Federal Funding Needs
Staff recommends the deletion of the following funding need:
5. Bay-Delta Area Studies, Surveys and Technical Analysis – $2,500,000 for the Delta Counties Coalition to carry out technical analysis and planning associated with participation in the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) or implementation of any projects resulting from the Plan. The technical analysis and planning will focus on issues related to the planning of water delivery projects and conservation plans that are included in the BDCP.
In addition, the two transportation related projects previously included in this section were moved to the section addressing Federal Transportation Needs, as were projects in "Appropriations and Grants" that related to specific transportation funding needs.
Federal Transportation Needs(revised from "Act")
Staff recommends the following revisions:
1. Vasco Road Safety Improvement Project -- $18 million for improvements to a 2.5-mile accident-prone section of Vasco Road. Project components include widening the roadway to accommodate a concrete median barrier and shoulders on either side of the barrier, construction of the barrier, and extension of an existing passing lane. The project will eliminate cross-median accidents which have caused numerous fatalities in recent years, and will provide increased opportunities for vehicles to safely pass (unsafe passing is a major cause of accidents and fatalities on this segment of the increasingly busy two-lane undivided road). The project will include provisions for wildlife undercrossings to preserve migration patterns. The proposed improvements will complement a $10 million project that was funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and completed in 2011.
5. Iron Horse Corridor Enhancement Program -- $25 million for joint planning, environmental review, and the construction of improvements in the Iron Horse Trail Corridor, a 28 mile non-motorized facility used for commute and recreation purposes providing access to schools, recreational facilities, commercial areas, residences, and mass transit hubs. Eligible projects include corridor planning, trail access improvements, trail expansion/enhancements, overcrossings (7 overcrossings in 5 cities), intersection improvements, Class I trail inter-connectivity projects, and wayfinding/signage projects.
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Transportation Funding for Disabled, Low-income, and Elderly Persons – Transit services for elderly, disabled, and low-income persons are provided by the County, by some cities, by all of the bus transit operators, and by many community organizations and non-profits that provide social services. Increased funding is needed to provide and maintain more service vehicles, operate them longer throughout the day, upgrade the vehicle fleet and dispatching systems, improve coordination between public providers and community groups that also provide such services to their clients, expand outreach programs to inform potential riders of the available services, and expedite deployment of efficient new technologies and systems, among other needs. The County supports continuation and increased funding levels for federal funding programs dedicated to transit services for these population groups. All of the demographic trends point to a growing need for such services in the future. For example, the 65-and-older population in the Bay Area is projected to more than double by the year 2030.
Appropriations and Grants
Staff recommends the following revisions and one new support position.
Buchanan Field Airport – The County approved a Master Plan for the Buchanan Field Airport in October 2008, which included a Federal Aviation Regulation Part 150 Noise Study and a Business Plan for project implementation; all of which completed a previously approved Federal Aviation Regulation Part 150 Noise Study. The comprehensive planning effort has ideally positioned Buchanan Field Airport for future aviation (general aviation, corporate aviation and commercial airline service) and aviation-related opportunities. To facilitate the economic development potential, the Business Plan prioritizes necessary infrastructure improvements for Buchanan Field Airport (including development of a general aviation terminal/administration building and potential replacement of the 65 year old control tower). Further, as the Airport is surrounded by urban residential uses, enhancing the noise program infrastructure is deemed essential for balancing the aviation needs with those of the surrounding communities. The Federal government, primarily through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), provides funding for planning, analysis, and infrastructure improvements. The County will support funding in all these areas for protection and enhancement of our aviation facility and network.
Byron Airport – The Byron Airport is poised for future general and corporate aviation and aviation-related development, but that future growth and full build out of the airport as shown in the Master Plan is dependent upon utility and infrastructure improvements (such as improved road access and sewer and water connections) both on and around the Airport. The Byron Airport Business Plan prioritizes infrastructure and possible additional land acquisition to assist the Byron Airport in fulfilling its aviation and economic development potential. The Federal government, primarily through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), provides funding for planning, analysis, infrastructure improvements and aviation land acquisition. The County will support funding in all these areas for protection and enhancement of our aviation facility and network.
Stormwater Program Funding - $700,000 to fund additional compliance costs required by the Clean Water Act. The Regional Water Quality Control Board issues the County a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit every five years, requiring the County to remove pollutants from stormwater prior to entering the storm drain system. The County has a dedicated revenue source for funding stormwater services derived from an assessment on every parcel in the County, which generates about $3 million per year in the unincorporated communities. The Regional Board recently issued a new MS4 permit that will increase costs dramatically over the next five years, starting next year with a 25% increase and the following year by an increase of almost five times current costs. In 2012, the County attempted to increase the parcel assessment for stormwater services but the voters turned it down. The County needs additional funding through the Environmental Protection Agency, the source of the MS4 requirements, to help pay for compliance costs.
2017 Federal Legislative Platform Policy Positions
Staff recommends the following text revisions and the addition of policies.
Affordable Housing and Homeless Programs –For Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Homeless Assistance Grants, including the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program, the County will support funding that does not include set-asides or other requirements that limit local communities’ ability to respond to the particular needs in their areas. For the Housing Assistance for People with AIDS (HOPWA) program, the County will support legislation to update the formula used to allocate HOPWA grants to reflect local housing costs as well as the number of AIDS cases.
The County supports full funding for HUD homeless assistance programs, including the ESG Program, and funding for full implementation of the Homeless Emergency and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009.
Child Care – Research continues to show that quality, affordable childcare is a necessity to ensuring a family’s stability and economic success. Currently in Contra Costa County, there are over 10,000 low-income children eligible for affordable childcare services, yet only 29% of that need is met. Research also shows that in addition to a child’s long-term success with school and employment, investing in high-quality early care and education results in a higher than average return on investments in the areas of crime reduction and positive health, education and economic outcomes.
With regards to childcare, the County will support any proposed continuation of the President’s “Preschool for All” Initiative meant to close America’s school readiness gap and ensure all children have access to quality care by expanding high quality learning opportunities for children 0-5. This proposal includes:
• An increase of over 100,000 new childcare slots and $12 billion over the next 10 years;
• A focus on children and their families who are at or below 200% of poverty;
• Financing through a new cost-sharing partnership with states, already a proven successful model with Head Start in Contra Costa County.
The County will also advocate for the following federal actions:
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Increase funding to support employment of low-income families through greater access to child care subsidies, and increase the access of children from eligible families to high-quality care that supports positive child development outcomes.
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Provide flexibility at the state and local levels so that quality care can be balanced with access and parental choice.
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Reauthorization of Head Start that includes consideration of a regional approach to determining eligibility and reforming the Head Start Designation Renewal System by suspending the use of the lowest 10 percent of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System trigger.
Child Welfare and Well-being –The County will advocate for the following federal actions:
Provide states with financial incentives, as opposed to monetary penalties, under the Child and Family Services Reviews and minimize the significant administrative burden associated with the review process.
End Title IV-E disallowances from federal audits that take away funds from an already resource-strapped child welfare system. Allow states to reinvest these funds in preventing child abuse and neglect.
Increase prevention dollars to help maintain children safely in their own homes. Federal funding currently gives disproportional support to out-of-home care rather than to preventing children from coming into care.
Any increase in Federal Medical Assistance Percentage should include an associated increase in the Title IV-E matching rate to help support children in foster care.
OPPOSE The Family First Prevention Services Act for our Children, an Act that would curtail California’s Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) efforts and would result in poor outcomes for especially vulnerable abused and neglected children.
Community Development Block Grant, Emergency Solutions Grant and HOME Programs – The County’s ability to continue funding to a variety of nonprofit agencies that provide critical safety net services to lower income residents, including financing the development of affordable housing is threatened by further cuts as part of the Budget Control Act (Act) passed by Congress in July 2011. The Act established mandatory spending caps on most federal programs through 2021, and arranged additional across-the-board annual spending cuts to federal defense and non-defense discretionary (NDD) programs over this same period.
Included in non-defense discretionary programs are critical local government oriented programs including the CDBG, ESG and HOME programs. These programs are successful and productive, leveraging significant funding from non-federal sources to help spur economic development. The County agrees that reducing the federal deficit is an important component of achieving long-term national economic stability, but targeting solely NDD programs like the CDBG, ESG and HOME programs will not achieve significant reductions and will hinder the County’s ability to provide critical services to its most vulnerable populations. The County will continue to oppose any further reductions in the CDBG, ESG and HOME programs as part of the Budget Control Act or any other means.
Habitat Conservation Planning – The County will advocate for elevating the profile of locally controlled, regional Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) such as the East Contra Costa County HCP within Congress and Administration so that these critical federal/state/local partnerships can receive necessary attention and support. HCPs are flagship programs for the federal government and supporting effective implementation of approved HCPs should be a top priority for the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and HCPs should be a key tool in any federal climate change or economic stimulus legislation.
Habitat Conservation Permitting and Permit Alignment – The County will advocate for and support efforts to align federal permits for natural resource impacts federal with permits already issued by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service pursuant to a locally-controlled, regional Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), such as East Contra Costa County HCP. One good example of this is the U.S. Army Corps’ issuance of Regional General Permit 1 which was designed to be consistent with the East Contra Costa County HCP. The alignment of permit requirements and processes improves the overall efficiency, predictability and effectiveness of natural resource regulation and project delivery.
Homeless / Runaway Youth -- The County will SUPPORT continued investment in the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act to ensure that all youth have access to housing and other critical services.Homelessness among young people is a serious issue. Homeless youth, sometimes referred to as unaccompanied youth, are individuals who lack parental, foster or institutional care. Homeless youth are at a higher risk for physical abuse, sexual exploitation, mental health disabilities, substance abuse, and death. It is estimated that 5,000 unaccompanied youth die each year as a result of assault, illness, or suicide. In Contra Costa County youth under the age of 18 years make up approximately 11% of the homeless population and two thirds of those youth reside in shelters on any given night.
Human Trafficking --Human Trafficking is the illegal recruitment, transportation, harboring, provision or obtaining of people (by force, fraud or coercion), typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Nearly 20.9 million people around the world fall victim to this multi-billion dollar industry. In the last two years Contra Costa partners on a Federal human trafficking grant have served over 240 victims of human trafficking.
The County will advocate for the following federal actions to insure support and services for victims of human trafficking, and the systems that help them:
• SUPPORT federal funding that effectively enables service providers to assist victims and law enforcement to prosecute traffickers. Because it takes a well-resourced multi-faceted approach to support victims and to insure traffickers are prosecuted support cross-system, comprehensive approaches to prevent human trafficking.
• SUPPORT efforts that increase the level of training, awareness, and funding to address promising practices related to labor trafficking (including the hospitality industry, restaurants, etc.). Victims of trafficking may be found everywhere– some may be found working against their will in hotels/motels for long hours for little or no pay. Labor trafficking has been found in diverse labor settings including domestic work, restaurants, nail salons, small businesses, large farms, and factories.
Multi-Service Centers – The County will support federal funding for the establishment and operation of coordinated service integration models such as SparkPoint, Service Integration Teams, Family Resource Centers, or Family Justice Centers. Multi-service centers often co-locate county and non-profit agencies working holistically to meet the needs of families. Centers can help individuals and families address immediate financial crises, build financial security, address abuse and violence, provide accessible, coordinated public services, and may, engage families in resident-driven efforts to revitalize their communities.
Municipal Securities – The County supports efforts to preserve, enhance and streamline the availability of tax-exempt financing to fund critical public infrastructure projects. For over 100 years, federal tax policy has granted a tax exemption on municipal bond interest to incentivize investment in local infrastructure projects. Also, the federal government has occasionally provided “direct subsidy bonds” that further mitigate borrowing costs to local government.
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Preservation for the Tax-Exemption for Municipal Bonds: The County will support the continued exemption of municipal bond interest.
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Opposition to Repeal of the “Tower Amendment” to the Securities Acts Amendments of 1975: The Tower Amendment to the Securities Acts Amendments of 1975 has prohibited the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) from directly or indirectly regulating state and local government issuers of municipal securities prior to the sale of those securities. The County will oppose any repeal of the Tower Amendment which would impose an additional federal regulatory oversight burden on local government issuers, in recognition that the states already have such authority.
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Private Activity Bonds for Government Buildings: The County will support legislation that would create a new category of private activity bonds for governments to join with private parties to help finance government buildings. The tax-exempt bonding mechanism would allow state and local governments to issue private activity bonds to finance the construction and upkeep of certain publically owned buildings. The County will support amending the federal tax code to provide another layer of tax-exempt financing that would encourage the use of public-private partnerships.
Public Housing Programs – The County will support legislation that results in the transformation of existing programs to improve their effectiveness and efficiency, in tandem with the design of new and innovative responses, both to build upon recent progress and address outstanding issues.
The County will support legislation to expand Affordable Housing Opportunities and combat homelessness:
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Fully fund the Home Investment Partnerships Program and HUD’s homeless assistance programs, such as the Emergency Solutions Grant Program.
Sexual Assault
Sexual violence affects millions of Americans – nearly every 2 minutes an American is sexually assaulted. The County will advocate for the federal actions to insure support for victims and survivors of sexual assault.
SparkPoint, Service Integration – The County will support federal funding for the establishment and operation of SparkPoint and Service Integration models. SparkPoint Centers are one-stop, financial-education centers that help individuals and families who are struggling to make ends meet. SparkPoint helps clients address immediate financial crises, get them back on their feet, and build financial security. Each center brings together a full range of services at one convenient location, including job training, career development and financial coaching, as well as access to higher education and savings accounts. The Contra Costa County Service Integration Program co-locates county and non-profit agency service providers and community residents in neighborhood-based family service centers to provide accessible, coordinated public services tailored to meet the specific needs and goals of low-income families, while also engaging families in resident-driven efforts to revitalize their communities.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – The County will advocate for the following federal actions:
? Increase SNAP benefits as a major and immediately available element of economic stimulus.
? Suspend the restrictions applying to ABAWDs. ("ABAWDs" stands for "Able-Bodied Adults without Dependents" and pertains to adults receiving food stamps who are considered employable.) They are subject to strict time limits on how long they can receive food stamps. It is difficult administratively to track this, and when unemployment is high, it can result in more adults going hungry.
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Increase SNAP benefit amounts to better meet recipients’ nutritional needs and support local economies.
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Adjust SNAP eligibility requirements to a) include currently excluded populations with significant need b) remove time limits and work requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDS) and full-time students. ABAWDS and pertains to adults receiving food stamps who are considered employable.
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OPPOSE funding cuts or block granting the SNAP program.
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Remove the current federal barriers that prevent some nutrition programs from employing EBT technology.
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