A bill to finance an expansion of UC Riverside’s School of Medicine cleared a major hurdle Thursday, May 16, though it’s still not guaranteed to be part of the final state budget.

The Senate version of a bill that calls for $80 million in one-time funding and an additional $25 million a year in ongoing funding for a project that would double the number of graduates at the medical school made it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s “suspense file,” a legislative limbo reserved for bills with large price tags. Thursday marked the annual deadline for hundreds of suspense-file bills to advance or die in a frenzied process that pits big-ticket items against each other.

A similar bill did not advance out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Now, the expansion funding’s fate rests with a conference committee of senators and assembly members who will help shape the final state budget, which must be passed by June 30.

Both the Senate bill and a similar bill in the Assembly would help the medical school grow from 250 to 500 students. State Sen. Richard Roth and assembly members Sabrina Cervantes and Jose Medina, all D-Riverside, sponsored the legislation.

“This expansion is a critical step towards relieving the physician shortage in Inland Southern California, which has been a top priority of mine since I was first elected,” Roth, a senator since late 2012, said Thursday evening in an emailed statement. “The actions we take now will have direct impacts on the future health of the region.”

“Funding the expansion of the UC Riverside School of Medicine is extremely important for the 61st Assembly District,” Medina said in an emailed statement.

“Access to healthcare is critical in my area, where the patient-to-physician ratio is one of the lowest in the nation. I am committed to ensuring families in my district have adequate access to healthcare and will continue to advocate for the medical school’s expansion as the budget process continues.”

Kim Wilcox, chancellor of UCR, said the expansion is “a sound investment in the future of California’s health care system.”

In announcing the expansion effort in January, Roth said the Inland Empire was on the verge of a “public health crisis” because there weren’t enough doctors to serve a growing population. His office cited California Health Care Foundation data showing the region had 35 physicians for every 100,000 residents, about half what it needs.

By starting a local medical school, Inland community leaders hope doctors will stay in the region after they graduate, bolstering the area’s ranks of physicians and boosting the economy as doctors start practices that supported other businesses.

The effort behind UCR’s medical school dates back to at least 2003 when UCR’s chancellor started planning for a four-year school to train doctors.

The University of California’s Board of Regents OK’d the project in 2006, and plans called for the first class of doctors to enroll in the fall of 2012. But in 2011, facing financial pressure, the state pulled funding. The school later was denied accreditation due to a lack of money.

Eventually, $100 million in local and UC money was committed to the school, which got a further boost in 2013 with the dedication of $15 million of ongoing annual state funding. The school opened its doors in fall 2013 with a class of 50 students. It gained full accreditation in 2017 when the first class graduated.

The medical school’s current limiting limits enrollment to 250.

To make it into next fiscal year’s state budget, the medical school funding will have to compete with a wide range of other projects and priorities. First-year Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious agenda includes solving California’s housing affordability crisis and providing universal preschool for low-income children.

Traditionally, Inland leaders have groused about the lack of respect and funding the region gets from Sacramento, despite its skyrocketing growth. A new group, Inland California Rising, seeks to focus more attention on the needs of non-coastal areas, and Newsom administration officials spoke of the need to invest in the Inland Empire at the group’s May 10 Riverside conference.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the amount of additional ongoing state funding sought for the UC Riverside School of Medicine. Lawmakers were seeking another $25 million.