California Assembly Bill 695 (Pacheco), the Juvenile Detention Facilities Improvement Grant Program, failed to secure a signature from Governor Newsom. The Governor provided the following message:
To the Members of the California State Assembly: I am returning Assembly Bill 695 without my signature. This bill creates, upon appropriation, the Juvenile Detention Facilities Improvement Grant Program…to address the infrastructure needs of the state's detained and supervised youth in [LA] county. New grant programs such as the program proposed in this bill must be considered and evaluated in the annual budget process in the context of all state funding priorities. In partnership with the Legislature, we enacted a budget that closed a shortfall of more than $30 billion through balanced solutions that avoided deep program cuts and protected education, health care, climate, public safety, and social service programs that are relied on by millions of Californians. This year, however, the Legislature sent me bills outside of this budget process that, if all enacted, would add nearly $19 billion of unaccounted costs in the budget, of which $11 billion would be ongoing. With our state facing continuing economic risk and revenue uncertainty, it is important to remain disciplined when considering bills with significant fiscal implications, such as this measure.
Although we certainly would have celebrated the Governor’s approval of AB 695, which did NOT include the needed funding due to budgeting challenges this year, we achieved overwhelming success in securing support for our work and are confident that we will be able to get budget support next legislative session.
Consider this:
A bi-partisan majority of the Board of Supervisors wrote letters in support of AB 695
A bi-partisan majority of the California State Assembly voted in favor of AB 695
A bi-partisan majority of the California State Senate voted in favor of AB 695
The Coalition of County Unions and the LA County Federation of Labor wrote letters in support of AB 695
In a season where we have all felt like it’s open season on probation, it’s clear that the vocal minority of “advocates” – who are primarily speaking on behalf of private sector organizations that want to take our work to expand their own businesses – are just a minority.
Let’s all take a moment to celebrate how far we have come and double down on our efforts to get funding for safe, care-first juvenile probation facilities that are staffed with probation-peace officers!
Si Se Puede!
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