Policy Goals

The Governor must prevent CALPERS from attempting to lower the discount rate any further and spread the cost to its members. Because of the great financial strain resulting from the revenue losses due to the COVID-19 crisis, its members cannot sustain what would be a death blow to their finances. Additionally, a suspension of the COLA to retirees must be considered. This must be done prior to May 1st, before the 2020 COLA is implemented.

Simply put, cities under 500,000 population are in desperate need of COVID-19 federal funding infused directly into our General Funds. We must receive a fair and equitable share across county lines from the $15 billion in federal funding coming to the State.

Even when negative economic shocks (e.g. COVID, the Great Recession, etc.) reduce income and spending, which in turn reduces income and sales tax revenues collected by state and local governments, our cities must balance our operating budgets annually. Local government provides essential services to each of our communities (e.g. public safety, libraries, parks and recreation programs as well as major ongoing capital investments in roads, sanitary sewers, and water treatment and distribution systems).

To be wholly left to the generosity of county governments penalizes the millions of CA residents who live in our communities. The State should join with CA cities in advocating for a per capita funding to every city under 500,000 population in California.

In addition to any federal funding allocation related to COVID disaster relief, Congress needs to pass an Infrastructure Spending Bill. This bill would infuse much needed funds into local jurisdictions to pay for infrastructure (e.g. streets/roads/highways, bridges, sewer and water infrastructure) – this funding too should be allocated on a per capita basis and sent directly to cities.

More importantly, should a New Relief Bill be introduced that would provide direct relief to cities who have populations under 500,000; we must advocate for the passage of this legislation.

Based on the Governor’s recent announcement, small businesses will receive a no-interest loan of sorts from the State as those businesses will be allowed to keep sales tax collected during the next twelve months. While cities realize the very real struggles of small businesses, this creates an unbearable burden for cities. Cities will not be able to fund after school programs, public safety, or library services without their sales tax allocation. The State must use its resources to advance estimated sales tax funding to ensure cities are able to continue to serve the millions of CA residents who live in our communities.

Many years ago, redevelopment funding for cities was eliminated and cities lost the ability to revitalize blighted areas of our communities and reinvest in commercial enterprises in order to bolster not only the city’s finances, but most importantly, put our local workforce back to work. Now is the time for Sacramento to invest in the local community so that the thousands of out-of-work CA residents can access local programs, tailored to local needs; that’s how they’ll be able to feed their families moving forward.