Moments ago, on today’s installment of this week’s proposed budget tour, Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped a bombshell for Humboldt County: His proposal will set aside an eye-popping $433 million to transform Humboldt State into a polytechnic university — the CSU system’s third.
“I am a big supporter of Cal Polys. We have two; we want to create a third. And that’s the significant investment: $433 million,” Newsom said. “We’ve been working with the Board of Trustees — the incredible new leader at the CSU — about this opportunity to revitalize the economy in Northern California around Humboldt State, and to look at this opportunity to have a third polytechnic campus.”
While it’s uncertain precisely what form the university would take under this new designation, polytechnic universities generally have a greater focus on the sciences and applied, hands-on education. Presumably the university’s longstanding excellence in earth sciences — biology, botany, fisheries, forestry and the like — would form the backbone of the new polytechnic.
Regional leaders are already applauding Newsom’s announcement:
There’s $443M in @CAgovernor Newsom’s May Revise budget for a third #polytechnic campus for @humboldtstate. So exciting and proud of the hard work #HSU is doing to make it happen!
Today’s major announcement - investing over $400 million - to help transition Humboldt State into California’s third polytechnic university is a game changer for the campus, our regional economy and the greater North Coast community.
We expect more reaction to this massive proposed investment — which must still go through the legislature — soon, and will update. Suffice to say, for now: This is a big deal that could alter the county’s course significantly.
After more than 20 years working for the county, including the past five as the County Administrative Officer, Amy Nilsen has submitted her letter of resignation to the Board of Supervisors Friday morning.
Nilsen says in the letter that she’ll be transitioning to the private sector through a business acquisition. Her final day on the job will be July 2.
Reached by phone, First District Supervisor Rex Bohn said he was depressed by the unexpected news.
“I shed a tear,” Bohn said. “She’s that good.”
He posted a message on Facebook saying he has turned to Nilsen for advice during his nine years on the board. “What we lose is a Great individual well respected throughout the State and most of all by the folks that they work with,” his post reads. “Amy Nilsen you are a class act and I wish you the best in your future endeavors… .”
Nilsen could not immediately be reached for comment. The text of her resignation letter is below.
May 14, 2021
Honorable Board of Supervisors
Please accept this letter as notice of my resignation from the position of County Administrative Officer effective July 2, 2021. After more than 20 years in public service, I will be transitioning to the private sector through a business acquisition.
It has been an honor to serve as the County Administrative Officer, particularly supporting the County Administrative Office staff, and watching their growth and their excellence in providing services to our county team and residents. I am exceptionally proud of the work the County Administrative Office has completed over the years.
Together we have increased transparency, improved the county’s financial outlook, implemented a comprehensive Americans With Disabilities Act program, and expanded economic development, among many other accomplishments. I am particularly proud of the county staff that responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, sacrificing their personal time and safety to serve this community.
It has been a pleasure serving your Board and assisting each of you in achieving your policy goals,
This is one of those days when three big rigs overturn in quick succession around Humboldt County. If you’re on Highway 36, or if you’re planning to take 299 eastbound from Arcata, perhaps you should take note.
1. Just before 9 a.m., a logging truck collided with a delivery van on Highway 36 just east of Bridgeville. The driver is believed to have suffered an injury to his leg, according to chatter from the CHP dispatch line, and is also believed to have been privately transported to a local hospital. Logs and oil all over the roadway. Updates here.
2. At 9:44 a.m., a big rig hauling trash flipped on the 299 onramp from Highway 101 near Giuntoli. No injuries, it looks like. The onramp is closed for an extended period, as, again, there is fuel all over the roadway. Traffic is backing up on northbound 101 and on Giuntoli, which is the obvious detour. Updates here.
3. Then, at 10:33 a.m., another logging truck rolled over on Highway 36 just down the road apiece from the first one. (West of Bridgeville, this time.) No injuries. Logs in the roadway. Right now, there trying to figure out which tow truck company is going to handle it. Updates here.
Gov. Gavin Newsom held a week-long series of events promoting $100 billion in proposals to spend the state’s budget bonanza. It started on May 10, 2021, at the Unity Council in Oakland to announce more tax rebates. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters
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Facing a trifecta of extraordinary circumstances — the waning COVID-19 pandemic, a looming recall election and an insanely flush state budget — Gov. Gavin Newsom barnstormed the state this week, dropping good news by the billions.
He wants to spend $12 billion to house the homeless, the governor announced in the lobby of a San Diego motel converted into a shelter; $3.4 billion to expand preschool to all 4-year-olds, he said on the playground of an elementary school in Monterey County; $1.5 billion cleaning up blight, he said as TV news crews filmed him hoisting an old mattress off the side of a Los Angeles freeway.
The announcements — capitalizing on a $76 billion surplus in the state budget plus $27 billion in federal aid — amounted to a very convenient marriage of governing and campaigning for the first-term Democrat, who almost certainly faces a Republican-led recall election this fall.
“It would be odd if he wasn’t doing this,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP consultant who managed communications for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “He’s got more money than he can stuff in the mattress. You get to hand it out, you get to tailor it to multiple constituencies and pretty much make everybody happy.”
It’s a strategy other governors have deployed to sell their spending priorities to voters, Stutzman said. But the specter of the looming recall — combined with the unusual hardships of the last year and the enormous windfall of money — have added some drama to what’s normally a routine step in the annual budget-making process at the Capitol.
Newsom is scheduled to roll out the rest of his updated budget proposal today, with a presentation that allows him to flex his wonk muscles before heading into the final month of negotiations with lawmakers. Here are some key things to know.
Newsom is reaching out to voters who have been hit hard by the pandemic — and could be key for him to survive the recall
“This pandemic has not impacted all of you equally,” Newsom said in a speech Thursday to the California Chamber of Commerce. “I’m very mindful that it’s impacted, disproportionately, women.”
Newsom’s school funding proposal includes $4 billion to address behavioral health — an acknowledgment of the depression and anxiety that many children have experienced during the isolation and stress of the pandemic.
“There are still a lot of us who are still in a place where we are not ready to forget about what happened this year because our kids have really suffered,” said Megan Bacigalupi, an advocate with Open Schools California, whose children attend public schools in Oakland, where they go to class just five hours per week.
“Until school is back for all kids five days a week, all of this investment doesn’t really resonate.”
A recent poll shows that 83% of California public school parents think kids have fallen behind in the last year. Still, a strong majority said they approve of Newsom’s management of the schools during the pandemic.
“He’s got more money than he can stuff in the mattress. You get to hand it out, you get to tailor it to multiple constituencies and pretty much make everybody happy.” — Republican consultant Rob Stutzman
One constituency that Newsom has not yet addressed: public employee unions who will likely spend big to help fight the recall. Most state worker unions agreed to a 9% pay cut last year when state officials feared a more broad-based recession at the start of the pandemic. Newsom could restore that money in the new budget, and potentially hand out salary increases.
But he’s also going back to early campaign promises and pre-pandemic priorities
California Republican Party chairperson Jessica Millan Patterson dubbed the governor’s events this week his “Recall Response Tour,” and said “protecting his position drives all of Gavin Newsom’s decisions.”
It’s true that he’s highlighted some issues that those who want to throw him out of office have hammered on, such as blight, homelessness and business closures.
But a closer analysis reveals that many of Newsom’s latest proposals are lifted from his pre-pandemic budgets and campaign ads. In other words, he’s trying to do what he’s long said he wanted to — now that he has the money to do it.
His proposal to give children from low-income families $500 in a college savings account builds on a smaller program he launched in 2019, which itself builds on a program he championed as San Francisco mayor. His plan to make preschool available to all 4-year-olds echoes a promise from his 2018 campaign, when he ran an ad showing a cherubic child building a tower with blocks and said he wanted to make California a place where “every toddler can attend preschool.”
Newsom’s $12 billion plan to alleviate homelessness hearkens back to February 2020, when he made the issue the focus of his State-of-the-State speech and never mentioned the emerging coronavirus that would wind up derailing his plans for the year.
What remains to be seen, however, is whether Newsom will use the flush budget to try to spur construction of more housing. When he campaigned for office, he pledged to build 3.5 million units of new housing by 2025. But so far the state hasn’t even come close.
“Housing costs are through the roof despite Newsom’s 2018 campaign pledge to build more housing,” Patterson said.
Newsom may not get everything he wants
Crafting a state budget is a three-way dance between the governor and the two houses of the Legislature, who will spend the next month negotiating until lawmakers pass the final spending plan in mid-June. The process always involves some give and take, even when — as has been the case for several years — all the players involved are Democrats.
“The devil is in the details,” said Democratic Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego. “We will end up in a similar place on expenditures, and the difference will be in the implementation and how we achieve the goal.”
Assembly and Senate leaders have their own priorities. Gonzalez and other powerful lawmakers have been pushing for years to expand Medi-Cal health insurance to cover undocumented seniors, and are eagerly waiting to see if Newsom includes it in his proposal.
In light of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Silva v. County of Humboldt, taxpayers may submit an application for a potential full or partial refund of excise tax paid under Measure S between the years of 2017 through 2021. In order for an application to be considered for a refund, taxpayers will need to provide documentation that they did not cultivate cannabis during the year they were assessed a tax, or that they cultivated an area that was different from that of their permit.
As a reminder, the 2016 Cannabis Cultivation Excise Tax passed by voters stated that “… each person engaged in legally authorized commercial marijuana cultivation within the unincorporated area of Humboldt County shall pay an annual tax of $1 per square foot of outdoor cultivation area, $2 per square foot of mixed-light cultivation area or $3 per square foot of indoor cultivation area.”
Taxpayers seeking a refund will need to submit an assessment appeal application, along with an additional form that is specific to the refund claim, to the Clerk of the Board’s Office. A separate application must be submitted for each year that a refund is sought, within 4 years from the date the tax was paid. The application and additional form are available on the Assessment Appeals Board’s website and at the Clerk of the Board’s Office.
County staff will review the application and documentation submitted by taxpayers, compare the information to available information, including but not limited to satellite imagery and state tax records, and will either pursue a stipulated settlement with the applicant or move the application directly to an assessment appeal hearing.
Please visit the Assessment Appeals Board’s website for the assessment appeal application and additional form, an FAQ sheet, and an example of how to fill out the assessment appeal application for a Measure S refund at: http://humboldtgov.org/AAB. Physical copies of the assessment appeal application and additional form are also available at the Clerk of the Board’s Office on the first floor of the Humboldt County Courthouse in Eureka.
ABOVE: Once again, you’ll have to settle for LoCO‘s self-guided Sky Walk tour
Oh dear. If you were hoping to ascend into Sequoia Park’s canopy as one of the first guests to meander the new Redwood Sky Walk, well, you’re going to have to stay grounded a bit longer. According to the Sequoia Park Zoo, the decision has been made to delay Friday’s soft opening due to projected windy weather conditions. Better safe than sorry, we suppose.
More details in the Sequoia Park Zoo release below:
The Sequoia Park Zoo will delay the soft opening of the
Redwood Sky Walk, originally planned for tomorrow Friday, May 14, 2021.
“While the Redwood Sky Walk has been specially engineered to withstand many adverse
weather events, the structure is attached to living trees. Because of the many natural and man-
made variables at play, the zoo has put aggressive protocols in place to thoroughly check the
structure when extreme weather conditions present opportunities for unusual strain,” Zoo
Director Gretchen Zeigler said. “It’s truly unfortunate that local wind conditions over the past
few days have forced us to implement our closing procedures and delay our long-awaited soft-
opening plans. But, the safety of our guests will always be our top priority. These precautionary
measures are in place for moments such as this.”
City officials have advised that the planned zoo admission price increases will not go into effect
tomorrow as previously announced, and instead will await the Redwood Sky Walk opening.
An announcement regarding the new soft opening timeline is anticipated for next week. There
are no plans to delay the grand opening weekend activities scheduled for June 4-6, 2021 at this
time.
On May 13th, 2021 agents with the Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF), with the assistance of
the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), served a search warrant in the 31800 block of Highway 254
(Avenue of the Giants) in Pepperwood. This search warrant was written for suspected heroin and
methamphetamine sales by Kevin Vogel (67 years old).
During the service of the search warrant agents detained Vogel along with multiple other people living in
various trailers and tents on the property. Inside Vogel’s living space agents located heroin,
methamphetamine, a digital scale, packaging, and large amounts of US currency. Vogel was arrested and
transported to the Humboldt County Jail for the following charges:
H&S 11378 Possession of methamphetamine for sale
H&S 11351 Possession of controlled substances for sale
Agents conducted a thorough search of the entire property and observed multiple environmental
violations to include open sewage leaking on the ground and onto neighboring State Park lands,
thousands of pounds of garbage on the ground and buried under ground within 100 feet of waterways,
along with other suspected fish and game code violations. Agents took video and photographic evidence
of the violations and will forward a report to the proper agencies for further investigation.
Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes are encouraged to
call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.
