A few weeks ago president Biden released his American Jobs Plan to make the infrastructure better and get Americans back to work. The price tag for this plan is nearly 2.3 trillion dollars. While this is being negotiated in Congress to try and get this passed President Biden said he is willing to negotiate, but he’s not going to accept doing nothing to fix our infrastructure.
The White House released a state by state plan that highlights what needs to be done in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia. The fact sheets highlight how many roads and bridges need repairs, the percentage of those without broadband internet, and many other things.
In this article we are going to focus specifically on the state of California and what needs to be done in the state to make it better. When looking at the overall infrastructure it earned a C- from the infrastructure report card.
In accordance with the fact sheet released by the White House, California has 1,536 bridges and 14,200 miles of highway that need to be repaired. Since the year 2011, commute time for California residents has gone up 14.6%, and residents on average spend 799 dollars in repairs from driving on the roads of California.
Public transportation is included in the infrastructure bill. According to the fact sheet, residents spend 66.6% more time in transportation, and non white households are 1.6 times more likely to commute using public transportation. 16% of the state’s trains and public vehicles have passed usable life.
In the last 10 years California has experienced 16 extreme weather storms, costing the state over 50 to 100 billion dollars in damages. To ensure clean drinking water in the next 20 years it will cost the state 51 billion dollars.
Broadband internet is a huge part of the infrastructure bill. 5.5% of California residents don’t have reliable broadband internet. 59.2% of Californians live in an area where there is only one internet company available. Even in areas where broadband internet is available, 10% of the population does not have an internet subscription and may not be able to afford it.
California has a shortage of housing, which causes over 3,127,000 people to be renters and be rent burdened, meaning that more than 30% of their income is going to rent. Along with this, California residents spend 4–6% of their income on electricity on average.
Childcare is another topic discussed in the American Jobs Plan. According to the facts sheet, there is an estimated 322 billion dollar gap between what schools have for maintenance and repairs and the actual amount of money needed. 60% of California residents live where childcare is not available to them.
In the state of California, manufacturing makes up about 10% of the state’s output, employing about 1,338,000 people. this comes out to be 7.7% of the state’s workforce. In the year 2019, there were 536,919 California residents working in the clean energy field. California is home to over 1,681,730 veterans, 8.5% of them being women and 50.5% are over the age of 65 years old.
To see what is exactly in the bill and how much money is in each section, listen to this episode of Blind Boys Politics.
