in progress. Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors personnel administration and legislation committee may have roll call please. Supervisor Fortinato Bass. President? Supervisor Tam. President, let's start with the legislative update on the federal side. Hi it's Emily De Silva with CJ Lake and John Ascini as well. We said last week was quiet. It is not quiet this week. The House is moving or the three committees that we've been waiting on to mark up. Ways and means of course, which has kind of the big tax provisions, energy and commerce, which of course has jurisdiction over Medicaid and other policies. And then the Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over SNAP, all three of those committees are expected to mark up tomorrow. The House Ag Committee has not yet released their text. markup is supposed to start I think tomorrow evening and it text has to be released 24 hours prior so we're expecting to see that text soon unless it gets delayed. It's been delayed already a little bit so John I don't know what you're hearing in terms of the Ag Committee markup potentially being delayed, but I think that could probably be in the mix. We are kind of running through the various provisions, you know, is it, is it relates to both ways and means and energy and commerce. Again, we were expecting work requirements as it relates to Medicaid beneficiaries that is included. Her capital caps are not. I know we were concerned about that. It would reduce FMAP for the expansion population for states that cover undocumented immigrants with state funds. This would impact 12 states, including California and Washington, DC. It would place cost sharing requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries who became eligible under expansion. There's a budget neutrality requirement for Medicaid 1115 waiver demonstration projects. And it does delay implementation of Biden era Medicaid eligibility renewals. Again, we're still running through kind of the provisions and what it all means. I think one of the important things that I want to note today is when all of these would be implemented. And most of it, as I've been reading through the various provisions, I don't think anything would move forward until 2027. So there's some, there's some like breathing room. I know we've all been concerned about kind of this year's budget and of course impacts to the state budget as well. Again, I'll have to go through that one more time before I, you know, we put it in writing, but some, well, I guess some again, maybe October 1, 20, 26, but a number of these, again, there's nothing kind of in this calendar year. The house is wanting to mark up again this week and then get, um, pass off of the floor before Memorial Day recess. Um, people are asking, is that real? Is that timeline real? For now it is. I think we need to see kind of how these markups go, uh, tomorrow. Um, but that is the expectation of the house. It would then give the Senate kind of the summer, June and July. You know, we've already heard from the Senate that, you know, a number of these provisions will not pass muster with the Senate. So they would then make changes to it, have to send it back to the House with an expectation that all of this gets done by the August recess. The August recess is kind of that backstop right now because Republicans are trying to include an increase in the debt or yet increase in the debt ceiling. And the Treasury Secretary has said this basically needs to be done before September. Republicans are wanting to do this so that Democrats don't have leverage and they don't want to have to hold a separate vote. So that's very high level. John, I didn't even touch on ways and means. I know you've been digging in there. If you want to jump in on ways and means, anything I missed on energy and commerce in terms of high level. No, I think the high level stuff on ENC is fine and if there's any specific questions on provisions we're happy to take them to Emily's point where we're still kind of digging through sort of the provisions and I'll also note that there's going to be an amendment process tomorrow. So the text that was released today is subject to change because the managers amendment, which is released by the chair of the individual committees will likely come out right before that then after that they will go through an amendment process. are going to be offered by Democrats. They will get shot down. However, some of those amendments will get offered and withdrawn by the majority party by Republicans. And that'll indicate kind of where the red lines are from the committee members on what they would like to see incorporated at the Rules Committee before it hits the floor next week. So we'll be watching the amendment process pretty closely to kind of see what the debate is going to be from the Republican side, kind of the inter-party debate, and also from the Democrats on what we think is going to be their line of attack against this pretty substantial legislation. Same strategy on the Ways and Means Committee. Ways and Means released text around three o'clock today, which makes significant changes to the tax code. The bill would impose a special tax on university endowments, especially on the five largest endowments in the country, which is Harvard's Stanford Yale MIT. And one more that is something in my mind. Then there's a smaller 7% tax on colleges that are sort of in that medium range, but not the top five. It would also eliminate or broadly phase out the clean energy tax credits created or expanded by the inflation reduction act. It also has a number of qualifications that you have to apply for regarding the prominence of some of the materials that go into the clean energy tax credits, which all but eliminate the effectiveness of the tax credits. So in some cases, it's a de facto repeal despite the fact that it's considered a phase out in the actual text. It also creates the new tax breaks that President Trump campaigned on, including on overtime pay, Clark interests loans and on tips. And then we provide seniors and additional tax deduction in place of a special tax break on social security income, which would not be allowed under the Senate board rules. We're still waiting on the final number of what the final deal will be on the salt deduction. There are a number of numbers from California, New York, and New Jersey that have pushed for a complete repeal of the existing salt tax deduction, the provision that was passed in the Tax Pet and Jobs Act is set to expire at the end of the year. So that is what the House leadership is negotiating against as a total appeal. The number that was included in the bill that was released earlier today is lifting the cap to $30,000 a year with an income phase down of those earning more than $400,000. has not gone over well with the salt cap, the salt Republicans as they have a number of constituents that have exceed that yearly income. We also haven't received a cost estimate from ways of means. Nor have we received an analysis from congressional budget offices to what each of these provisions We do. Of course, you have ways of means. Has their perspective on what it will do, but CBO produces an analysis independent of ways and means. But that is kind of the long and the short of it. There's kind of a lot coming our way. We have this lengthy amendment process tomorrow, which will set the terms to date for the floor. And of course, we potentially have a floor vote next week. So a lot of fireworks. Emily and John, thank you for that update. And obviously staying very vigilant in the various amendments. Do you have any questions, surprise your fortune out of ass or comments? It's just a lot to take in. That's potentially an incredible amount of impact on our Alameda County residents who access healthcare services among other social services. In terms of the comment regarding possible implementation in 27, would that be the fall of 27 in the next federal budget cycle? Possibly. Yeah. Yeah. So for instance, yes, it would be like October 1, 2027, but on the work requirements piece, and again, I need to check myself. I was trying to look at all of these numbers before our call. When I looked at the work requirements piece, I read it as to begin January 1, 2029. I want to check myself again before I put that in the notes. But so that's on the work requirements. Increased frequency of eligibility re-determination for certain individuals that begins October, excuse me, October 1, 2027. So yes, but none sooner to your point. I think it would all begin October as soon as October 1, 2027. Thanks for that clarification. Thank you. We just had a fairly lengthy health and social service committee meeting the board. And a lot of it was centered around our plan for housing and homelessness and the funding that could potentially come forward, either from the state with the Governor's recent announcement and measure W. Do you see any of these amendments potentially affecting the availability to nonprofits that might rely on federal funding either for shelters or homeless programs. I know homelessness is not a mandated program for the federal government or this actually even for the county. As it relates to nonprofits, John, the only thing I can think of is like the the tax exempt status, right? But I mean, as it relates to nonprofits, John, the only thing I can think of is like the tax exempt status, right? But I mean, I don't think there's anything specific to, there's certainly not anything specific to nonprofits on the energy and commerce side, potentially in the ways and means, tax piece, right?, I mean, the nonprofits status stuff would all be in the ways and means side of the world. When I looking through it, there wasn't anything that would specifically address housing or homelessness. I can do a deeper dive. There was a bill that was passed unanimously by ways and means it had to do with revoking the tax and census status of organizations that support terrorists or terror supporting organizations. But I don't think that that necessarily has anything to do with. Okay, that's good to know. When you talked about the various phasing out of tax credits or energy and then obviously for the end diamonds and and then you talked about the tax breaks that the present and the White House administration would like to see particularly on Social Security. Do you, I know you don't have the cost estimate, but do you think one would offset, was intended to offset the other? You can't have tax cuts. Yes, so they have the ability to spend $4 trillion, $4.5 trillion. And that was laid out by the House Budget Resolution. So, Aizen means broad mandate is not really to save money. It's to spend it, spend it to the deficit or spend it otherwise. It was the other committees that are making up for those savings. So they had they mandated what to two trillion dollars in savings and the budget resolution, which is largely achieved by the Energy and Commerce Committee. So the Energy and Commerce Committee savings was nine hundred and twelve billion dollars. And then the rest of the committees for the most part had other saving mandates. The only other committees that were instructed to spend money, were Homeland Security, Judiciary, Ways and Means, and I think veterans got a little bit of money as well, or defense rather, defense, not veterans, defense. But the other committees were mandated to have savings, which is where you found that the Ways and Means Committee savings did come from the clean energy tax credits, though. I mean, they, because they're not able to claim those tax credits, that's a significant savings as well. So even within the Ways and Means Committee jurisdiction, they were able to kind of balance the books a little bit to pay for the other tax credits that were requested by the president. Okay. I mean, when you deal with that level of magnitude in terms of the budget, I think it's really hard to make the direct alignments between the potential savings, tax credits, and tax exempt status going away. But I appreciate the observation that you made. I don't have any other questions. Are there any public comments on this item? I have no speakers for this item. Thank you. Let's move to the state legislation site and the update and maybe we can start with the governor's press release today. I'll certainly be talking about that supervisor. Good afternoon, Amy costume of full moon strategies. We marked another legislative deadline past this past week in which policy committees in both houses had to hear or report non fiscal bills introduced in their respective houses. Looking ahead, we anticipate that each of the appropriations committees will hold their suspense file hearings on our around May 23rd, which is the fiscal deadline to be considered for advancement. It's quite likely that the governor's may revise, will drive what policymakers decide to do and what is left on the suspense file as they garner a better understanding of the state's fiscal picture. As we spoke about last week, the governors may revise is expected to be released this week. He hasn't held May 14 to provide an updated fiscal outlook based on the latest revenue projections as well as updated caseload figures. As we've reported, financial conditions have worsened since the January budget release. Terror of different price hikes and reduced tax receipts, particularly from the wealthiest Californians are contributing to the slowing of revenues. We've also seen a report that caseloads are growing beyond projections in some programs, including MediCal. These slower revenues and increased expenditures are driving what we will anticipate being a budget deficit. Lawmakers have been briefed on a projected short-wealth between $10 and $25 billion, which could deepen further. Legislators have commented that a deficit running in tens of billions would not be surprising, given the economic challenges posed by the Trump-Teref policies. I would know already in January the state was projecting deficits in the out year which are obviously expected to be exacerbated by these factors. And of course the May revise really is the starting point for negotiations between the administration and legislative leadership. A budget will be passed to meet the constitutional work requirements in the start of the fiscal year, but the process may be extended as my colleagues just noted based on what happens at the federal level. You know, the governor can call a special session to call them back and they may have to tinker with a budget depending on when things are finalized in DC. The legislative analyst office also released this past week. They're what the big three revenue outlook, which looks at corporation taxes, sales and use tax and personal income tax, the largest three revenues of the state. It paints a pretty complex picture. Well, the state was experiencing some strong growth and income for the current year and the past year. Seeing almost a 20% increase, the LAO sees some pretty strong economic headwinds and notes that the economy has been pretty sluggish over the last two years. And they're clearly seeing additional risks, including at the federal level that could dampen consumer confidence and GDP forecasts. We also heard this past week on 1991 realignment revenues, counties, experienced some issues with the 1991 realignment revenue distributions, where some months were seeing higher or lower amounts than expected. This problem occurred when the State Controller's office initially determined that the CalWORKS maintenance of effort sales tax base was unmet for fiscal year 2324, leading to them withholding close to $620 million in realignment revenues. The Department of Finance this past week directed the state controller's office to crack this and allocate 347 million in sales tax and 272 million in vehicle license fees. We have more details in our pal notes that you can see, you know, what those adjustments look like on a per county basement. And they will be starting those with the May re alignment payments. As mentioned by supervisor Tam today, the governor did have a virtual press conference, and he released a model ordinance for cities and counties to address homeless encounters, calling on all local governments to act immediately using their affirmed legal authority and available resources, including he highlighted the 3.3 billion released in Proposition 1 funding. The ordinance which he released builds on a previous executive order which provides a framework for local action by prohibiting persistent camping in one location and obstruction of sidewalks while requiring jurisdictions to give at least 48 hours notice on for shelter and service and properly store personal belongings before clearing a site. This announcement comes on the heels of several other announcements and homelessness that the administration has offered, including the launching of the statewide accountability tool that we talked about previously. And as I reported, he also as part of the January budget announced plans to establish a new housing and homelessness agency intended to restructure how the state addresses housing and homelessness. According to this proposal, the agency would oversee efforts to plan, produce and preserve housing and coordinate homelessness response. That is going to be heard by the little Hoover Commission, which is part of the state's re-or process, and that hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. The little Hoover Commission will issue a report to the governor and the legislature on the reorganization by June 4th. Today's press conference was largely around the announcement of 3.3 billion in Proposition 1 funding for health infrastructure grants designed for the development and enhancement of residential beds, outpatient services and treatment facilities, with an emphasis on rule and underserved areas. According to the governor's office, these grants are intended to improve access to mental health and substance use disorder services. Our county sponsored measure SB617 received Senate rule 28.8, which means there was not a significant state or federal state or local cost for the measure. And so the bill is currently headed to the Senate floor for a vote. It's on second reading when it gets eligible with a third reading file. We'll let you know, but we expect it to be taken up soon. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much for that update. Survivors are fortunate, of that. Any questions? Thank you for the update. I think I am interested in hearing more about the potential alignment funds that could be coming to the county. If there's any more detail, I know there's, we've been in the board meeting all day so I haven't had a chance to look at the email update. But if there's anything else you can share please do and then I will be looking at the governor's announcement as well to see what that might mean for us as well. Yes, thank you. We had a long conversation, obviously, with the committee meetings on housing and homelessness. So the Governor's press release was obviously very timely. I know what he had referenced Prop 1 funds which were tied to moving some of the funding from prevention more toward like mental health care housing. And he's tying it into the homelessness and encampments, which is, I think, which is not necessarily always about that effort, but I think the fact that he's doing that means that we have some access from by the county to some of these state resources potentially. So we will keep an eye on that. So we are going to have a budget session of the board on Thursday, which is the day after the May revise comes out. And we expect the former finance director and the current finance director to be there. The discussion that the LAO office had last time about the formation of the agency for housing and homelessness, that is taking root right now. It sounds like. Yeah, so there's a specialized process in state government when the governor seeks to really award one of his agencies and it goes actually to the Little Hoover Commission so it has been submitted they're reviewing it and they have a hearing actually tomorrow they will provide their report out to both the legislature and the administration for them to act upon it further. If the agency gets formed do you expect them to have the oversight over the potential 3.3 billion dollars, which I assume it's a bond measure, right? That will still has to be loaded? But Prop 1 had two kind of major buckets, which is that it reallocated MHSA, and then there was a bond issuance specifically for the facilities. And,'s absolutely seems certain that they want to move all of the homeless and housing related kind of policies and grants within this new agency. And so, yes, going forward, I expect that they would administer these programs and any other that we're funded regarding homelessness. Okay, thank you very much. And good to hear about the progress in AB617 as well. Thank you very much. Are there any public comments on the state legislative update? I have no speakers. Okay, we have a request from Alameda County Health to advance a support position for a state budget request where California court appointed special advocates association for this coming fiscal year It's primarily to provide Support services for foster youth I'm supportive it's primarily to provide support services for foster youth. I'm supportive of that request and supervisor for to not abass is not in red. Yes, I'm definitely. Okay, so we will advance that to the full board with a support position recommendation. Are there any comments or public input on this item? No speakers were the item. Okay, do we have any public comments on items that are not on today's agenda? I have no speakers for public comment. Okay and will those online please identify themselves. Good afternoon, Valerie Arkin from Supervisor Myle's office. Good afternoon, Jessica Blake, more Alameda County Health. Elvier Kiroga, Alameda County Tax Collector. Thank you all for your participation and your updates today. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.