Stronger CA Advocates Network Responds to Gov. Newsom’s May Budget Revision & Urges Legislature to Protect Vulnerable Communities

May 14. 2025

For Immediate Release
May 14, 2025

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

SACRAMENTO, May 14, 2025 – As federal budget cuts threaten the wellbeing of California’s working families, the Stronger California Advocates Network is urging our state leaders to prioritize the needs of California’s most vulnerable residents by raising revenues and protecting essential services in the 2025-26 state budget. 

The Stronger California Advocates Network (Stronger California) is a collaborative campaign of 65+ advocacy groups and coalitions from across the state working to combat poverty, achieve workplace justice, and expand access to affordable childcare. Our members watch with grave concern as the Federal Administration and Congress seek to weaken or end vital programs that support families’ health and economic security while giving tax breaks to billionaires. We understand that these efforts will exacerbate existing wealth and racial inequities and undermine the ability of Californians to take care of themselves and their loved ones.

We are disappointed that the Governor’s May Budget Revision chooses to cut life-saving services like health care for all Californians regardless of immigration status, limits care for In-Home Supportive Services, reduces investments in child care and foster youth, and fails to include essential victims’ services funding. The Revised Budget also proposes to remove half of the funding for HOPE Accounts that promise to reverse the racial wealth gap. These are not only necessary for a more equitable, inclusive California; they are smart investments that more than pay for themselves by ensuring all Californians are healthy and able to pursue work and education. 

We are grateful that the budget maintains grants and COLAs for SSI and CalWORKs, as well as making a modest but important start on reforms to reimagine CalWORKs in line with the Administration’s plans for the now-rescinded Temporary Assistance for Needy Families pilot. Both SSI and CalWORKs disproportionately support Black, Latina, and other women of color and their families, who have experienced the greatest discrimination and disenfranchisement from economic prosperity. 

Stronger California strongly urges the Legislature to stand up and fight back against federal harm by investing in our communities. Last year, our legislators refused to balance the budget on the backs of marginalized Californians and prioritized generating revenue over cutting crucial programs. Now more than ever, with federal threats looming and a projected return to deficits in future years, the Golden State must stay the course and continue to focus on raising revenues instead of threatening the wellbeing of our residents.

The need for equitable investments is particularly critical while the federal Administration and Congress are looting the public good. They threaten to weaken or end vital healthcare, food, and other programs that support pathways out of poverty to jobs and the California Dream. Even worse, their plans for billionaire tax breaks will exacerbate already unacceptable wealth and racial inequities: white households get nearly 90% of any corporate tax break. 

In the final Budget, state lawmakers must choose to raise revenues and keep the promise that ALL our Californians deserve a chance to thrive. Now the 4th largest economy in the world, California’s healthy economy could not be achieved without the people who live and work here. We must ensure that Californians get a chance to stay housed, stay fed, stay healthy, and that they see a bright future for their families and children here in the Golden State. 

California is stronger together, and we believe that together we can build a more equitable, secure future for California’s working women and families.

For a complete list of 2025 Stronger California policy priorities, visit StrongerCA.org. 

Quotes from Stronger California Advocates

• Jessica Ramey Stender, Policy Director & Deputy Legal Director at Equal Rights Advocates & Co-Chair of the Stronger California Advocates Network:
  “In these unprecedented times, and in light of imminent federal threats, California must make necessary investments to ensure Californians can meet basic needs. While we strongly support proposed investments in SSI and CalWORKs in the May Revision, we are deeply concerned about proposed cuts that would harm women, families, and vulnerable communities in our state. We urge the Legislature to push for revenue solutions to close budget shortfalls, protect our most vulnerable communities, and support healthy futures for families across our state.”

• Krista Colón, Executive Director, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence; and Sandra Henriquez, Chief Executive Officer, ValorUS:
  “We are very concerned to see that the Governor’s May Budget Revision does not include essential victims’ services funding. This funding is critical for thousands of women, workers, and families each year. It pays for forensic examinations to gather evidence, shelter beds, counseling in the wake of trauma, legal assistance for applying for a restraining order. These are life-saving services and without them, our communities will be less safe, less equal, less caring, and many survivors of crime will be left behind and left to fend for themselves. California is better than this. We will continue our advocacy to see that the state government does not seek to balance its budget on survivors’ backs.”

• Andrew Cheyne, Managing Director of Public Policy, GRACE & End Child Poverty California:
  “Last year, the Governor and Legislature made history in refusing failed austerity measures and not balancing the budget on our most vulnerable children and families. This year must be no different: lawmakers must build on the work done last year, raising necessary revenues and preventing cuts to health care, child care, foster youth, and other vital supports that provide pathways out of poverty. We are pleased to see grants and COLAs for SSI and CalWORKs, as well as reforms to reimagine CalWORKs in the May revision; however, we must urge the Legislature to reject proposed cuts that target marginalized communities and deepen inequality.”

• Mary Ignatius, Executive Director, Parent Voices California:
  “Childcare is what allows the workforce to thrive and expanding affordable childcare for all is not just an investment in families, it’s a commitment to a more prosperous future. Yet millions of Californians struggle to afford children and providers have been paid poverty wages for decades. Especially in the face of imminent federal cuts that will have devastating impacts on Californians, our state must invest in the needs of working families and choose kids over corporations.”

To speak with Stronger California Advocates Network leaders, contact Blake Case at [email protected] or (601) 832-6079. 

About Equal Rights Advocates
Equal Rights Advocates fights for gender justice in workplaces and schools across the country. Since 1974, they have been fighting on the front lines of social justice to protect and advance rights and opportunities for women, girls, and people of all gender identities through groundbreaking legal cases and bold legislation that sets the stage for the rest of the nation.

About the Stronger California Advocates Network
The Stronger California Advocates Network is a coalition of 65 nonprofit and advocacy organizations working to advance policy reforms that address the intersecting obstacles women and families face to leading economically secure lives. Chaired by Equal Rights Advocates, the Network develops and advocates for the annual Stronger California Legislative Agenda to build a more equitable California economy.