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IBank urges removal of sunset on Climate Catalyst program and PRA exemption to protect federal funds and private partnerships
Summary
IBank told the Senate subcommittee that extending its Climate Catalyst Revolving Loan Fund and a Public Records Act exemption is necessary to avoid jeopardizing hundreds of millions in federal funds and to preserve private counterpart confidentiality for public‑private finance activities.
Scott Wu, executive director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank), told the Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 4 that the governor's budget requests both removal of the sunset date for the Climate Catalyst Revolving Loan Fund and elimination of the current sunset on IBank's PRA exemption for trade secrets and sensitive business information.
Wu said extending the Climate Catalyst program is necessary to avoid putting nearly $450 million in awarded federal funds at risk and to allow the bank to reinvest repaid program funds into new projects. He told the committee that Climate Catalyst holds roughly $25 million in outstanding investments in forestry and biomass that are expected to be repaid and that failing to extend the program could prevent reinvestment of those proceeds.
On the Public Records Act exemption, Wu said the limited exemption covers commercial trade‑secret and sensitive information collected by both the Climate Catalyst and the bank's venture capital programs and that maintaining it is important to secure the trust of borrowers and counterparties for public‑private activity. "Failure to extend would prove fatal to both programs," Wu said, adding the administration's estimate that losing the exemption could jeopardize about $450 million in federal funds for climate solutions and $200 million in federal funds for venture capital activities.
Members asked whether the administration had considered broader revisions to the California Public Records Act to address similar disclosure concerns across state and local agencies engaged in economic development; Finance staff said the administration could consider a broader approach but is currently focused on a narrowly tailored fix for IBank. The subcommittee also questioned an overly specific November 1 reporting requirement tied to the program's founding statute; IBank staff explained the date is an artifact of the program's initial enactment and that reporting timelines were aligned with other programs in recent legislation.
Committee members did not adopt any trailer‑bill changes at the hearing; staff discussion indicated the issue will be reviewed further in follow‑up materials and future hearings.
