The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors adopted the 2023-24 State Legislative Platform at its meeting on January 17, 2023. (C.16) Two County-sponsored bill proposals were included in the adopted State Platform:
1. "Legislation to direct the California Air Resources Board to develop greenhouse gas inventories for California cities, counties, and special districts. The Legislature should allocate up to $2.5 million for this purpose." County staff and lobbyists are exploring a partnership with CivicWell (formerly the Local Government Commission), a nonprofit organization that has developed a similar legislative proposal, to advance the proposal.
Currently, there is no standard protocol that is used across GHG inventories. Having an inventory prepared by the State would ensure that each jurisdiction is looking at comparable data. In October 2021, the Board of Supervisors signed on to a letter from more than 100 local governments and stakeholder groups requesting that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) conduct greenhouse gas inventories for all cities, counties, and special districts in California. In meetings between County staff and CARB staff, CARB has indicated that it does not anticipate taking on this responsibility absent direction and funding from the Legislature.
2. "Statewide permitting for hauling solid waste by non-franchise haulers. Permits are required for non-franchise solid waste haulers in unincorporated areas of the County, but no similar requirement exists for cities, which impedes enforcement of illegal dumping." County staff, advocates, and CSAC staff are soliciting feedback, input, and legislative interest in a bill that could potentially establish a pilot project allowing Contra Costa County to regulate non-franchise waste haulers throughout the county, including loads originating within city boundaries.
The County's state advocates from Nielsen Merksamer will provide an udpate at the meeting on the status of these sponsored bills as well as other notable bills of interest that have been introduced thus far.
Advocacy Priorities in the adopted 2023-24 State Legislative Platform include:
- COVID-19 Economic Recovery that supports the goals of Mental Well-Being,Equity in Action, Healthy Communities, Intergenerational Thriving, and a Welcoming & Safe Community
- Climate Change
- Heath Care, including Mental Health, Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) services
- Housing and Homelessness
- The Delta/Water and Levees
===================================================================================
Recap of State Budget issues by the Urban Counties of California from January 20, 2023:
And So It Begins: 2023-24 Budget Season Underway
The official state budget season started last week with the Governor’s release of his January budget proposal for 2023-24. (See the UCC summary here.) This week, the Senate officially kicked off the Legislature’s review of the Governor’s spending plan in an overview hearing, which offered initial insights into how members generally received the Administration’s approach to addressing the state’s fiscal challenges. In its Wednesday hearing, the full Senate budget committee received presentations from the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst’s Office (handout) on the Governor’s proposed budget. (Both house’s budget committees have put out their respective summaries of the January budget proposal: Senate | Assembly.)
We offer a few observations of note based on questions posed or concerns expressed by Senators during the initial overview hearing. Senator John Laird raised concerns about coastal resiliency funding and local planning money; Los Angeles-based Senator Caroline Menjivar highlighted concerns about delays to Behavioral Health Bridge Housing funding; and Senator Richard Roth plugged SB 45, his measure that would create a statewide loan fund for the purpose of building or renovating acute care psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric health facilities, or psychiatric units in general acute care hospitals. Additionally, Senator Anna Caballero raised issues related to Medi-Cal funding and the recent Madera Community Hospital closure; she also expressed interest in engaging the Legislature in rethinking how Medi-Cal is funded. Finally, Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas from the Los Angeles area expressed disappointment in the proposed delays in health and human services workforce spending. Although the Assembly Budget Committee has yet to announce its overview hearing, we are interested in learning more about what issues and concerns Assembly members focus on. More to come...
LAO Suggests Governor’s Budget Proposal Needs Work
The Legislative Analyst’s Office – in its initial analysis of the Governor’s proposed 2023-24 state budget – suggests that the Newsom Administration proposal falls short of closing the state’s projected deficit and urged the Legislature to prepare for larger reductions and lower tax revenues than the Administration is anticipating.
While the LAO concludes that the Governor’s approach to addressing the state’s budget deficit through spending-related solutions (as opposed to dipping into budget reserves) is prudent, it recommends that the Legislature take further actions to reduce more one-time and temporary spending, either in addition to or instead of the Governor’s proposal. In addition, noting that the Governor’s budget includes anticipated out-year deficits, the LAO recommends that the Legislature do more to avoid such deficits, like converting some spending-related delays to reductions instead, adding new out-year trigger reductions, or using other budget solutions such as revenue increases or cost shifts.
Additional Details on Health Care Workforce Development Delays in 2023-24 State Budget
The Governor’s proposed budget includes delays in several health care workforce development programs previously funded in the 2022-23 state budget. The Governor’s January budget defers $68 million in 2022-23 and $329.4 million in 2023-24 for certain HCAI healthcare workforce programs. The following provides additional details about the specific programs being delayed:
- Nursing Initiative Grants. $70 million scheduled to be awarded in 2022-23 and 2023-24 for a comprehensive nursing initiative would be delayed until 2024-25 ($35 million) and 2025-26 ($35 million). These funds were intended to support programs to increase the number of registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, certified nurse midwives, certified medical assistants, family nurse practitioners, and other health professions
- Community Health Workers Initiative. $130 million scheduled to be awarded in 2023-24 to train and certify 25,000 new community health workers would be delayed until 2024-25 ($65 million) and 2025-26 ($65 million).
- Social Work Initiative. $52 million scheduled to be awarded in 2022-23 and 2023-24 to expand the number of social workers trained in the state would be delayed until 2024-25 ($26 million) and 2025-26 ($26 million).
- Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine Fellowships. $48.5 million scheduled to be awarded in 2022-23 and 2023-24 to support additional slots for Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine Fellowships will be delayed until 2024-25 ($24.3 million) and 2025-26 ($24.3 million).
- University and College Grants for Behavioral Health Professionals. $52 million scheduled to be awarded in 2022-23 and 2023-24 to support 4,350 licensed behavioral health professionals through grants to existing university and college training programs would be delayed until 2024-25 ($26 million) and 2025-26 ($26 million).
- Masters in Social Work (MSW) Slots at Public Universities and Colleges. $30 million scheduled to be awarded in 2023-24 to expand the number of MSW students at the University of California and California State University programs would be delayed until 2024-25 ($15 million) and 2025-26 ($15 million).
- Song-Brown Nursing Grants. $15 million scheduled to be awarded in 2023-24 to support nurse training slots in the Song-Brown Healthcare Workforce Training Program would be delayed until 2024-25 ($7.5 million) and 2025-26 ($7.5 million).
|