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San Mateo officials urge Assembly subcommittee to restore $157 million in vehicle license fee backfill

Assembly Budget Subcommittee 5 on State Administration · April 28, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

San Mateo County supervisors, local officials and service providers told the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 5 that the governor’s January budget removes in‑lieu vehicle license fee backfill and would force deep cuts to shelters, rental assistance, public safety and mental‑health services; the Department of Finance called the payments discretionary.

San Mateo County officials told a California Assembly subcommittee on Monday that the state’s proposed budget would eliminate roughly $157 million in vehicle license fee (VLF) backfill and cause immediate cuts to homelessness services, rental assistance and public safety.

“California help us help you,” one county representative told the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 5, urging the Legislature to restore full payment of the in‑lieu VLF the county says it is owed. San Mateo supervisors and dozens of city leaders, union representatives and nonprofit executives described program‑by‑program impacts, including the potential closure of shelters and layoffs of frontline staff.

Why it matters: County leaders said the 2004 VLF swap—when the state reduced the local VLF rate and backfilled revenues—no longer works…

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