SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) has released the following statement in response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s January Budget proposal:
“As we face another year of uncertainty due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are fortunate to have an extraordinary $45.7 billion budget surplus, which will allow us to make critically important investments in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness and housing, and wildfires, drought, and climate change.
“I am thrilled that Governor Newsom’s budget proposal doubles down on transformational higher education reforms that I authored last year. The budget proposal includes an additional $105 million to support the implementation of a common course numbering system for California Community Colleges established by my AB 1111, and $65 million to implement the historic college transfer reforms in my AB 928 from last year.
“As chair of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee, I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Newsom Administration to support cannabis tax reform, which is critical for bolstering the legal marketplace, and to addressing operational challenges facing the Medical Board of California, which will strengthen consumer protections for Californians.
“Lastly, I am pleased that Governor Newsom has proposed an additional $2 million dollars in ongoing funding for the UC Davis Firearm Violence Research Center to expand its research and programming. This builds upon my AB 521 in 2019, which tasked the Center with developing the first-in-the-nation firearm violence prevention training for physicians.”
Contact: Kaitlin Curry (916) 319-2024