PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: February 12, 2026
Subject: FY 2026-27 Public Safety Realignment Community Corrections Budget
Presenter: Esa Ehmen-Krause, CCP Chair; Enid Mendoza, CCP Staff
Contact: Enid.Mendoza@cao.cccounty.us
Referral History:
In 2011, the State enacted the AB 109 Public Safety Realignment Act, which diverts the custody housing and supervision of individuals convicted of certain state prison offenses to the local county level. It also directs the State to give counties a portion of sales and vehicle license fee revenue to fund the realigned responsibilities from the State to the counties.
The State’s Community Corrections allocation formula is composed of a Base allocation and a Growth allocation. The Base allocation is derived from current year sales tax and vehicle license fee (VLF) funding, and the current year Growth allocation is derived from prior year actual sales tax and VLF funding from the State. Since passage of AB 109, the Growth allocation has been more volatile than the Base allocation due to varying economic factors.
The Growth allocation formula is based on 80% felony probation rates (60% felony probation success rates, 20% year-over-year felony probation improvement for counties showing improvement) and 20% incarceration rates (10% county reduction in year-over-year overall prison admission, 10% county success measured by per-capita rate of prison admissions).
Although the County has accumulatively benefited from AB 109 Community Corrections Growth allocations over the years, they have ranged from no growth allocation (County FYs 2020-21 and 2023-24) to a little over $5 million (County FY 2022-23).
For reference, Attachment A provides a 6-year Base and Growth allocation summary for each county from FY 2020-21 to FY 2025-26.
In preparation for the County’s budget development activities, which begin the first week of January annually, the AB 109 Community Corrections budget activities begin in the fall of the prior calendar year to ensure timely approvals. The AB 109 Community Corrections budget is included in the County’s annual recommended budget, upon approval of the Community Corrections Partnership - Executive Committee (CCP) in December and review by the Board’s Public Protection Committee in February. A detailed FY 2026-27 budget development schedule is included as Attachment B.
In a memo from the County Administrator’s Office dated September 23, 2025, departments were asked to submit a FY 2026-27 Community Corrections budget upon assessing prior year’s program budget allocations and actual expenditures to right size budget proposals where under-expenditure trends exist. Departments were advised that any programs or expenditure categories no longer needed in FY 2026-27, should be reflected as program modification reductions. Departments were given until October 17, 2025 to submit their budget proposals. County Administration staff worked with departments on their budget proposals through October 31, 2025.
Referral Update:
On November 7, 2025, the Community Corrections Partnership - CCP Executive Committee held its FY 2026- 27 budget workshop, allowing funded departments and agencies the opportunity to present and discuss their budget proposals. Questions were raised regarding budgets with greater budget increases than most. The MHET and Courts increases were primarily due to the need to right-size prior year budgets that did not account for the total cost of funding the positions working on the AB 109 community corrections program. The following attachments were included in the Partnership’s December meeting and unanimously approved to continue to the Public Protection Committee:
1. Attachment C - a summary of the expenditure categories as budgeted in current year and a breakdown of baseline FY 2026-27, FY 2026-27 budget modifications, and total FY 2026-27 budget allocation requests, by department program area.
2. Attachment D - a compilation of all department budget submissions including a budget narrative, more detailed budget categories, and details on planned contracted services.
3. Attachment E - a summary of the percentage change between the proposed and current year budgets and the information provided by departments to explain the change.
Total expenditures for all department proposals are $43,645,862, which is approximately $5.6 million over the revenue projections provided to the CCP in November and December. Budgeting fund reserves is a common practice with the AB 109 Public Safety Realignment due to State revenue growth not keeping up with the salary and benefit cost increases and cost of doing business increases with our community partners. A large portion of the community corrections budget covers salary and benefit cost. Due to vacancies, the ongoing expenditure rarely exceeds total revenue. Therefore, the budgets presented demonstrate funding considerations prudent to community corrections revenue limitations.
Recent revenue calculations, based on the Governor’s January Proposed Budget, assume a $40.4 million total from FY 2026-27 Base and Growth allocations. This will require budgeting approximately $3.2 million of reserves.
Maintaining a healthy reserve is enforced by the County’s Community Corrections reserve fund balance policy, which requires 50% of budgeted expenditures. Also important to note is the current $15 million in obligated fund balance as approved by the CCP-EC, PPC, Board of Supervisors to draw down the growing reserves for one-time projects that can address immediate needs of the County’s reentry population.
Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):
REVIEW and APPROVE the fiscal year 2026-27 AB 109 Public Safety Realignment Community Corrections budget totaling $43,645,862, as submitted by operating departments and approved by the Community Corrections Partnership - CCP Executive Committee at their December 15,2025 meeting, for inclusion in the County’s FY 2026-27 Recommended Budget.
Fiscal Impact:
If approved as submitted, the FY 2026-27 budget will result in funding allocation recommendations totaling $43,645,852, which would require an approximate use of fund balance allocation of $3,227,359 million over the anticipated State revenue. Though the fund’s reserve has sufficient fund balance to cover the amount to balance the operating departments’ expenditure plan, it is important to recognize that ongoing expenditure increases will put pressure on the known flat Base allocation and overall fund balance reserves in the upcoming years.