Senator McGuire Addresses Advocacy Council

Santa Rosa Metro Chamber’s Advocacy Council welcomed Senator Mike McGuire as a speaker on July 25th. Senator McGuire provided a great overview of the State’s and his district’s priorities. Two key issues highlighted were the need to be proactive in addressing the increase in California wildfires and the impact of the potential repeal of SB1 funding with Proposition 6 on the November ballot.

The Senator spoke about the need to address the size and frequency of wildfires in California and the State’s commitment to invest in increased mutual aid response, investments in needed CalFire equipment, and increased staffing for rapid deployment of resources.

The importance of SB1 funding was also a key topic. Senator McGuire noted that as long as the repeal effort (Proposition 6) does not pass, SB1 will add $11 million to the county and $4 million annually to the City of Santa Rosa in new local road improvement funds. If maintained, SB1 funds will also complete construction of a third lane on both the north- and south-bound segments of Highway 101 in Sonoma County to alleviate the bottleneck at the Sonoma Marin Narrows.

Member businesses rely on a robust transportation infrastructure, whether they depend upon shipping their goods out of the area or on tourism and in-person business. The Chamber supported passage of SB1 to ensure infrastructure improvements like these keep business on the road to success.