CEMA Support Letter RE: State Budget Support (March 18, 2026)
Santa Clara County Delegation Letter RE: State Budget Support (March 11, 2026)
Top Legislative Priority for CEMA
Advocate for reform of Public Employees' Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) through the support of AB 1383 (McKinnor) – Public Employees’ Retirement Benefits: Safety Members.
How to Support
- For state legislators, vote YES for AB 1383 (McKinnor) – Public Employees’ Retirement Benefits: Safety Members.
- For elected officials, write a letter of support for AB 1383 (McKinnor) – Public Employees’ Retirement Benefits: Safety Members.
- For employees who are considered PEPRA under CalPERS, volunteer for public comment opportunities at future Board of Supervisors meetings and/or committee meetings in Sacramento.
If you are interested and able to do any of the above, email [email protected]
2026 Legislative Priorities for CEMA
AB 1383 (McKinnor): Public Employees’ Retirement Benefits: Safety Members.
AB 1383 (McKinnor) would:
1) Require, on and after January 1, 2027, retirement systems subject to the PEPRA to adjust the pensionable compensation limit to be consistent with federal law, as prescribed, but maintain the existing limit for new members of the State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), as provided in the Teachers' Retirement Law (TRL).
2) Authorize a public employer and a recognized employee organization to negotiate a prospective increase to the Defined Benefit (DB) retirement formulas for existing and new safety plan members by: i) Lowering the benefit factor from age 57 to 55 for three existing safety DB retirement formulas, and ii) Creating a fourth PEPRA safety DB retirement formula of three percent (3%) at age 55.
3) Authorize an employer and recognized employee organization to agree via a memorandum of understanding to be placed in a lower or higher safety DB retirement formula, as prescribed.
SB 909 (Smallwood-Cuevas): Public Works Enforcement Funding.
SB 909 (Smallwood-Cuevas) would seek to ensure more steady streams of funding for public works enforcement at the Department of Industrial Relations by: 1) Raising Contractor registration fees for the first time since 2017, 2) Raising existing penalties for public works violations for the first time since 2012, and 3) Requiring that 50% penalties that are collected for public works violations be redirected to State Public Works Enforcement Account
AB 1838 (Berman): Public Works; Contractor Violation Transparency
AB 1838 (Berman) would require contractors to disclose previous wage and hour violations as part of their bid on public works projects. This bill would add an additional criterion for contractors to follow when submitting a bid for a public works contract. The disclosure of wage and hour violations will assist public agencies in determining if their lowest responsible bidder is actually a “responsible” contractor.
AB 1859 (Ortega): Public Works Jobsite Access; Joint Labor Management Committees.
AB 1859 (Ortega) would codify jobsite access for Joint Labor Management Committees on public works jobsites to monitor wage and hour laws.
AB 2078 (Rogers): Stationary Engineers; Work Hours.
AB 2078 (Rogers) would provide flexibility around meal breaks for Stationary Engineers and their signatory employers by clarifying in statute that meal breaks specifically for Stationary Engineers shall be governed by a valid collective bargaining agreement, which will enable our Stationary Engineers to work “Straight 8s” rather than 8 ½ hour shifts.
AB 2234 (Papan): Geothermal Exploratory Projects.
AB 2234 (Papan) would provide a CEQA exemption for geothermal exploratory projects. Projects under the bill that receive a CEQA exemption will be required to utilize a Skilled and Trained Workforce.
AB 2370 (Arrambula): Public Safety Communications; State Employees.
AB 2370 (Arrambula) would strengthen protections for State Bargaining Unit 12 employees who work in the Public Safety Communications unit at CalOES by ensuring their specific job duties are protected and limiting the ability of their work being contracted out or given to other State departments.
Support for the County of Santa Clara
Funding for Safety Net Services is at Risk
The County of Santa Clara receives about $3.5 billion in federal funding each year. Medicaid is the single largest source of federal funding. For the current fiscal year, the County receives more than $2.3 billion in Medicaid funding from the federal government.
Over 133,000 residents of Santa Clara County depend on federal aid for food, with more than half being children and seniors.
Federal funding supports the delivery of medical and behavioral healthcare, food assistance, social services, public health programs, child welfare services, housing, public safety, and many other critical services.
The County operates the second largest public hospital system in California, which receives a majority of its funding from the federal government through Medicare and Medicaid.
Our public hospital and health care system serves everyone in our community – regardless of insurance status. Essential local services, including emergency room, trauma, burn, and cancer care, are at direct risk.
Read the stories and watch the videos about County services, benefits and community members that may be impacted by federal funding cuts in the coming months and years.
Santa Clara County Delegation Letter RE: State Budget Support (March 11, 2026)
Seeking Additional State Support
Medi-Cal and CalFresh are joint programs of the federal and state governments. Thus, the State will play a critical role in determining how the enormous cuts from H.R. 1 will be absorbed by counties and the public hospitals they operate. Consistent with prior Board direction, County Administration will seek to partner closely with the State on its response to these federal cuts and will push the State to protect public hospitals, which are uniquely at risk during this extraordinarily challenging time.
We will also encourage state leaders to seriously evaluate new revenue options. By one analysis, tax reductions from H.R. 1 for Californians will total $58 billion in 2026, with the vast majority of those tax cuts going to the top 15% of income earners. For context, the entire State operating budget is roughly $320 billion annually. Our hope is that State leaders will seriously evaluate appropriate opportunities to increase state tax revenue to mitigate the most harmful impacts of H.R. 1 and allow California to determine its own future rather than allowing the federal government to force draconian cuts to critical services throughout California.
State support is particularly needed for public hospital systems that are disproportionately affected by H.R. 1’s Medicaid cuts. Public hospitals depend on Medi-Cal revenues to a far greater degree than other hospitals, and Californians are dependent on public hospitals for essential services. For example, while public hospitals (including the four operated by the County) make up only 6% of all hospitals in California, they operate more than 50% of the trauma and burn centers and train more than 50% of all doctors in California.
The County seeks State partnership in mitigating H.R. 1 impacts by preserving enrollment in Medi-Cal and CalFresh, providing dedicated State funding support for public hospital systems that disproportionately serve Medi-Cal patients, and allocating significant new resources to counties to serve the expected increase in the uninsured population. This can be achieved by:
Approving the California Association of Public Hospital’s (CAPH) $500 million request to replace the non-federal share of Medicaid fee-for-service (FFS) that is currently fully financed by public hospitals and making this an ongoing investment in public hospitals. Public hospital systems provide more than half of trauma and burn care in the state, despite representing only 6% of hospitals statewide. This is a matter of parity at a time of crisis for the public systems that serve as the backbone of healthcare delivery for all Californians.
Approving the County Welfare Directors’ Associations General Fund request of $373 million for Fiscal Year 2026-2027, which includes a request to augment CalFresh administration funding by $102.8 million and Medi-Cal administration funding by $270.2 million. This will support counties’ investment in the workforce that is forced to support these federal policy changes. Biannual redeterminations will double the work for eligibility workers, at a time where counties are struggling with hiring and retaining eligibility workers.
Allocating a minimum of $2 billion in annual funding for counties starting in FY 2026-27 to address increases in the indigent and uninsured care population as millions of Californians turn to counties for their healthcare due to newly imposed requirements for Medi-Cal coverage and the expiration of subsidies for Covered California. This request is based on anticipated county costs quantified by the California State Association of Counties as $2 billion to $5.5 billion annually.
Supporting the California Department of Healthcare Services’ implementation plan that ensures data systems that county welfare agencies utilize, including CalSAWS and CalHEERS, can be used to streamline qualification for exemptions from federal work requirements and automatically perform bi-annual redeterminations.
Santa Clara County Delegation Letter RE: State Budget Support (March 11, 2026)
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