Sonoma County has worked to bounce back economically from wildfires, floods, and now a pandemic, but officials said the county is in a much better financial position to recover.
California’s June 15 reopening also comes on the first day of budget hearings from the county’s Board of Supervisors.
In recent years, these have been difficult meetings, but Chair of the Board of Supervisors, Lynda Hopkins, said that this time is different.
“We are not facing a fiscal cliff,” Hopkins told KCBS Radio. “We’ve been hit so many times by disasters in Sonoma County, and these are disasters that have had huge impacts to our budget, and to our bottom line.”
Hopkins said the county has access to plenty of relief money, including federal aid and money from the PG&E settlement.
“And that will enable us to make some critical investments and hopefully systemic changes that will last for generations,” she said.
Even walking her district, Hopkins said the change is already palpable.
“There’s just a noticeable lightening of mood in Sonoma County,” she added. “People feeling like ‘Oh OK, we’re at that return-to-normal place where the world is starting to be more familiar again.'”
Despite a rise in case rate, Hopkins believes the county will be able to manage the response.
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