Humboldt County hears state budget agreement and warnings about federal reconciliation cuts to Medicaid and SNAP

Humboldt County supervisors received a state- and federal-legislative briefing during the June 9 budget hearing that outlined a newly reported state budget agreement and flagged possible federal actions that could significantly affect county services.

Sean Quincy, deputy CAO, introduced the legislative update and said the briefing would help inform the county's budget deliberations. Karen Ling, the county's state legislative consultant, told the board the two houses had reached a budget agreement summary on the weekend prior to the hearing and that those documents would be finalized before the constitutionally required June 15 transmittal to the governor. Ling noted the legislature had agreed to a $750 million loan authorization for transit agencies (down from larger requests) and a $500 million appropriation for the Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), which is less than local governments had requested.

On federal matters, Paragon Government Relations representatives briefed the board on the status of budget reconciliation in the U.S. Congress and related appropriation developments. Hassan Sarsour and colleagues described the federal appropriations timeline and said the president's FY 2026 budget proposals were unlikely to survive unchanged. Tom Joseph of Paragon summarized the reconciliation package under consideration in the Senate and its potential county impacts. Citing the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis, Joseph said the House reconciliation bill would cause deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP and estimated that, nationwide, about 7.8 million people could lose coverage over 10 years; that analysis projects between 1 million and 2 million Californians could lose Medi-Cal coverage under the House bill.

Joseph and colleagues highlighted provisions that would attach work requirements and additional paperwork for beneficiaries and shift part of CalFresh/SNAP costs to states (the House bill would require states to contribute to benefits and increase state/county shares of administration). He warned that the House reconciliation proposal would shift significant program costs to states and counties, potentially increasing local uncompensated-care and administrative burdens.

The federal briefing also noted positive items under consideration: a multi-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools program (which, if enacted, would restore roughly $1.045 million to Humboldt County this year versus a much smaller timber-receipts-based payment) and congressional earmark requests submitted by members of Congress on Humboldt priorities. Joe Prawn and colleagues reported that Senator Adam Schiff had requested $8.82 million for the Garberville Complete Streets project and $800,000 for a Trinidad scenic-drive study; Congressman Jared Huffman had requested $153,000 for sheriff's office technology upgrades.

Why this matters: potential federal cuts to Medi-Cal and SNAP could increase county costs for health care and social services, and loss of federal matching funds could reduce services to residents or shift expenses to the county budget. Conversely, earmarks and appropriations for infrastructure and Secure Rural Schools could boost county capital projects and revenue.

What the board asked staff to do: supervisors directed staff to continue monitoring the state and federal processes, coordinate advocacy as bills move between houses, and report back to the board on implications for the county budget and service delivery.

Ending: County staff said they will maintain active engagement with state and federal legislative teams and update the board as more detail emerges and trailer bills are released after the state main budget bill is transmitted to the governor.