Biden signs $1.5 trillion spending bill into law. What does it mean for SLO County?
Help is on the way for San Luis Obispo County’s police, fire and other emergency responders.
Downtown’s Anderson Hotel is also due for funding, and the Cambria Community Water District’s tanks will get funding.
The San Luis Obispo County projects are due a total of $8 million in federal funds, part of the $1.5 trillion spending bill President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday.
It gets specific about projects in the San Luis Obispo area that will get some of that money. Such projects, submitted by local members of Congress, used to be called “earmarks,” and were often criticized as wasteful pork. They’ve since been rebranded as “community project funding.”
There are an estimated 4,000 such projects funded. Unlike past years, guidelines were stricter: No for-profit interests could get funding, members could seek a maximum of 10 projects and had to certify that neither they nor immediate family members had any financial interest in the project.
The projects pushed by Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, include:
▪ Help for first responders: $5.6 million is intended for the San Luis Obispo Public Safety Communication System. The upgrades will improve the radio communications system used by public safety, fire and emergency medical first responders in the county.
Carbajal’s office said the project will fund replacement of a communications tower that’s been used for more than 50 years. It will also set up new communications sites that will help expand radio signal coverage in rural areas where reception has been poor.
The money will also help expand existing radio channels with a new channel for use by law enforcement and emergency medical first responders.
▪ Anderson Hotel: $2 million in federal money will allow the San Luis Obispo Housing Authority to control and operate the hotel via a lease with the owners and help current and future residents afford to stay there.
The five-story downtown building has been providing affordable housing to what Carbajal’s office called “extremely low-income, frail seniors, and the people with disabilities for the past 40-50 years.”
It said the average age of residents is approximately 70 years old, and the average monthly income is around $1,000.
▪ Cambria Community Services District water tanks: $375,000 will help refurbish current 125,000- and 212,000-gallon tanks.
They’re about 20% of the storage available within the potable water distribution system. Existing water tanks have surpassed their operational life expectancy.
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