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Rebecca Cohn
Cohn adjusts to state's budget woes
By Oakley Brooks
The political landscape has changed dramatically since Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn threw her name into the hat almost two years ago and headed down the campaign trail in quest of Jim Cunneen's South Bay assembly seat.
With economic times flush and the state budget surplus growing, Cohn at one point during her campaign called for a chunk of California's surplus to be sent back to the fertile Silicon Valley that produced the boom.
Cohn said the money should be spent on education and transportation upgrades in the region. Cohn's 24th district includes Saratoga, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno.
After her election in late 2000, Cohn arrived in Sacramento in early 2001--in a vastly different environment. Newcomers in the assembly had to put themselves through a crash course in energy issues. And throughout the year, the slowing economy and the state's payout to energy suppliers have reversed the way Cohn and other elected officials pursue their agendas.
"As the game changes, your priorities change rapidly," said Cohn by telephone recently. She was between local speaking engagements during the legislature's annual summer break. "There were all sorts of things that I would have liked to fund, but we won't have a cent for them now. I have to focus on legislation that doesn't have funding attached to it."
Thus, a non-funded, Cohn-authored bill that gives more protection to domestic violence victims during criminal proceedings passed both state houses and was signed by Gov. Gray Davis on July 19.
Meanwhile, the governor dropped state funding for Montalvo's artist-in-residency program from $500,000 to $300,000 before he signed the state budget in late July.
The governor also vetoed $126 million from the budget for the state's 108 community colleges, $98 million of which was earmarked for instructional equipment and overdue facility maintenance.
Cohn was particularly upset by those cuts: the West Valley-Mission Community College District was scheduled to get more than $1.6 million for repairs to five buildings and add high-tech instructional aids.
"I'm disappointed," said Cohn. "The colleges handle a tremendous volume of our students trying to make it in the new economy."
In adjusting to the new climate in the capitol, Cohn has also taken a place on the energy scene. This spring she authored a bill that would provide financial incentives to local governments in exchange for allowing power plants to be built in their backyards. She also urged the city of San Jose to allow the Metcalf Energy Center to be built in the city's southern extremes.
To cope with state's energy shortage, Cohn maintains that her Sacramento office continues to be miserly about electricity and that the lights in her Campbell district office are "never on."
She insists, however, that state officials haven't taken to wearing less clothing to the office to avoid energy consuming air-conditioning.
"We haven't lost the decorum that's necessary to conduct business," she said, laughing slightly at a reporter's query about wearing shorts in the state Capitol.
Cohn expects the next legislative session, which begins Aug. 20 and runs through mid-September, to be action-packed as legislators sort out energy issues and continue to push their own agendas before they break for the year.
She will pursue approval of her own legislative package, which includes further bills on domestic violence, elderly care and housing assistance for public safety employees.
When the state assembly closes for the year, Cohn will return to the South Bay to begin constructing her agenda for the 2002 session.
This fall and winter, she'll also be campaigning to become chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Health in the next session. Cohn currently chairs the Assembly Committee on Long-Term Care and Aging, and as a former physical therapist and policy specialist with the California Industrial Medical Council, she said she's qualified to head the health committee.
"I think I have a good shot at it," said Cohn. "It would mean a lot to Santa Clara County residents to have the chair of the health committee from their county."
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
