The San Benito County Board of Supervisors authorized Chairman Jaime De La Cruz from District 5 to represent the county in Washington D.C. at the 2017 National Association of Counties (NACo) Legislative Conference.
According to a statement released on the matter, hundreds of NACo members from counties throughout the nation met with congressional delegations over the five-day conference starting Feb. 24. It included conference committee meetings and workshops attended by De La Cruz to “learn about the latest trends in local, state and federal governmental strategies and best practices.”
According to the statement:
With a new administration and Congress just months old, the 2017 Legislative Conference provided a resource for De La Cruz to network with federal legislators in search of opportunities to leverage county influence on Capitol Hill and at the White House. The greatest challenge facing San Benito County, according to De La Cruz, is its crumbling infrastructure; specifically, road repair and reconstruction coupled with the lack of fiscal resources to invest in such capital improvement programs countywide.
Other issues of concern and interest addressed at the conference included new federal Immigration Policy and the paradigm shift of cannabis legalization in various states for medicinal and adult recreational usage; including taxation and regulation of cannabis from seed-to-sale, particularly in California under Prop. 64. The new law made it legal for individuals to use and grow marijuana for personal use on Nov. 9, 2016. However, the sale and subsequent taxation of recreational marijuana will not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2018.
As board chairman, De La Cruz appointed supervisors Robert Rivas and Mark Medina to the San Benito County Medical Marijuana ad hoc subcommittee to study Prop. 215 and Prop. 64 who, working with a consultant with experience in cannabis public policy, may consider recommendations to the Board of Supervisors to rescind existing county ordinances that ban medical marijuana operations in its jurisdiction this year.
De La Cruz said he is also interested in learning more about industrial hemp as a viable local cash crop with supply chain management plans to cultivate, process, manufacture and distribute hemp products as is being successfully administered in other states, creating new jobs, tax revenue and economic development opportunities. Seven states—Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Virginia—have approved the creation of both pilot/research and commercial programs.
“San Benito County is not alone.” De La Cruz said. “What I learned from other fellow county supervisors and commissioners is that we all have similar infrastructure problems. We as county supervisors need to continue to lobby state and federal government to discover funding mechanisms that will provide revenue and fiscal resources to our county to maintain and fix our local roads.”
“Regarding the Affordable Care Act and the agenda to repeal and replace the program, doing so will have a huge impact on the San Benito County General Fund as less money will be available to administer local county health programs that so many residents rely on for health care.” De La Cruz said. “The state and federal government will not come to our rescue. We need to find other funding resources and promote new businesses and industries that will provide jobs, benefits and revenue to improve economic development and reduce the need for county social services.”
“I met with Congressmen Panetta, Rohrabacher and Denham at the Legislative Conference to discuss transportation, health care and federal funding mechanisms to San Benito County.” De La Cruz said. “Congressman Panetta was especially helpful to San Benito County by offering staff support to help submit reimbursement expense claims to the federal government for public and private property damages caused by the January/February storms.”
“I want to thank the Board of Supervisors and the public for sending me to Washington DC and entrusting me to represent our interests at the state and federal level.” De La Cruz said.
