SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the work begun last year by a group dedicated to improving life in the San Joaquin Valley to continue for at least two more years.
Schwarzenegger traveled to Fresno on Tuesday to sign an executive order extending the life of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley until Dec. 31, 2008. The governor created the group in Fresno in June 2005, and it was set to dissolve at the end of this year.
Co-chaired by Stockton developer Fritz Grupe, the collection of civic leaders and public officials has become the focal point of the Valley's attempts to keep pace with 21st century development: Its task is to bring new jobs and tourism, expand the region's transportation network, increase access to health care and improve educational opportunities for the Valley's 3.4million residents.
"I want to applaud all of the state and local representatives for working so diligently together to develop a partnership," Schwarzenegger said. "The Central Valley is one of the most-productive agricultural regions in the world, and we must continue to work hard to protect its economic well-being."
The partnership's goal is to view San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern counties as one unit, developing and implementing a regional plan to highlight the Valley's assets - it is one of the richest agricultural regions in the world - as well as fix its problems.
Valley residents are, in general, poorer, less educated and less likely to have health insurance than are residents in other parts of California. The Valley also has some of the worst air quality in the United States.
According to state data:
» Average per capita income in the Valley is one-third lower than in the rest of the state.
» Valley residents are half as likely to have attended college as the rest of the state's population.
» Violent crime is 24 percent higher.
All of this makes the region less competitive to business than the Bay Area or Southern California. The partnership wants to change that.
Thus far it has helped accelerate construction on Interstate 205 in San Joaquin County and coordinated the California Department of Transportation's work on a massive improvement project along the 274-mile stretch of Highway 99 between Bakersfield and Stockton.
Next year it is expected to help determine exactly where on Highway 99 the $1billion in bonds voters just approved will be spent. Several trouble spots are in San Joaquin County.
The partnership also has helped bring new enterprise zones to Modesto, Fresno and Merced, direct $5million to University of California, Merced, for medical education classes and spur the state Resources Agency to refurbish and expand the Valley's state parks network - the Valley itself has very few state parks.
The group's focus next year will be on continuing its previous successes as well as beginning the tougher tasks of lifting the region's educational opportunities and cleaning the air, which has proved difficult.
In addition to Grupe, other San Joaquin County members of the partnership include county Supervisor Victor Mow and Kaiser Permanente administrator Jose Rivera of Stockton.
Contact Capitol Bureau Chief Hank Shaw at (916) 441-4078 or sacto@recordnet.com. Visit his blog.