Assemblywoman: Search for Victims Brings Closure
Galgiani co-authors Middle Class Scholarship program for students at public institutions
February 12, 2012
SACRAMENTO,- Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani unveiled new legislation of which she is a co-author to create the Middle Class Scholarship program. Introduced by Speaker John A. Pérez, (D-Los Angeles), the proposal is designed to keep more money in the pockets of middle-income families with students attending the state’s public colleges and universities, according to a news release from her office.
“California’s public universities and colleges used to be a bargain for middle class parents,” Galgiani said in the release. “While low-income students could still rely on Cal Grants and Pell Grants, the middle class was forced to bear the burden of higher costs resulting from the national recession and budgetary shortfalls. Middle Class Scholarships make public universities and colleges affordable again and I am honored to be a coauthor on this important legislation.”
Since the 2003-2004 school year, CSU fees have increased 191 percent, UC fees have increased by 145 percent, and community college student fees have also increased significantly. Many middle-income families turn to increased use of student loans to cover the thousands of dollars in fee hikes. This leads to years of chronic debt, or worse, some students give up on the promise of higher education altogether. These are the most damaging things possible for the long term health of the economy.
All students at the CSU or UC with family incomes less than $150,000 that do not already have fees covered will receive a Middle Class Scholarship that cuts costs by two-thirds, the news release said:
Under this proposal:
· About 150,000 CSU families will save more than $4,000 a year;
· Nearly 42,000 UC families will see a savings of $8,169; and
· Community Colleges will receive $150 million to expand affordability efforts.
“California’s public colleges create tomorrow’s leaders,” Galgiani said in the release. “This investment in our future will be covered by closing a tax loophole that only benefits out-of-state corporations.”
This effort will require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, which means some Republican legislators will have to join Democrats in supporting the plan.
Author: Sun-Star Staff
High Speed Rail Moves Forward With the ‘Hybrid Alternative’ Route
December 13, 2011
(Press Release) In response to extensive public comments and feedback from Central Valley residents, agricultural groups, and businesses, the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board agreed with the staff recommendation to carry forward the “hybrid alternative” route as the preferred alignment for the project’s Merced to Fresno section at its monthly meeting in Merced.
“Today is a milestone for the state’s high-speed rail project,” said Thomas J. Umberg, Chairman of the Board. “I’m grateful for the tremendous public feedback and community participation. This puts us one important step closer to building an intrastate high-speed rail system, connecting the Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area to the Los Angeles and Anaheim region. That trip – which will take less than 3 hours – is a real investment in our state’s future. “
Since its August 2011 release, Central Valley residents submitted more than 2,500 public comments in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Merced to Fresno section. In addition, more than 350 people attended the board meeting, and more than 150 people in the audience addressed the Board.
“The decision to move forward with the recommended route brings us closer to the start of construction on the nation’s first, true high-speed rail system,” said Umberg. “Construction will create thousands of jobs at a time and in a place where they are needed most. There is no better time than now to start California’s high-speed rail project.”
Many turned out at the meeting in support of the “hybrid alternative”:
“This is a visionary decision. Thank you for the hard work and heavy lifting. You are listening to the Valley and you came up with the hybrid route, and we thank you,” said Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea.
“I have asked your staff to be supportive of agriculture, so I am extremely pleased to see the staff recommendation for the hybrid approach. Thank you for taking our comments into consideration,” said Merced County Supervisor John Pedrozo.
Creating needed jobs in the Central Valley was a chief concern to commenters:
Mark Kyle, Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3, concluded: “The construction industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors of the economy in this recession. The state’s high-speed rail project will create tens of thousands of badly needed jobs in the next year in the Central Valley. As construction begins over the next two decades, this project will generate many thousands of jobs up and down the state.”
Others from the Valley praised the Board’s decision, including Cathleen Galgiani, California Assemblymember (D), District 17. “We started a high-speed rail committee in 2003 when we first had concerns about potential impacts to the agriculture community. We came to you and worked with you, our community came up with a preferred alternative – you made tweaks, came up with the hybrid approach that addresses most of our concerns. We’ve worked together to find a workable solution to a very complex, technically limited issue. While there are still some issues to address – we have made a tremendous amount of progress.”
Added Merced Supervisor John Pedrozo: “I have asked your staff to be supportive of agriculture, so I am extremely pleased to see the staff recommendation for the hybrid approach. Thank you for taking our comments into consideration.”
And Madera Mayor Brett Frazier said: “We passed a resolution supporting the hybrid route. It is evident that your staff paid attention to our concerns and compromised. In this day and age, compromise is good to see.”
The route was one of three alternatives under consideration. The hybrid alternative generally parallels the Union Pacific Railroad and State Route 99 between Merced and Fresno. To avoid impacts to downtown Madera, this route travels east to be adjacent to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) corridor. The station locations preferred along this route include downtown Merced between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and G Street and downtown Fresno at Mariposa Street.
The Authority studied potential routes for the Merced to Fresno Section, a corridor of approximately 65 miles, from 2001 to 2005. Based on this analysis, five alternative north-south alignment routes were identified in 2010. In August, that list was narrowed to three routes, which were included in the Authority’s draft EIR/EIS.
Based on community feedback and further analysis, the Authority identified the hybrid alternative route, which combines elements of the other two routes identified in the draft EIR/EIS. It is estimated that the Union Pacific Railroad / State Route 99 would have cost $1 billion more than the Hybrid Alternative and the BNSF route would have cost $500 million more.
Staff is preparing the Final Environmental Impact Report/Statement for the Merced to Fresno section, which will include Tuesday’s hybrid route, to be heard by the Board in February 2012.
FRESNO TO BAKERSFIELD UPDATE
The Board also approved the staff’s recommendation to add the Hanford West Bypass route, with an accompanying station alternative, to the routes under consideration in Kings County within the Fresno to Bakersfield section.
The decision to re-introduce the West Hanford Bypass was announced in October 2011 in response to feedback from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as comments from the community on potential improvements to the East Hanford route.
There are two options for the location of the optional Kings/Tulare regional station, one on the Hanford East Bypass north of Hwy 198 and east of Hwy 43, the other also in Hanford, but on the Hanford West Bypass east of 13th Avenue and north of Hwy 198.
SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM LISTENING SESSION
About 50 small business owners, mostly from Merced and Madera Counties, crowded into a separate conference room at the event to ask Authority representatives questions about its Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program and to receive contracting opportunity information.
The program was developed to ensure small businesses in California are able to access contracts related to the construction of high-speed rail. The Authority has called for a 30% goal for small business involvement in the project.
Author: KSEE News
Lawmaker defends new high-speed rail proposal
November 2, 2011
STOCKTON – The California high-speed rail business plan would build the first phase of the state’s proposed $98.5 billion system through the Central Valley, a decision that has drawn fire from critics of the proposal but has the potential to better connect San Joaquin County to the rest of the state in a regional rail system.
The higher price tag in the business plan from the California High Speed Rail Authority released Tuesday is new, though the rail authority has been moving toward beginning construction on the Valley “spine” using voter-approved state funds and federal economic stimulus to build a network of high-speed trains connecting Northern to Southern California.
One of high-speed rail’s biggest supporters in Sacramento is Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, whose district includes part of Stockton.
“It’s about a vision and recognition that we don’t get there overnight,” she said in an interview Tuesday, during which she defended the Valley location of the system’s first phase. She said it was the right place and time to build and that it could tap nicely into plans to bolster regional rail service connecting San Joaquin County to other parts of Northern California.
She said the business plan has a more incremental approach toward building the whole system, which provides more opportunities to make connections with regional rail services, which in Northern California includes the Altamont Commuter Express.
Tapped into the main spine, the ACE improvements could be part of a complete phase of the high-speed rail system that could generate profits that could be used to complete later phases, she said.
“Once we have an operable segment – since it’s generating revenue – then we can take those profits and put them back into the system,” she said. It’s one of the lessons learned through the authority’s international partners from countries with successful high-speed rail systems. Excluding China, these countries build their high-speed rail systems upon existing infrastructure, she said.
The 130-mile first segment between Fresno and Bakersfield has drawn billions of federal dollars that require construction begin in late 2012. Trains along this spine would be able to move on electrified tracks at speeds reaching 220 mph, a combination the rail authority says make the option both environmentally friendly and able to compete with airline travel.
In 2008, state voters passed a $10 billion bond to pay for the construction of high-speed rail. It includes nearly $950 million available for regional rail, said Galgiani, who authored legislation opening up the Altamont corridor to funding. That’s money local officials are pursuing, she said.
Improvements being considered by ACE include linking with BART and connecting the high-speed rail spine with a broader slice of Northern California, said Thomas Reeves, a spokesman for the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, which owns and operates ACE. It also would cut the travel time between Stockton and San Jose in half.
The new business plan doesn’t speed up or hinder the process currently under way, he said. “If anything, it really shows why this is the place to start.”
Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/johnsonblog.
Author: Zachary K. Johnson of Recordnet.com
Huerta set to receive Modesto club honors
October 26, 2011
Labor activist Dolores Huerta will be in town Sunday, when she will be honored by the Democratic Women’s Club. Club founder Patty Hughes said she met Huerta at an event and was so impressed she wanted to bring her to Modesto.
“She is a dynamo,” Hughes said of the 81-year-old Huerta. “She just makes so much sense.”
Huerta will be honored at the club’s Inspire award lunch at Galletto Ristorante. The club also plans awards to Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, and Secretary of the State and Consumer
Services Agency Anna Caballero, as well as Phyllis J. Babcock, a longtime community activist; Addie Brinkley, president of the California Workers Association District 9 Retired Members Council; Lisa Mantarro-Moore, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater; and Mickey Peabody, senior senator in the California Senior Legislature.
In addition to the honorees, several elected officials and candidates for public office on both sides of the political aisle are expected to attend, Hughes said.
The event has been very popular, she said Wednesday. “We were sold out 10 days ago and we’re still getting calls,” she said. Standing-room-only tickets are available, as are tickets to a pre-program reception.
Author: The Modesto Bee
Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani launches state Senate run
August 18, 2011
Democratic Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani has announced plans to run for state Senate in the San Joaquin Valley.
The Livingston Democrat plans to run for the 5th Senate District seat established by the new political maps approved this week by the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
Galgiani is serving her third and final term representing the current 17th Assembly District, which includes Merced County and parts of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.
Galgiani said in a statement that the new Senate seat includes “significant” portions of her Assembly district and “presents an opportunity to continue to work on the vital issues I’ve spent the last several years working on in the Assembly.”
“I am no stranger to the serious issues facing this region,” she added.
Democrats hold a four-point voter registration edge over Republicans in the new swing district. Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Oakdale, is also considered a possible candidate for the seat in 2012, though his current term is not up until 2014.
Galgiani had previously announced plans to run for secretary of state in 2014, but her campaign spokeswoman said she is entirely focused right now on running for the Senate in 2012.
PHOTO CREDIT: Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, casts her vote on the budget cuts portion of the Democratic budget plan during the Assembly floor session, Tuesday Dec. 16, 2008. Brian Baer, Sacramento Bee.
Author: Torey Van Oot of The Sacramento Bee
