McGuire featured speaker at MATH
Senator addresses wildfire mitigation, schools, housing for homeless among other issues
LAKE COUNTY >> Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), the featured speaker at Thursday’s zoom meeting of the Middletown Area Town Hall ( MATH) touched upon a myriad of issues including fire safety and mitigation, the challenges schools are facing during the coronavirus pandemic and how the state is addressing homelessness throughout the region.
With 21 participants logged in, including members of the board, Supervisor Moke Simon, and Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, the senator also discussed climate change, and how to address difficulties faced by homeowners from the insurance industry as a result of destructive wildfires.
“We started the year in California with one of the healthiest budgets in the United States of America, with a six billion dollar surplus and where we have gone with this budget is significant challenges,” said McGuire,”about a 54 billion dollar deficit and record unemployment.”
“Lake County is recovering quicker than the statewide average. It’s not going to be as long in duration as what we saw between 2006 and 2011. It’s just going to be dependent on where we are at with the virus come spring.”
— Sen. Mike McGuire, (D-Healdsburg)
McGuire added that there were good news with legislators believing the state has peaked with unemployment and has hit the bottom when it comes to the recession. “That’s all dependent on if we don’t have a second significant shutdown based of our virus numbers.” He added California peaked about 90 days ago, at 13.5 percent unemployment, with the state now at about 11 percent.
“Lake County is recovering quicker than the statewide average,” he said stating the county is now at about 8.5 to 8.8 percent u nemployment with rates continuing to drop, and adding that law makers believe the recession will last about another 3648 months. “It’s not going to be as long in duration as what we saw between 2006 and 2011. It’s just going to be dependent on where we are at with the virus come spring.”
The senator spoke next about how state leaders have prioritized the budget during challenging times i nc lud i n g s upp or t i n g strong public schools, specifically K-12 public education in rural schools, staying off budget cuts on the backs of teachers and students. “We are concerned as is every other state about the lack of progress at the federal level when it comes to legislation, but (what) we have done is we’ve invested 5.3 billion dollars to be able to bridge the digital divide that has been brought on by the coronavirus.”
Some of the resources the state has invested in, according to McGuire to address connectivity and broadband include purchases of no cost satellite plans, fiber plans, tablets, laptops and hotspots for students. In Middletown about 800,000 dollars has been secured for these projects, Konocti about $4 million and countywide about $9 million.
“Even though the money is available there is a massive backlog when it comes to purchasing,” McGuire said adding that statewide,
California is running into a 100,000 tablet backlog to be able to get them into the hands of students. The senator said the state is working directly with tablet manufacturers to ensure that California is first and other states are second, but he said it may not be until early or mid November until the districts see the tablets arriving. “Trying to secure the devices has been difficult.”
Wildfire mitigation
In regards to fire, McGuire said the state has invested an additional $85 million dollars of permanent funding in CAL Fire this year alone in order to hire additional seasonal firefighters, additional full-time firefighters and additional fire engines. The U. S. Coast Guard will also be transitioning out cargo planes into the CAL Fire fleet in order to beef up the air attack fleet turning CAL Fire into the largest public air attack fleet in the world, according to the senator.
The senator said legislators believe that they are going to be able to get more grants into Lake County to address housing for homeless residents in addition to the $ 3.3 million that has been secured for investment in Hope Center in Clearlake in order to expand mental health and other needed services.
McGuire also addressed the Coronavirus’ effect on California, stating that 92 percent of all tests at state testing sites are now coming back in 48 hours or less. He thanked the board of supervisors for their efforts in securing Verily mobile testing. “It was ridiculous that we were looking at a five to seven day turnaround early in this pandemic, it simply wasn’t effective.”
There are more testing sites throughout the state according to the senator, who said there has been a significant focus on expanding lab space. He added that state officials have purchased another 150,000 square feet of lab space which will increase testing to 250,000 per day.
No vaccine at the end of the year
Transitioning into addressing the possibility of a vaccine for the virus, McGuire said some of the best doctors in the country within the UC system think it may be realistic to see a vaccine that will start being widespread in the first three to six months of next year with specific populations such as health care workers, workers in skilled nursing facilities, and those over the age of 65 having priority during a rollout.
“I’m just going to be honest with you,” he said, “We hear folks saying there’s going to be a vaccine by the end of the year, we hear folks say there’s going to be a vaccine by Election Day, I am just going to be blunt, we do not think there is going to be a vaccine by Election Day. I am going to be blunt, we don’t think there is going to be a widespread vaccine by the end of the year.” He encouraged residents to get flu shots to combat the combined threat of the flu and the virus.
Climate change is real
“I know some will think I am full of malarkey, but I believe in climate change,” he said addressing where he thinks the state will be going when it comes to wildfires. “We are getting hotter, science is showing us that our planet is warming.” McGuire said wildfire season has expanded more than 80 days than it was in the 70s and trending a degree and a half to two and a half degrees warmer during the summer and fall temperatures compared to the 70s.
Lake County is spending $200 million dollars a year in grants to build firebreaks around communities, but McGuire said that funding needs to doubled. He added the problem is that more federal government dollars are going towards fire suppression and less is going toward vegetation management. He impressed upon the need for the state to continue to work closely with the federal government and the Bureau of Land Management to add on to the $200 million the state is putting in every year.
McGuire said California needs to follow Florida’s example when in the 90s, they established a home hardening commission to address massive hurricane damage forcing the insurance corporations to write homeowners insurance. He said similarly, in California home owners should be able to get a one-time tax break to cover half of the cost of hardening their homes against the threat of wildfires the following year after this home hardening has been accomplished.
After his report, McGuire fielded questions from the zoom meeting participants on a range of topics including the possibility of state officials requesting more funding for more heliport air fields leading to more rapid aerial wildfire response, and the loosening of environmental requirements and restrictions for landowners and nonprofits applying for state grants in order to perform noncommercial timber and vegetation management activities.
District 1 Supervisor and Chair of the Board Moke Simon, giving an update on the closure of Highway 29 due to the Glass fire, which late Thursday was 66 percent contained, said Caltrans was working diligently with PG&E on issues like power lines affected by the fire. He added CAL Fire will be working on the fire for the next seven to 10 days, but it was anticipated the highway on Lake County’s side could be open to commuters by Monday or even sooner.
Simon gave the MATH a brief update on the board’s recent budget discussions which have led to notable changes including the addition of a county cannabis division, additional code enforcement officers which translates to “more boots on the ground,” for abatement and the addition a couple of hundred thousand dollars so the sheriff could add more deputies.