By Julian Do, Co-Director, ACoM
Sep 11, 2026
Sitting on Governor Newsom’s desk is AB 2222, the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act (Community NEWS Act). The bill seeks to put California at the forefront of national efforts to keep local newsrooms intact.
The Governor has until September 30 to sign the legislation or veto it.
Authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward and co-authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, AB 2222 would provide refundable tax credits to local newsrooms for each journalist they employ. Those credits would help ensure baseline workforce stability especially critical for smaller news outlets facing financial headwinds.
For California, with the nation’s largest immigrant population and highest concentration of Limited English Proficient (LEP) households, the bill would help sustain ethnic media outlets that serve as an essential bridge, providing crucial services ranging from translations of emergency evacuation orders to helping dispel dangerous mis- and dis-information or covering local school board meetings.
Under the bill, community-rooted newsrooms would receive credits of $20,000 for the first five full-time editorial positions (at least 30 hours per week, with annualized compensation of $35,000 or more).
Each additional full-time journalist would receive a credit of $15,000, plus an additional $15,000 incentive for each newly created reporting position, while each part-time journalist would receive $7,500.
Eligibility extends broadly to print, broadcast, digital, nonprofit, and independent family-owned news outlets.
An unprecedented coalition
The bill garnered overwhelming support in the state legislature, passing the Senate 30–10 on August 30 and the Assembly 59–15 on August 31.
That legislative mandate is backed by an unprecedented coalition across the state and nation: 134 news organizations and press associations have jointly delivered a letter urging Governor Newsom to sign AB 2222, including 94 California-based outlets, regional publishers, and labor guilds, joined by 40 national media associations.
Fiscal Responsibility, ROI
If passed, the credits will not take effect until tax year 2027, protecting current state reserves and allowing multi-year budget planning. The bill also mandates annual Franchise Tax Board compliance reports beginning in 2029 and automatically sunsets after five years (taxable years 2027 through 2031).
Additionally, the credits are offset by federal tax limits that cap corporate deductions for executive compensation over $1 million, curbing excessive corporate write-offs.
The return on investment, meanwhile, is substantial.
Peer-reviewed research in the Journal of Financial Economics found that when a local newspaper closes, municipal bond borrowing costs rise by 5 to 11 basis points—adding an estimated $650,000 in excess interest on a typical bond issue for local schools, water systems, and infrastructure.
But the bill’s value goes well beyond basis points and bond ratings.
When community and ethnic media survive, frontline community organizations and state agencies maintain the trusted communications pipeline required to deliver essentials like public health directives, farmworker protections, and disaster relief.
An information lifeline
During the 2017 Tubbs Fire, official English-language alerts left critical gaps that put non-English speakers in immediate danger.
KBBF 89.1 FM, the nation’s first bilingual public radio station, stepped in with broadcasting around the clock in Spanish, debunking false rumors that federal immigration agents were stationed at evacuation shelters or that an undocumented resident had caused the fire.
Two years later, the 2019 Kincade Fire tested that same lifeline again. The station expanded its Indigenous language broadcasts to include Mixteco and Triqui, common among regional farmworkers.
In both instances, KBBF relied on volunteers as it lacked the revenue to sustain full-time reporting staff.
Further south along the San Diego border, Indian Voices spent years reporting on and partnering with tribal leaders to raise public awareness around the toxic Tijuana River sewage crisis, which has long impacted coastal neighborhoods and Kumeyaay ancestral lands.
In Monterey Park, following the 2023 Lunar New Year mass shooting that took 11 lives, Chinese- and Vietnamese-language journalists worked through the night to pierce an information vacuum.
With elderly Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking residents receiving no official in-language updates in the first critical hours, local reporters translated police briefings on the fly, dispelled viral rumors, and connected grieving families with victim assistance and mental health care they otherwise would never have found.
Trusted messengers
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a different kind of information gap.
In an October 2020 statewide poll, only 29% of Black Californians said they would definitely or probably get a COVID-19 vaccine once available — far below the 70% of Asian Americans, 62% of white residents, and 54% of Latinos who said the same.
This gap was rooted in generations of justified distrust from medical racism, including the Tuskegee experiments that researchers say still shape vaccine hesitancy today.
Generic public health messaging could not close that gap on its own. Independent Black media addressed the history behind the hesitancy instead of dismissing it, and connected residents to vaccination resources through messengers their own communities actually trusted.
Governor Newsom has visited these places. He has consoled grieving families, met local community leaders, and spoken with Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old hero who disarmed the Monterey Park gunman.
The governor saw firsthand that local community journalists are often the only trusted messengers capable of connecting vulnerable populations to life-saving state resources.
A historic opportunity
Recognizing that local journalism is essential civic infrastructure, Newsom has since 2024 demonstrated national leadership by launching the public-private California Civic Media Program and supporting the Propel Initiative. (ACoM is a Propel partner.)
Both programs help secure vital investments to sustain the UC Berkeley California Local News Fellowship and build newsroom capacity for organizations including our own, as well as the Maynard Institute, California Black Media, and the Latino Media Collaborative.
Yet these short-term grant dollars cannot permanently sustain a newsroom’s daily payroll. Without baseline workforce stability, community newsrooms are unable to retain the fellows and reporters the state has helped train.
AB 2222 helps close this gap.
We respectfully urge Governor Newsom to stand with the legislative majority, the 134 media organizations, and the working reporters and sign AB 2222 before September 30.
纽森州长可能为全国各地的新闻媒体创造历史
目前摆在加州州长纽森（Gavin Newsom）办公桌上的，是 AB 2222《社区新闻编辑部就业与劳动力可持续发展法案》（Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act，简称 Community NEWS Act）。这项法案旨在推动加州走在全美支持地方新闻业、维持地方新闻编辑部持续运作的最前沿。
州长必须在 9月30日之前决定签署该法案使其生效，或予以否决。
AB 2222 由加州众议员 Chris Ward 提案、众议员 Buffy Wicks 共同提案。法案将根据地方新闻机构所雇用的记者人数，为其提供可退还税收抵免（refundable tax credits）。这项税收优惠将有助于确保新闻机构最基本的人力稳定，对于正面临财务压力的小型媒体尤其重要。
对于加州而言，这项法案具有特殊意义。加州拥有全美规模最大的移民人口，同时也是英语能力有限（Limited English Proficient，LEP）家庭最集中的州之一。AB 2222 将有助于维持族裔媒体的生存与发展。这些媒体是政府与社区之间不可或缺的桥梁，从翻译紧急疏散命令，到协助澄清危险的错误信息与虚假信息，再到报道地方学区委员会会议，都承担着重要的公共服务功能。
根据法案，以社区为基础的新闻编辑部，其最初五个全职编辑岗位，每个岗位可获得 20,000 美元税收抵免。符合资格的全职岗位必须每周工作至少30小时，年化薪酬达到35,000美元或以上。
从第六名全职记者开始，每名记者可获得 15,000 美元税收抵免；每新增一个全新的新闻采编岗位，还可额外获得 15,000 美元奖励性抵免。每名兼职记者则可获得 7,500 美元税收抵免。
法案涵盖范围相当广泛，包括平面媒体、广播媒体、数字媒体、非营利新闻机构，以及独立的家族经营新闻媒体。
前所未有的媒体联盟
AB 2222 在加州立法机构获得压倒性支持：8月30日以30票赞成、10票反对通过州参议院；8月31日再以59票赞成、15票反对通过州众议院。
这一明确的立法支持，也获得加州乃至全美一个前所未有的媒体联盟响应。
共有 134家新闻机构及新闻行业协会 联名致函州长纽森，敦促他签署 AB 2222。其中包括 94家加州新闻媒体、地区出版机构和新闻业工会组织，以及40家全国性媒体协会。
财政责任与投资回报
如果法案最终获得签署，相关税收抵免要到 2027纳税年度才正式生效，因此不会立即动用当前的州政府储备资金，同时也为加州提供多年期预算规划的空间。
法案同时要求加州税务局（Franchise Tax Board）自 2029年起每年提交合规报告，并设有五年的自动失效条款，适用纳税年度为 2027年至2031年。
此外，相关税收抵免的财政成本，还可通过联邦税法中针对企业高管薪酬扣除的限制加以部分抵消。联邦规定限制企业对超过100万美元的高管薪酬进行税务扣除，从而减少企业过度利用税务抵扣的空间。
与此同时，支持地方新闻业所带来的投资回报相当可观。
发表于《Journal of Financial Economics》的同行评审研究发现，当一家地方报纸关闭后，当地市政债券的借贷成本会增加 5至11个基点（basis points）。对于一笔典型的地方债券发行而言，这意味着可能增加约 65万美元的额外利息支出，而这些债券往往用于地方学校、供水系统及基础设施建设。
然而，这项法案的价值远远不只是几个基点或债券评级的问题。
当社区媒体和族裔媒体能够继续生存，第一线社区组织以及州政府机构也能够维持一条值得信赖的信息传播渠道，将公共卫生指引、农场工人权益保护以及灾害救援等重要信息及时传递给社区居民。
一条攸关生命的信息渠道
2017年 Tubbs Fire 山火期间，官方发布的英文警报存在严重信息缺口，使不会说英语的居民面临直接危险。
美国第一家双语公共广播电台 KBBF 89.1 FM 随即承担起关键角色，全天候以西班牙语播报灾情，同时澄清各种虚假传言，包括“联邦移民执法人员驻守在疏散中心”，以及“火灾是由一名无证移民引发”等不实信息。
两年后的 2019年 Kincade Fire，这条社区信息生命线再次受到考验。KBBF进一步扩大原住民语言广播，加入 Mixteco 和 Triqui 等当地农场工人经常使用的语言。
然而，在这两次灾难中，由于缺乏足够收入维持全职新闻采编人员，KBBF都不得不依靠志愿者维持报道工作。
在更南端的圣地亚哥边境地区，Indian Voices 多年来持续报道，并与部落领袖合作，提高公众对 蒂华纳河（Tijuana River）污水污染危机的认识。这场长期存在的环境危机，不仅影响沿海社区，也严重波及 Kumeyaay 原住民族的祖传土地。
而在蒙特利公园市（Monterey Park），2023年农历新年期间发生造成 11人死亡的大规模枪击案后，华语和越南语记者连夜工作，试图填补严重的信息真空。
在事件发生后最关键的最初几个小时里，许多只会说粤语或普通话的年长居民无法获得官方母语信息。当地记者只能即时翻译警方记者会内容，澄清社交媒体上迅速传播的谣言，并协助悲痛中的受害者家属联系受害者援助服务及心理健康资源——如果没有这些社区记者，许多家庭可能根本无法找到这些帮助。
值得信赖的信息传递者
COVID-19 疫情则暴露出另一种信息鸿沟。
在 2020年10月的一项加州全州民调中，只有 29%的非裔加州居民表示，一旦 COVID-19 疫苗上市，他们“肯定”或“可能”会接种疫苗。
这一比例远低于亚裔美国人的 70%、白人居民的 **62%**以及拉丁裔居民的 54%。
这种差距背后，是几代人累积而来的、具有历史原因的医疗体系不信任，其中包括 **塔斯基吉梅毒实验（Tuskegee experiments）**等医疗种族主义历史。研究人员指出，这些历史创伤至今仍影响着部分社区对于疫苗的态度。
一般化、标准化的公共卫生宣传无法单独弥合这种信任鸿沟。
独立的非裔媒体并没有简单否定社区居民对于疫苗的疑虑，而是正视这种犹豫背后的历史原因，并通过社区真正信赖的信息传递者，将居民与疫苗接种及相关公共卫生资源连接起来。
州长纽森曾经亲自到访过这些社区。
他曾安慰失去亲人的家庭，与当地社区领袖会面，也曾与 Brandon Tsay 交谈。这名当时26岁的年轻人在蒙特利公园枪击案后，勇敢夺下枪手的武器，阻止了可能发生的另一场惨剧。
州长亲眼看到，地方社区记者往往是唯一能够获得弱势社区信任、并将这些居民与州政府救命资源连接起来的信息传递者。
一个历史性的机会
认识到地方新闻业是不可或缺的**公民社会基础设施（civic infrastructure）**之后，纽森自2024年以来已展现出全国性的领导力，包括推动公私合作的 California Civic Media Program（加州公民媒体计划），并支持 Propel Initiative（推进计划）。（ACoM 是 Propel 的合作伙伴。）
这两个项目都有助于确保关键投资持续投入 UC Berkeley California Local News Fellowship（加州地方新闻奖学金计划），同时帮助包括我们自身机构在内的新闻组织提升编辑部能力，其中也包括 Maynard Institute、California Black Media 和 Latino Media Collaborative。
然而，这类短期补助资金无法永久承担一家新闻编辑部每天持续发生的薪资支出。
如果缺乏最基本的人力与就业稳定性，社区新闻机构就无法长期留住那些由州政府项目协助培养出来的新闻奖学金记者和专业记者。
AB 2222 正是为了填补这一关键缺口。
我们谨此敦促州长纽森，与加州立法机构的多数议员、134家媒体机构和新闻组织，以及每天坚守第一线的新闻工作者站在一起。
请在9月30日之前签署 AB 2222。
Originally published by Julian Do of American Community Media (ACoM)
JULIAN DO
Julian Do is co-director at ACoM, where he focuses on media industry advocacy, local news capacity building, sustainability opportunities, and special campaigns including inter-ethnic relations, COVID-19 pandemic misinformation, and journalism awards events.
朱利安·杜（Julian Do）是 ACoM 的联合主任，致力于媒体行业倡导、本地新闻能力建设及可持续发展机遇的探索，并负责多项特别行动，涵盖族裔间关系、针对新冠疫情（COVID-19）的虚假信息应对以及新闻奖项评选活动等领域。