Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration and General Government

The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Subcommittee for State Administration and General Government will begin in sixty seconds. The Senate budget and fiscal review subcommittee four will come to order. We are holding our committee hearing here in Room, 113. I ask all members of the committee be present in Room 113. And at this point, I would like to thank my fellow subcommittee members for their service.

This is our eleventh subcommittee hearing. We have ordered a broad range of issues over the last over the past several months. While all while our votes here today reflect those within the purview of this subcommittee, they reflect just a portion of the actions that make up the Senate Democrats budget package.

Notable actions before us include significant investments in affordable rental and homeownership programs, full funding for round seven and eight of the homeless housing assistance and prevention program to sustain the momentum we have finally achieved on reducing rates of unsheltered homelessness, promotion of the California economy, including extension of our state's flagship Cal Competes tax credit program to attract and retain jobs and investment in key California economic sectors, adopting new revenue solutions and other oversight related actions, including creating greater efficiency in the Department of General Services procurement processes through statutory changes, continuation funding for programs safeguarding consumer safety and financial regulation of the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, and funding for various programs focused on information technology, resilience, and increased data security.

Before we proceed to public comment, I would like to offer colleagues any comment.

Okay. Senator Smallwood-Cuevas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I know we have a lot of work to do, so I won't belabor the points. But I just want to say that this has been a very difficult budget session, cycle this year. And we had a lot to comment on early on in our, process with a number of departments asking for information, wanting to make sure that we had all that we needed to make the decisions that we needed to make.

We did not get a lot of the information that was requested.

We under I understand the importance of us doing the work to get this budget passed, and to make sure that we get services to our constituents. But we've got to do something about how information is relayed back to us as a committee. It is not acceptable that we didn't receive. I would say half of the things that I requested, we did not get. My office did not hear back from those departments.

So I just I wanna just point out that I'm I'm I'm supporting and and will be voting on a number of the items, but that really does concern me. The other point I wanted to raise is that, resources for Expo Park in this budget, which is very concerning to me. We will have 15,000,000 visitors from around the world coming, and this is a park that has been under invested in for many, many years. We want to make sure that people are safe.

We wanna make sure they're protected.

We also wanna protect the state from liability, so I think it's it's important that we revisit that, and that brings me to the investment in our arts program. Another area where we have not made significant investments, and we know that the Trump administration has targeted many of our arts and culture programs because they do lift up diversity and the richness of the diversity of California, and they have been targeted because of that.

The state needs to step up, so that those cultural districts are invested in, and particularly those that are near Olympic venues. We want to make sure that those small arts businesses are able to fully participate. And again, have some opportunity to scale up, as we are going to welcome the world, to to California.

So, I just wanted to share those concerns. I know we have a lot of work to do, but I appreciate you giving me some time to to to make those comments.

Senator Cabaldon.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, as we're at this at this stage of this next stage of the budget process, obviously, this is not the end. It is the the important milestone of the Senate, making Rio the foundation for the future budget plan that we released earlier in the cycle, which was one of the most transparent but also values based plans.

And I'm proud of the center for doing so to try to center the issues and the consideration of the budget around the key priorities and and certainly with it for our subcommittee, the investments that are that we're gonna be considering today in the housing programs, in particular, in the homelessness programs.

I wanna thank the Chair for her leadership both in the subcommittee and then in addition to our 11 hearings, knowing that she and the other subcommittee chairs have done an enormous amount of work, at least not maybe not unprecedented, but not unprecedented recently as a former subcommittee chair.

Just the amount of effort to make sure that, the budget is right and that the details in particular are paid attention to has been really important. Also, I want to just acknowledge LAO and the Department of Finance and the staff of this subcommittee and in both caucuses that have done really outstanding work to make this all real as well. There's just a million moving parts as we're going to vote on 150 items today.

And over those 11 hearings for forty hours of of consideration of just this one slice of the budget, the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who've actually taken the time to come in to to Sacramento to testify before the subcommittee and thousands of others that have communicated through the Senate's various communications channels.

It's been a high amount of engagement in this process, and that is that's reflected in the actions that we'll be considering today.

And so thank you to everybody that has taken the time to participate. Thanks also. I appreciate the the executive branch agencies who have responded when, either here or following up as Senator Smallwood-Cuevas noted. And the subcommittee very appropriately asks hard questions and digs into the details, and that's our job. And it has an extraordinary scope of of responsibilities, but and sometimes those can get heated.

But I also appreciate both the that administration officials that have been before us, especially the agency heads, have also have been have been re responsive. They've been professional, and we look forward to continue to to correcting some of the follow-up issues that have been raised by my colleagues.

But this process that wouldn't work without the appropriate oversight that we conduct, but also the appropriate work that the agencies do in order to be responsive and help us build the budget that is our constitutional mandate. So thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Mister Vice Chair, do you have any public any comments before we No. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Alright. At this moment, we'll go ahead and establish a quorum.

[Roll Call]

Okay. We're all here. Quorum established. Okay. So due to constraints regarding length of, hearing committee Chairs may we may institute time limits today on testimony.

I'm asking that each member of the public providing comment keep their marks to within one minute. We will now open up public comment to all issues on the agenda. Those members of the public wishing to comment, please come forward and form a line at the microphone, and we will proceed.

Good morning. Justin Garrett with the California State Association of Counties. Just wanna express our sincere gratitude to the subcommittee for fully funding the HAPP program at a billion dollars, as well as the commitment to get the funding distributed by the September 1 goal date, and we look forward to a continued engagement on the trailer boat language. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Is that all public comment on all items? Okay. We have one more.

Good morning, Chair Hurtado and Senators. Christina Rico on behalf of the Small Business Development Centers. I wanna thank you all and your staff for the collaboration that we've had through this process. We have requested that GoBiz is funded $26,000,000 in the SIP and TAP programs. So those are loan assistance and technical assistance programs.

It's a one time budget augmentation that would support thousands of businesses across the state currently unable to receive services due to the oversubscription of the program. Last year, over 150,000 businesses were serviced by the SBDC network and women's business centers network. The Small Business Technical Assistance Program and Capital Infusion Program provide meaningful and impactful assistance to local minority and women owned businesses in your district, and these services are necessary to support local economies in your districts, grow jobs, and drive tax revenue. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Having heard from all members of the public, is there any final remarks before we head on to votes, Mister Vice Chair? No. Thanks.

Okay. With no additional comments from the dais, we will now move on to votes. And for the sake of efficiency, we're gonna go ahead and vote in blocks, and we'll begin with items number 1, 3, 6, 8, 12 through 16, 18, 19, 22 through 39, 43, 45 through 47, 50 to 53, 55 through 57, 59. Do I have a motion from Senator Niello?

I thought the course that worked. Yes.

Oh, I will ask give me just a Sec. So it also includes 69 parts one and five, 70, 71, 74 through 77, 79, 85 through 90, 92, 95, 97 through 99, 101 through 105, 107, 110 through 113, 115 through 117, 121, 124 through 142, 144 through 147, and 150.

And I do make a motion for that small lift.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Having a motion, can we

Madam Chair, could I ask you to please read the list again? It's in the motion. Sorry.

To read again?

If Senator Niello wouldn't mind reading his motion again. So I'm trying to keep up with the you'd like me to repeat all the numbers? Yes. Or okay. Would somebody please do that? So I

Yes. I'm happy to repeat those numbers.

Thank you.

So on the items, it's 1, 3, 6, 8, 12 through 16, 18, 19, 22 through 39, 43, 45 through 47. Okay. Just just

you, Madam Chair.

Okay. Yes. Okay. We have a motion, and we have an understanding of all the bit all the all the items that we're voting on. Can we go ahead and please call the roll?

The called items. [Roll Call]

Those items are out, Madam Chair.

Okay. We have 4 Ayes and those items are now out.

Next, we do have, on the the items we'll be taking a vote on are items number 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 through 11, 17, 21, 40, 41, 44, 48, 49, 54, 58, 60 through 68, 69 part two through four, 72, 73, 78, 80 through 84, 91, 93, 94, 96, 100, 106, 108, 109, 114, 118 through 120, 122, 123, 143, 148, and 149.

Do I have a motion on those items? Okay.

We have a motion to adopt the staff recommendation as set forth in the agenda. Consultant, can you please call the roll?

As to the called items. [Roll Call]

K. We have Ayes 3, Noes 1. Those issues are out. Okay. Next, we have issues 20 and 42.

Do I have a motion? So move. Okay.

The motion is to adopt the staff recommendation as set forth in the agenda. Consultant, could you please call the roll?

As to issues 20 and 42. [Roll Call]

Okay. So we have Ayes 3, Noes 0. Those issues are out. Thank you to all the individuals who participated in public testimony today. If you were not able to testify today, please submit your comments or suggestions in writing to the budget and fiscal review committee or visit our website.

Your comments and suggestions are important to all of us, and we want to include your testimony in the fish in the official hearing records. Thank you, and we appreciate your participation. Thank you to everyone for your patience and cooperation, and we've conclude the agenda for today's hearing. The Senate budget and fiscal reviews of '24 is now adjourned.