Bakersfield.com
The Central Valley had Sacramento’s attention in two noteworthy ways last week.
Representatives of the governor’s office were in Bakersfield listening to locals talk about the economic importance, and permeating identity, of the Kern County oil industry, which Gov. Gavin Newsom apparently intends to eradicate from the face of California. Thus far neither he, nor any credible voice we’ve heard, has suggested plausible replacements or compensation for the huge economic hole that would create.
State government also turned its attention to Fresno, 110 miles to the north, bestowing monetary support on our worthy valley neighbor to the tune of tens of millions in one-time spending from Newsom’s proposed $222 billion budget.
Each, considered by itself, is immensely consequential — alarming in one case and encouraging in the other — but in combination they portray something not unlike a ranking of children, favored and less favored.
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