San Diego's top business and political leaders are headed to the state legislature in Sacramento this week to help boost the local economy.
The 90-member delegation has appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday with a wide variety of state agency leaders and elected officials.
Seven of San Diego's nine city councilmembers will attend, along with Jerry Sanders. He is the current president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, as well as the city's former mayor and police chief.
California's affordable housing crisis will be a focal point at some of the most important meetings. And on that score, there's substantial money involved.
San Diego is one of 11 major cities angling for a cut of $1.5 billion in state budget surplus money.
“We need to get our fair share of dollars that are state dollars back in San Diego, invested in San Diego,” said Sean Karafin, the chamber’s executive director of policy and economic research.
“You don’t do that by going up there and advocating for something specific," he said. "You go up there and you develop relationships that they know who to call when they need to talk about an issue. They need to know to use the San Diego chamber and our members as a resource.”
Local
Homelessness, a problem that continues expanding beyond urban areas, will also be on the table for discussion.
Other priority issues include single-payer health care, cross-border trade with Mexico and maintaining California's transportation infrastructure.
"A lot of the issues that we feel are very local. They also have a state angle too--and also a federal angle to it, for that matter," Karafin said. “So we need to be working with our partners in Sacramento, D.C., and our partners across the state to make sure we make a solution that's good for everyone including San Diegans.”
Among the local businesses with representatives in the delegation are Cox Communications, Kaiser Permanente and SDG&E. Executives from a couple of Mexican companies will also participate.
