Approved: Sac Children's Fund 5 year plan!
In November of 2022, Sacramento voters approved Measure L, otherwise known as the Children and Youth Health and Safety Act. Thank you to the SacKidsFirst coalition who led the Measure L campaign!
This measure establishes the Sacramento Children’s Fund and will require the City to spend the equivalent of 40% of its local cannabis tax revenues (CBOT) on child and youth services. Measure L funded programs will prioritize children and youth most impacted by poverty, violence, and trauma
This new revenue stream will add up to around $10 million taxpayer-free dollars each year for our youth - the estimate for this fiscal year is $8.8 million. This funding is in addition to existing City budget allocations for youth programming, and is meant to ensure that the City funds youth development and violence prevention programs for folks under the age of 25.
Throwback: in October of 2022, SJPC published a piece from a community contributor who spoke on their personal experience growing up in Sacramento, and the importance of programming that would be funded by Measure L:
I NEVER had access to a counselor or therapist on any school campus, much less one that looked like me. While I was privileged enough to be able to attend swim lessons during the summer with my little sister, my mother would herald to both of us that “the summer months would be thin” every year around June…[n]ot every youth gets that support or has that privilege/access. In the absence of that support, our youth rely on their schools, local sports programs/youth centers, teachers/coaches, public parks/pools, jobs, and community based organizations as safe spaces to learn, grow, and change
Some historical context: voters previously rejected Measure Y (2016) & Measure G (2020) that would have established a children's fund. If you’re interested, you can learn more about these attempted Measures here. Fun fact, in July 2022, the Sac City Council voted 8-1 to place Measure L on the ballot. The lone no vote? None other than former City Councilmember Jeff Harris. Jeff, you’re not missed.
Back to present day! Establishing this youth fund also established the Sacramento Children’s Fund Planning and Oversight Commission, which provides recommendations to the City Council on how funds should be spent - but City Council makes final budget decisions. The Commission is made up of 9 members, with each City Councilmember and the Mayor each appointing a commissioner. All appointees should have: personal experience as a consumer (past or present) of youth services, or demonstrated knowledge and professional experience in youth development theory, youth program implementation, or youth program evaluation.
These are the duties & powers of the Commission:
In consultation with the Sacramento Youth Commission, develop Five-Year Strategic Investment Plans and submit them to the city council for adoption
Conduct a review of each Five-Year Strategic Investment Plan before the end of the third year of that plan
Review and accept annual Service Performance Reports, Three-Year Youth Impact Evaluation Reports, Five-Year Youth Impact Performance Reports, and fiscal and performance audit reports
Make recommendations to the city council as a result of its review of the plans and reports
Where are we at now?
Before funds could begin to be spent, the Oversight Commission needed to propose a five-year investment plan from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2029 - this plan was presented at the September 24th Sacramento City Council meeting.
Money generated through Measure L will be used to award grants for youth services to local community based organizations (cbos), as well as the City’s Department of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment (YPCE). The Oversight Commission recommended that 65% of funds be set aside for community orgs, and 35% for YPCE, as that department is already funded separately from the City’s General Fund.
However, the final decision was to split the funding 50/50 between cbos and YPCE. After setting aside $9.2M for foster youth, the estimate for funding over the next 5 years is roughly $36.9M, with $18.45M each going to cbos and YPCE. Really great work (sarcasm) from Councilmembers Guerra, Kaplan and Talamantes for pushing to redirect money from cbos to the City. Love to see the City capitalizing on the work of so many community orgs and youth advocates to fill the gaps of a budget the City was responsible for. This budget season the City also made the decision to continue the RydeFreeRT program - essential to the wellbeing of young people - by pushing ¾ of the cost off onto Sac RT and the Sacramento, Natomas, Elk Grove, and Twin Rivers Unified school districts.
Meanwhile, the City Council also chose to give the Sacramento Police Department a $28M raise. The SPD's budget has increased $100M in the past 8 years, and now accounts for 39% of the City's General Fund. Thank you to Councilmembers Mai Vang and Katie Valenzuela for voting no on the 2024/25 budget because of the decisions made regarding the SPD’s budget.
Here’s an idea for the City Council: stop complaining about the lack of funding for parks, youth, and community services - don’t give SPD another raise - and instead invest that money into parks, youth, and community services. If the city will get roughly $18.45M from Measure L funds over the next 5 years, that’s roughly $3.69M per year. Again, we increased the SPD’s budget by $28M this year alone. That number is roughly 7.5x the $3.69M annual funding estimate from Measure L. The point is, the City could easily have allocated that additional funding to youth this year, had they not chosen to add it to the already bloated police budget. The City's budget shows us where their priorities are.
Enough about City Council! Thank you to all the amazing youth advocates and community organizations who poured so much care and effort into establishing this fund, which will have a positive impact on our community and on the health and safety of our youth! We are truly grateful for all the work you do! Thank you to Councilmember Vang for her collaboration with Sacramento youth to establish the Children’s Fund.
