Assembly Standing Committee on Budget

San Fernando Valley waiting.

Let's start on that now. Alright. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Assembly Budget Committee weekend edition. Happy Sunday.

We are, very grateful to see all of you. And let me start today just by thanking the sergeants, the support staff, all of the staff who are here today. We really appreciate the work that you're doing throughout the year, but particularly to be here with us on the weekend. And please thank your families as well. We know that this is an imposition.

Today's hearing, we are gonna aim to be extremely efficient. We have a hard stop at 2PM for Assembly floor session. Today's hearing is an informational hearing only, so there will be no votes. But it is an opportunity for us to consider our final 2026 August budget package. The bills before us today detail appropriations, including from the voter approved climate bond and the greenhouse reduction fund, and also some trailer bills that make key technical corrections, updates, and slight changes, including to the film tax credit.

So we expect to adopt these bills tomorrow and Tuesday morning in order to implement this agreement. And today, we are as fortunate as always to be joined by Erica Lee from the Department of Finance, who's gonna represent the administration to provide provide an update. We have our, exceptionally capable legislative analyst, Gabe Petek, who's here, as well as as as well as the Assembly Budget Committee staff who are here to answer, any questions. I'm going to invite our vice Chair to make any opening comments.

After we hear from our presenters, we're gonna come back and do questions and comments from from our members, and then we will open it up to public comment.

But, again, we aim to finish today by 2PM since we have votes on the Assembly floor. So with that, thank you again to everybody who's joined us, and I will turn it over to our vice Chair.

Thank you, Mister Chair. I just wanna echo your statements and simply say thank you to the Department of Finance. Thank you to the LAO, and also the budget staff as well. I know as we were talking very briefly, we got a notice at three in the morning, that they was were still working. So while some of us got a twenty two hour little hiatus, staff was here, and they were still working all the way into the morning.

So just wanna say thank you to all of you, and look forward to hearing what we have. So thank you, Mister Chair.

Thank you very much. With that, I'm going to, invite the Department of Finance to begin.

Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. Erica Klee with the Department of Finance. Good morning.

Good morning, Chair Gabriel, vice Chair Tengkipa, members of the budget committee. Erica Lee with the Department of Finance to present on 16 bills set together make up the final 2026-27 budget package. As we stated at the end of June, several issues would be decided upon over the summer, particularly in the resources area.

Additionally, there are cleanup and technical issues that are included as well. There are a total of 16 bills, two of which are budget bill juniors, and 14 trailer bills. And I will present on all bills, at once, consecutively, then, happy to respond to questions, after that. The first is, AB SB 113, the budget bill junior for the 2026, '27, budget, and, probably the the most lengthy of all of them, so bear with me. The budget allocates 2,700,000,000 proposition four or climate bond to continue funding critical projects and programs.

It allocates a total package of 450,000,000 in discretionary greenhouse gas reduction fund or GGRF. It also includes 8,000,000 health care affordability reserve fund in 26 27 and 37,000,000 in 27 28 and 28 29 to establish a state only dialysis program effective October 1 to provide outpatient maintenance dialysis for the treatment of end stage renal disease inclusive of medical transportation for 1,200 individuals in restricted scope Medi Cal.

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This bill also establishes, a a designation process for 988 crisis centers, creates new annual funding estimate processes for 988 centers, establishes a 988 system governance board, and requires system in in interoperability between 911 and 988. The bill also adds an additional 66,000,000 general fund to address cash and expenditure challenges due to federal inactions to approve the Department of Rehabilitation's proposed cost containment measures for vocational rehabilitation services known as order of selection.

It clarifies that the 70,000,000 general fund included in the '26 budget act for alternative payment program agencies can be used for family support activities. It allocates 10,000,000 general fund in 2627 available over two years through 06/30/2028 for Cal Food, which funds food banks for the purchase, storage, and transportation of food grown and or, or produced in California.

It also allocates a 1,100,000 one time general fund to allow the state to opt in to the foster youth version of the federal children's savings accounts. This program allows child welfare agencies to act as guardians to open and manage accounts on behalf of eligible foster youth.

It allocates 73,700,000 general fund for various community investments, including food assistance, immigration, and sexual assault prevention practices.

The bill includes, appropriated funds that were in the 2026 budget act, totaling about 58,300,000 to continue supporting economic development and innovation in California, investment support local economic development efforts, and the state's climate goals. The bill also allocates 88,900,000 general fund, for administrative sorry. And 1,000,000 for administration to support various housing and homelessness initiatives. It allocates 12,500,000 for the California workforce development board for various workforce development initiatives.

And finally, allocates 50,000,000 non proposition 98 general fund for the Department of Education to allocate funding for LEAs and low income communities to provide at least one free meal per day to children during intersessional breaks of less than ten days.

K. Moving on to the next bill, AB SB 114 is another budget bill junior for that amends the 2526 budget. This bill makes various amendments to prior year budget acts, many of which are technical or clarifying in nature to address implementation issues identified by the administration and legislature. The bill also adds to the 2025 budget act the same operational efficiencies languages that was included in the 2026 budget act as part of the June budget.

The language authorized the Department of Finance to transfer any portion of any proposition for climate bond and appropriation from the state entity receiving the appropriation to another entity for specified purposes.

Now moving on to the trailer bills. The first trailer bill is AB SB 133, which is the TK 12 omnibus. And, again, this bill makes largely technical amendments to various TK through 12 programs, including community schools, dual enrollment, career pathways, mathematics and literacy coaches, child nutrition, and high need student support programs. The next trailer bill is ABSB 167, the higher education omnibus.

Likewise, this bill makes largely technical amendments to various higher education programs, including the community colleges student support block grant, affordable student housing, capital outlay projects, and the Cal Grant transfer eligibility age increase.

Moving on to AVSB 173, which is the health trailer bill. This bill implements, the following significant health proposals. It expands the Department of Health Care Services oversight of Medi Cal providers.

It makes various changes related to the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, including establishing oversight of 988 crisis centers requiring system interoperability between 911 and 988, and protocols, establishes a state only dialysis program to provide outpatient maintenance dialysis and restricted scope Medi Cal, and as also establishes a process for the development of a specialized LGBTQ plus suicide prevention line subject to federal approval.

Many of those things I mentioned in AB SB 113, those that's where the funding was, was in that budget bill junior, and this is the the language that implements those changes.

The next trailer bill is AB SB 175 or the developmental services omnibus, and this bill merges the existing community placement plan and community resource development plan programs to align current law with the needs of the community. 78,100,000 or 67,000,000 general fund is appropriated annually for these two programs, and this change will provide a clear framework for staff to implement and establish guidelines as regional centers apply for funding.

The next trailer bill is AB SB 178, the public resources trailer bill. This bill makes various changes to the public resources code and includes uncodified language to do the following, establish the farmland access and conservation for thriving communities program to be administered consistent with related funding authorized in proposition four, the climate fund.

It provides 60,000,000 one time beverage container recycling fund for local conservation for course, for beverage container litter reduction programs and recycling programs, beverage container litter reduction programs and recycling programs, including for education and outreach.

And lastly, it requires the Department of Parks and Recreation in consultation with the California Coastal Commission, the Transportation Agency, and the Monterey County District 5 supervisor to prepare and submit a report to the legislature by April of next year summarizing findings and options to reduce traffic congestion and unsafe parking conditions along Highway 1. The next trailer bill is AB SB 184, the general government trailer bill.

This bill states legislative intent for the state to work with Alpine, Mono, and San Mateo Counties and other potentially impacted counties to develop a solution to the vehicle licensing fee revenue shortfall situation known as insufficient ERAF. It also includes contract and procurement efficiencies, cleanup language, and language closeout bonds no longer in use, which will reduce workload for the state treasurer's office and return about 6,800,000 in unspent proceeds to the general fund.

The next trailer bill is AVSB 186, the revenue and taxation or film tax credit trailer bill. AVSB 186 includes three changes to the film tax credit programs. It shortens the program four point o credit refundability schedule from five years to two and reduces the discount on refundable program four point o credits from 10 to 5%.

It extends the carry forward for program 2.0 and program 3.0 credits from nine years to fifteen years for taxpayers that are actively participating in program 4.0. And lastly, it exempts credits earned by an independent production that are sold to another party from the temporary credit limitation beginning in 2027 and the permanent credit limitation beginning in 2030.

The next trailer bill is SB AB 187 or the employment labor trailer bill. This bill clarifies various statutes related to new employee orientations and state benefit program and also reauthorizes the alternative minimum wage for goat herders until 01/01/2029. And the next trailer bill is AB SB 190 or the early education early care and education omnibus.

This bill specifies requirements for various policies for the California state preschool program, including excused absences, enrollment priorities, program eligibility, professional development days, and family fee deductions. It authorizes the Department of Education to collect unspent funds for the California State Preschool Program, exceptional needs set aside beginning in 2027, '28.

And lastly, it requires the Department of Social Services to identify the remaining foundational policy frameworks of the single rate structure by 01/10/2028, report on the considerations to include monthly cost of care plus rates into contract, and clarifies various health and safety code sections related to temporary absence absences and child care provider training requirements. K. The next bill is AB SB 191, the, LA 20 Olympic and Paralympic games trailer bill.

AVSB 191 is a bill pertaining to the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games and includes changes relating to sporting event exemptions, film and TV productions, and building codes. The next trailer bill is AB SB 192, the transmission accelerator trailer bill.

And this Bill extends the transmission accelerator program from 2031 to 2036. It requires the developer and owner of a transmission project that is funded by the accelerator to use construction and maintenance contractors that meet certain criteria and makes other technical and clarifying changes. The budget includes 322,500,000 from proposition four for this program. The next trailer bill is AB SB 193, the climate and energy trailer bill, public resources trailer bill.

This bill includes the following changes related to the greenhouse gas reduction fund and the cal shape program. For the greenhouse gas reduction fund, it makes technical and clarifying changes to the GGRF as proposed in the governor's budget.

Beginning in 2728, it requires GGRF interest to flow through the tier structure rather than be available for discretionary purposes. And for the CalShape program, it provides an additional three years for already awarded funds to be spent to allow schools to complete HVAC or plumbing improvements. The next bill is AB SB 194 , the transportation trailer bill.

This bill enhances requirements for the California Highway Patrol Protective Services. The state currently has the authority to provide security to current and former constitutional officers and legislators, and this bill updates this existing authority.

This bill prohibits reducing vehicle lanes on a road serving two cemeteries in a city exceeding 2,000,000 people unless specified, under certain criteria. That is that bill. K. Moving on to the final bill is AB SB 195, income taxes, exclusions, wildfire loss mitigation payments, trailer bill.

Currently, California's wildfire mitigation and home hardening programs are structured to assist low income homeowners and disadvantaged communities, but state funded mitigation benefits currently count as taxable income. This bill amends revenue and taxation code to broaden the definition of California qualified wildfire mitigate mitigation payment to ensure tax exempt status applies not only to assistance provided under the California wildfire mitigation program, but also to new Prop four Mitigation programs administered by CalOES.

It expands eligibility to include any grant rebate or direct assistance provided by Cal OES for wildfire mitigation, home hardening, structure hardening, vegetation management, defensible space, fuel modification activities, or community wildfire resilience. And with that, I'm done with the presentation.

Thank you very much. Now invite the, legislative analyst to provide any comments.

Thank you, Mister Chair. No prepared remarks.

Wonderful. With that, we will bring it back to members of the committee for questions or comments. Mister vice Chair?

Yeah. I just wanted to be quick, but I I I do wanna say, you know, thank you to a lot of my colleagues as well. I look at what happened with the film and tax credit, as a necessary change as as we've all voted. I know I actually caught some flack from colleagues on, my side of the aisle when it comes to why did you support a $750,000,000 tax credit for film? I I believe it's paramount to the institution and to California itself.

And so I know that these necessary changes had to correct that. And so, just wanna thank everybody for that. The other one I wanted to highlight too was I know I noticed in the bill that we save the goats and the goat herders by changing, the minimum wage standard on that. So we were able to do that. And so I think there's a lot of people that actually thought about, losing the goats that actually help with what a lot of the wildfire mitigation and management.

So I'm glad to to see that SB 187 is the save the goats budget bill. So thank you, and thank you all to my colleagues as well.

Thank you very much. We will now go, I believe, Assembly member Hart.

Thank you, Mister Chair. And I just wanna, highlight the extension of the Cal Shape deadline. That was really important project for our program for school HVAC modifications, trying to make sure that the kids in our public schools have a healthy environment, particularly with increasing heat issues.

And it's great to see that extension that allows so many of the schools that have had grant applications already approved be able to go forward with their projects. So appreciate that. And also with the the work on the DSGS too, those are all two important victories in this budget.

Great. Thank you very much. I think we had Assembly member Patel.

Yes. Just a brief comment. I want to thank our, Senate and Assembly leadership as well as the governor and our budget chairs here for, ensuring that we're honoring our labor contracts with our state scientists. That is something that I have been paying attention to, and I wanna call that out, with deep gratitude to make sure that they are getting paid the wages that they're entitled to. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Assembly member Addis .

Thank you so much. And I wanna, first say thank you to staff for being here on a Sunday. For the entire building, actually, I wanna say thank you to the security staff and, everyone who's keeping this building and swing space open on a Sunday for us to do this work and, of course, to our budget Chair and really commend all of the team for the gains that we've made in healthcare.

I think we came a long way. We're all tired of talking about the detriment of HR 1, but we cannot forget how catastrophic that's been.

And I do feel like California has stepped up this year in terms of filling those gaps, particularly when it comes, in this, budget junior to dialysis, to backfilling gender affirming care for children. I think it's just been a huge, gain. The gains that you mentioned in the 988 system and how we're shoring that up, has really made an impact and is going to make an impact for folks.

And I also wanna call out and say thank you to all of us who got this in here that we're gonna be putting money into wildfire mitigation and prevention. I know many of my colleagues have heard me talk about it, but we have two fires right now, in Big Sur, 30,000 acres across two different fires and evacuation orders in place right now.

And so that money makes a huge difference. And then say thank you for the, money that's in this budget for the Diablo Canyon lands in San Luis Obispo County for Wild Cherry Canyon that, we know this is one of the ways that we can keep our promises when it comes to commitments that have been made around Diablo Canyon. So really appreciate what's before us and thank you, Mister Chair, and thank you to your staff for all the work that you've done as well.

Thank you very much. Assembly member Schultz?

Thank you very much, Mister Chair. I'll be brief. Obviously, thank you to you and all of the staff and to the governor's office, everyone who's here together to make this budget, happen. There's a lot of wonderful things in it. I just had one question, and colleagues, specifically, I'm looking at page 17 of our handout on SB 113.

It is under the public safety, portion of the budget, of course. And I'm talking about item number 195. I my understanding, and I could be mistaken, but I believe that the $4,000,000 was, brought, into the budget at, by the governor's office. And it is, from the general fund for the Department of Corrections to support trauma recovery and training in our women's prisons.

The point I'm I wanted to ask about here is we've obviously had a number of hearings on some pretty egregious conduct in our women's facilities.

I think it's wonderful that we have more resources to combat it. I'm just wondering if the administration could give a little more insight as to what this funding will go to solve. I think the funding is a great step, but we do have a culture problem at CDCR. And I'm just wondering if you could address what this will be doing.

Yes. And thanks thank you for acknowledging that. I think the the reason you're seeing it in there is to address some of the issues that you had just mentioned, and my colleague is here to give you a little bit more detail.

There. Sorry. Behind you. Kimberly Harbison, Department of Finance. And this is an administration priority. It's $4,000,000 one time for, trauma recovery and training in the women's institutions at CDCR. We would note that more than ninety percent of women in prison have a history of victimization or trauma.

That's why we're prioritizing this. Much of it occurs before incarceration and often leads to their criminal conduct. So this funding will be used to provide trauma informed care and to train staff in best practices and in interacting with individuals suffering from trauma.

Thank you.

You good? Thank you very much. Assembly member Bennett.

Thank you very much. Sure, Gabriel. The there are too many specific items in here for me to call anything out. There's just two things I'd like to to mention, and that is my compliments to you, the Chair, and all of your staff for having the Assembly members prepared so that if things broke in the budget the proper way, lots of people were able to be able to identify things that would be very important. And I think that was crucial as things came down at the end.

So my compliments to you and your staff who worked really hard to have all this last minute preparation and work done. The second thing I'd just like to call out to the voters of California, and that is have had we not passed prop four years ago. Think how bleak a day like today would be for many of the environmental things that are highlighted there. And with that, thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mister Bennett. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, I will take a moment just to, thank everybody again for the hard work, and I just wanna turn the compliment background on you, Mister Bennett. I know that a a lot of what we talked about in June was leaving aside, proposition four and how important that was and that there was, I think, an interest on all three sides in getting that done. So thank you for very ably leading that process.

And I think there's a lot of really important investments in communities across the California that are gonna go out thanks to your hard work and for the work of, staff and folks on this committee. And also would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge, I believe today it will be miss Quirk Silva and Mister Lackey's last Assembly budget committee hearing, and so I just wanted to thank

I assume you're talking about leaving, not the hearings themselves, but Of course. Of course. But I'll leave that up to interpretation. I just wanna thank you, miss Quirk Silva. You have been such an important voice on housing issues and on so many issues, and it's just been a pleasure to have you on the committee.

Likewise, Mister Lackey, and I will tell you a number of your Democratic colleagues were talking about you behind your back the other day and talking about what a good hearted, big hearted, thoughtful member of the legislature have been. And so I just wanna thank you both for your, very distinguished service on this committee. We will miss you, but we have been very much enriched by your presence in this conversation. So thank you to you both. Time.

Yeah. With that yeah. We can give them a round of applause. They are good. With that, again, we expect to take both of these bills up probably sometime in the evening tomorrow, and then again early Tuesday morning.

Thank you.

And with that, we will turn to public comment. I'll invite folks to come forward for public comment. I will just remind everybody, as you're getting assembled, really hoping, out of respect for the folks behind you, out of respect for the folks behind you that we're just gonna really try to ask everybody to keep their comments to less than a minute, we do wanna give everybody an opportunity to speak.

And as I mentioned, we do unlike other hearings where we could give everybody, we do have a hard stop because we have votes on the Assembly floor. So with that, I'll invite, our first commenter to come forward.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. Mark Vukovich on behalf of Streets for All. I come here decently enraged and vehemently opposed to SB 194. This eleventh hour Bill's only purpose is to threaten a street safety project in Los Angeles. This is an LA DOT project intended to reduce the death and carnage on Forest Lawn Avenue, a project I'll note that the local council member supports.

There were 95 crashes in a decade on this street and nearly three quarters of driver's speed on it. Seventeen days ago, 17, Bajan Yousefian, a man from Beverly Hills, was driving on Forest Lawn Avenue in front of my Mount Sinai Cemetery, one of the groups opposing this project, when his vehicle left the roadway, struck a tree, burst into flames. He was unable to escape, and his cause of death was listed as thermal burns. Zena Bethune, a dancer and actress, was on Forest Lawn Drive.

She saw an injured animal, stepped out of her vehicle to take care of the animal, was hit by a car, was then hit by another car, dragged 600 feet, and died on this road.

This project needs to go in, and this bill, SB 194, interrupts the ability to get this project in the ground. Going forward, I'm asking the legislature to bring this up to leadership and say you are uncomfortable with blocking an important street safety project through the budget process. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair and members. Amy Costa, Full Moon Strategies on behalf of the Trust for Public Land and strong appreciation and support for the appropriation for the Golden Gate Fields project.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Missy Johnson on behalf of the Directors Guild of America and the Entertainment Union Coalition representing a 170,000 of the states working men and women in the production in the entertainment industry. We greatly appreciate the work that was done to make sure that the production tax credit remains competitive with other states. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair members. Karen Lange on behalf of the boards of supervisors in Placer, Napa, Marin, Stanislaus, Mendocino, and Humboldt, and the Delta Counties Coalition for the various items in the two bills, that support activities in their district. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. Michelle Gibbons with CHEAC. I'm here to express her disappointment that the budget not only overlooks additional funding support for county indigent care programs, but it also fails to adopt very important technical corrections to AB 85 that was needed. Without those technical corrections, several counties are gonna lose the maximum amount of realignment possible at the very time that they're supposed to be using those resources to support their indigent care programs and the growing population that's anticipated.

The AB 85 was never intended to take resources that were necessary for indigent care programs, and that is exactly what's happening without the technical fix. Hope that we can continue to have a dialogue about it in the year to come. Thank you.

Sarah Duquette, on behalf of the Rural County representatives of California, would like to line my comments with Michelle around the AB 85 concerns. This is definitely something that's gonna need early action next year to make sure our counties have resources when folks lose their medical coverage. And I would like to thank the committee for AB SB 187 for the goat sheep herding parity language, as well as the 2,500,000 for the Wolf program. Thank you.

Mister Chair and members, Brendan Twohig on behalf of the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association. Here to express appreciation for the $10,000,000 in GGRF funding for the, for agricultural diesel engine replacement through the farmer program. Really appreciate the work on that. The need is significant. So, again, we're grateful. It's gonna make a difference for public health.

Mister Chair and members, Ben Epping on behalf of the California Wool Growers Association, in strong support and appreciation of the language in SB AB 187 restoring the goat herder wage parity language, as it was, until July 1. Thank you, Mister vice Chair, for calling out the, importance of that issue. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair. Chris McKinley here on behalf of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. LA Metro wants to thank you for transit funding in the budget as well as transit funding for mega events. Thank you, Mister Chair.

And thank you for the public service you provide to the entire capital community. We all appreciate it.

Happy Sunday, Chair and members. Jordan Wells on behalf of the California State Association of Counties. I'd like to start by expressing deep gratitude to the legislature for not advancing proposals that would have limited public entity recovery for utility caused wildfires. We'd also like to thank you for rejecting the governor's proposed sustainable aviation trailer budget language and appreciate the greenhouse gas reduction fund expenditure plan in AB SB 193 and the funding for local priorities and programs.

And on behalf of CSAC and Cal Cities, thank you for restoring the wage parity for goat herders until 2029, ensuring the continued availability of goats for wildfire fuel reduction until that time. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Darby Kernan on behalf of California Food Banks and in Child Poverty California. We wanna thank you for the additional funding for Cal Food and the additional or the new $15,000,000 pilot providing meals during school breaks. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair members. Michelle Rubalcava on behalf of the city of Paris. I wanna thank you and Assembly member Jackson for the resources that we're in for city of Perris and some of their activities. Also, on behalf of the county of San Diego, unfortunately, disappointed that there was no technical fix on education care in AB 85 as second largest county in San Diego. We don't have public hospitals.

We're not part of the CMSP program. We will be disproportionately impacted, so we'll have to come back and have that conversation next year.

Good afternoon, Kyle Jones. First, on behalf of the Community Alliance of Family Farmers, just wanted to thank the administration, budget committee, and staff leadership, and, of course, Assembly member Wilson for the land access program, and trailer bill language in order to get that funded. That's been a priority of CAFF for the past few years. And then on behalf of the San Joaquin Valley Water Collaborative Action Program, we have a little bit of a mixed bag.

We're very, very appreciative of the funding for the SAFER program that's critically important and multi benefit land repurposing. In out years, we hope to see more funding for groundwater recharge and more funding to support, subsidence repairs in the California Aqueduct. Thank you.

Jonathan Clay. Jonathan Clay on two issues on behalf of the city of Encinitas opposed to language that was put into budget junior bill, SB 114 that retroactively puts conditions on money that was awarded in 2023. And then on behalf of the Trans Youth Alliance and Trans Family Support Services, we appreciate the language that was included in the health trailer bill supporting trans youth. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. Sylvia Solis Shaw here on behalf of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. We want to show our appreciation for the funding in this budget for a number of air quality programs and specifically for the farmer program. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon. Griselda Chavez on behalf of the California Association Local Conservation Corps. And great support and great appreciation for the $60,000,000 allocated to the course to the beverage container recycling fund and ABSB 178. We greatly appreciate, and we also wanna utilize these funds will help ensure that local corps members across the state will be able to continue protecting and restoring California's environments while receiving training and experiences that can help them prepare for future careers. Thank you.

Adam Dorsey, California Hospital Association. Thank you for the investments in hospitals and health systems and for studying the impact on coverage losses.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair and committee members. Scott Cox on behalf of East Bay Regional Park District commenting on AB 113 to express our strong support and great appreciation for funds allocated for the Golden Gate Fields project. This will support climate resilience and offer Californians an enriched opportunity to enjoy nature. In addition, we'd like to express our support and appreciation to Assemblymember Wilson and the broader legislature for funds allocated for pond restoration projects, vital for livestock grazing, and regional wildfire prevention work. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Jake Schultz on behalf of the Conservation Fund in support and appreciation for the $4,600,000 allocated to DOC to improve land access and tenure for socially disadvantaged farmers.

In addition, on behalf of the Land Trust Of Santa Cruz County and the Conservation Fund, we'd like to thank the legislature for the $50,000,000 allocated to the sustainable agricultural lands conservation program intended to protect at risk agricultural lands from sprawl development. Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Chair, members, and staff. Mitch Steiger with CFT, Union of Educators and Classified Professionals. We just wanted to clarify that unfortunately, the cowl shaped language that's in 193 does not include the language that we need to make sure that students are kept safe.

The language would not do anything to stop the current plan to send $200,000,000 that was reserved by the legislature and directed towards K12 schools and instead give it to utility companies. That language is in AB 196 that isn't on the agenda.

It's over in Senate budget. We would strongly urge the appropriate time that language be adopted after the language that's in 193. If we don't do that, we're gonna have schools all across the state where students are suffering from heat related cognitive learning loss, where they are suffering from asthma. The particulate matter at issue can cause asthma. It can cause cancer in school children.

And the legislature very clearly said that they wanted that $200,000,000 to go to schools. If we don't pass 196, we'll lose all that. We'll go into the pockets of the utilities. We strongly urge your support for that bill at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. Reed Addis on behalf of CalVans in strong support. Appreciate the Chair, the subchair on and the staff on the work in getting the prop 4 funding in for the, farmworker vanpool program critical to us. Thank you very much.

Tiffany Mok, on behalf of CFT, A Union of Educators and Classified Professionals, we are disappointed that the final budget does not include funding for part time faculty office hours. This will have an immediate impact on compensation for part time faculty who provide office hours for students.

At the same time, we wanna thank the proponents of the funding and we wanna take the opportunity to thank all others engaged in process, including the hardworking Assembly budget staff, where they're productively engaging to understand the issue, provide suggestions for working, and provide suggestions for working together in the future.

We are so appreciative that there's so much to be done and appreciate your attention and time and details to this matter. Thank you.

Mister Chair and members. Michael Pimentel here on behalf of the California Transit Association. I wanna thank the legislature and the Governor for responding to the voices of Californians from across the state in seeking supplemental funding, to address projected GGRF declines affecting the tier three programs.

As you know, budget does not backfill all tier three programs, but it does include several critical investments for public transit. We especially appreciate the $230,000,000 provided for the SB 125 program.

And as we look to next year and consider what wasn't funded in this year's budget, I wanna uplift the continued importance of fully funding core tier three programs, including the TIRCP, the LC TOP, and the AHSC. And we ask that you work with us next year to advance policy solutions or alternative funding mechanisms to ensure the tier three programs are fully funded. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Marina Espinoza with the California Housing Consortium. I'd like to echo my colleague's comments and would also like to urge the legislature to work on a permanent solution that addresses the funding shortfall for tier three programs funded by GGRF.

We appreciate the augmentation that some of the tier three programs received through the August budget package. It's important to note that the affordable housing and sustainable communities program also needs additional resources and should be included in any future efforts to address this funding gap.

The program funds transit oriented projects that result in greenhouse gas reductions by combining affordable housing with sustainable transportation infrastructure. Again, it's critical that tier three programs including AHSC have the resources they need to continue to benefit low income community communities across California. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Emily Pappas was asked to do a me too in support on behalf of the Almond Alliance for the insertion of funding for the farmer program for tractors. Thank you.

Good afternoon, members of the committee. Felipe Fuentes, Pacific Coast Capital Advisors here on behalf of a few clients in gratitude of all of your hard work. First, the Motion Picture Association of America. Thank you so much for the fixes in Trailer bills 186.

Fresenius Medical Care, the fixes in 113 and 173, go a long way to serve that population. And lastly, your rejection of the sustainable aviation fuel tax credit that would have been subsidized by diesel revenues. Thank you for your work there. Road safety is a priority of yours. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair members. Janice O'Malley with AFSCME California. And on behalf of our members who work for the County of San Mateo, we are grateful for the language in AB 184 that directs the state to negotiate a solution to the VLF funding crisis to help protect union jobs and fund key community services.

We also appreciate the $1,000,000 funding to PERB to provide adequate staff for mediation and conciliation services in AB and SB 113 and also appreciate the language consideration related to child care provider attendance and staffing coverage. Thank you.

Good afternoon, members. Brandon Garcia with Advanced Energy United. Wanna start by thanking the committee for the inclusion of the $10,000,000 for geothermal exploratory wells in AB/SB 113. Appreciate that. Do wanna thank the legislature for rejecting the administration's trailer bill to transfer the DSGS participants to ELRP?

I think that's incredibly valuable. Do wanna underscore incredible disappointment for a lack of DSGS funding and not using that interest dollars to fund that program. You think it's a very successful program. Do wanna thank Assemblymember Irwin for championing that request as well as the other members of sub four. I also wanna echo the comments CFT made on CalShape.

196 has the preferred language to extend that program's encumbered state to be able to use those funds to adequately improve schools and a lot of those HVAC systems. Those are my comments.

Good afternoon. Lizzie Guansona here on behalf of the San Mateo City County Association of Governments commenting on AB/SB 184. We appreciate the continued focus on the VLS shortage, sorry, shortfall issue and the signaled intent to work on longer term solutions to address this critical local revenue shortfall and impacted counties including San Mateo. Thank you.

Dennis Albiani with California Advocates on behalf of several agricultural organizations, California Grain and Feed, California Seed, and Pacific Egg Poultry. We appreciate the inclusion of the farmer program. We'll help with acute air quality issues in the Central Valley, and it's a very good program for many years.

We do, on behalf of American Beverage Association and the PET Recycling Corporation California, we expressed concerns about the $60,000,000 that has been sent to the local conservation corps. There's been conservation core engagement in this for many years.

However, it's always been, you know, in the teens of millions of dollars to do a one time augmentation of $60,000,000. It's very significant. Makes us concerned that if that's used for to increase staffing and those things that there might be needs to go out years, and we need to make this sustainable and create oversight. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Allison Hilliard with the Climate Center also representing NextGen today, aligning my comments with Brandon Garcia at Advanced Energy United. Also want to talk about the greenhouse gas reduction fund. We are supportive of backfilling GGRF with GGRF interest.

Although the GGRF programs are not fully fully allocated in alignment with SB 180 we are supportive and grateful for all of the work that was put into this. Tier three programs are super important, and we are grateful that there's some funding there this year.

We are disappointed that improving the manufacturing decarbonization incentive was not included. CARB needs to provide a rationale for setting a 118,000,000 allowances as the pool of allowances available and CARB must consider whether the MDI objective could be achieved with a much smaller allocation amount like 20,000,000. Okay, Thank you so much.

Good day. Jeff Neal, first representing Contra Costa County. Really appreciate funding for 988. I look forward to working with the state to improve that service going forward and help save lives. And on behalf of the Central Valley Salinity Coalition, appreciate the safer drinking water allocation even though it's only a one time fix.

We look forward to working with the legislature to find a permanent source of funding for the drinking water. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Taylor Trifo on behalf of Variety of Agricultural Trade Associations. We wanna thank you for funding SAFER somewhat to my comment colleague's comment. Also appreciate the $10,000,000 available for the farmer program. It's one of the most successful programs in agriculture to improve air quality.

We appreciate the work on the goat herder wage issue, and we'd also like to ask that next year there'd be an ongoing conversation about how we fund glassy winged sharpshooter. No new funds were provided in the budget to manage this ongoing issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Cathy Sunderland McDonald for two clients. First, for the California Association for Adult Day Services. We appreciate both the language and the health trailer bill as well as associated funding for the Departments of Aging and Healthcare Services to work with us and our community based adult services providers to help understand the closure crisis that we're facing and make recommendations.

Second, for public health advocates advocates, which runs the all children thrive program, We really appreciate the inclusion of the reappropriation language, also in AB/SB 113, which will enable us to get through the end of the fiscal year with this important local program and ideally work with the Department of Public Health to figure out an ongoing reauthorization proposal for next year.

Thank you to your staff and all of you as well as to the administration for pulling the package together.

Thank you very much. My name is Dan Jacobson with Environment California. Three quick points. First on the CalShape program. We created that program during the COVID crisis, and it's worked incredibly well to help.

We now have a extreme heat crisis, and so we should extend that program to make sure that schools and kids are cool. Two, we have a benefit from that program, which is the accrued interest. That should go to help fund the DSGS program. That's the fastest way to help bring relief to rate payers. And third, great work with the geothermal.

That money will be imperative to getting us 24 hour clean power. Thank you.

Mister Chair member. Sara Flocks, California Federation of Labor Unions. I wanna thank you and express strong support for the million dollars for PERB to do private sector state mediation and conciliation services. This is an important service now that the Federal Government has gotten rid of it to avert strikes and labor disputes. They've done over 700 of these. We hope we can get ongoing funding for this.

And also, we look forward to working with you to find a fix to the VLF shortfall for San Mateo and other counties. Thank you for that inclusion. Thank you for your work on this budget.

Hi there. McKinley Thompson Morley on behalf of the Solar Energy Association and Energy Hub here to echo the comments made by Brandon Garcia at AU and speak in support of the Cal Shape program and the demand side grid support program, which needs that ongoing funding to actually be able to support customer and repair affordability. Thank you.

Kim Stone, Stone Advocacy on behalf of the California Solar and Storage Association. Similar comments in support of both CalShape and the program at the Energy Commission demand side grid services program to, promote grid reliability. Appreciate you all. Thanks.

Good afternoon. Carmen Nicole Cox on behalf of Cayenne Wellness Center. Today, Cayenne Wellness Center serves 1,200 California families impacted by sickle cell disease. That's more than 2,300 coordinated care services every year. Historical federal funding ends tomorrow.

The State of California chose not to continue funding services for this medically vulnerable population. That means more than 200 families will lose access to free mental health counseling. 200 families will lose free transportation to specialty care and life saving blood transfusions. These are not just programs. These are lifelines.

Cayenne has spent years building a safety net for this community that has historically gone without one. We look forward to early conversations next year so that this safety net that they've developed does not disappear. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Pat Joyce on behalf of NBC Universal and William Morris and Devore. Wanna thank you for the targeted but important fixes in AB 186, and really appreciate the support there. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Trent Smith on behalf of the Walt Disney Company here in support of SB 186 Film Tax Credit Fix. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Matteo Kushner from Community Water Center and on behalf of the Central California Environmental Justice Network, I'd like to thank the Assembly for its collaboration on AB 113 and 193 to keep essential GGRF tier three programs funded.

We acknowledge this is not the perfect solution, but allows vital programs like SAFER to continue to provide long term water solutions for the hundreds of thousands of Californians that depend on it. We look forward to continuing this dialogue next session.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. Catherine Charles on behalf of the Bay Area Council. Just wanna express appreciation for the $230,000,000 allocation through GGRF for transit funding, as well as the $6,750,000 allocation to the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority. Grateful to the members who helped make that possible. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair and members. Greg Hayes here on behalf of Warner Brothers Discovery. Just wanna express our strong support for the fixes in SB 186 to the Production Tax Credit to keep and maintain jobs in California and grow them as well. Thank you.

Chair and members, Alicia Priego on behalf of Paramount Skydance in strong support of SB 186 related to the Film Tax Credit Fix. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Steven Stenzler on behalf of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of California. Appreciate the investments in mentorship and youth in AB 113 and specifically in the Orange County, San Diego, and Los Angeles region. Really appreciate the support of legislature for that and look forward to expanding mentorship opportunities in other parts of the state next year. Thank you.

Mister Chair and members. Delaney Hunter on behalf of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and its transit partner, Omnitrans, and the Ventura County Transportation Commission in strong support of 113 and the $230,000,000 for transit funding.

Thank you for honoring the SB 125 funding commitment, and we look forward to working with this legislature further on GGR fixes next year.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. Alexis Rodriguez on behalf of the County Welfare Directors Association, sharing our gratitude again for the critical actions taken in July budget to invest in the CalFresh and medical county eligibility workers to keep people connected to these life saving health care and food supports.

And Mister speaker, thank you again for highlighting the federal safety net programs as critical to affordability and to Chair Gabriel, Sub Chairs Addis, Jackson, Hart, our member champions, Sharp Collins, and Shciavo.

We are also glad to see the actions taken now to prevent children from hunger to provide our hunger free holidays. Our thanks to Assembly member Ahrens and Assembly members, assembly's leadership on this.

As HR 1 is federal law, it will take ongoing commitment to continue the support to our county eligibility workforce to maximize these federal exemptions. Thank you all.

Good afternoon. Josh Wright with Equality California. I wanna express our gratitude for the swift action taken in response to the CMS final rule to ensure that TGI youth and their families do not lose access to life saving health care. We look forward to continuing to work with you on a permanent solution through a MediCal billing pathway.

We are also grateful for the funding to implement the press 3 option for 988 calls to ensure LGBTQ plus youth in crisis can be connected in with trained counselors. Thank you.

Chair and members. Alex Torres on behalf of Perimeter Solutions, Vibrant Planet. Thank you for the extensive investments in wildfire prevention response, other technological investments. On behalf of the Thermalito Water & Sewer District, we continue to beseech this body to consider the Concow Reservoir in Oroville.

The Camp Fire reduced the drinking water storage by 2,000 acre feet. We will continue to ask this body to consider some sort of funding mechanism as we try to do that dredging project and restore drinking water capacity to that critically deserving community. Thank you so much.

Hello. Alexis Rodriguez with the California Chamber of Commerce. Here to register our support for SB 186 related to the Film Tax Credit. Thank you.

Christine Smith, Health Access California. We're proud to cochair the Health for All Coalition. We appreciate the legislature allocating funding to allow undocumented people on restricted scope medical who need dialysis to get this much needed care. Without this, undocumented people needing dialysis would be forced into emergency rooms on a regular basis or die from treatable diseases.

We appreciate utilizing the health care affordability reserve fund for this important person purpose. We also appreciate the funding in the for in the nine eight eight for LGBTQ youth.

Hello, Chair and members. My name is Sadalia King with the UDW. Speaking on behalf of CCPU, we want to thank the legislature and administration for addressing our concerns about AB 150, particularly the removal of the reporting requirements for provider absences. We also appreciate the decision to rely on regular communication between providers and parents regarding the attendance and staffing chain coverage.

We're also pleased with the extension to meet the new training and education requirements. Just appreciation and look forward to continued partnership.

Chair and members. Beth Malinowski SEIU California. One, offer the following reflections on the final budget actions. With the budget that as a whole aim to delay coverage losses and maintain quality care, deeply disappointed that the August TBL failed to fund the one year restoration of the successful WQIP for skilled nursing facilities.

There's a missed opportunity that we will undoubtedly lead to underbinder workforce, harming our patients, and leaving federal dollars on the table when we know all know that it's completely hard to come by those federal dollars. We do wanna align our comments with health access and appreciate the provisions to guarantee immigrants will still have access to life saving care.

Additionally, we align with counties and urgent appointment the technical amendments needed now to clean up AB 85 and guarantee that counties do not have a harmful funding freeze placed on them, not move forward. While we look forward to long term conversation to how to best fund Educare, the failure to act will likely make Educare more difficult come 2027.

Additionally, as it relates to our immigrant communities, want to appreciate the ongoing additional funding support legal needs of our immigrant communities. I look forward to ongoing work next year as we return together to hopefully do more to address HR1 impacts. Thank you.

Kelly Brooks, on behalf of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems and the Urban Counties of California, we're very appreciative of all the work the legislature has done this week years to mitigate HR 1.

We just know we're disappointed that we couldn't find a path forward on doing some technical fixes around indigent care right now, and thankful for that. We'll have further conversation next year, and maybe there'll be some data to help with those conversations. Thank you.

Hello. Brian Shobe with the California Climate and Agriculture Network. First, I wanna thank you for protecting the livelihoods of goat and sheep herders as well as the health and safety of firefighters and wildfire high wildfire risk communities. Second, I wanna thank you for funding the Sustainable Ag Lands Conservation Program in the GGRF package in SB 113.

You know, this is a hard fought compromise, and we'll note that this would have been a lot easier for you all if CARB hadn't given away a billion dollars in GGRF revenue. So I do urge you to try to fix that issue next year, and we're here to help. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair members. Rebecca Marcus on on behalf of American Farmland Trust and the California Certified Organic Farmers. Echoing the previous speaker in support of the goat herder provision in SB 187 and in strong support of the $50,000,000 in GGRF for protecting ag lands in SB113,. Additionally, in support of the land access language in SB 178. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Lillian Mirviss with Environmental Defense Fund here in support of extending CalShape and want to echo my colleagues who spoke to ensuring the language in AB 196 is adopted, clarifying the program funds are available for projects beyond what's currently in the pipeline and taking the interest from that program and putting it towards the demand side grid support program, which is important for electric grid grid reliability.

We also wanna express appreciation for funding for the SAFER program and the multi benefit land repurposing program. And lastly, we appreciate Assembly member Addis's comments regarding wildfire mitigation funding, which we also support. Thank you.

Spencer Street on behalf of the Cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Anaheim, San Leandro, Union City, Reedley, Kingsburg, Sunnyvale, Pacifica, and the Community Services District. Very grateful for the preservation of critical funding for the affordable housing and sustainable communities program, low carbon transit operations program, as well as the allocation of funding for local parks, wildfire mitigation, public safety, and affordable housing.

Also, on behalf of the North County Transit, San Diego Railroad.Please the budget protects some SB 1250 emission transit capital program and LC TOP funding this year, generally aligned with the comments of CTA. Hopeful that next year, we can work together to fully fund those funding sources and TRCP. Thank you.

Brian McCarthy on behalf of the Cities of Hercules, Mission Viejo, South Pasadena, San Gabriel, and Oakland. Grateful for the wage parity fix for goat herders, aligning our comments with, CSAC. And on behalf of the Cities of Chino Hills and Upland, grateful for funding for critical public projects. Thank you.

Mister Chair and members. Erin Neimela on behalf of Sony Pictures in support of SB 186, Deeply appreciative appreciative of the budget creativity in such a difficult budget year. Also, courtesy testimony for the California Association of Wine Grape Growers in support of the farmer program. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mister chairman, members. Shane Gusman on behalf of SAG AFTRA and the Teamsters. Just wanna extend the appreciation of both of those unions for all the work that was done on the Film Tax Credit, and so this robust jobs program can continue on. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mister chairman and members. Brian Little, California Farm Bureau, in appreciation for your attention to the matter of wage parity for sheep and goat herders. This will allow California sheep and goat producers to be able to continue furnishing prescription grazing services to control wildfire fuels for special use districts, municipalities, and other land operators throughout California. And we appreciate your attention to the matter. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair, members, committee staff. Thank you for your work on this budget. Edgar Guerra with SEIU California. On the topic of public sector, we are grateful for the additional funding to PERB for mediation. Also, I wanna thank you for committing to find a long term solution to the VLF shortfall, which is a priority for our members who are serving in San Mateo County.

On the topic of childcare, grateful for the Budget Juniors funding for FFN's license exempt providers who are impacted by the 2025 Los Angeles County fires. Lastly, we look forward to working with the administration on our and our legislative partners on ensuring the adoption of rate reform using the alternative methodology to move towards a single rate structure on a timely fashion to note that our intention to organize on a timeline that is more urgent than what was referenced in AB 190.

And on education, we look forward, we look forward to continuing conversations around funding for classified employees and staffing, including cleaning standards and supplies and full funding for the CSAB dollar match. Thank you.

Yesenia Rabancho with End Child Poverty California. Across the country, more than 5,500,000 hungry people have been kicked off of food assistance. We are experiencing in an engineered hunger crisis targeting vulnerable households. While in California, we are making real progress on our administrative response to this crisis.

We are deeply disappointed that this budget does not immediately expand food assistance to immigrants excluded by HR 1 xenophobic policies. We will continue our work with you next budget to expand CFAP.

And while we did not see the progress we hoped for how CalFresh households with children 14 to 17 losing their dependency status, we celebrate the new hunger free holiday school meal program as it sets a North Star goal that in California, every kid has a right to every meal every season.

And lastly, on the behalf of the Dina Rise Up Coalition, we support the inclusion of the CARE Fund. This is a historic step forward for disaster recovery policies created by and for disaster survivors.

We thank the Governor and the legislature for standing with Eaton Fire survivors and helping us protect that future. And just wanted to add in, there's over 20 organizations in support of this effort. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Keely O'Brien with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. We wanna express gratitude for all the work to fight hunger in this budget, including the additional funding for Cal Food that was just added, but also echoing the deep disappointment that nothing was done to expand CFAP this year for to protect the refugees, victims of trafficking, including children and seniors who are losing food aid as a result of cruel xenophobic federal policies.

And while we did not see the progress we hoped for to support CalFresh households losing access due to time limits, we are very excited to see to celebrate the creation of the hunger free holidays school meal program.

We also appreciate the language to ensure immigrants can continue to access dialysis and emergency medical, and we are thankful for the swift action taken to support gender affirming care for children and youth. Thank you to all of you and your staff for your work on this budget.

Good afternoon, Chair and committee members. Melissa Sparks Kranz with the League of California Cities. We are in support here today of AB/SB 113 and the legislature's leadership in allocating the proposition 4 climate bond dollars, including bond funding for water supply reliability, wildfire prevention and mitigation, coastal resilience to address sea level rise impacts, extreme heat programs, and energy microgrid funding. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Trinity Tran, on behalf of the California Public Banking Alliance and over 130 organizations with the California State Bank Coalition, and we wanna extend a thank you to the leadership for entertaining the idea of funding a commission to explore the creation of a California State Bank. And although we are disappointed it wasn't funded in this budget, we will continue the fight.

This is a common sense practical step for the state to take to explore how we can create public financial infrastructure to fund housing, climate, small business infrastructure. We're obviously in a moment of federal volatility with retreat from the federal level with budget cuts and constraints year after year.

This is a practical, due diligent, fiscally responsible step for the state to take to explore how we can keep more public dollars circulating in California. So we look forward to continuing con conversations next year. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. My name is Meredith Alexander. I'm reading a statement from Leah Stokes, a professor at UC Santa Barbara who is unable to be here today. Hi. My name is Leah Stokes.

I'm a professor at UCSB and a California mom, and I'm urging you to vote yes on AB 196 and also to express disappointment that we are once again not funding the demand side grid support program. This past week, extreme heat disrupted school for roughly half a million students in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.

Some of those schools already hold Cal Shape awards to install air conditioning. They simply need time to finish the work. Nearly $2,000,000 sits unspent on December 1 without action on AB 196. It will revert to the utilities. Please send it to classrooms instead. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. First, thank you all for all the hard work, you and staff for all the hard work that it took to get here. On behalf of the California Coalition of Large Energy Users, I would like to echo Professor Stokes' statement on asking for your support on Assembly bill 196 to keep the CalShape money in the CalShape account.

Our members are California companies with employees in California who work and live in California, and it's really important for this funding to be available for schools. And then on behalf of Generac Power Systems and Deco v Smart Thermostats, I would like to echo the comments from Advanced Energy United and Professor Stokes on our disappointment that funding for the demand side grid support was not included in this package.

You know, in general, these programs were created to support California during times of emergency, and we would urge a continued effort to make sure that we were prepared for future emergencies and that these programs stay intact. Thank you.

Mister Chair and members, thank you all for your dedication and being here on the weekend to get this the state's business done. Andrew Antwih on behalf of the Office of Kat Taylor with a thank you for GGRF funding for Salk. And for the Port Of Los Angeles, thank you for funding for Aquatic Center and also for the Port Freight Infrastructure Grant Program to allow grants to continue to be drawn down.

And for the LADOT, thank you for the GGRF expenditure echo comments that have made earlier for the larger tier three coalition to find a better solution. Revenues have been volatile way more than anybody thought when we did SB 840. So continued work there, and thanks.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. Ronald Coleman Baeza here on behalf of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, CHIRLA, also here on behalf of Alta Together, a resilient tomorrow, Civic Sundays, Clergy Community Coalition, California Community Foundation, Eaton Fire Residents United, and Project Passion.

We're very thankful to see the $15,000,000 in the budget for the care fund, which will help Altadena residents recover and continue to live and stay in their area after the devastation from the Eaton fire.

Additionally, on behalf of CHIRLA, we are very grateful for the additional $2,000,000 to expand immigration legal services, particularly in the San Fernando Valley, to ensure that we can have immigration legal services in this area that has been an enforcement hot spot over the last two years.

Finally, we are very much in appreciation of the funding that's in place to ensure that people on restricted scope Medi Cal can have access to dialysis. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair members. Monica Madrid with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, CHIRLA. We thank the committee for not including the proposed autonomous agricultural equipment language in the budget trailer bill. Immigrant farm workers are essential to California, and proposals that could their jobs and economic security deserve a transparent process with meaningful worker input.

However, we are disappointed that the budget did not include funding to expand CFAP to humanitarian immigrant populations losing federal food assistance eligibility under HR 1. As the Federal Government continues to target immigrant communities, California must ensure that families do not go hungry because of their immigration status. Thank you.

Thank you, Mister chairman. Cliff Berg here in behalf of Arslan Cemetery, Mount Sinai, a broad coalition of community organizations including Jewish, Armenian, Catholic homeowners associations in strong support of AB 194.

And we'd like to thank the Chair for including in that legislation provisions that set up a clear public and transparent process for approval of a project that has been on the boards for over two years despite community opposition with a lack of any kind of public vote or any kind of governmental entity approving it.

Unfortunately, there have been attempts to jam that project through, which would unfortunately narrow a road in front serving both Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai Cemeteries, which serve hundreds of thousands of families of every faith in this greater State of California and Southern California, despite opposition from the community. Unfortunately, this language is needed to provide transparency in a public process.

Thank you for your support.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. James Thuerwachter of the California State Council of Laborers, here to express our strong appreciation for the committee's work on preserving and protecting the State's Film and Tax Film and Television Tax Credit Program. This program supports thousands of union jobs in both the construction and production of our state's entertainment industry. So thank you for that.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair and members. Raymond Contreras with Lighthouse Public Affairs on behalf of the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, Habitat for Humanity California, and the San Diego Housing Commission.

Who would like to thank the legislature for funding the regional housing finance agencies in Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Bay Area. This will help build, preserve, and protect affordable housing across the state. Thank you.

Chair members, Mikael Skvarla here on behalf of Carrier Corp in support of the Cal Shape provisions and want to express our appreciation. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair members. I'm Molly Corcoran with Axiom Advisors on behalf of the coalition, including Forest Lawn Memorial Parks And Mortuaries. We appreciate the legislature's recognition in AB 194 to ensure transparent public process to a proposal that would make changes to row aids around the cemetery and create traffic congestion and severely restrict public access to sacred grounds. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I want to thank all the members of the public who showed up on a weekend to share their thoughts, and perspectives with us. As we're about to adjourn what I believe will be our final hearing of this legislative session, I just wanted to take a moment to underscore a few thank you's.

First, I just wanted to thank members of the committee. I have learned so much from all of you. I have been deeply in awe of the intelligence and integrity and sense of purpose and mission that each of you has brought to this work, particularly our sub chairs.

It has been a pretty brutal two years for the budget committee, and all of you have just represented your communities, the people, the State of California, people are counting on us so ably, and I'm just really, really grateful for all the hard work that all of you have put in.

And I know that each of you can see your fingerprints are all over this budget and California is better for that. So thank you to the members of this committee for doing the hard work. Also, I wanna thank the folks sitting over there, members of the Assembly Budget Committee staff for all the incredible hard work and Christian Griffith, who I hopefully, you can hear me right now.

I know he's, there he is. To Christian, to Jason from the speaker's office for again, for helping to guide us, for working so hard. I was just looking back on my text messages. My last text, from a budget committee person was, 03:08AM on Friday night, and they picked up again at 06:22 in the morning on Saturday morning. So I hope that gives you a sense of just how hard, these folks are working for all of us.

So thank you. And then again to, Abraham and Alicia on my team who have gotten dragged into a lot of the thorniest budget issues, thank you for your incredible service, and also to all of the staff, the sergeants, and everybody else who makes all of this possible.

So thank you, everybody. It's been, it's been an eventful two years but I think we have done well by the people of California, and I'm proud of the product that we're delivering today. Look forward to conversation and votes on the floor, tomorrow and Tuesday.

And with that, we are adjourned.