Transcription
I've got three questions. The first is what is the appetite in the legislature to push back against a departing governor specifically with respect to the medical only program? Second, what is the appetite in the legislature to narrowly prioritize uh protecting health care and to treat this as the structural issue that has to be addressed before anything else other than Prop 98? And third, what more do you need from this community? And how can we help you all exert influence beyond the Santa Clara County uh delegation?
Whether I think there's appetite to push back against the governor, there always is. If we didn't push back against the governor each and every year over the last five years, you have seen much more draconian budgets because as I said earlier, the base budget that he puts out is is typically a bargaining tool. So we spend the from January all the way to June 15th pushing back, fighting, fighting, fighting, and we'll continue to do that.
Uh there's a little bit of misalignment in terms of the how the state's viewing the HR1 impacts as far as direct state impact is not going to hit until 2027. I for one speaking up regularly about the fact that counties don't have the option of waiting for the midterms or or anything else. But you're going to have to make your decisions now. And the repercussions from those decisions are going to impact all of our constituents now, not in 2027, not after the midterm elections. And the tax measures that we're talking about, Wat's Edge and and the medical backfill. There's really no delay there. There's bills right now today you could advocate for that essentially would have urgencies on them because they require twothirds votes anyway. so they can go to the governor when we have the ability and the will to get them there.
What happens if he refuses to sign them or or be to them? I think we need to put him in that position. If we don't, shame on us. If we go to corporations and charge them on a essentially a per capita basis for the medical that they're not reimbursing for today, think of your favorite very large retailer who gives basically no benefits to their employees and is now at a trillion dollars a year in revenue. If we go to them and say you're going to have to pay per capita for the medical that you're costing us, that can only go to medical at the state level. Yes, that absolutely helps you. that doesn't go into some slush fund or some get mixed up with the general fund. In fact, that's one of the reasons there's no Prop 98 share for that because it doesn't it wouldn't go to the general fund. It would go directly back to medical reimbursement. That's what we're advocating for. Many of us think that should happen.