Law enforcement says there isn't enough money for Prop. 36

Prop. 36, which Californians passed in November 2024 with 68.4% of the vote, elevated some drug- and theft-related misdemeanors to felonies and established tougher sentences for those crimes. Despite more than 10.3 million Californians voting to pass the tough-on-crime measure, roughly $100 million was allocated in the state’s 2025-26 budget to enforcing Prop. 36, decreasing to just $50 million this year. That’s according to the final version of the budget passed earlier this summer and signed into law by the Democratic governor.

However, according to figures included in the final version of California’s budget this year, that $50 million is intended to be spread out over three years. Of that total, $20 million is meant to pay for pretrial services, $20 million for behavioral health services offered through the Department of Health Care Services and $10 million to address workload in the state’s courts system to address Prop. 36-related cases.

According to numbers sent by the office of Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, the $20 million allocated to pretrial services isn’t exactly new funding, but rather restores pretrial services funding previously cut from last year’s budget.

“Taking old probation dollars and calling them new funding is a budget gimmick,” Strickland told The Center Square. “Probation is where accountability happens, and it is essential to making Proposition 36 work. The budget provides only $50 million in new funding for Proposition 36, falling far short of what voters expect for its successful implementation.”

With so much support among California voters for Prop. 36, Strickland added, there should have been more funding.

“They deserve a budget that delivers on that mandate and implements the law as voters intended, not political spin," Strickland said.

Despite the popular support for Prop. 36, Anti Police-Terror Project, an organization that aims to eliminate police brutality in communities of color, told The Center Square on Friday that the group believes the $50 million allocation is invested in the wrong place.

“Fifty million dollars is not the question. The question is whether California is investing in the right response,” Lance Wilson, policy and communications director of the Anti Police-Terror Project, told The Center Square in an email. “Prop. 36 doubles down on punishment, incarceration and criminalization instead of investing in the community-based mental health care, treatment, housing and support people actually need.”

The measure is not the answer to cutting down on substance abuse or the state’s mental health crisis, Wilson added.

“Putting more resources into a fundamentally punitive system will not create safer communities,” Wilson wrote. “California should be investing those dollars in proven, community-based approaches that address the root causes of harm and keep people connected to care rather than cycling them through jails and courts.”