SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) submitted a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom requesting relief for the state’s vital fire protection, healthcare, utility, and other special districts that, unlike other areas of local government, have been uniquely excluded from access to COVID relief funding.

Hurtado– along with a bipartisan coalition of legislators –join the California Special Districts Association (CSDA) and more than 700 individuals and organizations urging relief for special districts and the communities they support.  To view the letter, click here.

“The Central Valley has experienced great loss during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Senator Melissa Hurtado. “Our special districts provide much needed resources and services to our communities, and without the funding, I am afraid that we will begin a perpetual cycle of playing catch up. Funding is available under the American Rescue Plan Act that will help alleviate much of the $1.92 billion burden that special districts are experiencing since the March 2020 Emergency Proclamation. If there is no action, that burden will increase to approximately $2.43 billion by December of this year.”

“Statewide, special districts have stepped up to respond to COVID and their frontline workers have battled to do more with less,” stated Neil McCormick, Chief Executive Officer of CSDA.  “Without access to relief funding, these local agencies have been forced to reduce their workforce and cancel infrastructure projects, yet they’ve found a way to get the job done today—access to relief will help them confront the challenges we know are facing our communities tomorrow.”

Through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP), Congress has explicitly empowered states to transfer Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery monies to special districts. Between the Coronavirus State and Local Recovery Fund within the ARP and last year’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, Congress has approved a projected $57.9 billion in relief funds to aid California and its local governments. Of these funds, the state will have received a total $36.14 billion in discretionary dollars to address COVID-19 impacts - with the rest going directly to cities and counties. That’s in addition to California’s projections of up to a $20 billion windfall in unanticipated one-time revenues.

“California’s special districts provide essential services to their local communities and maintain a large portion of the state’s critical infrastructure,  including fire protection and emergency response, healthcare, water and wastewater, electricity, ports and harbors, transportation, resource and agricultural conservation, parks, libraries, cemeteries, mosquito abatement, and air quality management,” McCormick said. “Just like other essential service providers, they’ve been hit hard by COVID impacts, and now face a projected $2.4 billion unmet fiscal need.”

More than 120,000 Californians are employed by special districts. Without relief, special districts will face the specter of layoffs, fewer services for communities, and reverberating impacts on everything from fire prevention and suppression to the delivery of vital water and electricity services, water and resource conservation—all as California plunges headlong into the third driest year on record, which could result in severe drought and a potentially catastrophic wildfire season.

Media Contact: Michelle.Sherwood@sen.ca.gov

About Senator Melissa Hurtado

Senator Melissa Hurtado represents a new generation of Latina leaders as the youngest woman ever elected to the California State Senate and a product of immigrant parents. Senator Hurtado represents the 14th Senate District and focuses on rural community issues that often go unheard — access to clean air and water, food insecurity and poverty, inequities in environmental policies, agriculture and access to health care. In July 2020, she was appointed to the national Biden Latino Leadership Committee alongside former Labor Secretary and current Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis – the only two California Latinas on the Committee.

For more information, visit Senator Hurtado’s Website here or find her on Twitter at @Senator_Hurtado

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