Senate hearing: May revise sets limited Prop 36 dollars as courts, counties warn of wider state and local costs

Senate leaders and state fiscal officials briefed a joint informational hearing Wednesday on the fiscal picture for implementing Proposition 36, and witnesses from courts, corrections and grant administrators warned the panel that the resources in the May Revision will not cover local needs.

The Senate’s co-chairs opened the hearing by noting the scale of the state’s budget shortfall and that the May Revision does not include a specific package of ongoing funding for Prop 36 implementation. “As the governor announced yesterday, we have a $12,000,000,000 budget problem to solve,” Senator Richardson said at the start of the hearing.

Why it matters: Proposition 36 creates new treatment-mandated felony pathways and changes how some offenses are prosecuted and sentenced. That shift has budget implications across several state and local systems — state prison and parole, county courts and probation, county behavioral health, and grant-funded local programs. Witnesses told the committees those effects are already visible in early implementation data and will continue to evolve, requiring ongoing monitoring and likely additional appropriations.

Key fiscal details…