California met its deadline to pass its budget on Monday, and so did municipalities across the state.

The budget isn’t the final say-so for the state: lawmakers will continue tweaking it in discussions with Gov. Gavin Newsom until the start of the new fiscal year July 1. On the negotiation table:  healthcare cuts, child care funding and taxes on healthcare providers and software sales. Read more from CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu and Kate Wolffe: California Democrats approve budget deal, opening negotiations with Newsom.

For a look at California’s contentious history of governor-legislature budget negotiations, CalMatters’ Dan Walters provides commentary: Capitol’s perpetual rivalry on display as Newsom and legislators clash over budget.

Riverside County approved a $10.3 billion budget last week, and plans to formally adopt it June 23, the Riverside Record reports. In putting the budget together, county departments asked for a total of more than $700 million in funding than the county already funded. To meet the departments halfway, the county will draw $66 million from the general fund, and continue its hiring freeze for departments that receive money from the general fund. Read more at the Record: Supervisors approve $10.3B proposed budget following public hearing.

San Bernardino County released a $10.5 billion budget as well, Inland Empire Community News reports. Changes from last week’s budget include $7.5 million in reserves to support wildfire response, $7.5 million increased funding for the supervisors to invest in community programs, and $3 million increase in road improvements. Read more at IECN: San Bernardino County Approves $10.5B Budget, Boosts Homeless Services and Wildfire Prevention, or read the recommended budget in full.

The Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment approved Sen. Eloise Gómes Reyes workplace protection bill last week.

If enacted, Senate Bill 951 would require employers to give a 60-day notice if they are going to replace 25 or more workers with artificial intelligence over a 30-day period. In companies larger than 100 workers, displaced employees would also be entitled to first bid on other positions in the company.  If the company fails to give the notice, the bill would make them liable to pay back pay and benefits to the fired employees, and fine them $500 per day of violation. 

“When technology replaces workers, those workers deserve notice, transparency, and an opportunity to prepare,” Gómes Reyes told the committee.

Nationwide, AI has displaced 72,000 jobs. In California, 10,000-31,000 jobs have been displaced, Gómes Reyes said.

The bill is opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce. Andrea Lynch, on behalf of the Chamber, said that the issue of AI layoffs was better treated through application of Newsom’s recent executive order, which CalMatters' Khari Johnson reported on. 

Lynch said that the bill’s threshold of 25 workers would impact small and mid sized employers, and that the right to first bid “creates an untested preferential hiring obligation that does not exist under Cal Warren and raises significant operation on legal questions about how employers manage internal postings, qualifications, and restructuring decisions.”

The bill is supported by the California Labor Federation. 

“Today, artificial intelligence tools threaten a dehumanization of the economy, hitting large swaths of this nation, potentially creating catastrophic job loss everywhere in the state, from warehouses to the tech industry, to the financial administration, customer service and entertainment industries,” said Sara Flocks on behalf of the CLF.

Additional speakers in support came from the California Teachers Association, the California School Employees Association, AFSCME California, California Employment Lawyers Association, California Nurses Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and California Faculty Association.

The bill passed 5-0, with all Democrats voting yes, and neither Republican on the committee casting a vote.

California Indian Nations College in Palm Desert is freshly accredited, tuition-free and is expecting 33 graduates. CalMatters’ Ella Carter-Klauschie, a fellow with the College Journalism Network, wrote a 2,00-word profile on the nine-year-old institution and its students. 

The institution is funded by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, but serves Indigenous students from across the country. This year, two bills brought by IE Assemblymembers. James Ramos (D-Highland) and Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley) seek to integrate the campus better into the state’s higher education system.

“We’re showing [students] that through education, the value of a degree can carry a lot of weight,” College President Celeste Townsend told Carter-Klauschie.

The college helped Amelia Giron, an upcoming graduate, maintain her sobriety, reconnect with her family and ground her in traditional cultural activities.

“When I started participating in the different workshops, and I started to really learn the culture it really helped me,” Giron said. “Understanding and also just participating in ceremony, sweat lodge and stuff like that…it helped really ground me and keep me on the road to recovery.”

Read the full article: ‘It’s a family’: How a California tribal college is opening doors for Native students

Some corrections from last week’s election coverage: in Assembly District 36, Oscar Ortiz came in second place, but only among Riverside County voters. Across the district, Democrat nurse practitioner and former Imperial Mayor Pro-Tem Ida Obeso-Martinez came in second place, with 19,507 votes to Ortiz’s 17,839. Obeso-Martinez will advance to the general election, along with incumbent Republican Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez. 

In Assembly District 63, write-in candidate and retired steam engineer Kevin Akin will advance to the general election against incumbent freshman Assemblymember Natasha Johnson. Akin received 569 votes, making him runner-up to Johnson’s 79,372 votes.

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