The Barbed Wire - December 06, 2019

Placer County Supervisor Jim Holmes Advocates for Broadband Deployment in California’s Rural Communities

There is no debating the impact of broadband connectivity upon a community.  In today’s digital world, communities lacking speed-of-commerce connectivity miss out on basic economic, educational, and healthcare opportunities and resources, and often experience difficulty receiving essential information during emergencies.  We live in a connected world, and the unconnected are being left behind at an alarming rate.

The California town of Newcastle (Placer County) was recently branded as “the town with the slowest internet in the U.S.”  Despite it’s close proximity to the capital of the most innovative and technologically advanced state in the union, Newcastle is just one example of a digital divide exponentially increasing the gap between the haves and have-nots in California.  

The article identified a number of federal and state programs aimed at “bridging the digital gap” in rural communities.  California alone has 14 Broadband Consortiums funded by the California Public Utilities Commission to tackle the connectivity issue.  These consortiums are doing good regional work, but would benefit from a coordinated effort led by the state with stated goals and measured outcomes. 

In order to see any real progress in broadband deployment in California’s rural communities, the federal and state programs need to be restructured to require greater access to speed-of-commerce connectivity for public dollars invested, and funding needs to be redirected from incumbent providers to local governments, where individual communities have the ability to develop broadband strategic plans that appropriately address their unique needs.  Rural communities need local control over their broadband destiny, and regulatory requirements need to be reconsidered to allow for small providers to provide services within these communities. 

Connectivity is key to a community’s ability to prosper.  Solutions to bridging the digital divide exist, and we need to work together to bring them forward.

Insurance Commissioner Issues One-Year Mandatory Non-Renewal Moratorium

On Thursday, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara issued a mandatory one-year moratorium on insurance companies non-renewing policyholders.  The Commissioner’s action is the result of Senate Bill 824—authored in 2018 by Commissioner Lara while serving as a State Senator—in order to give temporary relief from non-renewals to residents living near a declared wildfire disaster.  This is the first time the Department of Insurance has invoked the new law, which took effect in January.  

In June, the RCRC Board of Directors approved a resolution creating a Homeowners Insurance Ad Hoc Committee (Committee).  RCRC member counties have been disproportionally impacted by recent homeowners’ insurance cancellations and non-renewals following years of devastating wildfires in California.  The Committee is tasked with considering potential solutions for the increase in homeowners’ insurance cancellations and non-renewals in high fire risk areas.  In particular, how county governments can develop programs and measures to encourage greater community-wide access and affordability to homeowners insurance. 

The potential solutions include, but are not limited to, introducing additional insurers into rural areas, working with the insurance industry on an insurance risk-reduction model, examining insurance industry risk modeling, re-creating/revising California’s Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan (FAIR Plan), and working directly with policy advocates, the California Legislature, and the Department of Insurance to explore other options.

Members of the Committee include the following County Supervisors:

1. Sherri Brennan (Tuolumne; Chair)

2. Bob Williams (Tehama)

3. Lee Adams (Sierra)

4. Kevin Cann (Mariposa)

5. Diane Dillon (Napa)

6. Randy Fletcher (Yuba)

7. Dan Miller (Nevada)

8. Brian Oneto (Amador)

9. Lori Parlin (El Dorado)

The Committee is tasked with issuing a report of findings no later than the August 2020 Board of Directors meeting.

Full details on Commissioner Lara’s actions can be accessed here.

Wildfire Defense Act

Last week, Senator Kamala Harris introduced the Wildfire Defense Act (S. 2882) to help local communities defend themselves from the growing danger of wildfires.  This bill will empower communities to implement science-based methods for mitigating wildfire damage and provide funding to design and implement new Community Wildfire Defense Plans (CWDP) with community members, first responders, and relevant state agencies.  

Specifically, the legislation will invest $1 billion per year to: continuously update wildfire hazard maps; provide grants of up to $250,000 to develop a CWDP and grants of up to $10 million to implement a CWDP; complete a report on all federal authorities and programs to protect communities from wildfires; and study how a CWDP could be used as certification for insurance companies assessing a community resilience.  Representative Jared Huffman (D-North Coast) is introducing similar legislation (H.R. 5901) in the House to achieve these goals.

Senator Harris’ press release can be accessed here.  Representative Huffman’s press release can be accessed here.

Cannabis and Hemp Update

On Tuesday, federal and state financial regulatory agencies issued guidance clarifying that banks no longer have to take extra steps to report their customers for growing or cultivating hemp.  Until hemp was legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, banks that worked with hemp growers were required to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) for accounts associated with the crop because it was a Schedule I controlled substance treated the same as marijuana.  

It took the USDA almost a year to develop rules for the industry, but once they were released on October 31st, bank regulators prepared to take action.  Tuesday’s joint statement from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as well as the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, finally provided banks an updated on the legal status of hemp.  The statement specified that while banks do not have to accept hemp accounts, if they do, those clients should not be treated any differently than customers from any other legal industry.  Though financial institutions are still required to file SARs for cannabis businesses, the rate of those reports being submitted has leveled off in the last quarter of 2019.

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement Update

House Democrats and the Trump Administration are on the verge of coming to an agreement on the updated NAFTA deal, the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), however the timeline for an agreement to be reached by the end of the year is looking more and more formidable.  

Despite Congress extending its legislative schedule by one week until December 20^th, the window for coming to an on-time agreement is extremely tight because once an agreement is reached, ratifying a trade deal requires a series of timely procedural steps laid out in the 2015 trade promotion law.  The more likely scenario is that a deal between the Democrats and the White House is announced before the end of the year, but the agreement will not be technically ratified until 2020.

Appropriations Update

The current Continuing Resolution (CR) is slated to expire on December 20^th and Congress is scrambling to determine which bills can be approved by the deadline and which federal departments will have to operate on another CR (which would likely run into early next year).  Combining the 12 annual spending bills into an omnibus package would be the quickest way for appropriators to wrap up the process, but it also could increase the odds of a stalemate with the White House over border wall funding. 

House Democratic are insisting that such a complete omnibus package must be finalized before any of the individual 12 spending bills can reach the floor.  On Tuesday, Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) expressed his doubt that all 12 bills could be finalized before the December 20^th deadline, “that would be a monumental achievement to do that and it would be hard.”

Moreover, not much progress has been made between Democrats and Republicans on trying to get approximately $30 billion in tax extenders on any such year-end CR.  The Democratic priority list for such extenders is currently too large for Republicans to handle because it includes the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the “Cadillac Tax” associated with funding the Affordable Care Act, among non-starters for Republicans.

BULLETIN BOARD

Announcements regarding hearings, grants, and public comment notices of importance to California's rural counties.

RCRC’s Annual Installation of Officers and Rural Leadership Awards Reception

The RCRC Annual Installation of Officers and Rural Leadership Awards Reception will be held Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento.  Full details and registration can be accessed here.

Tehama County Seeks Assistant Director of Public Works

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Mono County Seeks Assistant Director of Finance, Auditor-Controller

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2020 Water Education Foundation Leadership Class Applications Due Next Week

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Northern California Water Association (NCWA) Seeks Nominations for Will S. Green Award

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Groundwater 2020 Forum

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