SACRAMENTO – Today, Assemblywoman Megan Dahle (R-Bieber) issued the following statement regarding Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2020-21 state budget proposal:
“As we enter a new year our focus must be expediting our state’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, our budget must reflect absolute fiscal responsibility that prioritizes getting Californians back to work safely. It is essential that the state provide incentives and regulatory flexibility to help small businesses and employers get back on their feet so they can hire and provide jobs. It is encouraging to see the Governor is committed to this end with his allocation of $4.5 billion to support business recovery and getting Californians back to work.
“Also in need of critical support are the state’s schools. With our prioritization of ensuring all schools move forward with a safe return to classroom learning, we must provide the financial support school staff are desperate for in order to achieve this goal. Our students have also suffered significant learning loss and challenges to their social and emotional well-being. The $90 billion in the budget allocated to the state’s K-14 schools is a promising start to address the problem, and I am committed to ensuring that our rural schools hit hardest by the pandemic receive their fair share in a timely manner.
“Though it is winter, we can’t forget the importance of ensuring our communities are prepared for fire season and carry on the critical work of treating our forests. While the Governor’s budget proposes $1 billion to this end and to make $200 million in Cap and Trade funding available for an additional five years, dedicated resources over a longer period of time will be necessary if we are to treat the millions of acres of forest our state has let deteriorate into tinderboxes. The Governor should direct the current 25 percent continuous appropriation from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) for High-Speed Rail to forest health projects that will actually save Californians’ lives and lands.
“While there are some promising proposals in the Governor’s budget, the reality is that Californians have lost trust in their government, their Governor, and the agencies under his direct oversight. This permeating distrust is a result of the gross ineptitude of agencies under his direction, such as the Employment Development Department (EDD), that have been allowed to continually fumble with no accountability for their failure. These failures directly reflect on the Newsom Administration and our Governor has to face the fact that he has broken trust with the citizens of our state. This trust will not easily be restored, and this budget does little to fix what his administration has broken.”
Assemblywoman Megan Dahle represents the 1st Assembly District in the California Legislature, which includes portions of Butte and Placer counties, along with Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, and Siskiyou counties.