CSAC CEO urges funding for Proposition 36 implementation, disaster reforms, broadband and insurance fixes

Graham Knauss, chief executive officer of the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), spoke to the Trinity County Board of Supervisors on June 17, 2025, outlining state and federal policy priorities he said are critical to rural counties.

Knauss told the board that counties must be funded to implement Proposition 36, the voter‑approved measure that changed tools available in criminal‑justice cases (including some theft offenses) and will shift responsibilities to county probation, public defenders, district attorneys and behavioral‑health systems. “There are impacts to probation, there are impacts to your public defender, to your DA, to your behavioral health,” he said, and called for sufficient budget allocations to carry out the measure.

Knauss said CSAC is pushing for flexible homelessness and housing dollars and more front‑end investments in disaster prevention and mitigation. He noted gaps in the federal disaster assistance framework for small counties, saying FEMA eligibility currently uses an absolute number of lost homes rather than a percentage of local housing stock and arguing that a percentage test would better serve small, rural counties that can suffer heavy proportional losses without meeting a numeric threshold.

On insurance, Knauss said counties are not insurers but face severe community impacts when homeowners or businesses can’t obtain coverage. CSAC is exploring reforms to the FAIR Plan and learning from states with long experience of hurricane impacts (Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina) to find workable models for California.

Knauss described CSAC’s three‑arm structure—foundation, business arm (CSAC Finance Corp) and advocacy arm—and stressed the value of rural representation on governance committees. He also outlined CSAC’s increasing use of a speakers bureau and media outreach to bring local voices to Sacramento and to federal forums.

Board members thanked CSAC for rural advocacy and asked about ways local supervisors and officials can serve as speakers or provide testimony when the association needs local voices. Knauss said the speakers bureau connects local leaders with legislative or media opportunities and that CSAC will continue outreach to counties.

Why this matters: Trinity County and other rural counties face implementation costs from state initiatives and recurring gaps in disaster and insurance programs that can slow recovery and increase local fiscal burdens. CSAC’s lobbying and technical assistance are intended to secure funding and policy adjustments for counties that lack scale or internal capacity.

Provenance (transcript excerpts): Topic intro: "I'm doing great. It's awesome to be here in Trinity. I, am gonna talk a little bit about CSAC, what we do on your behalf, and some of the issues that we are that we're currently working on and, certainly welcome any, conversation with the board, around that." (block_id:102.335, local_start:0, local_end:211, evidence_excerpt:"I'm doing great. It's awesome to be here in Trinity. I, am gonna talk a little bit about CSAC, what we do on your behalf, and some of the issues that we are that we're currently working on and, certainly welcome any, conversation with the board, around that.") Top finish: "It's a that's not a here's the answer because I don't know it. Right. But we continue to to work on this issue to try to protect communities." (block_id:2136.86, local_start:0, local_end:226, evidence_excerpt:"It's a that's not a here's the answer because I don't know it. Right. But we continue to to work on this issue to try to protect communities.")