In the event you’ve got your mind in your money and your money in your mind, you aren’t alone.
Driven largely by increases in the price of food, housing and health care, inflation rose 8.2% in September in comparison with the identical time last yr, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Thursday.
And the core inflation rate — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — soared by 6.6% over the identical period, marking the biggest uptick in 4 a long time, in response to the department.
The news doesn’t bode well for California, which already has the next percentage of residents living in poverty than another state within the nation when the price of living is taken into consideration.
And Californians are also paying the best gas prices within the country, in response to AAA: Although the common cost for a gallon of normal fell to $6.20 within the Golden State on Thursday — down from a near-record high of $6.42 last week — that’s still much higher than the national average of $3.91.
But relief is on the way in which: California last week began sending $9.5 billion value of rebates to hundreds of thousands of residents to assist cover the soaring cost of living, though some may not see their checks until January.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration announced last week that it’s set to distribute a second round of $1.4 billion by the top of the yr to assist cover utility bills for Californians behind on their electricity and water payments.
And Newsom’s office continues to point to his proposal to enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry — which he wants state lawmakers to contemplate in a special legislative session starting Dec. 5 — as a approach to return more cash to Californians.
- Newsom’s office tweeted Thursday: “Oil firms saw the largest one-day wholesale price drop EVER after CA took motion to lower gas prices… but those savings aren’t being passed to you. It doesn’t add up. Time to take the windfall profits of greedy oil firms and put that $$ back in your pockets.”
- Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, are making inflation rates a centerpiece of their campaigns heading into the Nov. 8 election.
- Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher of Yuba City said in a Thursday statement: “Bidenflation combined with skyrocketing cost of living in California is crushing family budgets. There’s no more denying it … the policy agenda of the Democrat supermajority is failing and we’re witnessing the implications in real time. It doesn’t need to be this manner. Republicans have offered an alternate with solutions that may bring down costs and permit Californians to prosper.”
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The coronavirus bottom line: As of Tuesday, California had 10,458,792 confirmed cases and 95,604 deaths, in response to state data now updated only once per week on Thursdays. CalMatters can also be tracking coronavirus hospitalizations by county.
California has administered 82,374,643 vaccine doses, and 72.3% of eligible Californians have accomplished their primary vaccine series.
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Other Stories You Should Know
1
Desalination plant coming to Orange County
California could also be within the throes of a rare fall monsoon causing wetter-than-usual weather across much of the state, nevertheless it’s likely still headed right into a fourth straight yr of drought after experiencing its second-warmest September on record. Citing the importance of bolstering California’s water supplies — especially because the Colorado River falls to historic lows, imperiling much of Southern California — state regulators on Thursday unanimously approved a $140 million desalination plant in Orange County, CalMatters’ Rachel Becker reports. The choice from the California Coastal Commission — which got here five months after it rejected a high-profile proposal for a $1.4 billion desalination plant, also in Orange County — indicates that state regulators are open to the strategy of turning salty seawater into drinking water.
- Commissioner Dayna Bochco: “I feel that the commission has been under type of a cloud of doubt from the individuals who imagine in desal — that we were someway going to show down any project whether it was one or a nasty one. And I’m glad now that we will show the opposite agencies and whoever else is thinking about this that we’re fully supportive of desal, when it’s project.”
- But one other controversial vote looms: Next month, the commission is ready to weigh in on a proposed desalination facility within the Monterey County city of Marina, which has garnered steep local opposition — including from town of Marina itself, Rachel notes.
2
Hurtado wants state to deal with rising crime in Kern County
In an unusual move, Democratic state Sen. Melissa Hurtado of Hanford asked Attorney General Rob Bonta in a Thursday letter to create a special state Department of Justice law enforcement unit to deal with “rising violence, including homicide rates,” in Kern County, which she described as “rural and underfunded.” Hurtado cited McFarland Unified School District’s Tuesday decision to cancel athletic events for the remainder of the week after a “rash of violence,” including a Monday shooting in Delano that left two people dead. Two school districts in North Kern — Wasco Union High and Delano Joint Union High — also canceled sports events out of an abundance of caution, in response to the Bakersfield Californian.
“The Delano area does have gang and narcotics issues, and surrounding law enforcement is doing one of the best they’ll with the resources they’ve,” Delano High football coach Frank Gonzalez Jr. told the Bakersfield Californian. “These are issues that take time and plenty of manpower.” McFarland Police Chief Kenny Williams added, “For so long as I can remember, there’s all the time been gang issues between town of McFarland and Delano.”
- Indeed, Republican-led Kern County has long struggled with violence: As CalMatters’ Nigel Duara has reported, it had a homicide rate of 12.7 per 100,000 residents in 2020, the best of any county in California.
- And it notched a homicide rate of 13.7 in 2021, the best amongst counties with populations of at the least 100,000, in response to data Bonta’s office released in August.
- A Bonta spokesperson: “Our office all the time stands able to work with our local partners to offer assistance wherever we’re in a position to achieve this. That said, we’re currently reviewing the letter.”
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