Education
- Brown proposed an increase of $300,000 to improve the interface of the California School Dashboard. The state Board of Education will be soliciting public comment on the tool and its functionality.
- Brown proposes $120 million ($20 million of which is ongoing) to establish a fully online California community college, which Techwire has covered previously.
- The budget proposes $20 million one-time grants to support innovation in higher education, focused on enhancing equity.
- The budget proposed $5 million in one-time broadband equipment grants, with the expectation that $2 million would support connection for public libraries that lack access to the broadband network and $3 million to expand capacity for libraries already connected.
- It also calls for $1.5 million for online systems for use by public libraries to support efficient access to resources.
“The public safety communication radio system has been in operation for over 28 years and is no longer supported by the manufacturer,” says the budget summary pertaining to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “These systems have experienced failures, resulting in the inability to effectively communicate within the Department and externally with partner organizations.”
The budget proposal includes $32.9 million for replacement technology for nine adult institutions that have not been upgraded, two juvenile facilities and various fire camps, and to provide interoperability to the statewide transportation unit. In all, CDCR has about 30,000 handheld radios in use statewide.
Judicial system
- The budget includes $3.4 million for the state Judicial Council to implement a five-court pilot to begin moving toward a civil model for adjudication of minor traffic violations. This proposal would authorize an online adjudication system for certain traffic violations in the pilot courts.
- The budget proposal includes $32.2 million from the Immediate and Critical Needs Account to complete the design of three courthouse projects in Riverside/Mid-County, Sonoma and Stanislaus. The budget doesn’t break out what portion of that $32.2 million would be for technology.
- Self-Help Services—The budget includes $19.1 million to expand self-help services in trial courts to better prepare the increasing number of self-represented litigants, thereby reducing trial court workload by decreasing the amount of clerk time and continuances in these cases. This brings the total budget for self-help services to $30.1 million.
- The budget also includes $200,000 to expand the Protective Order Registry to the seven courts that do not use the registry.
- The budget includes $3.4 million for the Judicial Council to implement a five-court pilot to begin moving toward a civil model for adjudication of minor traffic violations. This proposal would authorize an online adjudication system for certain traffic violations in the pilot courts.
- Cybersecurity, an important endeavor across most areas of government, is key in the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) portion of the proposed budget. Brown proposes $10.4 million for Caltrans to develop an enterprise privacy office to address its ongoing cybersecurity needs. “While $9.2 million will be for hardware and software, $700,000 will be for consulting and licenses and $500,000 will be for four ongoing positions to work with vendors, develop training, policies, and procedures, and manage the program,” the document states.
Much like the CDCR, the CHP is a heavy user of communications devices and technology.
- Brown’s budget plan calls for $3.9 million in the first year of a multiyear, $13.3 million plan to replace 187 radio consoles at 23 CHP dispatch centers. Included in this amount is four-year limited-term funding of $509,000 for four IT positions to install, service and repair the new equipment.
- Brown also proposes spending $600,000 annually for two years to replace broken or obsolete radar units.
- For the DMV, the proposed budget calls for $15 million for the first-year costs of a five-year, $89 million plan to replace its software for vehicle registration and managing service fees and payments. Over the five-year project, the estimated costs include $38 million for the software system contract, $43 million for California Department of Technology staff, data center usage, and associated equipment and facilities upgrades, and $8 million for 10 additional DMV staff.
- The budget also proposed $3.1 million to replace high-priority equipment and hardware that has reached the end of its useful life. This equipment includes servers, as well as network and storage equipment.
During Northern California’s historic wildfires last fall, major telecommunications infrastructure was lost, “hampering firefighting efforts, communications with impacted residents and 9-1-1 capabilities,” the budget points out. It proposes $11.5 million to modernize the state's current antiquated 911 system with a Next-Generation 911 system, and improve public safety during emergency events.
Voting
“The vast majority of voting technology used in California is from the late 1990s or early 2000s,” the document notes, adding, “Much of the equipment has reached the end of its useful life.”
- The budget includes a one-time allocation of $134.3 million to purchase of the needed hardware, software and licensing for the replacement of voting systems and technology in all 58 counties. The other half of the cost would be assumed by the counties themselves. Thus, the voting tech spend will total more than $250 million.
Brown in 2015 created the nation's first statewide initiative on “precision medicine,” which uses advanced computing, data science and technology to improve health care, and to date, some $23 million has been spent.
The proposed budget advocates establishment of a California Institute to Advance Precision Health and Medicine with an additional $30 million one-time appropriation to “continue developing demonstration projects, incorporate successful demonstration projects into the health delivery system, and further advance how data science can be utilized in healthcare.”
It notes that the institute would be administered “through a collaboration between public and private nonprofit institutions, overseen by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.”
The next major step in the budget process comes in May, when revisions are due. After that, the Legislature acts.
