Every year, advocacy groups like Transform work on two separate but related campaigns in Sacramento: legislation and the budget. For 2025, Transform has a packed legislative agenda, but that doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the budget process. This year, we have three big budget asks of the legislature: $2.9 billion for housing and homelessness assistance, $2 billion to support transit operations, and to restore $400 million taken from the Active Transportation Program (ATP) in last year’s budget.

Budget negotiations are less visible and harder to follow, but they’re no less critical to California’s future. Here’s what Transform is doing to advocate for equitable budget priorities to improve transportation, housing, and climate.

How does the state budget process work in California?

The California budget process starts at the beginning of the year and finishes by the end of June, the deadline for the governor and the legislature to come to an agreement and pass a budget for the next fiscal year. Along the way, there are several significant milestones and big hearings, plus many, many meetings to hammer out the budget details.

In January, the governor releases his budget, the opening salvo for budget negotiations. The legislature may release its own budget recommendations, and various caucuses may release statements on their budget priorities.

After months of negotiations and hearings, the governor releases another budget draft, called the May Revise, in — you guessed it — May. Then the governor and the legislature conduct a final round of negotiations to hammer out a deal before the June 30 deadline.

Throughout this process, Transform and our allies send letters like the ones below, testify at hearings, and attend meetings with legislators, advocating for our priorities. We’re not alone in this; lobbyists for various industries, labor unions, state agencies, and many nonprofits representing diverse interests all weigh in on how our state should allocate its resources. 

In 2025, the process is complicated by chaos in the new federal regime, making it difficult to rely on previously committed federal funding. It’s unclear what gaps legislators might need to fill due to unmet federal commitments.

Transform and our coalition partners have made three requests to the governor and the legislature to fund housing, public transit, and active transportation infrastructure. Each of them will make a significant difference in the lives of California residents but represent a small fraction of California’s $230 billion budget.

$2.9 billion for housing and homelessness programs

In our coalition letter, below, Transform and our allies have outlined precisely where we’d like to see $2.9 billion in housing money allocated. The funding will close gaps, facilitating the construction of affordable housing and helping unhoused Californians find long-term shelter. The letter calls for $1 billion in funding for Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention, an effective program that has moved 40,000 people out of homelessness in the past two years, but which will be unfunded without this money. The money would also keep alive the Multifamily Housing Program, which builds new and preserves existing affordable housing. Without new funds, this vital program won’t be able to make more grants. 

Read the letter. 

$2 billion for the bus

Transform has joined a coalition asking for $2 billion to shore up our state’s struggling transit systems. We can’t afford to lose the vital bus and train connections that millions of Californians rely on to get around. The legislature provided stopgap transit funding coming out of the pandemic. As transit providers work to develop long-term funding solutions, we’re asking the legislature to allocate $2 billion over the next two fiscal years to keep the buses rolling until those solutions come online.

Read the letter.

$400 million for the Active Transportation Program

Last year’s budget cuts stripped $400 million from the ATP. This left it with only enough funding to approve 13 projects to make biking and walking safer across the whole state. Transform is part of a coalition asking for those funds to be reinstated. That would allow the ATP to fund an additional 36 excellent, shovel-ready active transportation projects.

Read the letter.