California's vibrant sustainable future depends on its rural communities
State and local leaders discussed unique challenges facing rural California at an event hosted by the Public Policy Initiative of California last month. The event put a spotlight on a statewide initiative to support regional economic development efforts— the focus of a 2022 Little Hoover Commission study.
“California's vibrant sustainable future depends on its rural communities,” said Ashley Swearengin, former Mayor of Fresno and current President and CEO of the Central Valley Community Foundation. She added that investment in rural California “actually means a brighter future for other parts of the state.”
California has a unique opportunity to further its efforts to build a “regions up” approach to development that brings together goals surrounding economy, equity, and environment through the Regional Investment Initiative, Swearengin told the crowd.
The Regional Investment Initiative (formerly the Community Economic Resilience Fund, or CERF), is a $600 million state initiative launched in 2021 to support regional collaboratives as they work to develop and implement strategies for inclusive development.
In its November 2022 report Equitable Economic Development across California, the Commission applauded Governor Newsom and state leaders for this bold investment in California's regional economic agenda. The initiative, the Commission found, offered a tremendous opportunity for the state to strengthen and expand existing grassroots coalitions and accelerate more inclusive and sustainable regional economic growth. In turn, these efforts would help the California lift up its inland and rural regions, which suffer from disparities in income, employment, and opportunity, as compared to the state's coastal cities.
However, the Commission also learned that the initiative suffered from challenges, including balancing among different outcome goals, ensuring that regions receive the scale of investment necessary to change their economic trajectories, and coordinating the range of state programs that can support inclusive regional economic development.
In recognition of these obstacles, the Commission outlined several recommendations to help the state better support regions as they seek to execute economic development strategies:
Prioritize historically disadvantaged regions and subregions for funding within the Regional Investment Initiative and related programs.
Provide greater strategic clarity to the Regional Investment Initiative by focusing the program more specifically on the creation of quality jobs in sustainable industries with high growth potential and on connecting members of disadvantaged communities with the quality jobs created.
Encourage and support regional investments in traded sectors (those that sell goods and services outside of the region).
Create a single, senior point of leadership for regional economic development. Further, the state should coordinate state funding and programs in support of regional economic development strategies.
Increase regional capacity for inclusive economic development by dedicating ongoing funding for regional partnerships responsible for guiding regional economic development. The state should also plan for how to structure and sustain regional collaboration after the end of Regional Investment
Initiative.
Allocate ongoing funding to better enable colleges and universities to act as leaders in regional economic development and improve alignment with regional economies.
Institutionalize the regular reporting of metrics relating to the health of regional economies and the extent of regional economic disparities.
Regional collaboratives are in the midst of developing roadmaps, including a strategy and recommended series of investments, for their respective regions. Last month, Governor Newsom also announced the creation of the California Jobs First Council, which will help support regional collaboratives to expand industry and create jobs locally.