Civil Rights Department seeks continued funding for California Versus Hate and staff to implement recent laws

California's Civil Rights Department told the Assembly subcommittee it seeks a one‑year extension of funding for the "California Versus Hate" program and asked for staff increases to implement statutory changes passed in recent sessions.

Director Kevin Kish summarized the department's victim‑support and enforcement work and said California Versus Hate connects people who experience hate incidents with care coordination and local services. Kish said the program's call volumes have been steady and that the department's survey work suggests the scale of incidents reported via police is substantially smaller than the number of Californians experiencing hate incidents in representative surveys.

Kish also noted implementation needs resulting from AB 2499 (which shifted certain worker protections from the Labor Code to the department's enforcement statutes) and SB 1340 (which lifted a long‑standing preemption and restored local authority to adopt and enforce local anti‑discrimination employment ordinances). The department requested three staff positions to manage those changes and to create a regulatory structure for local ordinances.

Why it matters: California Versus Hate is the state's primary care coordination and reporting line for hate incidents; the subcommittee's funding decision will determine whether the department can continue those services in the coming year. Members asked about the relationship between the department's work and other enforcement entities, and about whether the Commission on the State of Hate and other research efforts should be aligned with the program's funding.

Kish said the program's role is to provide community referrals, mental‑health and victim services and, when requested, assistance to file police reports or compensation claims; the department said it will publish program metrics if funding continues.