“Clean Slate participants need only pay a $50 fee for the process thanks to a $19,500 grant from Kaiser Santa Rosa, and funding from Social Advocates for Youth, the county human services department, and Measure O public safety sales tax dollars.”
According to this article, it seems like most of the money is being funded by private sources however with tattoos costing up to 10x the cost of the actual tattoo $20,000 won’t last to long if this program becomes popular. The article mentioned how many of the tattoos are done in juvenile hall with 1 story explaining that they used melted down checkers and a smuggled needle to make the tattoo. If the program is successful locally, may be you’d see a California state initiative that gave tax credits in exchange for gang tattoo removals…