What's in the California COVID relief bill?

What's in the California COVID relief bill? 

Introduction: As of the moment of this blog post's publication, Congress continues to negotiate over the next proposed Federal-level COVID relief bill (Fram). Meanwhile, California Governor Newsom (D) passed a $7.6 million state-level relief package on Tuesday after being approved by the state legislature (Beam). Nicknamed the "Golden State Stimulus, the relief package will provide several forms of direct and indirect assistance to help residents and businesses of California survive the ongoing pandemic, which has caused the disappearance of 1.5 million jobs since last March ("State lawmakers"). Today's post will provide a brief rundown of some of the major and notable socio-economic programs and policies contained within the bill.

Contents of the Relief Bill:

• CalFresh Assistance: CalFresh is a food assistance program run by California through the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program targeting low-income families and individuals ("CalFresh"). The stimulus bill provides funds to assist potentially-eligible students in the higher education system in applying for CalFresh, and additional funds to support county-level program administration of the program ("Governor Newsom"). 
• Child Care Aid: Within the bill, $400 million was allocated to help essential workers in affording child care expenses for their children by providing stipends to state-sponsored child care and preschool institutions (Escalante). 
• Community College Student Relief: Another portion of the relief bill will consist of aid to students attending any of the state's community colleges, which is intended to help them stay in school during the pandemic (Escalante). A chunk of that allocation will assist former community college students who dropped out to return to school ("Governor Newsom"). 
• COVID Hotel Isolation for Food-Related Essential Workers: Funds will also be provided for the "Housing for the Harvest" program, which allows agricultural and food-related essential workers to isolate in hotels if they come down with COVID-19 and are unable to isolate anywhere else ("CA COVID"; Escalante). 
• One-Time Stimulus Check: The most notable aspect of the "Golden State Stimulus" is a one-time $600 stimulus check targeting low-income Californians ("CA COVID"). A vast majority of those eligible will get the payment by claiming the California Earned Income Tax credit (Nuttle), while others who have tax IDs and (generally) make under $75,000 can also apply for the payment, including immigrants. Residents who do not fall into these two categories, but already take part in existing social assistance programs, including the elderly and disabled, also qualify for the check (Gould). In total, around 5.7 million people are estimated to be eligible for the one-time payment (Nuttle). 
• Relief Grants: 
• Small Businesses: One of the main criticisms over Governor Newsom's handling of the pandemic has been the state's rules relating to business activities, which has hit businesses hard. The relief bill would give out additional (in addition to those set aside last year) grants to businesses conditional on having a plan to reopen or are already open (Gould). Businesses owned by women or minority groups will receive preferential treatment in receiving the grants (Nuttle). In addition to direct monetary support, certain business fees will be waived to further assist small businesses (Gould). Despite these measures to help businesses, some state Republicans criticized these measures, arguing that such harm would have been avoided without Newsom's past actions towards California businesses (Gould). 
• Cultural Institution and Non-Profit Relief: In addition to for-profit businesses, non-profit cultural institutions will be eligible for similar grants through the relief bill (Nuttle). Further grants will be given to support food and diaper banks within the state (Gould). 
• Budget Cuts: Several California agencies and institutions will receive budget cuts as a result of the bill, including the state's higher education system, child support programs, and housing programs targeting medium-income citizens ("CA COVID"). I was not able to find specific details about these cuts before this post was published, and so these cuts are not reflected on the appropriations table below. 

Fiscal Appropriations: Table 1 below summarizes the appropriations for the programs listed above. Note that not all of the programs and policies contained within the bill were covered on this blog post, reflected by the combined values not equaling the total appropriations. All monetary values per line-item are estimated. 

Table 1: "Golden State Stimulus" Appropriations Table

Works Cited: 

Beam, Adam. "State lawmakers approve $600 stimulus payments for 5.7M Californians." ABC7, 22 Feb. 2021, abc7.com/covid-relief-california-covid-19-coronavirus-gov-gavin-newsom/10362498/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021. 

"CA COVID relief: See details of the new deal, including stimulus checks." KRON 4 News, 17 Feb. 2021, www.kron4.com/news/california/newsom-california-lawmakers-reach-covid-19-relief-bill-agreement/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021. 

"CalFresh." California Department of Social Services, www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/calfresh. Accessed 25 Feb. 2021. 

Escalante, Eric. "California's 'Golden State Stimulus' | 7 things to know." ABC10, 22 Feb. 2021, www.abc10.com/article/money/californias-golden-state-stimulus/103-728b850a-1252-4530-a3c9-4c6a52fadbbd. Accessed 25 Feb. 2021. 

Fram, Alan. "Third stimulus check update: House Budget committee advances COVID-19 relief bill." ABC10, 22 Feb. 2021, www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/bidencovid-relief-bill-democrats-vote/507-bded3fae-c9e5-49eb-89c8-e47ab4fb4ea1. Accessed 24 Feb. 2021.

Gould, Jennifer. "California lawmakers approve $600 stimulus payments for 5.7 million people; Newsom to sign bill Tuesday." KTLA 5 News, 22 Feb. 2021, ktla.com/news/california/california-lawmakers-approve-600-stimulus-payments-for-5-7-million-people-newsom-to-sign-bill-tuesday/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021. 

"Governor Newsom Signs Legislative Package Providing Urgent Relief to Californians Experiencing Pandemic Hardship." Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, 23 Feb. 2021, www.gov.ca.gov/2021/02/23/governor-newsom-signs-legislative-package-providing-urgent-relief-to-californians-experiencing-pandemic-hardship/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2021. 

Nuttle, Matthew. "Golden State Stimulus package provides small-business relief, $600 payments, and more." ABC10, 23 Feb. 2021, www.abc10.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/newsom-signs-golden-state-stimulus-package-includes-600-dollars/103-d46182c5-9322-44fb-b408-c8fd51b32402. Accessed 24 Feb. 2021. 

     Nathan Parmeter

     Author and Host, The Parmeter Politics and Policy Record