California Kicks Off $1.1 Billion Clean-Up Campaign
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Gov. Gavin Newsom kicked off a new campaign to clean up California, an effort he says will create up to 11,000 new jobs in all of the state's 58 counties.
The state has earmarked $1.1 billion to expand trash removal from state highways and fund local beautification and litter abatement projects, a major increase from the $80 million-budget just a few years ago.
"We see what you see, it's unacceptable, we can do more, we can do better, and now we have the resources to make all of that happen," Newsom said at the kick-off event.
Clean California is projected to generate an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 jobs over three years – including formerly homeless people, at-risk youth, veterans, local artists, students, and those reentering society from incarceration – for potential projects in all 58 counties of the state. A third of the funds will go directly to cities, counties, tribes, and transit agencies to clean and enhance local streets and public spaces, with Caltrans awarding $296 million in matching grants to fund projects on local streets and roads, tribal lands, parks, pathways and transit centers in underserved, rural and urban communities.
Caltrans collected 270,000 cubic yards of trash – enough to load 18,000 garbage trucks – in 2020. Clean California's goal is to remove 1.2 million more cubic yards – or 21,000 tons – of trash from state highways each year, enough to fill the Rose Bowl three times.