Last week, county representatives wrapped up an action-packed seven-day trip in Washington D.C. advocating to maintain federal dollars critical for local jobs, wildfire safety and insurance and the protection of the region’s public lands.
Locally, county staff are closely monitoring and assessing the local impacts caused by the recent federal funding freezes and cuts. County staff have been in contact with local partners and nonprofit groups to assess how funding disruptions could impact access to resources for community members.
Advocating in D.C.
Each year, the Board adopts its legislative platform providing a framework to support legislative and regulatory advocacy. This helps to support infrastructure, capital projects and other services and programs that promote the well-being of Nevada County residents.
Nevada County District 1 Supervisor Heidi Hall and District 5 Supervisor Hardy Bullock, traveled with county staff to the nation’s capitol to gather with representatives from 3,069 counties as part of the annual conference known as the NACo Legislative Conference.
Organized by the National Association of Counties (NACo), the event included a series of meetings on Capitol Hill and an opportunity for the county supervisors to advocate for Nevada County.
Nevada County met with congressional staff from the offices of Congressman Kevin Kiley (CA), Congressman Doug LaMalfa (CA), Senator Padilla (CA), Senator Schiff (CA), U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, who retired as of March 3, and others as part of a jam-packed schedule hosted by NACo. County representatives heard a number of briefings, including the current efforts of Congress to cut federal spending by approximately $880 Billion over the next 10 years through a process known as reconciliation.
“The outcomes seem uncertain. We certainly felt heard at the staff level and staff were generally engaged and wanted to be helpful, for the most part. Whether this will impact final decisions, we don’t know. Overall, I remain concerned,” said Supervisor Hall.
Supervisor Hall serves as the county’s representative to NACo and sits on the Justice, Public Safety Policy Steering Committee and the Homeland Security Policy Subcommittee. She is also appointed by the California State Association (CSAC) to serve on the NACo Board of Directors.
Supervisors Hall and Bullock met with lawmakers to discuss how the funding freeze will impact local programs and services in Nevada County. They raised concerns related to wildfire mitigation and the state’s fire insurance crisis, open space and recreation on public lands as well as the effects of federal job cuts and impacts to social services for some of the most vulnerable populations: veterans, mothers and children and the financially insecure.
“It is about representation and communicating the local impacts of the way our federal representatives vote. We were able to elevate issues around forestry, fire, health and human services and the economy,” said Bullock.
“We were able to make it very clear that our county will suffer as long as federal grants are paused or frozen. Anything that is touched by federal funding is in jeopardy right now,” added Hall.
Wildfire Insurance
In light of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles and the ongoing insurance crisis in California, Supervisors Hall and Bullock led a multi-county coalition with Napa County and Lake County stressing the importance of accessible and affordable residential and commercial insurance.
“Nevada County is one of the most impacted counties for fire insurance. We’re getting attention at the federal level and I’ll continue to advocate for our rural community to ensure our voices are heard,” said Hall who has been a leader in advocating for rural counties on the issue.
The group called for bi-partisan hearings to address concerns that insurance carriers are not acknowledging the work individuals and communities are doing such as home-hardening and fuels reduction to create safer neighborhoods and reduce the risk from wildfire.
“There is still more that needs to be done at the state and federal levels. While we likely won’t see rates reduced immediately, I am hopeful that we’ll see better transparency around rate settings and ultimately start to see rates reduced for residents who are doing defensible space and home hardening,” Hall said.
Supervisor Hall urges Nevada County residents to stay focused and concentrate on things they can do to reduce the risk of wildfire on their properties, like personal mitigation work and participating with neighborhood groups like Firewise communities. She also encourages folks to continue to reach out to their local, state and federal elected representatives about any concerns.
Leveraging her work and expertise on the growing national insurance emergency, Supervisor Hall was appointed to serve on NACo’s new Intergovernmental Disaster Reform Taskforce with 18 other elected County Supervisors, Commissioners and Judges.
“It was really incredible that we were able to be represented on that taskforce. Although I was the only one who raised the insurance issue, what was really notable was this unified voice amongst Republicans, Democrats, emergency managers and supervisors that we do not want FEMA to be eliminated; that we want it reformed to address delayed reimbursements and easier access to funds,” said Hall.
Public Lands
“There was a lot of discussion about the unknown and how are we going to handle the unknown,” said Supervisor Bullock who serves as the Board’s alternate to NACo and sits on the Public Lands Policy Steering Committee and the County and Tribal Relations Subcommittee.
An advocate for public lands, recreation tourism and balanced conservation, Supervisor Bullock is concerned about the impact of federal resource cuts to the management and health of his forested district in Eastern Nevada County and Truckee that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to world class ski mountains, campgrounds, climbing walls and miles of trails.
One example is the Alpenglow Sawmill, a $16 million federally funded project, that is now on hold. The project, set to begin construction this year, offered promise to the mountain community’s economic viability, forest health and wildfire readiness.
“Our county colleagues from Placer, Lake, Napa, Yuba, Sierra, Plumas, Tuolumne and Mariposa stand firm and united with Nevada County in our need for unified, bipartisan support of our recreational and resource-based economies,” said Supervisor Bullock.
Impacts to Local Programs
At this time, the County is closely monitoring potential effects on critical services. Board members received an update on the possible impacts of the federal funding cuts locally as well as on Hall and Bullock’s advocacy efforts in D.C. at their meeting Tuesday.
“The proposed actions will have long ranging impacts and it is something the county is taking a measured approach with. We have to look at both extreme impact and no impact and then propose funding levels which allow us to be nimble as the situation evolves,” said Erin Mettler, deputy county executive officer — chief fiscal officer.
On Monday, hundreds of residents gathered at the County’s Government Center to engage with Congressman Kiley’s staff. During the March 11 Board of Supervisors meeting, District 3 resident Marion Blair shared her thoughts during public comment, expressing a renewed sense of optimism after hearing the update. “I wasn’t able to attend [Congressman Kiley’s staff office hours] yesterday, but I do want to thank you. That [presentation] was fascinating, and I was so pessimistic until I saw how involved you are. Thank you for caring about us and for moving all these needles forward. There is a lot going on,” she said.
District 4 Supervisor Sue Hoek shared her thanks to her colleagues for their advocacy in D.C. “We’ve got to look at what’s happening in our community. Your advocacy is very important, and it does make a difference. Sometimes we aren’t always on the same page, but we are when it comes to our county. We will keep on working, send letters of advocacy and carry on talking and listening to our constituents so we can continue our advocacy from here.”
NACo has identified five federal advocacy priorities that would have major impacts to county core programs and services. These include FEMA disaster reform, secure funding for rural schools, prevent cost shifts of Medicaid, prevent increases in county borrowing costs and modernizing county-administered programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and child welfare. In a worst case scenario, if all the proposed actions go into effect, more than one in four residents in Nevada County will be impacted by the reconciliation process, according to Mettler who presented her findings to the Board.
In Nevada County, 11,798 residents are enrolled in the SNAP (CalFresh) program, and 47.7 percent of SNAP participants are older adults and children. Another 842 residents receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Other programs at risk include 1,175 participants in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC); Maternal Child Health Programs.
Veterans Services are also in jeopardy. Significant staffing reductions at the Regional Veterans Affairs Office has led to delays in local services to veterans, staffing for the Veterans Suicide Crisis Hotline has been eliminated, homeless outreach and veteran employment outreach has been eliminated and travel reimbursement for VA appointments are frozen, according to Nevada County’s Veterans Service Office. The county is monitoring the status of veteran Medical Centers and outpatient clinics.
Several other federal grant-funded projects could be impacted such as shaded fuel break projects, hazardous vegetation work alongside evacuation routes and zero-emission transportation projects.
“We highlighted the urgent need for bipartisan solutions to the federal funding freeze and layoffs impacting our communities,” said Bullock.
The County plans to continue to closely track the local impacts of federal funding cuts, from government programs to community nonprofit providers, including working with its federal lobbyist. “Nonprofits have raised concerns about the inaccessibility of federal agencies and uncertainty of funding sources. In addition to our advocacy efforts, we’re committed to working with community partners to maximize resources and share information with our residents,” added Mettler.