Happy New Year! As we kick off the 2014 Legislative Session, we are pleased to be joined by new JPAC member organizations and new friends within the California Jewish community who are eager to work to improve the lives of all Californians.  We are looking forward not only to our annual Advocacy Day in May, taking place in Sacramento on May 12-13, but also to local events around the State!  Our calendar of events can be checked out in this edition.  JPAC's next Board of Directors meeting will take place on January 30th in Los Angeles, where we will discuss our legislative priorities for 2014.  We are looking forward to an exciting and eventful 2014 legislative session and hope you will join us in Sacramento on May 12 and 13 to lobby your elected officials on issues of importance to the California Jewish community.

Sincerely,

Dave Rand, Chair
Julie Zeisler, Association Director

 

• An infusion of $10 billion in new Proposition 98 funding this year. For K-12 schools, funding levels will increase by $3,410 per student through 2017-18, including an increase of more than $2,188 per student in 2014-15 over 2011-12 levels.   
• The second year of guaranteed increases in funding of $142.2 million each for the University of California and the California State University systems
• $850 million of Cap and Trade auction proceeds to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, with an emphasis on assisting disadvantaged communities.  
• $619 million to help expand water storage capacity, improve drinking water in communities where available supplies are substandard, increase flood protection and increase regional self-reliance. 
• $815 million package of investment to address critical deferred maintenance projects in state parks, on highways, local streets and roads and at K-12 schools, community colleges, courts, prisons, state hospitals and other state facilities.
• $670 million in new General Fund dollars to expand Medi-Cal benefits, including mental health, substance use disorder, adult dental and specialized nutrition services.
• $1.6 billion to a rainy day fund.

By: State Assembly Member Richard Bloom (AD 50)

Our study tour to Israel has been marked by extreme weather, from snow in Jerusalem to freezing temperatures and gale-force wind on the Golan Heights. Our group of local and state legislators has met with scholars, advocates and government officials representing a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. My goal for this first trip to Israel as an Assemblymember is to build on the already strong economic and cultural ties with California.

 

On Thursday, we joined Ilan, a former IDF paratrooper and current Kibbutznik for a bumpy jeep ride through the Golan Heights. Our destination: a remote IDF outpost overlooking Syria. Our hosts, an elite squad of soldiers, pointed out villages, towns and strategic roads, in some cases less than 1,000 meters from our position. Some of these places, we learned, are held by rebel troops with a common enemy but different goals, others by the Syrian government. While they are distracted by their war with one another, they frequently take potshots at the Israeli outpost as if to say "don't think that we have forgotten about you.

 

As we stood listening in freezing temperatures and braced against a stiff wind, suddenly a loud explosion was heard. A few minutes later, gunfire crackled and echoed against an otherwise silent landscape. Syria is at war.

 

Everywhere we go in Israel (and a brief journey to Ramallah), we are reminded that Israel is at once strong and resilient, yet fragile and complicated.  As we approach the end of this brief visit, I leave with a better understanding of the importance of my legislative mission.  

 

Assemblymember Bloom attended the 2013 study tour to Israel organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.  Each year, the LA Federation's Community Engagement Strategic Initiative organizes and leads a delegation to Israel for Los Angeles area elected officials. These trips work to strengthen the relationship between Los Angeles and Israel, foster trade, security and cultural relations and help support a secure State of Israel.