, secretary, please read.

File item 204.

Yeah, slide it through.

Senate Bill 108 by Senator Wiener in acquiring to the state budget and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately, budget bill.

Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Madam President and colleagues. SB 108 is the budget Bill Junior, which amends AB 107 that we recently passed to reflect the final budget agreement between the Legislature and the Governor. As I described earlier in the presentation, this budget is a balanced budget that protects so many of the priorities of the State of California, and I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Senator Bradford, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. I rise as Vice Chair of the legislative Black Caucus in strong support of AB 108. We often say our budget is a reflection of our values and our priorities. And conversely, if something is left out of the budget, then it doesn't exist. Or does it even really matter?

That's why I'm proud to speak in support of AB 108, because it includes important funding for reparations. We are the first state in the nation to take such bold action. Though the 12 million doesn't even come close to addressing the harms of slavery, it is an earnest start, and we have to applaud and recognize that although more was wanted and will be needed in the future, I'm deeply appreciative of this initial investment.

Even in these tough fiscal times, this funding is a clear reflection of our priorities and values as a state. This money will start to stand up the infrastructure to pay for future reparations. We, as the California Legislative Black Caucus, continue to make the case that the harms of slavery and racist public policies are not healed.

They exist today and impact us on a daily basis. We see it all around us in lower homeownership rates, educational underachievement, health disparities, and significant wealth gap. I look forward to working with our legislative leaders and the Governor to implement reparations here in California.

Again, this budget reflects that reparations do matter and will be a priority for the State of California in this year and going forward. This is just the beginning. I urge an aye vote.

Senator Becker, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Friends, I just wanted to rise as Chair of Budget Sub two to talk for a few minutes about the progress that we've been able to achieve and maintain with this budget. This is my fourth year here.

Of course, this is the most difficult budget, and as long as we're relying on income tax and capital gains, unlike other states, we will continue to have these fluctuations. I'm just really proud of our Senate, led by our PT and our Budget Chair for the work that we did. I want to talk about a few things.

People thought we would have to take a step back on climate, but with the progress we've made over the last few years, I wanted to share a few pieces of information. Number one, clean energy exceeded 100% of demand in the middle of the day for 69 days in a row.

This year it was only a couple years ago we did that for the first time. We did 69 days in a row. We've increased clean energy resources procurement, increased grid reliability, and we have shrunk the probability of blackouts. We've increased battery storage by 1200 percent since I've started to over 10,000 mw.

By my calculation, that's more than the 10 next largest states combined in terms of battery storage. We've doubled the sale of new zero emission medium and heavy duty vehicles. We've exceeded 100,000 public chargers and 500,000 at home chargers. We've conserved or restored nearly 1 million acres of natural land and increased urban tree canopies by 200,000 trees.

This budget contains $30 million for a first in the nation air quality management system. So we will be able to better target where we need to be protecting environmental justice communities. It protects small farms.

We restored money for a small farm program and also protects our ag ecosystem with money protecting from invasive fruit flies or other climate emergencies by restoring 17 million and expanding program relief for all climate impacts.

I wanted to talk for a moment about wildfire because this year we really built on the comprehensive plan that we've had around prevention, started by my predecessor, Senator Wykowski, really focusing on prevention and then early detection and suppression.

We've built the largest aerial firefighting force in the world, 69 vehicles able to respond to any wildfire within 20 minutes. That's why even though we actually had more fires the last couple years, we actually got to them earlier and we're able to put them out earlier with obviously much less damage.

We've allocated over 3.7 billion for forest treatment to reduce hazardous fuels. And this year we finally reduced the CAL FIRE firefighter workweek to 66 hours. Further, this budget invests in novel technologies, including lidar technology out of Scripps and UCSD to finish mapping are forests that will really help us going forward?

And again, this is part of, I think, of a comprehensive plan and we're starting to see that payoff. Although we're still of course going to have a few difficult years ahead. I just wanted to share one last piece about area not in sub two, but just sometimes it's hard to think about how does what we do here affect people back at home?

And there's a woman I know, I served on the Child Care Partnerships Council in San Mateo county, and I check in with her every once in a while. She runs a large state subsidized program in my district. And while we didn't go as far on slots, certainly as we wanted in childcare, I checked with her because when I started in 21, her teachers were making $17.50 an hour in probably one of the most expensive areas in the state, $17.50 an hour.

And after what we did in rate reform my very first year, I checked with her after that year, and they were making $23 an hour, a 27% increase, still not great for our area, but a substantial increase. I checked with her yesterday, and they're now making dollar 28 an hour starting salary, but with also much better health benefits. That starting salary before bachelor's and masters, much better health benefits.

First ever retirement program that we started a few years ago, first in the nation retirement program for child care workers, and they get 100% reimbursement for a bachelor's degree and in some cases a master's degree.

So this is allowing, for the first time in my area, stabilization and allowing us to recruit and retain childcare workers and let them take care of the workforce that we need now going forward for the future. So I just thank everyone for their efforts. I could go on on about education and other areas that my colleagues led. I'm just grateful to all of you and proud to support this budget here today. Thank you.

I'd like to now recognize our pro tem.

Thank you so much, Madam President and colleagues. I rise in support of the budget plan that is in front of us here today. I want to say thank you to our budget chair, to our budget Vice Chair, to the Budget Committee Members, and our budget sub chairs for the amazing work that they have done over the past many months.

And it's taken a lot of work to be able to get this far and to be able to get this budget across the finish line. And I know that we've heard this a million times over the past several months, that this was going to be a tough budget, and it was. And that's why it makes this budget even more important, because we know that every dollar, every dollar had to be carefully considered. And our focus this year has been to be able to protect the progress of core programs and our kids in education.

In this budget, we have a record amount of funding for our public schools and kids. $1.9 billion more than what we saw in the May Revision just in 2015. Members. California was dead last in the nation in poor people funding for public schools simply unacceptable.

The Golden State has some of the most prestigious and influential public colleges and universities in the world. We're investing an additional $258 million for the UC and 240 million for the CSU system. And we're restored full funding for the middle class scholarship Fund. We're keeping Californians healthy and with greater access to medical and dental care.

And one of the most visible and acute crises in our state. Homelessness. No matter if you live in Crescent City or Encino, we're funding impactful programs that will help big cities and small with over $1.0 billion in the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention grant program, we're investing in keeping our communities safe.

Local law enforcement will receive $85 million, a crackdown on retail theft and $80 million in grants to help nonprofits targeted with hate motivated violence and hate crimes. And what we just heard from our esteemed chair of budget sub two wildfires. Wildfires is one of the greatest challenges that we see in this state.

Nearly 3,000 new CAL FIRE firefighters will be hired between now and 2029 thanks to the hard work of this Senate, the Assembly and the commitment by the Governor. Now, again, this has been tough and there's a lot more work to do. But I also want to take a moment to recognize the Golden State.

There's a lot said about California these days, but here's what we know. We are seeing our economy turn around. Over 3.2 million jobs recovered since 2020. We're the fifth largest economy in the world. The largest tourism year in our state's history is this year.

We're number one in the nation for new business starts, number one in the nation for access to venture capital funding, and we're the number one state for manufacturing, high tech and agriculture. And we're even home to the oldest known giant sequoia in the world. So eat your heart out.

So we're keeping our heads held high, knowing that we're doing what we do best for nearly 40 million folks. And no matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican or no party preference, you're going to benefit from this budget because it puts people first.

And I want to say thank you to the Republicans and Democrats on the Budget Committee because we've had more than 100 public legislative hearings on the budget over the last few months between the Senate and our partners in the Assembly. I'm going to wrap it up right here and say this.

This budget is responsible, methodical, and it's deserving of our support. And I want to say one more thank you. Thank you to our budget chair. I want to say thank you to our budget Vice Chair.

To the budget sub chairs, the Budget Committee Members, and, of course, this body for moving moving this budget forward would respectfully ask for, an aye vote.

Thank You, Mister Pro Tem, Senator Wiener, please close us out.

Thank you, Madam President. I respectfully ask for an aye vote .

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 31, noes 8. Assembly amendments are concurred in moving on to file item 205.

Secretary, please read

Senate Bill 109 by Senator Wiener. an act relating to the state budget and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Budget Bill,

Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues. SB 109 is a budget Bill junior that amends the 2023 Budget act to reflect the final budget agreement reached between the Administration and the Legislature.

The Bill provides almost $3 billion in General Fund and almost $600 million in greenhouse gas reduction funds for the competitive and Formula Transit program and intercity rail capital program. It provides over $424 million in GGRF for a variety of zero emission vehicles, clean transportation and other energy related programs.

At the California Energy Commission, it restores $109 million for workforce programs administered by the Department of Healthcare Access and Information. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 31. Noes five Assembly amendments are concurred in file item 206. Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 153 by. The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal review enact relating to education finance and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues SB 153 is the k through 12 education omnibus trailer Bill. The Bill authorizes the actions needed to protect overall funding for Prop 98 and provides a 1.07% cost of living adjustment across various programs.

It protects school staff from being laid off in the upcoming school year and it makes statutory changes to support additional drawdowns of federal funds to continue implementation of the universal school meals program. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ares 31, noes 7. Assembly amendments are concurred in file item 207.

Senate Bill 155 by. The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review and accurately to post secondary education and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, SB 155 is the higher education trailer Bill. It establishes the rebuilding Nursing Infrastructure grant program to expand nursing programs and partnerships through the community college system and to help educate and maintain the next generation of registered nurses.

It details the financing structure for a statewide lease revenue bond program to support the construction of 30 community college affordable student housing facilities. These projects were selected as a part of the Higher Education Student Housing grant program in the Budget Acts of 2022 and 2023.

It provides students who are returning and continuing their education with additional time to submit a free application for federal student aid, making them eligible for the middle class scholarship in 2024-2025. We respectfully asked for and aye vote

Seeing no mics up. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 39 no, zero. The Assembly amendments are concurred in file item 208.

Senate Bill 156 by. The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review enact relating to public resources and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, SB 156 is the resources trailer Bill. It indefinitely extends the Department of Park and recreation's adventure pass program for fourth graders. It requires CAL FIRE to provide an annual report on the department's wildfire prevention and resilience work.

It clarifies the type of projects and actions that may be exempted from paying the Department of Toxic Substance Controls generation and handling fee provides DTSC with emergency rulemaking authority to ensure that fee payers are paying what they owe under existing law. Going forward.

The Bill allows the state to collect unpaid fees from prior years, but does not add any new fees, nor does it require any additional reporting or payment by entities that have paid what they owed in prior years. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 31, No Seven Assembly amendments were concurred in, moving on to file item 209.

Senate Bill 163 by. The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal review inaccurate to early learning and childcare and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Senator Wiener? Almost done.

Thank you, Madam President. You're doing a great job. By the way, colleagues, SB 163 is the early care and education trailer Bill. It codifies the plan to Fund over 200,000 new subsidized childcare slots above 2020 levels. The final budget agreement rejected the proposal to pull back over 11,000 slots offered this spring.

With those slots restored, we will have filled approximately 130,000 new slots. The trailer Bill lays out the plan to resume the slot expansion and reach 200,000 slots by 2028-2029. The Bill enacts a timeline and reporting requirements for the establishment of a new single rate structure for child care reimbursement to occur as part of the 2025 budget.

The trailer Bill also establishes that the current childcare rates, inclusive of increased increases achieved in last year's budget, are a floor for future rate setting. The Bill streamlines the application process for current childcare and preschool contractors to expand subsidized slots. It specifies that state preschool classrooms must maintain 5% of enrollment for students with disabilities.

It authorizes the enrollment of two year olds in the California State preschool program through July 2027, and it makes other technical and conforming changes. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Senator Skinner, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. Members, I stand in support of this, and I want to express my appreciation for this. The budget coming together on this item, the Women's Caucus, which I chair, has long made accessible and affordable early care and education for our children, zero to five, a priority for over a decade, and the last couple of budgets, we were able to secure historic investments in that and have come a long way towards achieving it.

We've also come a long way securing good jobs for our child care workers, and we are the first state in the country to now offer our child care workers a retirement benefit. So with this budget item, we are ensuring that good pay for our child care workers.

We are ensuring that families that need some help to pay for that childcare get those subsidized slots, and that our preschools and others are supported appropriately. And while we're not yet at universal early care and education for zero to five, we are getting closer. And with that, I'm very thankful, appreciative, and ask for your aye vote.

Nothing further. Senator Wiener, please close.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 31, no Six. Assembly amendments are concurred in. We have three more items on our supplement to file number two. Secretary, please read file item 210.

Senate Bill 164 by the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review and accumulating to the state government and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately.

Bill related to the budget Senator Wiener, please begin.

Thank you, Madam President, colleagues, SB 164 is the state government trailer Bill. The Bill increases licensing, examination, and various other fees administered by the Department of Real Estate.

It requires the Office of Broadband and Digital literacy to prioritize last mile connections to unserved and underserved locations as part of the development of the statewide middle mileage broadband network and for Caltrans to prioritize construction of middle mile segments with last mile project grant awards, it increases the controlled substances utilization review and evaluation system cures that increases that fee from $9 to $15 starting April 12025.

In order to right size the costs for the Department of Justice to administer the program, it reorganizes the Office of Planning and Research, OPR through the following actions. It establishes the governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement.

It moves California volunteers, the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, and the Youth Empowerment Commission from OPR to this new office. It moves the California Jobs first program and the Zero Emission vehicle program from OPR to the governor's Office of Business and Economic Development.

It moves the California initiative to advance precision medicine to the Health and Human Services Agency. It extends the deadline for the Racial Equity Commission to develop a racial equity framework from April 12025 to December 12025 requires a State Auditor to conduct an audit of the County of Mendocino that includes an audit of any potential waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, the county's Administration of elections in 2024, and contracting and procurement processes by January 1, 2026. I ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

31 knows a. Assembly amendments are concurred in homestretch, Senators. These are the last two items. File item 211.

Senate Bill 174 by. Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review an act relating to public resources and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

Senator Wiener, the microphone gave up on you, Senator. There we go.

I think it's on there. Okay. Thank you, Madam President. I did wear it out. Colleagues, SB 174 is the resources CEQA trailer Bill. It extends the CEQA exemption for climate and biodiversity projects by five years to 2030.

It exempts the work performed under the state Capitol Building Annex act of 2016 from CEQA, and it appropriates a total of $700 million from the General Fund, spread over three fiscal years, to Fund the acquisition, design, construction, and equipping of projects authorized by the Annex act, and requires the amount appropriated in each fiscal year to be transferred to the state project infrastructure Fund. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 32 no 7, Assembly amendments are concurred in. Here we go. File item 212. Last item. Secretary, please read file item 212. They don't want us to leave. Senators, give us a minute.

Senate Bill 175 by the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review an act relating to taxation and making an appropriation, therefore, to take effect immediately. Bill related to the budget.

All right, Senator Wiener, your last one.

Thank you very much, Madam President. Colleagues, SB 175 is the taxation trailer Bill. The Bill was SB 167 was passed by the Legislature on June 13 of this year and limited tax credits for taxable years 2024, 25 and 26. SB 167 further included intent language for the Legislature to enact legislation allowing eligible taxpayers to receive a refund of the credits they would have otherwise used to reduce tax liability during the limitation time period.

This Bill specifies the details of tax credit refundability relating to the business tax credit limitation, thereby fulfilling the commitment that we made in SB 167. Specifically, the Bill allows taxpayers subject to the business tax credit limitation to elect to convert the amount of unused allowable tax credits into 24, 25, 26 taxable years to refundable credits that can be claimed over a five year period beginning the third taxable year after the election is made.

It includes a trigger to allow the NOL suspension and tax credit limitation to be turned off through the annual budget process if the state has sufficient revenues and it makes a variety of other technical changes. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

No final thoughts. Item is eligible for unanimous roll call. Just kidding. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 30 no. Seven Assembly amendments are concurred in. We're going to pause. Senators, early Christmas gift. You are getting an hour and a half back of your time. If there is no other business. Senator McGuire, the desk is clear.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, fantastic work. And as a parting gift, we'll be here till 03:00 tomorrow. So we'll just a reminder, Members, we'll have votes tomorrow starting around 09:00 a.m. ish. Going to about 03:00 p.m. ish and greatly appreciate all of the work.

And just one last time, and I don't mean to continue to say this, but I want to say thank you. I know that there are differences at times between the Members who are on this floor. But one thing that unites us is putting the people of California first.

And I want to say thank you again to our Budget Committee, our budget chair, our Vice Chair. And can we please give a round of applause to our budget staff, both Republican and democratic Members? Thank you for the incredible work. We are truly appreciative. Next floor session will be Thursday, June 27, at 09:00 a.m. ish.

The Senate is now adjourned. We will reconvene Thursday, June 27, at 09:00 a.m.