FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 11, 2026

CONTACT: Jason Scalese (916) 651-4614

Senate Republicans say spend $90 million on rural hospitals, not political favors

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – As the state faces a $18 billion deficit, the majority party in the legislature made a mad dash to advance a budget bill (Senate Bill 106) allocating $90 million in no-bid grants to Planned Parenthood clinics. Further, SB 106 exempts the grants from the Public Records Act, severing any transparency and accountability for who the funds go to and for what.

 

Senate Republicans opposed this measure for its secrecy and lack of accountability. They also pointed out that if “extra” funds are available for health care services, the priority should be rural hospitals, many of which are cutting services and facing closure. This is a crisis elevated further in rural districts like Senate District 4.

 

“Murky budget deals hashed out behind closed doors in Sacramento invite waste, fraud, and extra burdens on rural California's hardworking families,” said Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil (R-Jackson), vice chair of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. “Shoving through these bloated spending plans with no real transparency, debate, or fixes for our endless deficits and rising costs overlooks the daily grind of rural families, farmers, and small-town businesses barely getting by. That's not honest governing; it's leaving districts like ours high and dry."

 

SB 106 waives both state public contract rules and the Public Records Act so that the state can issue exclusive no-bid funding contracts and keep the size, scope and specific recipients of the grants away from the public. This is governance at its worst and adds fuel to the growing accusations of rampant fraud in California’s health and human services programs.

 

Rural communities tend to have characteristics – such as lower patient volume, and older, sicker and poorer patients – that make operating a hospital more financially challenging, especially due to Medi-Cal rates substantially under-reimbursing actual cost. And rural hospitals are often the only critical care provider in a county, providing not just critical care but basic family care.

 

“For rural Californians, this fight boils down to getting the care we need when we need it most,” said Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil. “Rural hospitals are slashing services, teetering on the edge of shutdown, or already closing, leaving families to haul loved ones hours down the road for emergency treatment or basic care. Sacramento needs to step up and focus on keeping these vital lifelines open for our communities, rather than steamrolling policies that ignore the harsh realities of rural California.”

 

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