Friends -
Yesterday morning, I shared the contours of a nearly 400 page budget that, I believe, tackles California’s greatest existential threats while also building on our historic progress.
I want to share some of the top lines with you, and then ask you for your feedback on the issues you think are the most important to you and your family.
Fighting COVID-19 with Science
The budget proposal will help us keep our schools open and our economy moving. We’re proposing $2.7 billion to ramp up vaccine distribution, boosters, statewide testing, combat misinformation, and increase medical personnel to meet potential surges.
Combating the Climate Crisis
We are treating climate change like what it is — an emergency. This budget proposal calls for more than $22.5 billion in investments to fight wildfires, tackle the drought, and forge an oil-free future. Climate change is changing everything in our state and around the world. You can count on me to take it seriously.
Confronting Homelessness
We have a moral obligation to ensure people have the necessary help to get off our streets and get the mental health services they need. This budget doesn’t simply try to push people out of sight and out of mind, but attempts to get people back on their feet. We’re asking for more than $2 billion (on top of the $12 billion last year) for mental health services, clearing encampments, and creating 55,000 new housing units and treatment slots. I believe we can solve this problem. It’s hard, but we have a responsibility not just to acknowledge the issue, but do something about it.
Tackling the Cost of Living
Too many Californians find themselves on the wrong side of income inequality — crushed by rising costs of the most basic expenses. That is why this budget proposal will create UNIVERSAL access to health care coverage, regardless of immigration status. It will double down on achieving free, universal pre-K, build more housing, and invest in small businesses, providing hundreds of millions in grants and tax breaks for small businesses suffering during the pandemic.
Keeping our Streets Safe
We are proposing a $356 million public safety plan, including grants to local law enforcement and creating a new Smash and Grab enforcement unit to combat organized retail crime and grants for impacted small businesses. We’re going to ensure District Attorneys are effectively and efficiently prosecuting criminals. And we’re going to make sure guns and drugs are kept off our streets — proposing a new statewide gun buyback program, the largest in the country, new nation-leading gun legislation that will hold the industry accountable and a new program to intercept drugs at the border.
Like I said, there are almost 400 pages in this budget, and it’s impossible to share all the details in a single email. I wasn’t able to do it during a 3-hour press conference yesterday, either.
So not every single detail is included, and not everything omitted here is of secondary importance.
This proposal will be revised again, especially as we hear feedback from stakeholders across California.
That is why I want to hear from you:
Thank you for reading, and for sounding off.
Gavin
