Floor — 2026-06-15 (partial)

This afternoon, we'll be led in prayer by Reverend Jason Benzi. Let us pray. God of all peoples and nations, you show us the splendor of diversity and the beauty of unity. Make us who come from many languages, genders, abilities, nations, orientations, and perspectives a united body that delights in our many and varied gifts. Defend our liberties and give those entrusted with authority the spirit of wisdom that there might be a greater measure of justice and certain peace. Look with compassion on the whole of our state and nation. Take away the arrogance and hatred that infect our hearts. Break down the walls that separate us. Unite us in bonds of love. And through our struggle and confusion, enrich our unique calling with purpose and conviction. Namaste. Thanks be to God.

Thank you, Madam President. Members, I move that measures reported by the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which are June 16th, 17th, and 18th, be given a second reading upon being reported and ordered to the third reading.

I protest that motion.

Thank you, Madam President. Members, I move that Joint Rule 62A be suspended to allow the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review view to hear measures related to the budget on Tuesday, June 16th, Wednesday, June 17th, and Thursday, June 18th without sufficient notice. I ask for an aye vote.

I appreciate that consideration, but we have a lot of members not on the floor, so we're going to do the roll call again.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, file item 17 is a confirmation of Julie Lee for reappointment to the Delta Stewardship Council, where she currently serves as the chair. Before joining the council in 2022, she is serving in the executive branch as the undersecretary for the Government Operations Agency. She was approved by the Rules Committee on June 3rd on a unanimous vote. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Colleagues I rise to offer some unsolicited advice to the Delta Protection Commission appointees The delta is a damaged natural resource that provides water to 27 million Californians The delta tunnel has been proposed a solution to the water problems. However, the delta tunnel is extremely expensive, and even if it is started, it may never be finished, leaving many communities stuck with a very large bill and no water to show for it. The tunnel would be extraordinarily damaging to the Delta region. So my advice is to look for other alternatives, such as the California Water Renaissance idea to develop a statewide sustainable water plan to be part of a solution for reliable water supply for the remainder of the century. I will vote for these appointees. For us, please, Madam President.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote. Secretary, please call the roll.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, file item 18 is a confirmation of Ann Patterson for the appointment of the Delta Stewardship Council. Prior to this appointment, she served as the governor's office in various leadership positions, including Singler Counselor, Cabinet Secretary, and Legal Affairs Secretary. We all know her. She's incredible at everything that she does, and she was approved by the Rules Committee on June 3rd on a 5-0 vote. Respectfully asked for an aye vote.

Madam President, colleagues, file item 20 is a confirmation of Santa Cruz County Sheriff Christopher Clark for the appointment of the Board of State of Community Corrections. He joined the BSCC in January and his appointment is supported by the California State Sheriff's Association. He was approved by the Rules Committee on June 3rd. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Madam President, I just want to say that he is my hometown sheriff. He's really popular, really qualified, responsive to the people, and is an outstanding appointment for this, and I urge an aye vote.

Respectfully thank my colleague, my good colleague from Santa Cruz, for making good comments on this individual. I agree with him and respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Madam President. I'm pleased to present SJR 17, which honors the Republic of Korea veterans who fought alongside American troops during the Vietnam War and later became United States citizens. More than 300,000 South Korean troops served in Vietnam, making the Republic of Korea our nation's largest ally to that conflict. SAR 17 urges Congress and the President to allow states to extend burial and memorial benefits in state veterans cemeteries to these veterans who left Korea to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in Vietnam with the American soldiers. Congress has already extended certain medical and home loan benefits to veterans of other allied countries. S.J.R. 17 does not expand eligibility or create a new state benefit. It asks for federal government to clarify whether states may honor these veterans without risking federal cemetery funding I respectfully ask for your aye vote on this important resolution

As the chair of the Military and Veterans Committee, I support Senate Bill J.R. 17 to recognize the fact that our veterans, those who served in Vietnam, who served alongside many cases with the South Vietnamese soldiers who also gave up their lives and sacrificed, and there they saw sacrifice together. And now that some of them are in their 80s and 90s, to recognize them here in California, to allow them that privilege to be buried in California as American citizens that they are, I support Senate Bill SJR 17.

Thank you, Senator Archuleta, for your supporting statements. As a chairperson of the Veterans Committee, I urge your aye vote.

Senator Laird. Thank you very much, Madam President. AB 109 is the Budget Act of 2026. All told, the AB 109 budget package includes $355.9 billion in total spending, $253 billion of which is the general fund. It maintains $36.5 billion in combined total reserves. It's balanced in both 2026-27 and 2027-28 fiscal years, and it will cut the structural deficit almost in half. Our state continues to face some hard choices in this budget, and in making these hard decisions, the legislature has come together and remain faithful to the framework that was put forth by the Senate, which is committed to responsible budgeting, maintaining the vital programs Californians depend on, and it takes a balanced approach, making targeted reductions and adopting billion of new revenues As part of the balanced approach we expect the legislature to act on the revenue trailer bills for which there is a three agreement Additional significant aspects of this budget include it delays until July 1st 2027. The governor's proposed new cuts to Medi-Cal beneficiaries with unsatisfactory immigration status, unknown as UIS, such as eliminating coverage for asylees. It delays until July 1st, 2027, the cuts to UIS Medi-Cal beneficiaries from last year's budget, which was scheduled to take effect this year, such as clinic payment reductions and the loss of dental benefits. It provides up to $190 million in forgivable loans for distressed hospitals and $250 million to support our public hospitals. It adopts the Be Home Soon program to safely transition older adults and people with disabilities out of nursing homes and hospitals and back home or to the community with family and caregivers, saving the Medi-Cal program hundreds of millions of dollars annually. It preserves current child care slots and adds 22,770 new child care slots in 2026-27. It provides additional funding for affordable housing and the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program. It maintains funding for in-home supportive services, rejecting all of the governor's proposed reductions. It provides funding for a variety of other areas, including for CalFood, County Administration, for Medi-Cal and CalFresh, immigrant legal services and new judgeships and courthouse construction. And within Proposition 98, it restores over $250 million to community colleges in this split. This budget represents the work of 54 budget subcommittee hearings and six full committee hearings. I would like to thank and acknowledge the subcommittee chairs and members as well as staff, our assembly partners and the administration. The legislature and the governor share a common goal of ensuring the fiscal stability of the state and protecting our California values. I look forward to having an agreement with the administration very soon. Members, I ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Madam President. Members, I rise in opposition of AB 109, the Budget Act. At the outset of the overall macro, California doesn't have a revenue problem. It does have a wasteful spending problem and an addiction to spending problem. What you're doing today, and I agree with the budget chair, The budget chair says we have some hard choices, but the problem is you pass those hard choices off to the next governor, whoever the next governor of California is, and the future legislature, because we do have a structural deficit moving forward. And then when you look at the chair, the chair said that we're going to have revenue trailer bills coming forthwith. That means not only do we have record revenues coming into the state of California, but let me equate that to everybody that doesn't understand that in speak, that means higher taxes and fees on California citizens. At a time when both Democrats and Republicans have said on this floor, the number one issue across the California is the affordability crisis. What's coming before you, not only do we have record revenues coming in, but now we going to increase your taxes and fees on those same hardworking California families who are already having a tough time What we don see in this budget is proper funding for Proposition 36 that passed all 58 counties almost 70 of the vote We don see that to give the law enforcement the tools they need to keep us safe across the state of California What we don see in this budget is actually a payback a repayment of billions owed to the federal government in unemployment insurance debt that almost every other state across the nation has done And we can pay it back when we have record revenues remember when will we pay it back and then when we look at other things that are just again what are we doing in terms of the affordability crisis did we suspend the gas tax that we could lower the gas prices by $1.80 a gallon tomorrow for hard working California families put $1,100 back in their pocket at a time when we have this affordability crisis you choose not to do that instead we're going to be waiting for these budget these trailer bills that are going to come forward with more higher taxes and fees that you're going to see on, again, those hardworking families that are having a hard time deciding between a gallon of milk and a gallon of gas. Those seniors on fixed incomes can't afford these high gas prices or this affordability crisis. These young students who are just graduating from college can't afford it either. And so what we're doing at a time when we have record revenue, we're now putting in, also we're going to add, again, taxes and fees moving forward, as said by the chair of the Budget Committee. And then, moving forward, what do we fund? We fund the high-speed rail. One of the easiest things that we could decide to not fund is the high-speed rail, which has been a wasteful spending project that will go down as the most wasteful spending project in probably world history. We have in funding, we have Governor Newsom's diaper access initiative that will cost $20 million, but when you allocate it, it's about 50 cents per diaper. But if you go to Target, it's about 16 cents per diaper. So that, again, is a wasteful spending program. We have, you know, a whole bunch of these different wasteful spending programs that are moving forward. Again, the budget's the blueprint of our priorities. Hardworking families are making tough decisions on their family checkbook. And what this legislature has done at a time when we have record revenue is match the spending to that revenue, leave a structural deficit, and on top of that, raising taxes and fees on hardworking California families. And for those reasons, I ask for your no vote on this budget. It's a bad budget for hardworking California families.

Thank you, Madam President. Excuse me. every Sunday on CNN, Fareed Zakaria has a news show, and he begins each one of those with what he calls Fareed's take. That is his take on issues that he thinks are important that week. Yesterday, very timely, it was about California. now Fareed not exactly a right wing commentator took our state at least the governance of our state to very serious task the title his title was how California became a case study in failed governance the state's economy is dynamic its government is sclerotic his words not mine he went on to cite housing, people living education, home sluggish job creation, all very helpful criticism from a liberal commentator, and I offer it up as such to your loyal and friendly opposition. But he led with the fiscal record. That's what makes it timely. His statistics are since the year 2000, population up 15% while spending has grown 200% on a per-person basis from $2,300 to $6,300 and total state employees up over 50%. I think more relevant for our discussion today, during the eight years of the current administration, population growth is actually flat. While spending is up 90%, that per person number increasing from about $3,300 to today's $6,300.

Thank you, Mr. President. Let's talk about what this budget does for the affordability crisis because, you know, senators have spoken and shared that we're not addressing the affordability crisis. In fact, this body, the Democrats on this side, fought to ensure that people who wanted to go back to work and can't afford to pay for child care got child care slots. They got 22,770 child care slots because it's so expensive to put kids in child care. That's going to help everyday Californians. What the Democrats in this body did for the affordability crisis was held the line and ensure that seniors did not get kicked off of Medi-Cal because all the other parties in our tangle wanted to keep it at perhaps $2,000 dollars for asset tests and because of the senate, the democrats in the senate, seniors won't get kicked off of Medi-Cal. Let's talk about affordability. Seniors wouldn be able to pay for their care wound care whether it be any kind of care for them That our win here in addressing the affordability crisis Another thing we did for affordability was to ensure that people stayed on IHSS because you try to hire someone to care for your loved one and you don qualify for IHSS You know how expensive it is to get in home care? It's above and beyond what we wouldn't be able to afford. So we fought to ensure that we kept IHSS in the budget because the governor wanted to make sure that they keep, he wanted to cut the amount of hours people got and how the amount of, the amount of people that could provide care. So if we're talking about affordability crisis, we, we held the line and ensured that we address everyday Californians issues. What we also did was to push out and ensure people stayed on coverage for Medi-Cal so that they didn't lose dental coverage starting July 1st. That's a huge win in the affordability crisis because starting July 1st, the UIS population, people who are legally permanent residents here would have lost dental coverage. You go try to pay to get a crown or get a deep cleaning without health insurance. See how expensive that is. That's a win in our books for addressing the affordability crisis. We were able to get a COLA increase for child care providers, an increase to their pay to address how expensive things are. We weren't able to get the exact amount that we wanted, but it was a COLA, a COLA they haven't gotten in a long time. They're going to get a little bit more in their paycheck to be able to afford how expensive things are. And we want to talk about the affordability crisis. We had to do so much in here because H.R. 1, the big ugly bill, cut so much in health care that pushed people off of CalFresh, that pushed people off of health care, making it more expensive for them to afford food, to afford health insurance. But we held the line and are giving counties hundreds of millions of dollars for that.

Yes, Mr. President.

Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

With all due respect, President and Officer, my entire remarks have been on the budget. As the chair of the budget sub-tier and health and human services, I'm really well aware of the impacts on H.R.1. We had to take action in our budget subcommittee on county admin funding as a result of H.R.1. In fact, H.R. 1 was in the budget items of everything that we voted on, so it is in line with the vote we will be taking today. I'd like to also continue my remarks with wins on the affordability crisis with a brand-new program that was born here out of the Senate called the Be Home Soon program. This is going to help address the cost that we spend on taking care of people in acute hospitals. we are now going to be able to remove people from acute hospitals and put them in community care, saving hundreds of millions of dollars for Californians. So if we accused of not looking at how to trim the fat or if we ever accused of not looking at programs of how equitable they are here proof that we look at things and what we spending and how we can do it better And this is a brand new program that is going to, if passes the three-party deal, that's going to get kids with complex needs out of hospitals to get care in their homes by private dirty nursing. That's going to take seniors or other people with complex needs out of hospitals that cost so much and put them in other places close to their home, that's going to save us a lot of money. Now, I recognize there's a lot of outstanding things. I stood here last year very frustrated that we put a freeze on the UIS population for Medi-Cal. And we haven't undone that yet. But there is a commitment, at least me, personally, and a lot of senators, that we will come back, and once we have the ability, we'll put them back on health insurance. Because we know that if everyone has health insurance, that is a savings for Californians. Californians. It doesn't just impact the UIS population and impacts everyone. But outside of that, I am very proud of the Senate body that we held the line on every single delay that would have kicked in July 1st, the draconian cuts to human services, and the commitment to ensure that we get to the 206,800 child care slots that we promised Californians. With that, respectfully, asking for an aye vote.

Thank you, Mr. President. This has obviously been a very difficult situation for many, if not everyone, and all of my colleagues. During our budget discussions, I asked if there could be a path to restoring Medi-Cal to immigrants. So far, the answer has been no. We've carved paths for renewable energy. We've carved paths to higher education. We've carved paths to affordable housing and home ownership because carving paths makes progress. That's how we move progress forward. No path means a dead end. This budget saves money by removing poor people from Medi-Cal coverage. It builds those savings into the baseline and creates no mechanism for restoration, even if federal conditions change. Meanwhile, it delays, but not yet rejects, cuts to dental and community clinic services for UIS enrollees until July of 2027, putting us right back here next year. And a bill that we have not yet had presented to us, AB 177, says it's fine for employers who receive huge tax cuts in HR at 1 to wait another year while their low-paid workers remain on state-subsidized care. I appreciate your giving me the time. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President and the members again. I rise to express my opposition to AB 109. Californians want to see real relief and a legislature that is responsible for the tax dollars they already pay to this state's government. However, when you read this budget bill, it is clear that the supermajority expects tax increases to fund this budget while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will say the tax increases to fund this budget bill are aimed at the billionaires That is simply false. AB 109 relies on the MCO tax on Medi-Cal and commercial health insurance plans, which would hike commercial health insurance plans by $1.5 billion for everyday people and businesses. The supermajority continues to fail as businesses by not paying back the state's unemployment insurance debt with the federal government and taxing our businesses into extinction. Some of you may remember when I was in the assembly, I introduced a bill to pay off the entire federal uninsurance debt when we had enough surplus, but that was killed in the committee. And now we are paying billions of dollars to take the interest alone on the bill, not to speak of paying off the balance that we owe. This budget also continues a false narrative that the oil companies are price-caveraging Californians. In Budget Committee 2, I asked the evidence of oil companies price gouging our residents, but no evidence was provided despite the CES, California Energy Commission, investigating for three years. This makes it difficult to justify spending millions more on new oversight and regulatory structure when we know that California-specific taxes, fees, and regulatory policies are the major contributors to the burden Californians face at the pump. We all like to brag about California being the number fourth world economy. If we have such a large, we are richer, so to speak, than the bragging about our power of economy in California. Then we should be able to take care of all the needs. But the fact is that we are collecting enough taxes, but we have a spending problem, and we call it the structural deficit. For example, giving the Attorney General $14 million to sue oil companies will simply turn into higher prices at the gas pump. And then also we are bragging about our state being the sanctuary city for medical care services. But when you invite all undocumented, undocumented people to our state, and there is a support of Medicare services through Medicare, that will continuously grow our unnecessary expenses. chose on our budget, and we call it the deficit budget, structural deficit budget. Rather than providing certainty, this budget leaves significant decisions unresolved. It is a baseline budget with the major policy and the funding details still to be negotiated. As I said in the budget committee in the morning, Californians deserve a transparent budget process. Unfortunately, this year's process has fallen short of that standard. There are some specific items in this budget I do support. I am pleased to see more funding for UC and our distressed hospitals. There are issues I wish this budget went farther to address such a fully funding Prop 36. Unfortunately, this budget is not truly balanced and does little to address the affordability and the public safety issues that our constituents desperately want this legislature to solve. For these reasons, I respectfully urge everybody to vote no.

Thank you very much, Madam President. I rise in support of the budget, and I am appreciative of the work that was done, particularly to reverse proposed funding cuts from the administration around various forms of health care. Every year we rally as a Senate and as a legislature to protect funding for our residents who really need it, whether it's around dental or home health care or community clinics, and I'm appreciative for that work. I am rising to speak about public transportation and funding for public transportation because our transit systems are in a very precarious situation right now, and this has been a real challenge for a few years now. One of the things that has made it worse is H.R. 1, the big, horrible bill which, among many other things, cut funding for public transportation because apparently when Donald Trump is not auctioning off the White House to UFC and to Paramount, he's focused on cutting access to public transportation and other horrible things. So in the governor's proposed budget, including in the May revise, there were cuts proposed to public transportation, including commitments that we made as a legislature in terms of funding, multi-year funding for transit. We made multi-year commitments, and those commitments are not honored in the proposed budget in the May revise. In addition, the California Air Resources Board, in blowing up Cap and Invest as a giveaway to the oil industry, among other things, reduced funding for public transportation. So we are in danger of not adequately funding transit in the state of California. and that will lead to service cuts, which we do not need and our constituents who rely on transit to get around do not need It will harm them and it will harm people who are driving who are going to have to contend with more congestion I appreciative that the leadership in the Senate and the Assembly and that we have agreed that we are going to continue to work on transit funding through the summer that I want I'm here to express that that is, to me, a red line, incredibly important issue we need to support transit and not allow these reductions to go into effect. So I ask for an aye vote with that caveat. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President and members. I rise today really, really just being very thoughtful and mindful of this process and certainly appreciative of the work that's been done, but I will say this is a very, very tough decision for me to make personally, given still what seems to me as a bit of a two-tier system, ensuring that everyone has health care, but if you're born somewhere else that is not the United States of America, that we may have to think twice about your health care. If you make this the fourth largest economy in the world, but yet somehow you still would be required to pay a premium for your health care. To me, I know this all seems very, very unfair. And while I, again, appreciate the work that's been done to push where we can, our other colleagues in the other house, to push the administration, I know and I'm certainly personally dedicated to doing this work even more to make sure that those cuts don't continue to further harm people in our communities, that further close the clinics that we all trust and care about, continue to close the hospitals and rural and urban communities across the state, and that we all invest, regardless of our party affiliation, we all invest in ensuring that people's basic right to health care is uplifted. and so while I am very very you know just personally it's really hard for me to do this I will I'm going to support this bill today with those with those issues still in the forefront and certainly top of mind I'd also like to say that you know the assumption of tax revenues that may not be realized yet although it's in the billions of dollars I do believe that we do need to put some of that set aside, not just to patch holes and exist in this deficit environment, but to ensure that we are setting it aside for a Medi-Cal 2.0 if we need to. I'm really committed to that, and I hope that we would be able to do that. We need to. Most of these people, mind you, are working people. Over half of them are working in our state. And so I would just ask that this body continue to do the work, continue to make sure that we are committed to revenue, whatever that looks like, even if it's telling our friends in the industries and major corporations that they need to pay a little bit more too. I'd rather they pay more than the farm worker in the Central Valley or a janitor in Los Angeles paying a little bit more for health care. And so with that, I respectfully ask for an aye vote and we'll continue to work on this.

Thank you, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate. I'd like to start by thanking the Republican consultants who did the deep dive on this budget in a short period of time. And I am going to name them Kirk Feely Megan D Heather Wood John Marie McKinney Anthony Archie Chantel Denny Matt Osterly and Armando Hernandez I greatly appreciate all of you That said I think our current budgetary process is helpful but still needs quite a bit of work What we're voting on is not the final budget agreement, and it's balanced based on items that will not be discussed on this floor today, and I think that should be really concerning for all of us. While legislators will receive their pay by passing on an untimed budget, taxpayers will not be receiving the transparent and responsible budget that they deserve in return. However, I do want to express my deep gratitude for several items included in this budget that will make a real difference in my communities. First, our colleges are seeing an increased funding for enrollment growth at the community colleges and for the compacts for the CSU and the UC systems. Thank you for honoring this promise and providing the full 5% increase. Our colleges and universities have consistently been asked to do more with less and this funding will be critical for them. While increased funding is beneficial, I have concerns about cuts to the middle class scholarship program. Next, I'd like to say thank you for funding judgeships, not courtships, but judgeships today. I appreciate my colleague from San Pedro comments today about the need for additional judgeships in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. These positions would be transformational, transformational for the Inland Empire. And while I appreciate the additional $300 million included in the budget, the legislature must continue to invest in trial court construction projects, new capital outlay, facility modifications, and deferred maintenance throughout the state. I know our state courts will continue to make adjustments to ensure that essential court services are provided and cases are heard, but current demand far exceeds available resources and facility space. underscoring the critical need for solutions to ensure residents have equal access to the criminal justice system. When residents must wait unacceptably long periods to have their day in court, justice is delayed and too often justice is denied. In future budget discussions, I would like to see funding provided to public water districts statewide to help them comply with the state's recently enacted Chromium 6 requirements, estimated across the state to be about a billion dollars to facilitate. Many districts service small, rural, and disadvantaged communities that simply do not have the financial capacity to meet these mandates on their own. Water districts across California are working to comply with Chromium 6 MCL, but many are finding it extremely difficult to do so without additional support. A state investment would help guarantee that residents of rural communities have access to safe, reliable drinking water without placing unsustainable financial burdens on local households. I am also grateful for the California Indian Nations College receiving a funding allocation which will provide stability for the school as it continues to grow and expand. Lastly, I want to acknowledge how blessed we are to serve on the Budget Sub 1 because I know many of the other subcommittees face difficult decisions about the programs that should be prioritized for funding. This budget is delivering a historic, historic level of funding for our schools, and we've provided more targeted services to give our students the best opportunities possible to succeed While we able to fund both needs and wants for education other subcommittees must make difficult choices between worthy programs and in some cases between life services With all of these concerns in mind, I want to just share that I'll be abstaining today, but I am extremely grateful for those items that I mentioned today, and thank you to my colleagues for collaborating on these issues.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We've heard on the floor today a recurring refrain, which is maybe this budget could be more fiscally responsible, it spends too much money, and then immediately followed by a list of $1 billion per person of things that we wished were in the budget. And isn't that what budgeting really is all about and why we're here today and why the budget is so critical? But we cannot have it all. Neither side, neither side of the aisle can have everything. This budget, though, goes a long way towards putting both California on a healthy financial course going into the future for not just our grandchildren and our children, but for us in two years, but also making critical investments. So I first want to just rise with the chair of the budget subcommittee number four on state admin, Senator Hurtado, just to emphasize the really important investments that this budget makes in housing and in homelessness. $900 million for the programs that are essential to build affordable housing that we've approved, we've applauded. Many of us have gone and broken ground. This gets us to the ribbon cutting and then to the keys for folks to be able to finally get a roof over their head. 40,000 units are ready to go. This will go a long way towards advancing that. And second, for the substantial investment in the housing and homelessness prevention program that is absolutely critical to meet an enduring need on California streets and make sure that there are housing services and the other resources that local communities need in order to address the homelessness issue. Now, it is true that the budget is built on a trailer bill that is not yet on the floor, but it's no secret what the topics are. It's in the May revise. The governor has proposed it. It's been adopted in concept in both houses of the legislature. So there's no shadow games going on here. It's just the normal budget proposal that's been proposed. And that, I think, critically, the main one of those, it's not a tax increase. It's not a tax increase. What it does is it says, hey, look, for my district in Yolo, Solano, Napa, Contra Costa Sonoma, and Sacramento counties, the overwhelming majority of my constituents pay more taxes every year than 80 companies in this state, 20 of whom pay nothing, zero. So this doesn't raise the tax rate. It doesn't raise the tax responsibility. It just says the price of a free society, the price of maintaining democracy and the whole notion of private property and public safety depends on all of us contributing something. And that applies to the barber or to the laundromat owner in my district, but it also applies to the very wealthiest corporations that are currently paying none of their corporations tax. So this doesn't change the rate. It simply says everybody got to pay something. And the people are already paying, and it's time for these small number of corporations that are evading any tax liability and their corporate tax at all to pay their fair share. And so with that, I want to also join in thanking the chair and the leadership here, but also to recognize the substantial efforts in the other house and their work to come together in many ways for the first time in a long time on some of these really, critical priorities because we know California is a potent, wealthy state in so many ways, but that wealth is not distributed evenly, and wealth is not going to be with us for all time if we don't make these appropriate investments. So thanks. I look forward to voting for this as well, and I would urge an aye vote.

Thank you, Madam President and ladies and gentlemen of the Senate. I also rise in strong support of this bill. Today we're voting on a budget that truly reflects a commitment to California's children, working families, and those who need it the most. As someone who represents a low-income community, I know that affordability continues to be top of mind for so many families, but I am happy that we continue to support child care programs and preserve programs that help bring stability to families, especially our children. It allows parents to continue to go to work and expand opportunities, and that grows the family and those opportunities. The budget continues to invest in education, which is critically important. Everything starts with that base, making sure that our children have the education that they need and deserve. Especially funding for distressed hospitals is part of that critical piece because we know that access to health care ensures that people can go to work and ensures that children can go to school, and they don't have to stay home because they can't afford child care. I want to just add that I want to thank the budget committee because I know that we don't recognize all the work that goes into these discussions, and we know that it's not a perfect solution, and we know it's not a perfect budget, but in this moment when there's so many issues happening all at once and that we are being impacted by federal cuts, this is a good middle ground. I know that the work is far from over, and we are truly committed to continuing the discussions to ensure that we continue to fight for everything that's been expressed on this floor. And I'm just, again, happy that I can contribute and that I can be part of this great floor here because a lot of work went into it, and I just don't want that to be lost, that so much work went into it. So with that, I ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I had an opportunity to speak during our budget hearing, and I spoke at great length about the judgeships that are going to be added throughout the state of California. But without a doubt, there are some areas that need them the most, and the records clearly show it, and that is the Inland Empire. I'm very pleased about that. The caseload for our judges is on average 18% more than it is anywhere else in the state of California. And with new judges, they'll finally be able to rest and be along the same as the rest of the judges. But before that, I do want to talk about the fact that this was such a transparent and inclusive process. Every subcommittee met countless times. together as subcommittees with the chair, Chair Laird, with our PT, Lamone, and of course with our own subcommittees. And making sure that we reviewed all of the items within our subcommittee. So within my committee, GGRF remains an issue. And I am glad that this was brought up by my colleague from San Francisco, something that we hope is going to be renegotiated re so that all of those issues that remain important issues transit clean air clean water affordable housing these are things that are part of Tier 3. We want to make sure that they get funded. I appreciate the fact that our community colleges were recognized as being an important part of higher education, and that came with additional funding in various areas, and I sincerely appreciate that, whether it's the Dreamer Center or the LGBTQ Center. Whatever it was, these are things that are going to be provided in the community colleges. But there are great wins that also came in other areas. I really appreciate it. These are not within my subcommittee, but these are really important wins. Special education received a substantial increase to $20 million. This is something that has been asked for and asked for and asked for for years by our communities. And finally, it is included in this two-party deal. Universal school meals, billions of dollars, again, is being provided for that. Sickle cell disease centers of excellence, $30 million. This is important. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center happens to have one of those. The fact that we are providing money for distressed hospitals. We're looking to forgive loans. Also, these are things that are important that make sure that our hospitals that take care of our constituents are taken care of. CalFresh, an additional $20 million for disadvantaged seniors. $10.5 million for the invasive fruit fly study and remediation. I also want to not forget the fact that health care for all has to be a goal. We have great wins in this, and my colleagues have talked about this. I sincerely appreciate all that has been done. But providing health care for those, when we talk about our undocumented, it is important, because they do provide and they do pay for their taxes. and although this budget doesn't include it, I know that it is something that we will look at in coming years. But without a doubt, this is a budget that others have called an imperfect budget. It is. Every budget is imperfect. But without a doubt, there are great wins for all of our communities and with that, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Madam President. Well, this comes to an old saying. everything has been said but not everyone has said it. Colleagues, I just want to hit two points. One, for the public, I think it's important that they understand that we didn't just start this process a couple weeks ago. Back in January, our pro tem, Lamone, and our chair, Laird, led a both policy and a budget retreat where we as senators collectively talked about our priorities. And it was at that time that we as subcommittee chairs, which I happen to be one of, began to talk about what were the things we were going to focus on through that period. So it's important for the public to understand that each of us represents approximately a million people. And of those million people, we have been continually, as the chair said, 56 meetings, talking about what those priorities are. And we will continue to do that. But today, we're going to be voting on what has been negotiated thus far, and we know that they going to continue to work to hit those very key points that are important to all of us The last point I want to make is there been discussion both in committee on the floor on Prop 36. In subcommittee 5, we handle the funding of Prop 36. It's important people to know, yes, Prop 36 is being funded to the tune of $50 million. We had last year approximately 9,000 cases, and of those cases, approximately 500 have gone towards incarceration. In our committee hearings, we did not have an upswell or complaints of being able to have sufficient funding to be able to do the process of implementing Prop 36. We will be providing a recap for everyone of that status within this next week, but I just wanted to assure you that Prop 36 is being funded for $50 million.

Thank you, Madam President. I rise in support of this measure and want to appreciate all the good work of my colleagues. I think this was going to be a very hard vote and an awful year, and somehow I think we've turned it around here over the last few months, and in no small part due to the good work of our leadership and all three parties to get ourselves in a place where we don't have to make the most catastrophic cuts, and we can forestall some of the worst impacts that we've seen from the federal government. I'm excited about a lot of aspects of this budget, but I do want to applaud the comments of our sub-chair of the Budget Subcommittee No. 2, a senator from San Bernardino, who's been watching like a hawk on how our greenhouse gas reduction fund is being spent. I personally, and I think my personal view is maybe shared by others that I've heard through the caucus, I'm a little uncomfortable using the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to balance operational costs that were typically done by our general fund. I think that is embedded in part of our vote here today. I think it's a one-time of about $1.35 billion. And I appreciate that these are important operational expenses that have to be addressed, but they do tie our hands somewhat in terms of funding other priorities that members may have, whether it's transit or clean transportation, sustainable housing, wildfire mitigation, research and development in higher education. So these are priorities, and what I just hope going forward into the summer is that we don't let that piece fall off the table and that we don't sort of get ourselves into this rut where we're using a fund that's really supposed to be for reducing emissions and use it as sort of our fiscal balancing tool every time we need a bailout for the general fund. And so I think that there's a lot of room here to keep negotiating. I know that this House is very ready to do that, and we've heard that repeatedly, and I just hope that the other parties will join us at that table and really take a second look at this because I do think we're in a different paradigm here based on the CARB rule. I don't believe that that rule is necessarily as horrible as folks are saying, and it's a giveaway. I do think there are new guidelines and new boundaries that were put into place at the CARB vote that actually gives us some room, and it may not actually drain the fund as much as we thought, but some of that will bear itself out over the coming weeks as we really get the feedback we need from, say, the LAO or Department of Finance of what those projected revenues could be. but I just want to make that general point I'll be very supportive today and just hope we can keep the integrity of our greenhouse gas reduction programs going Thank you Senator Simona McWayvis Madam President and colleagues and I agree with my good Senator from Englewood point

Senator Perez.

Madam Pro Temp.

Senator Laird, you are now able to close.

Secretary please call the roll. Allen. Aye. Alvarado Gil. No. Archuleta. Aye. Aragon. Aye. Ashby. Becker. Aye. Blake Spear. Aye. Cabaldon. Aye. Caballero. Aye. Cervantes. Aye. Choi. No. Cortese. Aye. Dally. No. Durazo. Aye. Gonzales. Aye. Grayson. Aye. Grove. No. I Jones no Laird I I McGuire I McNerney I Menjabar I Nilo no Ochoa Bog Padilla I Perez I Reyes I Richardson I Rubio I Ciarto no Smallwood Cuevas I aye Stern I strickland no umber I followed errors no Wahab I weapon Pearson I wiener I please call the absent members Ashby to Russell what you have a vote Ayes 28, noes 9. The measure passes. We're going to be lifting four items, which were placed on call. Secretary, please lift the call. Call the absent members on file item 17. Ashby, Cabaldon. Aye. Aye. Gonzalez. Aye. Limon. Aye. Smaller Cuevas. Aye. Ayes 39, noes 0. The appointment is confirmed. Please call the absent members on file item 18. Ashby. Durazo. Aye. Gonzalez. Aye. Limon. Aye. Ayes 39, noes 0. Appointment is confirmed. Aye. Ayes 39, noes 0. Appointment is confirmed. Aye. Ayes 39, noes 0. Appointment is confirmed. Aye. Ayes 39, noes 0. Ayes 39, no, zero. Appointment is confirmed. Please lift the call and file item 20. Ashby Daly Gonzalez aye Jones Limon aye Ciarto, Valadares, aye. Valadares, aye. Ayes 36, noes 0. The appointment is confirmed. Please call the absent members on file item 37. Ashby, Gonzalez, aye. Jones, aye. Limon, aye. Ayes 39, no 0. The resolution passes. Moving on to the consent calendar for the second day. We have items 81 through 86. Would a member wish to remove an item from the consent calendar? I am seeing none. Secretary, please read all items. Assembly Bill 2455, 1549, 1583, 1948, 2286, and Assembly Bill 2556. Please call the roll on the first item and apply the roll card to all the items. Allen. Aye. Avrata Gil. Aye. Archuleta. Aye. Aragon. Aye. Ashby. Becker. Aye. Aye. Blake Spear. Aye. Cobaldon. Aye. Caballero. Aye. Cervantes. Aye. Choi. Aye. Cortese. Aye. Daly. Aye. Durazo. I, Gonzales. I, Grayson. I, Grove. I, Hurtado. I, Jones. I, Laird. I, Limón. I, McGuire. I, McNerney. Menjavar. I, Nilo. I, Ochoa Bog. I, Padilla. I, Perez. I, Reyes. I, Richardson. I, Rubio. I, Cierto. I, Smallwood Cuevas. Aye. Sturm. Aye. Strickland. Aye. Umbert. Aye. Voladares. Aye. Wahab. Aye. Weber Pearson. Thank you. Ayes 38, no 0, consent calendar is approved. Moving on to committee announcements. Senator Becker, Senator Cabaldon. Senator Cabaldon, you're recognized.

Thank you. Senator Becker?

Thank you Senator. Moving back to motions and resolutions. Adjourn in memory, Senator Choi.

Senator Choi, you're recognized.

Senator Nilo.

Ha-Jean Lee was a dedicated public servant both in South Korea and here in the United States. Please bring his name forward, Senator, so that he may be properly memorialized. Senator Weiner, you're recognized.

She was a dedicated philanthropist and remains an inspiration for so many entrepreneurs today. She Doris and Don donated hundreds of millions of dollars to education reform to the arts and to so many other community needs As GAP grew to generate more than billion in annual sales Doris held the company to its core values, providing affordable clothing for working people. She lived with a standard of generosity that cemented her vast legacy in the hearts and minds of individuals around the globe. And I will say that the Fisher family in general is just an anchor family in San Francisco and supports our city, as does GAP in so many ways. So please join me in a journey in memory of Doris Fisher. What an icon and what an amazing legacy. Please bring her name forward so that we may properly memorialize her. Senator Rubio.

Thank you, Senator. Please bring the sailor's name forward so the Senate may properly memorialize him. There is no other business. The desk is clear, Madam Pro Tem. Thank you, members. The next floor session is on Thursday, June 18th at 9 a.m. The Senate is now adjourned. We will reconvene Thursday, June 18, 2026 at 9 a.m. Thank you.