Opinion: Healthcare and Food Benefits are at Risk in Rural California. Will the Governor and Legislature Act?
The need for health care, behavioral health treatment, and food assistance will not disappear because federal funding drops. The burden simply shifts downstream to counties — forcing cuts to emergency rooms, food banks, sheriff’s deputies and already-overwhelmed local systems.
This is opinion piece was submitted by the California State Association of Counties. Do you have an opinion to share? Find our guidelines here.
During the federal government shutdown last fall, Shasta County’s food bank saw something alarming.
Requests for emergency food boxes increased fivefold. Local school-based food pantries doubled their supplies and still had bare shelves within weeks. Families who had never needed help before suddenly found themselves scrambling to put food on the table.
Then the community stepped in.
The local community foundation started the Shasta Critical Response Fund and raised over $10,000 in two weeks. One single mother living in low-income housing started coordinating families in her apartment complex to cook meals together. Families pitched in what they could. Meals were prepared in a community room and shared among neighbors trying to stay afloat.
That is what rural communities do. We help each other when times get hard.
But local charity cannot replace a functioning safety net.
That is the reality California counties are facing under H.R. 1.
Many Americans support efforts to rein in federal spending and restore fiscal discipline. But regardless of where you stand politically on H.R. 1, the consequences are now landing on counties.
And in rural California, the fallout will be severe.
More than one in three residents in our counties rely on Medi-Cal, and poverty rates far exceed the state average.
The need for health care, behavioral health treatment, and food assistance will not disappear because federal funding drops. The burden simply shifts downstream to counties — forcing cuts to emergency rooms, food banks, sheriff’s deputies and already-overwhelmed local systems.
H.R. 1 represents one of the largest structural shifts to California’s safety net in decades. Counties statewide could face up to $9.5 billion annually in new costs and lost funding tied to Medi-Cal, CalFresh, providing indigent care health care services, public hospital financing, and behavioral health services.
At the same time, H.R. 1 requires our counties to process more eligibility reviews, verify more paperwork, implement new work requirements, and absorb a far larger share of the cost.
In Shasta County alone, these changes could require adding 12 new staff positions and increase county administrative costs by at least $1.2 million per year just for CalFresh administration. Meanwhile, our social services department is already borrowing $10 million from the county General Fund to remain operational.
Trinity County’s budget for the current fiscal year was balanced only after painful trims. Many departments are staffed below the levels needed to deliver services in the manner our residents deserve. Nonprofit groups have stepped in to help fund shortfalls in non-mandated services from our library system and animal shelter. Funding available for road maintenance and repair covers only a small portion of the work that needs to be done.
If the state walks away from the impacts on counties from H.R. 1, the next round of cuts will not be at the margins.
That’s why county leaders throughout California, from all political backgrounds, are calling on the state to work with us.
We’re proposing a responsible multi-year partnership with the state: $1.1 billion in the upcoming budget and $2.5 billion the following year in state funding to stabilize California’s safety net and prevent broader system failures.
But the Governor’s May Revision does not meaningfully acknowledge the scale of H.R. 1’s impacts on counties or local communities. That must change before the final state budget is negotiated.
To our North State Senators and Assembly members — including those who, like many of our constituents, hold a healthy skepticism about state spending — we put it plainly. This is not new spending for new programs. This is keeping rural emergency rooms open, keeping deputies on patrol, and keeping our most vulnerable neighbors from becoming someone else’s far more expensive problem in a hospital corridor. Letting these federal cuts cascade into county collapse is the most expensive choice the state can make.
Counties are not asking the state to shoulder this burden alone. But the Governor and Legislature cannot pretend these costs disappeared simply because Washington shifted them elsewhere.
They did not disappear.
They moved.
So, the question now is clear: Will the Governor and Legislature work with counties to manage this responsibly? Or will they hang our communities out to dry?
Do you have information or a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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I’ve started taking 132 lbs dog and cat food to my 2 local pounds every week. Hate the thought of hungry animals.
Let’s not forget that Doug LaMalfa voted for the federal cuts. He has a 100% record of supporting Trump. He never voted independently. He never had to think for himself. He simply voted as he was instructed to by GOP leadership. And Gallagher has repeatedly vowed to vote the same way as LaMalfa did.
Matt, you’re a republican, did you vote for Trump, LaMalfa, and Gallagher? I’m really disappointed with you. Up until you wrote this piece, I thought you were one of the more reasonable and honest BOS. Not anymore.
Christian, no relation to me, Gardiner “And to be clear, Franklin D. Roosevelt is still an arch evil nemesis of the Republican Party, and Republicans have been trying to claw back the New Deal (as well as voting rights) ever since 1938, when Roosevelt enacted it to get us out of the Depression.”
If you’ll recall the New Deal didn’t work so he had to drag us into WW11 to end the Great Depression!
Christian again ” Major staff cuts will occur in the Shasta County government. We will need to consider raising some tax revenue.”
Agreed, so we can fund more overpaid management and service their retirements, CALPERS, losses referred to as unfunded pension liabilities, like you receive.
Nick, no relation to Christian, Gardner
Sorry, and whose fault is HR1? Oh yes, Trump and his Republican Congressional quislings. Seems like a pretty big omission in this plea for those pesky Democrats to do something.
Have you tried raising taxes, Matt? Oh that’s right, people here wouldn’t approve a tax increase if it saved their mother. They are getting exactly what they voted for. Maybe AI can solve it, Matt? It’s a magical technology that can do anything, after all.
We had PLENTY OF WARNING! Locally, many so-called “liberals,” No Party Preference, Safe-Sane Republicans, and many local medical providers have been warning of the tsunami hitting Shasta and all California counties since Trump signed the Republican Party Big Ugly Bill in July 2025. See: Shasta Scout: https://shastascout.org/shasta-health-officials-warn-of-major-medicaid-cuts/
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HR 1 came straight out of the Heritage Foundation Project 2525 Playbook. Anyone with more than a basic education in political socioeconomics understood this; it’s almost as easy as a doctor saying people should stop smoking cigarettes through their tracheostomy tube or risk dying of cancer. In this case, Trumpian/Republican Party policies currently control the nation’s macro- and micro-economy and are the delivery system!
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In Shasta County’s case, it’s easy to say, “You got what you voted for,” but that’s not a solution. Over 67,000 Shasta County citizens receive Medicaid services, 13,475 people are employed in the Health Care and Social Assistance sector in Shasta County, and 1 medical services job supports up to 2 other community jobs!
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Often, it takes a massive disruption of homeostasis for change to happen. Examples include CPS taking kids away after the 6th domestic violence call, a drunk driver almost killing people in a crash after the 4th DUI, or a nation undergoing a Great Depression because of runaway, unrestricted raw capitalism, as is happening today. And to be clear, Franklin D. Roosevelt is still an arch evil nemesis of the Republican Party, and Republicans have been trying to claw back the New Deal (as well as voting rights) ever since 1938, when Roosevelt enacted it to get us out of the Depression.
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I applaud politicians like Matt for taking responsibility and talking with everyone, from Jared Hoffman, our next Congressperson (after Nov 26), to other county officials facing the same issues. But Matt, remember, the fix is not going to come from state government alone, and until Trump is gone or Congress changes, it’s not coming from the feds.
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Also, remember, here in Shasta County, we have spent millions pushing the tRumpian agenda, and some of the local MAGA political actors trying to enact tRumpian policies are suing the county for MANY millions! God only knows what Measure B is going to cost us! And, BTW, let’s see what’s next at tonight’s SCBOS Meeting!
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Locally, we will need to take some of the fiscal responsibility for this situation. Money for Mr. Crye’s numerous pet projects is not there. Major staff cuts will occur in the Shasta County government. We will need to consider raising some tax revenue. We are facing a 28-million-dollar deficit!
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All that said, remember… as the current election is validating, positive change can happen!
In Shasta County’s case, it’s easy to say, “You got what you voted for,” but that’s not a solution. Over 67,000 Shasta County citizens receive Medicaid services, 13,475 people are employed in the Health Care and Social Assistance sector in Shasta County, and 1 medical services job supports up to 2 other community jobs!”—tax consuming jobs that don’t produce anything
LMAO 🤣
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Are you really talking about tax consuming jobs?
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What about all the money that we are wasting on lawyer fees and litigation? What about all the money wasted that was spent chasing the conspiracy theories of so-called ‘massive election fraud?” (Still no proof of all that election fraud even though Clint Curtis has been in office for over a year now.)
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And by the way nick, are you going by the moniker rent-free because anyone that disagrees with you is living rent free in YOUR head?
The governor and the state have been doing what they can to backfill. But make this very clear. The main reason we are in this mess is because the adjudicated rapist / convicted 34 count felon, and his loyal Republican Pedophile Protection Party have implemented massive tax cuts for the rich 10 percent under the Big Beautiful Bill.
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The money that went to Medicaid, Medicare, Medi-Cal, Hospitals, Education, protecting the environment etc., has been transferred to the Pedophile Pertiction Epstein class, and their war Called Operation Epic Epstein Cover-up.
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This November, vote the the Pedophile Protection Party out of Congress and impeach the criminal!
That 10% tax cut was reinvested into the economy producing tax producing employment, not tax consuming government jobs.
Right…
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And that’s why our economy is doing so well at the moment, right?
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Nick, I like refuting you. It is so easy and fun.