Fiona Ma talks local assistance with board
Treasurer urges county to apply for available grant funding
California State Treasurer Fiona Ma visited the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors at its meeting on Tuesday to discuss various state and federal programs local families can benefit from.
Ma is touring the state to promote the California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program, or Cal KIDS, a state investment that puts $100 in a savings account for any child born after July 1, 2022, meant to compound interest until they reach 18, when the funds can be used for higher education or an apprenticeship program. Every first- through 12th-grader who receives free and reduced lunches is eligible for $500, homeless youth get another $500 and foster youth get an additional $500.
“We are out in the community trying to encourage parents or guardians to register their kids so that they can get this money in their account and start compounding interest as soon as possible,” Ma said.
In her presentation, Ma noted that on Tuesday evening from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Humboldt County Office of Education’s Sequoia Conference Center, she will be providing additional information to parents about how to sign their children up, which can be done at Calkids.org.
Ma also addressed the state’s loan loss guarantee and loan loss reserve programs, which recently received roughly $1 billion from the federal government, allowing businesses to have the state pay back debts in the event they become unable to pay themselves. Ma mentioned the precarious state of businesses in Humboldt County during her presentation, citing the state’s rocky rollout of cannabis legalization.
“Last time I was here, it was 2015 and I was in Garberville and I was here in Eureka, and it was thriving with so many small craft independent legacy farmers … back then you couldn’t find available property, people were busier than ever before,” Ma said. “I met with Supervisor (Michelle) Bushnell yesterday, and back in 2015, you had 3,500 farms and today, it’s 1,100 farms that are all just struggling to make ends meet. Having to pay all of these fees when they are fallowing their property is not right and that is also impacting your growers. So I hope that, together, we will see some relief.”
Ma also brought up a new bill that would allocate more state funds for student and faculty housing on UC and CSU sites, though due to the state’s projected deficit, the funds will likely be delayed.
As a whole, the supervisors thanked Ma for her presentation and brought up several county initiatives they believed could use more state support, such as the proposed offshore wind project and revisions to which foster children can receive state assistance.
Ma also urged the supervisors to prepare for federal grants, which can reward massive amounts of funds to local agencies but are highly competitive.
“My message here is as the treasurer, now, I’m giving away money,” Ma said. “Lots of money is still coming from the federal government in terms of grants, and when these grants are offered, it’s usually competitive and so if our communities are not ready, they have not gotten all their paperwork together, filled out the pre-application sometimes, then we are really losing out.”