Governor Talks Roads, Health Care in State of the State
Governor Jerry Brown delivered a fiery State of the State address earlier this week that focused on how California would respond to the new Administration in Washington, D.C., with particular emphasis on immigration and environmental issues. The Governor also touched on healthcare and transportation, both in the context of plans issued by President Donald Trump. Read the full State of the State address here.
The Governor spoke about the need to invest more in infrastructure, and even mentioned the recent inaugural speech in which President Trump called for building more roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports and other infrastructure, pledging California’s commitment to working with Washington, D.C on advancing the state’s needs.
“You don’t really expect to hear a lot of concrete proposals in a State of the State address,” said CSAC Executive Director Matt Cate. “But I was glad to hear the Governor elevate transportation funding. We’ve been talking for two years about the need to add revenue and offer some common sense reforms that ensure transportation dollars are spent wisely. California counties can’t wait any more. Our roads are so deteriorated that any further delay is going to result in a significantly higher cost to fix them.”
So it remains to be seen how much and when any federal transportation dollars might make their way to California; in the meantime, CSAC is supporting both Senate Bill 1 and Assembly Bill 1, which would raise more than $6 billion a year, split evenly between the state and local governments, to begin addressing a backlog of deferred road maintenance. SB 1 is slated for a hearing on February 14.
Governor Brown also talked extensively about health care and said the impact on California could be disastrous if the Affordable Care Act is repealed with no replacement. “More than any other state, California embraced the Affordable Care Act and over five million people now enjoy its benefits,” said the Governor. “But that coverage has come with tens of billions of federal dollars. Were any of that to be taken away, our state budget would be directly affected, possibly devastated. That is why I intend to join with other governors – and with you – to do everything we can to protect the health care of our people.”
CSAC shares Governor Brown’s concern – counties are the provider of last resort for health benefits to our residents; having more people uninsured due to a breakdown of the federal health care reform efforts could mean more visits to county clinics and emergency rooms. In fact, CSAC recently conducted a panel discussion webinar exploring potential impacts of an ACA repeal. You can listen in to the recording of that webinar by clicking on this link.
While it remains to be seen how the Governor’s pledges in his State of the State speech will come to fruition, counties agree with his assertion, “When California does well, America does well. And when California hurts, America hurts.”