The Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 heard the administration's plan to use Proposition 4 (the climate bond) funds for extreme heat mitigation and related community resilience programs, with agency officials saying the investments will expand technical assistance and capital projects in disadvantaged communities.

Abby Edwards, senior deputy director for the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, said the administration’s climate bond expenditure plan includes $16,000,000 in 2025–26 and $31,600,000 in 2026–27 for the Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program. She said the program received initial funding in 2022 and has supported coordinated strategies across three pillars: critical infrastructure, public health strategies and preparedness planning. “Round 1 saw $300,000,000 in funding requests for only $33,000,000 available,” Edwards said, adding the program awarded 48 projects to date with more than 95% serving disadvantaged communities.

The Natural Resources Agency’s Brian Cash described a $100,000,000 climate bond allocation for the Urban Greening Program, which funds competitive grants for projects that reduce urban heat-island effects — for example, replacing asphalt at schools with green play areas, restoring riparian corridors and building nonmotorized trails. Matthew Reichman, deputy director for natural resource management at CAL FIRE, said the administration proposes $50,000,000 for urban forestry grants to support tree planting, inventories and urban forest management; he estimated the funds could support planting roughly 15,000–20,000 trees and 30–40 grants.

Jamie Gonzales of the Department of Finance, presenting for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said the administration proposes $37,600,000 in 2025–26 (plus staffing through 2028–29) to update fairground infrastructure so fairgrounds can serve as cooling centers and emergency staging sites. Gonzales said fairgrounds have already received prior infrastructure funding and that the climate bond funds would be used to repair restrooms, install HVAC and upgrade electrical systems at frequently activated fairgrounds.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (Rachel Ehlers) told the subcommittee the extreme heat chapter authorizes $450,000,000 in total and that the administration is proposing to phase allocations across the budget years to match departmental capacity to administer additional rounds of grants. The LAO recommended the legislature consider the timing of allocations and whether to exercise greater oversight on program design or criteria for some programs.

Subcommittee members pressed agencies for more detail. Chair and members asked for (1) a geographic breakdown of where urban greening and urban forestry dollars have gone historically and (2) photos or short case studies of the five projects agencies are most proud of from the last five years. Edwards and Cash said agencies have done outreach after each round of awards and will provide materials and examples; Reichman said CAL FIRE can provide tree-planting statistics. Edwards also said climate bond funding would provide up to 150 additional community awards in a future round and would backfill $15,000,000 that otherwise would have been reduced in the governor’s proposed general fund spending.

The Subcommittee did not take votes on any items; members signaled interest in tighter oversight of out-year, pending allocations and asked the administration to return with more specific rollout plans for programs the administration is still developing.