20 Wins for the Central Coast: How Speaker Rivas and California Democrats Are Stabilizing Costs and Protecting Families

From the Salinas and Pajaro valleys to Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and south Santa Clara counties, this legislative year brought new investments and new laws to protect health care, support schools and farmworkers, and build more affordable homes, all while putting families' pocketbooks first.

SACRAMENTO - The Central Coast has a strong voice at the state Capitol, and this year Speaker Robert Rivas and Assembly Democrats put that voice to work, delivering results that make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of coastal families, workers and businesses.

Since day one, Speaker Rivas has made stabilizing costs and putting your pocketbook first a top priority. This year, Assembly Democrats turned that priority into action on the issues that matter most to the Central Coast:

• Making sure you can see a doctor: Protecting health care coverage from federal cuts, keeping coastal hospitals open and fully funding in-home care
• Faster construction of homes you can afford: $1.7 billion to build and protect homes, an $11.25 billion housing and veterans bond headed to voters and new tools to prevent homelessness
• Energy savings rebates: Guardrails so families aren't left holding the bill for rising power costs driven by others, plus continued work to keep the fuel supply steady. Bonus: credits on your utility bills this summer!
• A raise for farmworkers and immigrant families: Lawmakers delivered a higher agricultural minimum wage, new farmworker housing support and enhanced protections for immigrant families
• Schools, child care and young people: Record per-student funding, new support for teachers and 25,000 new child care slots
• Wildfire protection and recovery: Fully funded firefighters and CalFire, plus new help with insurance, smoke damage and rebuilding
• Kids' safety online: New laws to curb addictive social media features for children
• AI oversight and holding tech accountable: More transparency around AI, data centers paying their own way and a ban on public officials issuing meme coins
• Public safety: Safer college campuses, safer access to places of worship and more support for young people and neighborhoods
• Parks and outdoor spaces: A permanent State Parks Library Pass program and new planning to help coastal communities prepare for a changing shoreline
• Women's health and reproductive freedom: Keeping reproductive health clinics open and protecting access to care

Here are 20 wins making a difference across the Central Coast:

Keeping health care closer to home: This year, California delivered $135 million for distressed community hospitals and $250 million for public hospitals, building on Speaker Rivas and Assembly Democrats' continued efforts to make sure local hospitals have the resources they need to keep serving their communities. Lawmakers also approved $10.6 million in emergency funding for Watsonville Community Hospital.

Billions to build new homes: The Legislature placed the $11.25 billion Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026 before voters, creating a major new opportunity to expand affordable housing and homeownership for veterans and working families.

Returning energy bill savings to you: During the 2026 legislative year, the Assembly advanced measures to return money directly to families and ratepayers and add transparency to how utility profits are set. The Assembly also continues its work to keep California's fuel supply steady, building on recent work that allows the state to require refiners to maintain a minimum fuel inventory to avoid supply shortages and gas-price spikes.

Millions for community spaces: This year's budget delivered millions of dollars for the Salinas Regional Soccer Complex, Soledad Community Center and King City Recreation Center, essential gathering places for residents up and down the Central Coast.

Standing with immigrant families: California raised the agricultural minimum wage this year and delivered low-income housing tax credits for farmworker housing. Assembly Democrats passed dozens of measures to protect immigrant communities at schools, hospitals, child care facilities and other community spaces. New laws strengthen protections for immigrant workers and families, expand access to legal resources, crack down on ICE impersonators and protect families from losing critical assistance when a household member is detained. They also include a 25% tax on private detention facilities and restrictions to keep immigration enforcement off state property.

Supporting working parents, students and teachers: Parents and children will see new opportunities, with 25,000 new child care slots statewide, $16.5 million for diaper banks and $108 million for food banks, including Second Harvest Food Bank in Watsonville. The budget also delivers record per-student funding and a cost-of-living adjustment for school districts, fully funded paid pregnancy leave for educators and $10 million for the Golden State Teacher Grant.

Strengthening wildfire prevention: Assembly Democrats passed new tools to accelerate wildfire prevention projects, strengthen home and community hardening, expand prescribed burning and improve local preparedness, helping protect homes, infrastructure and landscapes across the Central Coast. New laws also increase protections for homeowners recovering from wildfires, including permanent mortgage forbearance protections and new standards for fixing hazardous wildfire smoke damage.

Protecting kids online: The Assembly passed a first-in-the-nation law prohibiting social media platforms from allowing children under 16 to create or maintain accounts on apps with addictive features. New legislation also strengthened online age-safety and privacy protections and required platforms to better respond to child sexual abuse material.

AI oversight and holding tech accountable: California improved transparency around AI by strengthening the California AI Transparency Act. Lawmakers also made sure data centers pay their own way by preventing the cost of power for large energy users from being shifted onto household bills.

Safe campuses, safe places of worship, safe neighborhoods: Lawmakers continued to put Californians' safety first, with new laws that require postsecondary institutions to adopt policies and training on human trafficking and improve how sexual crimes are identified and reported. The Safe Worship Zone Act limits protest activity within 100 feet of a religious facility, and new laws also expand state security grants to events like cultural festivals and Pride gatherings. This year's budget includes $50 million for crime victim services, $20 million for CASA advocates for foster and justice-involved youth, $20 million for community violence prevention and $375 million for substance use and mental health treatment.

New health care subsidies: Democrats fought to mitigate $3 billion in federal cuts to state health care subsidies by delivering $300 million to help low-income enrollees keep health coverage within reach. This year's budget also fully funded In-Home Supportive Services for seniors and veterans.

Stabilizing everyday costs: New laws will protect consumers from unfair pricing practices, make water more affordable, strengthen protections against predatory financial practices and raise wages for farmworkers - all to keep costs down for families. Assembly Democrats also passed measures to make sure Californians have more stability, more opportunity and more money in their pockets.

Speeding up construction with less red tape: New housing laws this year also make it easier to build townhomes, speed construction near bus and train transit hubs, help builders resolve problems to avoid costly litigation, protect disaster survivors from losing their homes and speed-up connecting affordable housing and other community projects to electricity.

Defending access to care and reproductive freedom: Lawmakers fasttracked $90 million in emergency funding for reproductive health providers.

Pushing back against unsafe immigration detention centers: As Trump's failed immigration agenda and indiscriminate ICE attacks continue, California is standing tall. Since day one, Speaker Rivas has opposed the proposed ICE detention facility near Gilroy, and Assembly Democrats passed new measures to increase transparency and accountability around private detention facilities. New laws require public notice and procedures before local governments approve private detention facilities, impose a 25 percent tax on private immigration detention centers and cut off state grants, loans and tax credits for businesses that profit from private detention facilities or federal immigration enforcement contracts.

Protecting your California tax dollars from federal overreach: The Legislature established a $25 million State Litigation Fund to give California the resources to challenge unlawful federal actions and protect the state's interests. California's legal challenges have already protected more than $207 billion for the state's families, workers and businesses from unprecedented federal overreach.

Making sure families have access to essential services in the face of federal cuts: The 2026-27 budget invests $257 million to support immigrant communities, including legal services and DREAM Resource Centers, while preserving access to health care and essential services for immigrant families. It also protects critical safety-net programs and continues investments in services for seniors, people with disabilities and families across the Central Coast.

Heightened oversight of your tax dollars: This year marked the successful completion of the Assembly's first-in-the-nation Outcomes Review pilot, an effort launched to examine whether laws are actually working as intended. Fifteen Assembly members reviewed 14 laws covering housing, affordability, energy, health care, worker protections, wildfire recovery and other issues, using public hearings and community meetings to identify concrete ways to improve implementation.

Supporting small businesses: Assembly Democrats made it easier for small businesses and entrepreneurs to open, grow and compete by streamlining permits, expanding opportunities to fill vacant storefronts, protecting businesses from abusive financial practices and strengthening enforcement against anti-competitive behavior. This also includes a $100 million tax break for new small businesses!

Keeping the coast and open spaces within reach: This year, the Legislature made the State Parks Library Pass program permanent, paired with ongoing budget funding, and created a Coastal Resilience Permitting Working Group to help communities prepare for a changing shoreline.