State deputies from Alesp (Legislative Assembly of ) boosted the budget for publicizing their own work through TV Alesp for 2026, the election year.
The program, called “Disclosure of Legislative Works”, will cost R$52 million in 2026 and has a budget 13% higher than last year. The value is the highest in the last ten years, according to a survey carried out by Sheet.
The objective of the program is to guarantee the transmission of sessions and activities of the Assembly on TV Alesp and on social networks, in addition to the dissemination of projects on the house’s website.
Although self-promotion through institutional channels is prohibited, deputies see the use of official vehicles as a way of displaying their respective performances to voters in the interior. Many of the discussions and speeches in the Assembly plenary, recorded on TV, are used by them in video cuts on social networks, for example. The website has already hosted news about projects presented and approved.
Alesp currently has 94 members, many of whom are expected to seek re-election or run for the Chamber of Deputies.
TV Alesp operates both on open television and on subscription services and social networks, with uninterrupted programming, including reruns of programs and legislative sessions. On platforms like YouTube, only sessions, votes, tributes and proprietary programs are shown live.
The publication of the work does not include advertisements about Alesp broadcast on TV, radio and other vehicles. For this, there is another item in the budget, focused only on institutional advertising, whose estimated value for 2026 is R$19 million.
Since the end of 2022, all amounts allocated to the dissemination of legislative work have been increased by the deputies themselves.
Initially, the government (Republicans) proposed R$47 million for the program in 2026, 2% more than budgeted for last year. The final value rose to R$52 million due to changes made by the Legislative Assembly.
For 2023, the then governor had proposed R$29 million for TV Alesp. The budget approved by deputies that year was R$48 million, the largest proportional increase in the amount allocated to publicizing Alesp’s work in 10 years. All values quoted have been adjusted according to inflation.
In absolute numbers, the program had its highest value in 2016: R$74 million foreseen in the Budget, representing an increase of 80% in relation to the R$41 million project sent by the government, which is currently the Vice President of the Republic.
The Finance Secretariat, in a note, says that Alesp has administrative and financial autonomy.
“The Annual Budget Law encompasses the revenue and expenditure proposals of all Powers, with the Executive being responsible for consolidating and forwarding the bill for consideration by the Legislature. Therefore, Alesp is responsible for indicating its own budget proposal, in accordance with the limits established in the Budget Guidelines Law, exercising administrative and financial autonomy over the powers of the Legislature”, says the text.
The ministry adds that, in this case, the dissemination of legislative work “has undergone amendments in the processing of budgetary pieces, both in the year 2025 and in the year 2026”.
Alesp argues, also in a note, that one of its duties towards society is “the broad dissemination of the work carried out by São Paulo state parliamentarians”. The House is chaired by André do Prado (PL).
The Assembly states that there was a reshuffle in institutional advertising, the budget for which was reduced for 2026.
“In this sense, for 2026, the Communication Department will have, from February onwards, a new contract for the management and operation of TV Alesp. The bidding process for hiring the new company was concluded at the end of 2025.”
TV Alesp has been managed, since 2011, by Fundac (Foundation for the Development of Arts and Communication). The contract, worth R$42 million, ends at the end of January and the producer was disqualified from the last auction.
Furthermore, as published by Sheet in December, the Assembly opened a case against , who is accused by employees and former collaborators of delaying salaries and not paying termination fines for dismissals.
The winner of the bid was EPTV from São Carlos, which is part of the group responsible for TV Globo affiliates in the interior of São Paulo and in the south of Minas Gerais. The contract with EPTV, initially worth R$ 26.9 million, – including Fundac.
