Dear Friends of Tesla Park,

For months there has been work behind the scenes at the Capitol to get language into the budget to preserve Tesla Park as one part of the legislative strategy.  The leadership of the Legislature included a Tesla Park item in the preliminary budget passed on 6/15/21. At the 11th hour, the Governor rejected the Tesla language and said he would line-item veto it if not removed.  In the final budget, now passed and signed, the line item about Tesla Park preservation was stricken out.  It is believed the OHV users/lobby/lobbyist Terry McHale of Aaron Read got to the Governor.

It is disappointing to know that presently the barrier to Tesla preservation is Governor Newsom himself (of note, while the Governor refused to protect Tesla, at the same time he did approve an additional $6.7M for CSVRA for ‘road construction’ over and above the usual budget allocation). But we have more legislative options this session that are still active and need our support.

Budget Trailer Bills

 Our focus now is to get the Tesla language into the Natural Resources (NR) Budget Trailer Bill.  While the timing is uncertain, we have to assume the bill could be taken up anytime.

We need your help to contact the Governor and his administration to support the Tesla trailer bill language in the Natural Resources trailer bill. We will do letters of support to the legislature and Governor based on prior letters.  We will ask you and your members to contact Secretary Crowfoot and the Governor.  Watch for calls to action beginning next week.

AB 1512

In addition to the trailer bill process, AB 1512 (Bauer-Kahan) is moving through the Senate, with a hearing on 7/8/21 in the NRW committee  https://sntr.senate.ca.gov/agenda .  Please help us get as many people as possible to attend the 7/8/21 hearing or call in to support AB 1512. 

If you have the opportunity, please thank the elected officials for their continued help and support to preserve Tesla Park. We need them to keep fighting. Senator Glazer and Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan have been great.  Alameda County Supervisor Haubert, Senator Wieckowski, Senator Skinner, Assemblymember Ting, Livermore Mayor Woerner, Mayors of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville, EBRPD, LARPD and ACRCD, and Legislative Leadership have also all stepped up.

hank you for all you did last week to call the Governor – and thank you for your continued help as we move to the next stages over the summer. If you have insight on this process, please share.

Thank you for helping to save Tesla Park.

Friends of Tesla Park

www.TeslaPark.org

FriendsofTeslaPark@gmail.com

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Friends of Tesla Park is an alliance dedicated to establishing Tesla Park as non-motorized nature and cultural preserve.