§ 8654-1-5

8654.1.5. (a) There is hereby created the California Emergency Relief Fund as a special fund in the State Treasury. This fund is established to provide emergency resources or relief relating to state of emergency declarations by the Governor.(b) The Department of Finance may transfer to the General Fund any unencumbered balance in the California Emergency Relief Fund of any appropriation for which the encumbrance period has expired.(c) The sum of one hundred fifty million dollars ($150,000,000) is hereby transferred from the General Fund to the California Emergency Relief Fund for purposes relating to the COVID-19 emergency proclaimed by the Governor on March 4, 2020.(d) For the purposes of providing emergency relief to small business impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, one hundred fifty million dollars ($150,000,000) from the California Emergency Relief Fund is appropriated to the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development for a closed round to fund small business grant applications waitlisted from previous rounds of the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program (Article 8 (commencing with Section 12100.80) of

closed round to fund small business grant applications waitlisted from previous rounds of the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program (Article 8 (commencing with Section 12100.80) of Chapter 1.6 of Part 2 of Division 3).(Added by renumbering Section 8654.2 (as added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 3, Sec. 1) by Stats. 2023, Ch. 45, Sec. 11. (AB 127) Effective July 10, 2023.)