Tuolumne Supervisors To Hear About Finance Meeting And Economic Development

Photo by: BJ Hansen

Sonora, CA — A Tuesday’s meeting, the Tuolumne County Supervisors will hear about a recent meeting with state finance officials, and hear a briefing about early actions taken by the new Economic Development Director.

These items are in addition to voting on a settlement agreement related to the General Plan Update, as we reported last week.

Related to revenues, last week supervisors Karl Rodefer and Anaiah Kirk, along with staff members, met with officials with Governor Gavin Newsom’s Department of Finance. Supervisor Kirk tells Clarke Broadcasting, “We gave them a brief overview of our budget and how the effects of realignments such AB109 have a greater impact on services and costs in rural counties then they do in the more incorporated, populous counties in our state.”

Kirk adds,“We stressed that while many of the coastal counties are economically thriving and the state sees a 21 billion dollar surplus, the central valley, and specifically, us, those in the rural counties, are struggling to provide the basic needs of services to our people such as sherriff patrol, fire apparatus and road infrastructure.”

He concludes, “One remark that was encouraging was their office acknowledged they have heard similar concerns from other rural counties.”

Kirk had been pushing for the meeting with state officials so that they could have an understanding of the fiscal challenges rural areas face. A similar type meeting with Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara earlier in the year helped drive home the impacts of the fire insurance crisis, and Lara has since taken action and introduced various measures in response.

A full report will be delivered during the meeting.

Also, Economic Development Director Cole Przybyla will give a report on his first quarter activities. He will detail what has been done in the efforts to attract, retain and expand local businesses.

Tuesday’s meeting starts at 9am.