Here’s How the New California State Budget Improves Central Coast Affordability and Quality of Life

The 2026-27 budget is more than legislation - it's taking action to stabilize costs, protect the public services and benefits Coastal residents rely on, and invest in the future. From housing and health care to food assistance and schools, here are the many ways Speaker Rivas and Assembly Democrats delivered solutions and results for Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara communities.

SACRAMENTO - Every day, families across the Central Coast are doing the math - weighing grocery bills or gas prices, rent versus wages, a doctor's visit against a paycheck. At the same time, the federal government is continuing to gut health benefits and food assistance for millions of Californians. That's why Speaker Robert Rivas and California Democrats are taking a stand and investing in the future by delivering a new state budget to make life more affordable and secure for the hard-working residents in the Salinas Valley, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and south Santa Clara counties.

The 2026-27 budget defends and strengthens the everyday programs and services that Central Coast residents care about most. It rejects and delays cuts to health benefits and coverage, continues historic funding to build homes faster and lower housing costs, sustains vital safety net programs like in-home care for seniors, and stands tall to back students and schools - while also protecting the environment, wildfire response, public safety and other essential local services relied on across Assembly District 29.

Standing Between Central Coast Families and Federal Cuts

The backdrop for this year's budget is stark: President Trump's H.R. 1 threatens to strip health coverage and food aid from numerous Central Coast residents and families.

According to research by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and UC Berkeley Labor Center, hundreds of thousands of the region's workers and residents are in jeopardy of losing Medi-Cal coverage or experiencing reduced benefits by 2028, as a result of policy changes in the federal H.R.1 Trump spending plan.

In Monterey County alone, roughly 21,000 of the 189,946 residents who rely on Medi-Cal could lose coverage, and about 19,000 of the 56,450 residents on CalFresh could lose food assistance.

Santa Cruz County could see roughly 19,000 of 77,289 Medi-Cal enrollees and 7,000 of 30,590 CalFresh recipients lose support.

San Benito County - the heart of the district - could lose coverage for about 1,000 of its 20,987 Medi-Cal enrollees and food assistance for about 1,000 of its 6,862 CalFresh recipients.

And Santa Clara County faces even steeper losses - an estimated 129,000 of its 446,200 Medi-Cal enrollees, and 55,000 of its 125,498 CalFresh recipients, are at risk.

But this budget doesn't just play defense against those cuts - it goes on offense for affordability, health care, housing and kids. Here's how:

Protecting Health Coverage, Funding Hospitals

With federal cuts looming, this budget shores up the health care system Central Coast families depend on.

After Trump and Congressional Republicans eliminated nearly $3 billion in health care subsidies in 2025, the new California budget puts $300 million toward lowering health premiums for low-income enrollees, helping farmworkers, self-employed residents and small business employees keep more money in their pockets each month.

The budget also avoids and delays some of the harshest proposed cuts to Medi-Cal, and prevents premium increases on undocumented Californians. It also preserves access to care and dental services for farmworkers, seniors and immigrant families across the region.

The budget also extends a lifeline to local hospitals, with $135 million for financially distressed community hospitals and $250 million for public hospitals statewide - building on Speaker Rivas and Assembly Democrats' longstanding leadership to make sure local hospitals have the financial resources to continue serving their communities. This is in addition to the $10.6 million for Watsonville Community Hospital that lawmakers voted to deliver in May, funding that supports continuing services for expecting mothers and a large share of Medi-Cal and uninsured patients.

And this budget fully funds In-Home Supportive Services, ensuring seniors and Central Coast residents with disabilities can keep receiving care in their own homes.

Building Affordable Homes, Preventing Street Homelessness

The Central Coast's housing crisis is a daily reality for teachers, farmworkers and young families being priced out of the communities they grew up in. This budget commits $1.7 billion to affordable housing and homelessness prevention, including the affordable housing credit and multifamily housing program, giving the region new resources to build, keep families in their homes and address homelessness.

Legislative Democrats also placed the$11.25 billion Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act before voters, empowering Californians to fund new affordable homes and expand housing opportunities for veterans and working families across Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara counties.

Keeping Food On the Table

As federal cuts threaten CalFresh benefits for tens of thousands of Central Coast residents, this year's budget fights back with $108 million to keep food banks stocked statewide, plus an additional $15 million for the California Nutrition Incentive Program and $15 million for Local Food Purchase Assistance - funding that lets Central Coast food banks buy directly from local farmers while helping families cope with high grocery costs.

This investment comes on the heels' of last holiday season's government shutdown, when the Trump administration cut delivery of food assistance dollars to California, jeopardizing food aid and making it harder for parents to keep food on the table.

The new budget also delivers $16.5 million for diaper banks, including support for Second Harvest Food Bank in Watsonville, giving families with young children across the Central Coast region greater access to everyday essentials that can otherwise put a significant strain on household budgets. The budget provides $100 million in tax breaks to help new local businesses start and grow as well.

On top of that, the budget creates 25,000 new child care slots statewide, making it easier for Central Coast parents to return to work or pursue an education.

Investing in Education and the Next Generation

The 2026-27 budget delivers a major cost-of-living adjustment for school districts and record per-pupil funding, giving Central Coast schools more resources to support students and retain and recruit teachers.

It fully funds paid pregnancy leave for teachers and educators. It helps schools recruit and keep talented teachers without forcing them to choose between a paycheck and growing their family. And it provides an additional $10 million for the 2027-28 Golden State Teacher Grant cycle, opening the door for more aspiring Central Coast educators to earn a teaching credential and return to their home communities to teach.

Environment, Wildfire, Public Safety and Essential Services

A strong California budget goes beyond making life more affordable - it also ensures neighborhoods are safe, ecosystems are protected and the Central Coast remains a place for the next generations to call home.

This year's budget continues critical investments that strengthen public safety, upgrade emergency preparedness and preserve the quality of life that defines our coastal region.

The budget continues investments in public safety and efforts to improve community safety across California, including $50 million for crime victim services through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) program, $20 million for the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program for children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, and $20 million for community-based violence prevention and rehabilitation through the RIGHT Grant.

The budget also invests $375 million in substance use treatment, mental health treatment and rehabilitation services, while dedicating $10 million to human trafficking victim programs and another $10 million to human trafficking prosecution efforts.

Recognizing the growing threats posed by wildfires and climate change, the budget also maintains California's leadership in climate resilience, clean energy and wildfire preparedness. It fully funds our firefighters and CalFire. For the Central Coast, this means essential dollars to protect homes, businesses, agricultural lands and open spaces while advancing the state's ability to respond to increasingly frequent and severe wildfires and climate-related emergencies.

Building on Years of Delivering for the Central Coast

This budget builds on a sustained push by Speaker Rivas to bring resources home to a region that, for decades, often got overlooked in Sacramento.

Since taking the gavel as Speaker, Rivas has pressed to improve everyday quality of life and make housing affordability the centerpiece of California's cost-of-living improvement agenda, even launching a Select Committee on Housing Finance and Affordability and helping steer hundreds of millions of dollars toward low-income housing tax credits and multifamily housing projects, along with $500 million for the state's Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program.

The Speaker has also worked to streamline housing approvals for the kinds of projects the Central Coast needs most, including legislation to speed-up permitting and rein in cost overruns on residential construction.

Rivas has continued to bring Central Coast voices directly into the Capitol, hosting delegations of mayors, council members and county supervisors from Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara counties for briefings with legislative leaders on housing, transportation and public safety.

That advocacy - paired with this year's budget wins on health care, housing, the safety net and schools - reflects a consistent approach:

Build California's Central Coast from the ground up, and make sure the region's farmworkers, small businesses and working families are never an afterthought in the state budget.