Budget Agreement Sets California on New Course for Public Health, Equity

After a Decade of Disinvestment, California will Begin to Rebuild Local Public Health Capacity, Develop Pipeline of Future Public Health Workers to Deliver Health Equity SACRAMENTO, CA — California Can’t Wait (CACantWait), a coalition of public health officials, local leaders, frontline workers, and health equity advocates, celebrated the final budget agreement containing historic new investments for California’s battered local public health departments. The final budget agreement maintains the $300 million ongoing annual funding commitment made as part of last year’s final budget deal, with $200 million earmarked for local public health departments, and invests an additional $75.6 million in one-time Public Health Equity Readiness and Opportunity (PublicHERO) Initiative workforce development programs to develop the next generation of public health workers needed to keep California’s promise of health equity. 

Read the full press release from the County Health Executives Association of California (CHEAC).