A file photo of California State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez at the “No Kings” 2 demonstration in Pasadena on Saturday, October 18, 2025. [Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]

Senate Bill 1090 would bar dense rebuilding projects on burned lots — but affordable-housing nonprofits say the blanket ban would shut them down too, and other residents warn it arrives too late to matter.

A state senator brought her bill to curb developer-driven density in Altadena to a packed town council meeting Tuesday, June 16.

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez presented Senate Bill 1090, her proposal — co-authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian — to exempt Altadena from two state housing laws that have allowed outside investors to buy fire-scarred lots and pack them with new units.

An estimated 450 residents turned out, filling the council’s meeting room and overflowing into the parking lot, where as many as 300 people followed from outside.

Senate Bill 1090 would bar the use of Senate Bill 9 — the state’s lot-split and accessory dwelling unit law — and Senate Bill 1123, which permits lot splits of up to 10 units, within Altadena. The protection would apply by zip code, would not cover applications filed before January 1, 2027, and would expire January 1, 2030. The measure is scheduled for its first hearing before the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on June 24, 2026.

Pérez also told the crowd what the bill does not do. It would not stop a homeowner from rebuilding, and it would not block anyone from adding an accessory dwelling unit or a junior accessory dwelling unit for family.

“This bill does not impact your ability to be able to build an ADU or a JADU,” she said. The target, she said, is the lot split that turns one home into many.

Why Altadena needs a separate bill

The legislation exists, Pérez and county officials said, because of how Altadena was mapped after the Eaton Fire of January 2025.

An executive order Governor Gavin Newsom signed in 2025 exempted areas designated as very high fire hazard severity zones from the two density laws. That order covered the entire Pacific Palisades, along with Malibu and Sunset Mesa, but left out most of Altadena, which — apart from a thin band along the foothills — is not classified as a very high fire hazard zone. Pérez said the governor has declined requests to extend the protection to all of Altadena by zip code.

“The fact that Altadena was not included in the original executive order … and that the governor has refused to include Altadena in an updated executive order is an issue,” Pérez said. “Frankly, it’s one that I want to see get resolved.”

Investors bought close to 49 percent of Altadena properties sold between February and July 2025, compared with roughly 10 percent during the same period in 2024, Pérez said, citing a report by Sage.

The bill is sponsored by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Pérez said, and is backed by the community group Altadena Recovery Watch.

Anish Saraya, the county’s Altadena recovery director, told the council the county has already restricted Senate Bill 9 lot splits and accessory dwelling units in the small slice of Altadena that does fall within a very high fire zone, on direction from Supervisor Barger.

But that leaves most of the community unprotected. He added that all Senate Bill 1123 projects submitted to the county to date have been voided after the state confirmed that vacant lots surrounded by other vacant lots do not qualify under the law.

Even so, Saraya cautioned, more than 1,600 homes are now in construction across Altadena — meaning Senate Bill 1123 will eventually become applicable again as the community builds out around remaining vacant lots, which is part of why he said legislative protection is needed now.

Saraya said the county’s inboxes hold more than 450 emails about the developer-driven projects, citing proposals at 411 Punahou Street and 2284 Norwick Place as examples of plans from developers who are “not folks that are interested in being part of our community.” As a civil engineer, he added, “some of these designs offend me personally and professionally.”

Miles Kealing, field representative for Assemblymember Harabedian, told the council the assemblymember is a “proud principal co-author” of the bill and said his office had concluded after conversations with Newsom that legislation was the cleanest path forward.

“This is a pro-housing bill,” Kealing said, “because it ensures that construction in Altadena prioritizes the families and people that are trying to return and not the developers who are trying to maximize their profits.”

A community that isn’t united

Despite the shared anger at outside developers, the bill drew objections from an unexpected quarter — the nonprofit builders working to create permanently affordable housing in Altadena.

Leaders of the Altadena Community Land Trust told the council they rely on Senate Bill 9 to build affordable homes for displaced renters, and that a blanket ban would shut those projects down along with the speculative ones.

“Senate Bill 9 is a key component of our ability to build housing that is truly affordable,” said Shannon Larsole, board president of the land trust. She and others — including the nonprofits Greenline Housing Foundation and Beacon Housing — build “gentle density” such as bungalow courts, a form common in Altadena before the fire.

Katie Clark, a founding member of the land trust and a displaced tenant who lost her home, urged the council to back a narrow exemption rather than an outright ban.

“We need a scalpel and not a sledgehammer,” she said, adding that the group has already submitted proposed carve-out language to Pérez’s office, the county and the council.

The projects built by for-profit developers under the two laws, she said, “are not affordable housing. … They will be engines of further displacement and gentrification.”

‘It can’t go into effect until 2027′

Other residents warned that the bill, as written, may arrive too late — and could even make matters worse in the short term.

Because the measure does not take effect until January 1, 2027, and cannot be applied retroactively, the county must keep accepting and processing applications until then. Pérez said reaching backward to cancel filed projects would be unconstitutional and would get the law struck down in court.

That gap alarmed speakers who said the announcement effectively signals developers to rush their applications before the door closes.

“We’ve actually put up a signal for further developers to come in and buy up properties and get their applications in before this goes into effect,” resident Neil Tyler said. “That needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed now.”

Residents also questioned the timeline. Though the protection has been described as a five-year shield, it would run only three years, from 2027 to 2030 — well short of a rebuild that Pérez acknowledged typically takes six to eight years. Several urged her to push the expiration date later.

Pérez said she is open to extending it but must first secure the votes, and warned that a longer protection would draw more opposition in Sacramento. The fastest way to move up the start date, she said, would be to add “urgency” language allowing the bill to take effect as soon as the governor signs it, likely in the fall — a step that requires a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the Assembly.

Saraya raised a final concern about infrastructure. Because the projects are approved “by right,” or ministerially, he said, the county is legally barred from requiring studies of water, sewer or electrical capacity before they proceed. By restoring local review, Pérez said, Senate Bill 1090 would let the planning commission weigh those impacts and take public comment.

What happens next

The council took no formal position on the bill, describing the meeting’s discussions as an introduction, and said members will weigh their stance in the coming days.

Council Chair Nick Arnzen pointed residents toward a planned community gathering and the Altadena Town Council Legislative Committee, led by council member Darlene Green, for those who want to weigh in.

Residents can read the bill at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. The Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee is set to take up Senate Bill 1090 on June 24, 2026.

[Supervisor Kathryn Barger via Facebook]

The Fifth District supervisor’s statement comes six days before the Board of Supervisors acts on Final Changes to the county budget

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Tuesday she supports the fiscal discipline urged by the county’s chief executive officer but said any fee increases must account for the economic pressures already facing small business owners, property owners, and working families.

Her Fifth District includes Pasadena and Altadena, where residents depend on county-administered health, social, and public safety services. The statement came the same day Chief Executive Officer Joseph M. Nicchitta delivered a budget update to the Board of Supervisors projecting a $402 million excess fund balance deficit and signaling that the countywide hiring freeze will likely remain in place through fiscal year 2026-27. The Board is scheduled to act on Final Changes to the FY 2026-27 budget on June 22.

In her statement, Barger said Nicchitta’s report “delivered a sobering assessment of Los Angeles County’s fiscal outlook, including projected budget deficits that are expected to grow in the years ahead.”

“I agree that our Board must make decisions grounded in discipline and long-term sustainability,” Barger said.

Nicchitta’s presentation, titled “Budgetary Pressures and Impacts: Update Prior to Final Changes Budget 2026-27,” reported that the county is operating in a “difficult environment with maximum uncertainty.” The focus, the presentation stated, is on financial sustainability even as demand for services continues to grow.

The March 2026 estimate of the county’s year-end fund balance was $3.26 billion, down from $4.03 billion in 2025 and $4.22 billion in 2024. After carryovers and fund balance requirements, the excess fund balance was projected at negative $402 million — $90 million worse than the November 2025 estimate of negative $313 million.

As part of broader financial sustainability efforts, the CEO identified four cross-departmental workgroups: Central Agency Billing Optimization, Fee Rationalization, Civil Service Reforms, and Naming Rights. Near-term potential, according to the presentation, lies in cost-cutting through central billing and in right-sizing fees to match the true costs of service delivery.

It is that fee question Barger flagged most directly.

“I recognize that maintaining the County’s financial stability may require difficult steps, including ensuring that fees more accurately reflect the actual cost of services,” she said. “However, we must move forward with an even hand. Small business owners, property owners, and working families are already facing significant economic pressures, and those realities must be part of our decision making.”

Barger, a lifelong resident of the district first elected to the Board in 2016, was sworn in for her third and final term in November 2024. The Fifth District covers 2,785 square miles and is home to nearly two million people across Pasadena, Altadena, and the San Gabriel, Santa Clarita, and Antelope valleys.

The Final Adopted Budget is scheduled for September 29. By then, the half-cent Measure ER sales tax — approved by voters in June and set to take effect October 1, 2026 — will be factored into the supplemental budget. Barger was the lone supervisor who opposed placing Measure ER on the June ballot.

“Fiscal responsibility and compassion must go hand in hand,” Barger said. “I am committed to governing our County enterprise in a way that balances financial sustainability with protecting the critical safety net services our most vulnerable residents rely upon.”

The Board’s Final Changes vote is set for June 22.

Pasadena Assemblymember John Harabedian

The bipartisan measure, which urges Washington to deliver supplemental disaster relief to Eaton and Palisades fire survivors, now heads to the Senate floor

Nearly 18 months after the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena and left more than 9,400 structures in ruins, California’s Legislature moved one step closer Tuesday to issuing a formal call on the federal government to deliver the disaster aid fire survivors are still waiting for.

Assembly Joint Resolution 27, authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian (D–Pasadena), passed the state Senate Committee on Emergency Management on a unanimous 9-0 vote on June 16, according to a press release from Harabedian’s office and confirmed by California legislative records. The bipartisan tally — seven Democrats and two Republicans — sends the resolution to the full Senate floor, where it will appear on the Consent Calendar.

Harabedian represents the 41st Assembly District, which includes Pasadena, Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge, and Sierra Madre — communities at the center of the Eaton Fire’s devastation. The fire killed 19 people and burned 14,021 acres beginning January 7, 2025, according to Cal Fire and Los Angeles County data.

“The Eaton Fire changed lives across our district in a matter of hours, and many families are still facing an uncertain road to recovery,” Harabedian said in a statement. “AJR 27 calls on federal leaders to put politics aside and stand with the communities that continue to rebuild from this devastating disaster.”

The resolution calls on the President to submit a supplemental disaster declaration to Congress that would unlock additional funding for fire recovery. It also calls on Congress to approve supplemental aid to Los Angeles County regardless of whether the President makes the request, according to the bill text.

The measure has drawn broad bipartisan sponsorship — 70 state legislators, including nine Republicans, have signed on. It was jointly authored with Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin. The full Assembly approved AJR 27 on February 26 by a vote of 68-0.

The committee vote arrives as fire survivors continue to face a prolonged gap between the state’s request for supplemental federal aid and congressional action. Governor Gavin Newsom submitted a revised request for approximately $33.9 billion in supplemental disaster funding in December 2025. As of spring 2026, Congress had not acted on the request, according to CalMatters reporting. Newsom requested a 12-month extension of FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program in May 2026, citing the scale of the ongoing recovery.

The January 2025 fires — the Eaton and Palisades blazes combined — killed 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures across Los Angeles County. President Biden issued a Major Disaster Declaration on January 8, 2025, and FEMA, SBA, and state agencies have provided billions in initial assistance. But the supplemental funding request — intended to cover long-term rebuilding of schools, infrastructure, housing, and economic recovery — remains outstanding.

Fire survivors face the end of mortgage forbearance periods, according to the resolution’s text, and as of May 2026, nearly 29,500 households were still navigating insurance claims, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Joint resolutions do not require the Governor’s signature. If adopted by the full Senate, AJR 27 would represent an official statement of the California Legislature urging federal action.

Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, who represents Senate District 25 — which includes Pasadena and Altadena — was among the committee members who voted in favor.

“This is something that should have happened a long time ago, and every Californian congressional representative, Democratic and Republican, has called on this for months,” Harabedian said during the Assembly floor debate in February. “If the president isn’t willing to do it, Congress must step up and provide Los Angeles with its money right away.”

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal aimed at streamlining homelessness prevention services, including assistance for residents displaced by the Eaton and Palisades fires.

A motion by Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath calls for the creation of a countywide homelessness prevention resource page on the county website, and a coordinated referral system designed to connect residents with housing assistance before they lose their homes.

The motion was approved Tuesday as survey data from the nonprofit Department of Angels found that two-thirds of fire survivors remain displaced and nearly half have exhausted, or soon will exhaust, insurance-funded temporary housing benefits. The survey found that 40% of survivors said they could afford no more than six months of housing on their own.

“Fire survivors are doing everything right, including paying their mortgage, finding temporary housing, and waiting for support to catch up to their needs,” Barger said in a statement.

“We can’t let families lose their housing on top of everything else they’ve already lost. This motion means the County will be proactive. Instead of survivors and seniors on fixed incomes having to chase down a dozen different agencies, we’re building one clear path to help.”

The motion directs county agencies to develop a publicly accessible website identifying available homelessness prevention services, including rental assistance, mortgage relief, legal aid, utility assistance and housing navigation programs.

County officials said the resource webpage is expected to be launched within 45 days and will identify available county, regional and partner services.

“Recovery isn’t one-size-fits-all,” Horvath said. “We have to make it easier to access support, connect people to the right resources sooner, and coordinate across agencies so temporary setbacks don’t become permanent losses.”

The motion also calls for outreach to fire-affected communities in Altadena, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Topanga and Sunset Mesa to ensure residents are aware of available assistance programs.

The board directed county departments to develop an outreach plan by July 21 to connect fire-impacted community organizations with available prevention resources.

In addition, county departments were directed to develop recommendations for a coordinated homelessness prevention referral system intended to help residents access services before a housing crisis escalates. The referral system will include a triage tool designed to connect residents with appropriate services and identify gaps in support for populations considered at heightened risk of housing instability, including fire survivors, seniors on fixed incomes, transition-age youth and justice-impacted individuals, officials said.

The motion also establishes a homelessness prevention navigator position within the Department of Homeless Services and Housing using existing resources.

The motion states that homelessness prevention programs are generally less costly than providing shelter, interim housing or permanent supportive housing after a person becomes homeless.

Combined, the fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena that erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, killed at least 31 people, destroyed some 16,000 structures and displaced thousands of residents.

US Congresswoman Judy Chu (center) joins Pasadena Councilmember Justin Jones (to her right); Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo (to her left), along with City and department officials Monday, as she presents a $1,000,000 check for renovations to the Jackie Robinson Community Center.

Federal funds will pay for accessibility upgrades, kitchen remodel, and the return of a beloved pottery program

Congresswoman Judy Chu stood on stage at the Jackie Robinson Community Center in Pasadena Monday morning and presented the City a $1 million federal check that officials say has been a long time coming.

“This center needed some love,” Chu said. “This center needed an injection of funds.”

The money, secured through the federal community project funding process, will pay for facility-wide ADA accessibility upgrades, energy-efficient lighting, HVAC maintenance, staff area remodeling, a kitchen renovation, and the revival of the center’s pottery program, which had been discontinued.

Chu said she requested the funding as part of the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process, a mechanism that Congress members use to direct federal dollars toward specific projects in their districts. The practice, once known as earmarking, was suspended for a decade before House Democrats restored it in 2021 with new oversight requirements, including that a requested project must carry broad institutional support in the surrounding community.

Since then, Chu noted, she has brought more than $80 million in federal funding to her district.

Getting this particular million across the finish line was not simple. Chu described a process that moved through multiple layers of approval, from the appropriations subcommittee to the full committee, then to a House floor vote, then to the Senate, and finally to the President’s signature.

“It was really touch and go,” she said. “We held our breath a few times.”

One factor that helped move the bill forward, Chu noted, was that Republican members of Congress have their own community project requests riding alongside Democratic ones. “It benefits everybody,” she said. “It benefits all their communities too.”

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo and District 3 Councilmember Justin Jones stood alongside Chu at the announcement. Jones, who grew up near the center, said the investment was long overdue and pointed to the facility’s role in serving residents across multiple generations.

“It’s a new day,” Jones said, “in the city of Pasadena.”

Gordo thanked Chu, city staff from the Public Works and Recreation and Parks departments, and interim City Manager Matt Hawksworth for their roles in moving the project forward. A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned once the improvements are complete.

From left, 4th District Supervisor Janice Hahn, 1st District Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, 3rd District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger and 2nd District Supervisor Holly Mitchell. [David Franco / Board of Supervisors]

A motion by Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath calls for the creation of a countywide homelessness prevention resource page on the county website, and a coordinated referral system designed to connect residents with housing assistance before they lose their homes.

According to the motion, many wildfire survivors remain in temporary housing arrangements while rebuilding homes destroyed in the January 2025 fires. Supporters of the proposal said many residents face growing financial pressure as federal aid, insurance benefits and other temporary assistance programs begin to expire.

“Fire survivors are now simultaneously carrying a mortgage on a destroyed home and paying rent elsewhere, with insurance payouts that are delayed or insufficient to cover full rebuilding costs, which places fixed- income homeowners, and seniors in particular, at acute risk of housing instability and potential homelessness,” the motion states.

The proposal would direct county agencies to develop a publicly accessible website identifying available homelessness prevention services, including rental assistance, mortgage relief, legal aid, utility assistance and housing navigation programs.

The motion also calls for outreach to fire-affected communities in Altadena, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Topanga and Sunset Mesa to ensure residents are aware of available assistance programs.

In addition, county departments would be directed to develop recommendations for a coordinated homelessness prevention referral system intended to help residents access services before a housing crisis escalates.

The motion states that homelessness prevention programs are generally less costly than providing shelter, interim housing or permanent supportive housing after a person becomes homeless.

The monthly meeting pairs a Southern California Edison presentation with legislative updates touching recovery and housing.

The Altadena Town Council holds its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, June 16 at 7 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, with an agenda that keeps the community’s two preoccupations — utility costs and the rules governing rebuilding — front and center. The session is open to the public, and residents will have time to address the council during general public comment.

Southern California Edison is scheduled to present on customer savings programs and provide updates, a perennial topic in a community where the January 2025 Eaton Fire and the utility’s response remain central concerns. The agenda also includes legislative updates on Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 1090, with the discussion expected to feature state Senator Sasha Renée Pérez and Assemblymember John Harabedian. Public safety reports are slated from the Altadena Sheriff’s Station, the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The Altadena Town Council serves as an ombudsman for the unincorporated community, conveying residents’ needs and wishes to county, state and federal agencies and providing a forum for neighbors to weigh in on issues of local concern. The council meets on the third Tuesday of each month, and its sessions are recorded.

Residents who cannot attend in person can watch the meeting on Pasadena Media’s YouTube channel.

The Altadena Town Council meeting will run on Tuesday, June 16 at 7 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena. The meeting is open to the public and can be viewed on Pasadena Media’s YouTube channel.

The two California legislators whose bills now govern how Altadena rebuilds after the Eaton Fire will appear before residents Tuesday evening — and a Southern California Edison representative will take the microphone after them at the Altadena Town Council.

State Senator Sasha Renee Perez and Assemblymember John Harabedian, joined by Los Angeles County Deputy Supervisor for Planning and Development Anish Saraiya, are scheduled to brief the Altadena Town Council on Senate Bills 9 and 1090, the legislation the agenda describes as governing key aspects of the community’s ongoing rebuilding efforts. The public will be permitted to comment when they finish.

Then Edison takes its turn. A company representative is slated to present on customer savings programs and related utility matters. Public comment will follow that presentation as well.

The meeting convenes at 7:00 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, with a live broadcast on Pasadena Media’s YouTube channel.

The rest of the agenda reads less like a town council’s monthly business and more like the standing order of a community still running on recovery time. Updates are scheduled from the Council’s committees on Land Use; Renters Protection and Recovery; Rebuilding and Infrastructure; Safe Streets and Mobility; Legislative Affairs; Education; and Bylaws. Census tract reports for tracts 4610 and 4603.01 are set to close the night.

Public safety reports are expected from the Altadena Sheriff’s Station, the California Highway Patrol, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The Department of Parks and Recreation and the Christmas Tree Lane Association will deliver community reports.

Residents who want to address the Council during the general public comment period are asked to fill out a card at the back of the room and hand it to a Council Member before the period opens. Remarks are capped at two minutes. The Council will not respond in the room; anyone who wants an answer is asked to leave contact information on the card.

The Altadena Town Council will convene its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, located at 730 E. Altadena Drive. The proceedings will also be broadcast live on Pasadena Media YouTube channel for residents who are unable to attend in person.

Senator Sasha Renee Perez via Facebook

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez this week unveiled new amendments to a wildfire recovery bill that would temporarily block California’s marquee housing density laws in fire-scarred Altadena, escalating a local fight over real estate speculation after the Eaton Fire.

SB 1090, known as the “Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands Act,” would impose a five-year moratorium on the ministerial approvals required by Senate Bills 9 and 1123 for projects in Altadena ZIP codes 91001 and 91003, covering applications filed from Jan. 7, 2025 through Jan. 7, 2030. The measure cleared the state Senate late last month and on June 11 was re-referred to Assembly housing and local government committees for hearings expected in the coming weeks.

Pérez, a Pasadena Democrat whose district includes Altadena, said the bill responds to reports that corporate investors are using SB 9 and SB 1123 to buy fire-damaged lots from distressed Eaton Fire survivors and pursue higher-density projects that could overwhelm local infrastructure. “Allowing up to ten homes to be rebuilt on a single-family lot will overwhelm the existing infrastructure and destabilize this special community as it works to recover,” Pérez said in a statement announcing the bill.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the unincorporated community and is sponsoring SB 1090, said many Eaton Fire survivors already face “an enormous emotional burden” as they attempt to rebuild and should not have to worry about speculative development reshaping their neighborhoods. “Altadena’s future should be shaped by the people who have long called it home and not by outside interests looking to capitalize on a tragedy,” Barger said.

The legislation also would bar individuals or entities that own 75 or more single-family homes from making unsolicited offers to purchase properties in wildfire disaster areas for five years after a state of emergency is declared, a provision aimed at out-of-town investors targeting burned-out homeowners with low cash bids.

Altadena Town Council Chair Nic Arnzen, who lost his own home in the 2025 fire, called SB 1090 a model of collaboration between local leaders and Sacramento. “We can do great things when we unite in this way,” Arnzen said.

Local coverage this week in Pasadena Now framed the measure as an effort to extend to Altadena the kind of SB 9 relief Gov. Gavin Newsom granted Pacific Palisades under a 2025 executive order, noting that most of Altadena’s burn area was left out of those protections.

Housing advocates and pro-growth groups are expected to scrutinize SB 1090 as it heads to the Assembly. First hearings have not yet been scheduled.

The sign above the front desk of the Department of Motor Vehicles in central Fresno on Dec. 13, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMatters

The California Legislature wants to stall plans to share information about California drivers — including more than 1 million immigrant license holders who lack federal authorization to live in the U.S. — with a little-known nonprofit agency made up of motor vehicle administrators across the nation.

The Assembly and Senate’s budget agreement, released Thursday night, withholds $55 million in funding for the California Department of Motor Vehicles to link to a database that would begin fulfilling requests for information from other states about California drivers early next year.

The governor’s office and DMV want to share that information with the State-to-State system and SPEX platform, which lets states check for duplicate licenses and is operated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

Because the system records the last five digits of a driver’s Social Security number and uses a placeholder such as “99999” for people without one, opponents of the plan warned it could easily flag drivers who lack a Social Security number.

Immigrant advocates worry the upload could leave undocumented Californians vulnerable to deportation if the information goes to Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Californians are eligible to obtain a standard driver’s license regardless of their immigration status under a 2014 law known as Assembly Bill 60.

State officials say the data sharing is needed to comply with the Real ID Act of 2005, which sets requirements for accepting state identification at federal facilities such as airports.

In response to the Legislature’s budget proposal, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson encouraged people who lack federal authorization to live in the U.S. to leave the country.

The Senate released its budget proposal Tuesday evening, and the funding for the DMV’s State-to-State Verification program was not included. The Legislature must adopt a budget by June 15 but has until June 30 to negotiate budget details with the governor.

Leaving out the $55 million from the state budget would not completely kill the DMV’s plan, advocates said. Budget negotiations between the two houses and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office could continue. Lawmakers could still revive the appropriation through follow-up budget legislation or a separate budget bill.

But it could mean the DMV is unlikely to receive the funding by July 1, the date it had targeted to begin sharing the data, according to Jessie Schmitte, a state policy manager with Alliance San Diego, a community-based human rights organization, which has been tracking the proposal. Nearly 200 organizations signed on to a letter by the coalition in opposition to the DMV data sharing plan. The data sharing plan also attracted protestors to a San Francisco branch of the DMV earlier this month.

Some advocates credited CalMatters with bringing the issue to light in a news story earlier this year.

“As you probably know, a lot of organizations weren’t aware of these conversations until, thankfully, the CalMatters article came out and brought air into this conversation for everybody who has not had a seat at the table,” said Schmitte. “If you were really serious about protecting Californians and doubling down on privacy concerns, you wouldn’t be running away from these conversations.”

The DMV needs more than funding to carry out the plan. State law prohibits the DMV from sharing a Social Security number obtained through the licensing process for most purposes, which means the state needs additional legislation before providing information to the national nonprofit, a step the DMV’s own budget request notes.

The state wants to provide the information to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a nonprofit organization whose governing board is made up of DMV officials from across the country. It would be used to help other states ensure that people don’t simultaneously hold identification documents elsewhere. Advocates worry local officials in those states might pass to the federal government information from the association database on apparent unauthorized immigrants. The association has said its database can’t be searched in bulk or without specific information like name and date of birth.

A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said discussions about the California DMV funding are ongoing. Staff for two other lawmakers did not respond to a request for information about negotiations.

Newsom’s office referred questions to the Department of Finance. Spokesperson H.D. Palmer said “discussions have been underway and are continuing.”

At this late hour, it seems unlikely a compromise could be reached by the deadline the DMV gave, said Andrea Guerrero, the founding executive director of Alliance San Diego.

“It’s hard to imagine what kind of change could be made while we’re standing at the end of a plank,” she said.

Ed Hasbrouck with civil liberties group The Identity Project attended protests against the data sharing plan at DMV offices in San Francisco earlier this month and joined a call with the governor’s office and DMV about the data sharing plan in April.

He’s pleased lawmakers decided to put off the funding for now, but said going forward the most important thing for the public and legislators to understand is that once data about California drivers enters a multi-state database, guardrails are no longer possible, because the plan requires sharing data about all license holders.

Ultimately, he said, the state is going to have to make a choice: Either to overturn the promises made in AB 60 and place immigrant and other Californians at risk, or decide not to comply with the Real ID Act and defend those Californians.

“It’s been postponed but that’s a choice the state is going to have to make. It can’t just avoid it,” he said.

CalMatters reporter Yue Stella Yu contributed to this story.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.