Newsletter

Please Join Sen. McNerney for Tri-Valley Town Hall on Aug. 6

Tri Valley Town Hall Poster

Dear Tri-Valley neighbor,

Please join me on Aug. 6 for my Tri-Valley Town Hall. The in-person event will be from 6-8 p.m. at the Shannon Event Center, 11600 Shannon Ave, Dublin, CA 94568.

The town hall, which is open to the public, will include an overview of my office’s recent progress in the California Legislature, and we’ll address your questions and concerns about the issues impacting the present and future of the Tri-Valley.

This is my first year representing you in the state Senate in Sacramento, after serving 16 years in the U.S. Congress in Washington, DC. My 5th state Senate district includes the Tri-Valley cities of Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton, and Sunol, along with all of San Joaquin County.

I am happy to report that overall, it’s been a positive year in the state Capitol as I have pursued legislation and state funding that will benefit our region and California as a whole.

I am also heartened to report that in June, we adopted a balanced budget that will protect state TK-12 and higher education funding and other social safety net programs. We also enacted permit streamlining to help our continued efforts to address our housing and homelessness crises.

I currently have 14 pieces of legislation moving forward this year. My bills are designed to:

  • Make California and our district more affordable
  • Ensure that we have clean water while protecting against future droughts
  • Accelerate our transition to clean energy
  • And make sure that artificial intelligence is safe and beneficial and does not cause harm to our society.

You can read more about my 2025 legislation here. Here are some highlights:

  • SB 24 will help protect Californians against skyrocketing utility bills by preventing investor-owned utilities like PG&E from using ratepayer funds for lobbying, campaigning, political advertising, and fighting local efforts to create a municipal utility.
  • SB 279 will help farmers and winegrape growers, including vintners in the Livermore Valley, by allowing them to compost large amounts of green waste onsite, such when they remove a vineyard.
  • SB 31 will help drought-proof California by boosting the use of recycled water statewide.
  • SB 454 will help address PFAS pollution in California’s water supply by creating a special state fund — the PFAS Mitigation Fund — that local agencies and cities can access to help pay for the cleanup of toxic PFAS. This is an issue of significant importance in Pleasanton.
  • SB 86 will help create more clean energy jobs in the region and throughout our state by extending and expanding a successful tax incentive program.
  • SB 7, the No Robo Bosses Act, will require human oversight of artificial intelligence systems in the workplace to help prevent abuses. It also bars the use of AI systems that use personal information of workers to “predict” what they’ll do in the future. 

As you may have read in the Livermore Independent last month, I am also partnering with Senator Anna Caballero to create three fusion energy hubs in California, including, hopefully, one in Livermore. Fusion energy has the potential to be a true game-changer by providing unlimited amounts of clean energy while boosting our economy.

I have also made the Valley Link rail project one of my top priorities. And I’m happy to report that I was able to secure a commitment this year from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to provide $10 million for Valley Link.

  • The funding is for the new first phase of the rail project — connecting Livermore to the Dublin-Pleasanton BART Station.
  • This first phase, which I hope will break ground in the next year or two, will effectively be the Livermore BART extension that we should have had decades ago.
  • The first phase will also connect commuters from the ACE train to Dublin-Pleasanton BART.
  • Ultimately, the plan is to create a dedicated Valley Link rail line over the Altamont Pass to relieve traffic on one of the worst commutes in California.

I was also able to secure funding in the state budget for local Clean Cars 4 All programs, which help low-income residents trade in their old polluting cars for electric vehicles.

In addition, I was able to secure funding in the budget for a new bio-economy campus in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, which will add environmentally friendly jobs to the region.

Yet despite our successes in Sacramento this year, our state is facing challenges due to the recent deep federal cuts to Medicaid, along with other federal cuts to education, health care, and the social safety net.

But I and my colleagues in Sacramento are committed to doing all we can to mitigate the negative impacts on our state, while working to ensure that California becomes more affordable for all and that residents and businesses can thrive here.

I am looking forward to seeing you at the Tri-Valley Town Hall on Aug. 6!

 

Sincerely,

Jerry McNerney

State Senator, District 5