Governor Jerry Brown of California recently released his proposed 2012-2013 budget for the State of California. In the budget, Brown proposed a major reorganization of the state’s Business, Transportation, and Housing (BTH) Agency which would separate the state’s transportation and housing initiatives. This realignment proposal would seem at odds with other parallel proposals from the Governor that are intended to more closely link transportation, housing and economic development functions. Highlights of Brown’s budget proposal include:

  • All housing functions, as well as business regulation functions, would be merged with the current State and Consumer Services Agency to create a new Business and Consumer Services Agency. Within this new agency, the California Housing Finance Agency would be merged into the Department of Housing & Community Development.
  • Economic development functions within BTH, such as the California Infrastructure Bank, would be moved to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
  • These changes would leave only transportation functions within BTH, which would be renamed the Transportation Agency. These functions include Caltrans, the California Transportation Commission, and the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

To read the governor’s proposed 2012-2013 budget, click here.
To read more about this proposed BTH realignment, click here.