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

February 2021 Update on the Newsom Recall Movement

February Update on the Newsom Recall Movement

Introduction: Last month, I looked into the recall movement against California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), whose tenure as governor has made him a significant number of enemies, especially on the right. Today's post will provide a brief update on the recall movement, including the number of signatures and verified signatures, external interest in the movement, and prominent candidates thinking of or who already have jumped into the race against Newsom. 

Collected and Verified Signatures: Per a Tweet two days ago from Rob Pyers, around 1.5 million total signatures have been collected as of February 5th. Out of the number that were processed by California's counties, around 668,000 were valid. Depending on future validation trends, anywhere from 700,000 to 900,000 additional signatures will have to be collected by March 17th if the recall movement is to be put on the ballot. As a reminder, to qualify for the ballot, around 1.5 million valid signatures total have to be submitted to the California Secretary of State (@rpyers). Reportedly, around 300,000 of the signatures submitted are from Democratic voters, which has been argued by Republicans to be evidence of bipartisan upset towards Newsom (Bidar and Navarro). 

Potential Republican Candidates (and for 2022): Even though the recall movement has not made it to the ballot, several high-profile Republican candidates have been speculated to be considering running either for the recall and/or the 2022 gubernatorial election, when Newsom is up for another term. Of note is John Cox (R), an ex-Democrat who ran against Newsom in 2018 and lost significantly, which he blames on his lack of name recognition (Brooks and Sovern, "Cox aims"). Another prominent Republican who is thinking of running is the relatively centrist ex-San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer (R), who has been critical of Governor Newsom (Brooks and Sovern, "Republican Faulconer"). Ex-Trump cabinet member Richard Grennell has also been considering a run, and could receive the ex-president's endorsement if he does (Ting). Finally, ex-Congressman Doug Ose (R) has also been involved with the movement, and is also reported to be considering a run (Isenstadt). 

External Interest and Influence: Since I made the first blog post about the recall movement, Governor Newsom and his allies have become increasingly concerned that a recall election could be on the ballot soon (Sager). Recently, President Biden (D) announced his support for Newsom and opposition to the recall movement, pledging to work with the California Governor on several major policy areas (Brooks). Other prominent state Democrats and surrogates have argued that even if a recall election is held, Newsom should be safe as the incumbent remains popular among Democrats (Bidar and Navarro). 

On the Republican side, it was reported last week that ex-President Donald Trump (R) was potentially interested in jumping into the recall movement. In particular, Trump is reportedly interested in the recall's second question (Who replaces Gov. Newsom if recalled?), as only a plurality is needed for a winner to become the next governor if a majority of voters choose to end Newsom's term early. However, it has also been speculated that Trump could hurt the recall movement, as the ex-President is unpopular in California, evident by his 30% loss in both presidential elections (Isenstadt; Ting). Furthermore, many of Trump's prominent donors and supporters from across the country have jumped into the movement, helping raise funds to support the recall drive (Isenstadt). A Los Angeles Times piece from January 23rd reported that the recall movement has received support from far-right QAnon-suporting groups, the militia movement, and anti-science (and -vaxx) movements, while acknowledging that most who support the movement are not from that fringe (Chabria and St. John). 

Polling: Per a poll conducted by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, Governor Newsom's approval rating has seen a significant drop in the last few months, resting at 46% in January. By comparison, his September (prior to the "French Laundry" controversy) approval rating was 64% (Manchester). The same institution also polled the recall movement's popularity, finding support to be around 36% and opposition to it around 45%, with the rest undecided (Manchester). The group of undecideds includes 20% of Democrats and 28% who are non-affiliated, which could be a reflection that these voters are waiting to see whether the recall movement actually makes it to the ballot (Sager). 

Works Cited: 

@rpyers. "Police cars revolving lightProponents of the Newsom recall submitted a cumulative total of 1,094,457 signatures through 2/5, w/ counties processing 798,310 signatures, finding 130,108 invalid, and 668,202 valid. (83.7%). Proponents have until 3/17 to submit 1,495,709 valid sigs. 

https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/recalls/cumulative-newsom-heatlie.pdf." Twitter, 19 Feb. 2021, 4:18pm, twitter.com/rpyers/status/1362919465709490177. Accessed 20 Feb. 2021. 

Bidar, Musadiq, and Aaron Navarro. "Recall threats are common in California. But the latest one against Gavin Newsom might get further than most." CBS News, 2 Feb. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/gavin-newsom-recall-california-governor/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

Brooks, Eric. "President Biden backs Gov. Newsom as support for recall builds." KCBS Radio, 9 Feb. 2021, www.radio.com/kcbsradio/news/state/biden-voices-support-for-newsom-as-support-for-recall-builds. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

Brooks, Eric, and Doug Sovern. "Cox aims for second shot to be California's governor." KCBS Radio, 11 Feb. 2021, www.radio.com/kcbsradio/news/politics/cox-aims-for-second-shot-to-be-californias-governor. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

---. "Republican Faulconer makes case to unseat Gov. Newsom: 'You have to have transparency'." KCBS Radio, 2 Feb. 2021, www.radio.com/kcbsradio/news/state/republican-faulconer-makes-case-to-unseat-gov-newsom. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

Chabria, Antia, and Paige St. John. "Far-right movements including QAnon, virus skeptics linked to Newsom recall." Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2021, www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-23/recall-newsom-effort-qanon-antivaxxer-extremist-ties. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

Isenstadt, Alex. "Big Trump donors converge on Newsom recall." Politico, 5 Feb. 2021, www.politico.com/news/2021/02/05/gavin-newsom-recall-donors-466069. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

Manchester, Julia. "Governors in hot water over their coronavirus response." The Hill, 20 Feb. 2021, thehill.com/homenews/campaign/539665-governors-in-hot-water-over-their-coronavirus-response. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

Sager, Rebekah. "Newsom recall effort close to the 1.5M signatures needed to be on the ballot." KCBS Radio, 11 Feb. 2021, www.radio.com/kcbsradio/news/state/efforts-to-recall-newsom-close-to-the-1-5m-signatures-needed. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. 

Ting, Eric. "Report: Trump may get involved in Gavin Newsom recall election." SFGate, 18 Feb. 2021, www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Trump-California-recall-Gavin-Newsom-campaign-2021-15960341.php. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.