San Diego elected officials, news organization leaders and media advocates announced a proposal Friday for $80 million in state funding to stabilize public and ethnic media outlets across California. The announcement was made outside of the KPBS Public Media building.

The funding is in response to last year’s federal cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, said.

Earlier this month Ward and 28 California Assembly colleagues sent a letter to the state budget committee requesting the one-time appropriation in the 2026-27 budget to fund public media in the state.

“Without any action many of these stations, especially in rural and underserved communities are at risk of shutting down,” Ward said. “Public media is not just programming – its critical infrastructure – emergency alerts during disasters, educational content for families and children, coverage of local arts culture and civic life.”

The funding proposal includes $60 million to backfill federal cuts and stabilize operations, $10 million for innovation and infrastructure and $10 million for ethnic media outlets, Ward said.

“The loss of $4.3 million every year from KPBS’ budget and $30 million in total to all California public media stations immediately put every station into a budget deficit and threatened this essential service,” said KPBS general manager Deanna Martin Mackey of the impact of the federal cuts.

Last month Ward introduced legislation that proposes providing tax credits to local news organizations in the state to hire and keep journalists employed. It prioritizes small and community based newsrooms, according to Ward.

News organizations controlled by or largely funded by political action committees or exempt from federal income taxes under Section 501(c) (4) do not qualify for the tax exemption according to Assembly Bill 2222.

The bill includes a $20,000 tax credit for the first five journalists employed at an organization and a $15,000 tax credit for any journalist employed beyond those first five. News organizations would also qualify for a $15,000 tax credit for each employee in a new journalism role.

If it passes, the bill would take effect at the beginning of 2027 and is set to sunset after 2031.

In the interest of disclosure, KPBS could benefit financially from both proposals.