CLEARLAKE OAKS— Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) was the featured speaker at the October dinner meeting of the Clearlake Oaks-Glenhaven Business Association at the Moose Lodge Thursday. Thompson updated members on projects which have been recently worked on in Lake County including allocations for safe route for schools through a Community Development Block Grant Sidewalk Project, federal funding for infrastructure projects and money to transition the Lake County Sheriff’s Office into the former National Guard Armory facility in Lakeport, among others.
Thompson said he was really excited to have the entire county together and to be able to represent the entire county as a result of the latest state Congressional redistricting. Thompson lamented when Congress did away with earmarks, or funds, designated for specific projects and for legislators to able to prioritize what money should be spent on their respective districts. “I am of the belief that I know more about what’s important in Lake County than some 22, 24-year-old entry level staffer in the White House. I think it is a good idea to allow those to happen and last year we brought them back.”
The Congressman highlighted some of the recent accomplishments in Lake County including $450,000 for the sidewalk safe routes to schools in Kelseyville and about $320,000 to apply to fund the Full Circle Project. “I’ve been working on that since my days in the State Senate,” he said about the project which could increase the use of geothermal power and reduce dependence on less environmentally friendly power generation, all while making the region more resilient against drought.
Thompson said the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriation process has been started and he has been able to get some earmarks for Lake County including $2 million dollars for the Clearlake Burns Valley Sports Complex, $1 million to help with the LCSO transition into the armory for a new command center and $750,000 for the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration project which he said is important to the entire county.
After the fires that devastated so much of the district, Thompson worked on legislation to get tax credits of about $100 million dollars for affordable housing with a set aside to go to areas that lost homes in natural disasters. “Our district really stood to benefit from that, and we sat down with the city councils, the mayors and the department heads. They said we are building a lot of affordable housing units here in Clearlake because of some bill that was passed that got tax credits for fire areas,” he said, adding that there are 256 units that have been or will be built in Lakeport and in Clearlake because of that provision.
Thompson elaborated on some of the things that have been happening in Washington. “These last two years have been a pretty busy two years, COVID really set the stage as everyone knows, not only in our area, but across the country and around the world. This is a global pandemic that we are coming out of right now and we continue to feel the hit from this pandemic. It’s going to be a while before we are fully out of it.”
Thompson also spoke about the Congressional response to COVID including the American Rescue Act which he said provided critical funds to allow small businesses to stay afloat, school funding and shots in people’s arms as a result of what he called “a pretty impressive vaccination program across the country.” He also detailed his work on expanding telemedicine efforts through bills which allow Medicare recipients to get health care through telehealth.
He also praised the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress last year, spoke about efforts to expand broadband and said it was important for the country to reconstruct the electricity grids to avoid future power shut offs, the passage of the PACT Act which assists toxic-exposed veterans receive their earned health care and benefits under the Department of Veterans Affairs. Thompson also discussed the difficulty in passing legislation designed to expand background checks, Red Flag laws and other measures aimed at curbing gun violence and tragedies.
Although Thompson briefly discussed the Inflation Reduction Act passed earlier this year, a scaled back version of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” Agenda, critics of the incumbent president have faulted him for among other things failing to pass a $15 federal minimum wage, not passing universal Pre-K programs, and also not passing legislation to protect voting rights.
A brief question and answer session followed where members and attendees were able to ask questions on a wide range of topics including recycling and fire legal liability insurance. There will not be a meeting scheduled for the month of November, but the association will meet again in December to close out the year with additional updates and music.
