Governor’s May Revise – Increased Spending for Mandate Payments

Despite the fact the State of California is staring at a historic budget deficit (Up to $73 Billion according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office), Governor Newsom has not only kept all of his proposed funding for State-Mandate Cost Reimbursement for Locals in his January Budget Proposal (Senate Bill 917 – Skinner), but increased funding by more than $2 million in the Governor’s May Revise.

The total proposed funding for State Mandates now exceeds $130 million in the proposed 2024 State Budget Act. The $130+ million is more than double the Annual Claims Funding for almost each State Budget Act over the past decade (9 of the last 10 years), dating back to Fiscal Year 2015-16.

Last year’s State Budget Act (2023) included more than $160 million in total funding which represented a 300% - 400% increase in appropriations over most years from this past decade. The 2023 State Budget Act included dollars for both “Racial and Identity Profiling” (RIPA) and “Sexual Assault Evidence Kits: Testing” as each new program had multi-year reimbursement. The nearly $300 million in State-Mandated Cost funding for back-to-back years (2023 and 2024) represents the highest amount of combined dollars in consecutive State Budget Acts since the 2014-15 and 2015-16 fiscal years.