California's budget has turned the corner from years of deep cuts, and the state's tax revenues have exceeded expectations. With this brighter outlook, both the Governor and Democratic Leadership in the Legislature are urging caution and drawing a firm line on increasing spending. The legislature has until June 15th to pass their budget bill, and we expect that the domestic violence shelter funding will remain steady with prior years. The Partnership clearly recognizes that this funding level is not sufficient to meet the needs of survivors, and we have begun laying the early groundwork to push for an increase next year. We will be reaching out to you for local-level examples of funding needs, so stay tuned for more information and updates. A fact sheet about the need for funding is available here.   

The month of May has several important policy deadlines for any legislation to continue moving forward this year. In particular, last Friday was the first appropriations deadline, a critical hurdle for any bills that include costs to the state. As you all know from our past experiences with bills in Appropriations, it can be extremely difficult to get a bill through. The committees sometimes take a position to hold bills that will impose new taxes or create new programs. In addition, a variety of other factors unrelated to fiscal concerns can influence a bill's chances of passage and can make it difficult to know when and if additional advocacy can secure a bill's success.   

 

Several bills that the Partnership has been tracking were decided by the Appropriations committees last week. We will update the bill information on our website and get an updated bill chart out to the PPRCs soon. In the meantime, here are updates on just a few of the bills impacted by this deadline:

• AB 16 (Perez) - Position: Support, Partnership Priority Bill. This bill would close the current loopholes in the felony domestic violence statute. AB 16 passed out of Appropriations Suspense on May 24, and has been ordered to a third reading; the date for this has not yet been set.
• AB 1107 (Garcia) - Position: Support. This bill would improve the CALWORKs domestic violence policy. This bill was referred to Appropriations Suspense and is up for a 2nd hearing.
• SB 782 (DeSaulnier) - Position: Support. This is CALCASA's SAVE Act. It was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee and will not move forward this year.

Representatives from the Partnership will be Washington, DC June 4th and 5th to participate in NNEDV's advocacy day and meet with our Congressional Delegation. We will be speaking with our representatives about the need for increased funding and the impact of sequestration on programs throughout California. We will also be speaking about immigration and federal firearm proposals that could improve victim safety, and making sure that your voices are heard on all of these issues. 

The Partnership held two conference calls with Dual Programs on May 22nd and 23rd to address questions about the Partnership's policy process and create a space for those programs to let us know what their specific needs are as members of two coalitions and providers of dual services. Notes from the meetings are available  here. Also available are the   PPRC guidelines and  decision-making criteria.

The Partnership's Statewide PPRC meeting will be Tuesday, September 24th. More information and an agenda will be sent out closer to the date.