Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles examining the state budget allocations passed by the Legislature this week.
Lawmakers want more answers on prison closures
California lawmakers want to close prisons, but first they want an answer: Which ones need the costliest upgrades?
That question has lingered ever since a declining inmate population led Gov. Newsom to begin shutting down prisons three years ago. More closures likely are in the works because of the state’s tightening budget and still-falling inmate numbers.
Assembly Budget Committee Chairperson Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, said in February that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been unwilling to turn over “the most basic information” about prison infrastructure needs.
If he had that, Ting said, Newsom and legislators could direct the closure of the facilities with the most expensive needs rather than spend heavily on repairs to prisons bound for shutdowns.
Now, legislators are trying to force answers from the corrections department in a public safety spending bill attached to the budget. The language in the bill requires the agency to assess housing by mid-November and also to show its work by providing its methodology and the underlying data.
The budget bill declares the Legislature’s intent to close more prisons, but it does not commit to a number. The Legislative Analyst’s Office reported earlier this year that the state can close nine prisons and eight yards, including the four facilities already tabbed for closure by Newsom.
The cost of operating prisons varies by institution, but the closure of a prison in Tracy last year is projected to save the state about $150 million a year.
Determining infrastructure needs can help the state avoid spending money on prisons it no longer needs, like the $31 million the state spent on a health care facility at a California City prison in 2021 just months before the state announced its closure.
The California prison towns losing their largest employers have tried two tactics to keep the prisons open. In Susanville, the city sued the state to prevent the closure of the California Correctional Center. The city ultimately lost that battle.
The city of Blythe chose a different tack, launching a public relations blitz they hope will stave off the closure of Chuckwalla Valley State Prison.
— Nigel Duara
A lifeline for public transit
The governor and legislators hashed out a plan to help public transit agencies still reeling from plummeting ridership during the pandemic. While Newsom’s May budget proposal failed to provide any assistance for transit agencies facing a “fiscal cliff,” and delayed $2 billion in construction projects, the Legislature rejected that move and proposed an additional $1.1 billion over the next three years from the state’s cap-and-trade funds.
The deal includes a total of $5.1 billion over four years — restoring the full $4 billion for construction and adding the $1.1 billion from cap-and-trade — with complete flexibility for agencies to use the money for operations as well as construction, subject to accountability measures and state oversight.
“Public transportation is easy to take for granted, but allowing it to collapse would have been devastating for our state’s future,” Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, said in a statement. “This budget extends a critical lifeline that will help transit agencies maintain service while making critical improvements to cleanliness and safety.”
But that money only gets transit agencies through the next few years. To supplement funding for Bay Area transit agencies, Wiener announced Monday a coalition of Bay Area lawmakers to co-author Senate Bill 532, which would increase tolls on seven Bay Area bridges for five years by $1.50. That would yield about $180 million annually, most of which would be required to be used for maintaining current service levels, while 10% could go toward improvements. The bill would also give counties and transit agencies time to organize regional bond measures. (That coalition doesn’t include Sen. Steve Glazer, a fellow Democrat from Orinda, who opposes further investment in Bay Area transit until more oversight is in place).
Newsom later bragged about the $5.1 billion, but Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher of Chico wasn’t happy with the additional money in the budget: “California’s mobile homeless shelters/drug dens (formerly known as ‘public transit’) are getting a bailout,” he said in a statement.
— Sameea Kamal
A boost for CalFresh
While pandemic-era food assistance programs have been winding down, demand for assistance at food banks is rising. The Legislature’s spending plan included $35 million for the California Nutrition Incentive Program, which helps participants in the state’s CalFresh program buy healthy food from farmers’ markets.
The agreement with the governor preserves that spending, and also includes the Legislature’s line items for $9.9 million in one-time money for a CalFresh fruit and vegetable pilot program, plus $3 million to extend a clean drinking water program.
Minehana Forman, the director of Market Match, said she’s thrilled the money for the program is in the budget, and said it will keep it going through 2028 and will also bring in federal dollars.
The deal also includes $915,000 to start launching a test program to increase the monthly minimum CalFresh benefit from $23 to $50. Spending for that program would rise to $15 million in 2024-25. That’s a far cry, however, from the original proposal for a statewide program costing $95 million, or even a slimmed-down $30 million version the Legislature passed.
— Rya Jetha
After ‘Rust’ tragedy, new movie safety rules
When actor Alec Baldwin discharged a gun while practicing on the set of a Western movie, killing the cinematographer and wounding the director, it prompted questions like “How could this happen?” and “Why would a gun capable of killing people end up on a movie set?”
In the wake of the incident, the Legislature considered two bills in 2022 aimed at gun safety on movie sets, but neither of them passed, which lawmakers attributed to a lack of consensus within Hollywood about what to do.
But this year, some safety measures are tucked into the budget via a tax credit for movie studios. Since 2009, California has had a tax credit specifically for the film industry, with the goal of countering other states’ efforts to lure productions — and all the jobs and spending that come with them — away from Hollywood.
In this year’s budget agreement, that tax credit was revamped. Starting in 2025, any film industry employer that receives the credit would also have to hire or assign a safety advisor to perform a risk assessment and be present during production. Among other provisions, productions would have to conduct daily safety meetings and those with firearms would need to have a prop master or armorer with a permit from the California Department of Justice.
The tax credit would also be refundable starting in 2025, meaning film studios that receive a large credit but have a small tax bill will be able to get cash back. That’s a change the film industry has been lobbying for. The credit would have incentives and requirements aimed at increasing diversity in the film industry workforce.
A little less than half of all film industry jobs in the country are located in and around Los Angeles, according to state analysts, a slight decline from a decade ago.
— Grace Gedye
