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# What Fort Bragg Asked Chris Rogers
- URL: https://www.mendolocal.news/what-fort-bragg-asked-chris-rogers/
- Published: 2026-09-29T00:14:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T00:14:25.000Z
- Description: A Sunday Q&A with Assembly Member Chris Rogers covered everything from housing and health care to biomass innovation centers, with info on key bills and the Prop. 1 housing bond.
- Author: Elise Cox
- Tags: Fort Bragg

FORT BRAGG, Calif. — Assemblymember Chris Rogers met with Mendocino Coast residents Sunday morning at the Fort Bragg Town Hall, in a question-and-answer session sponsored by the Coast Democratic Club. Rogers represents California's 2nd Assembly District, which includes all of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties, alongside parts of Sonoma County (including portions of Santa Rosa).

Rogers opened the town hall by noting that the 2nd District is the third largest in the state by geography, and the difficulty that a one-size-fits-all policy poses for such a region. He then gave a brief introduction to AB 1984, a bill he introduced in February 2026\. Rogers described the bill as an effort to curb corporate money in politics — a state-level workaround to the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. The theory, he explained, is that corporate "personhood" grants corporations the right to spend, but a state need not grant them the ability to; the measure drew a single informational hearing and went no further this year. He noted Hawaii has passed a version and Montana has put the question to a referendum. According to [CalMatters' Digital Democracy,](https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca%5F202520260ab1984?ref=mendolocal.news) the bill was discussed in an informational hearing by the Assembly Standing Committee on Banking and Finance on April 6, 2026.

View the video on [Mendocino Coast Media](https://www.facebook.com/mendocinocoastmedia/videos/1443508367628413/).

## Question and Answer

### TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING

Mary Rose Kaczorowski, a Fort Bragg City Council candidate and a beneficiary of nonprofit senior housing, asked Rogers for his ideas on addressing limited public transportation in rural areas, as well as rising utility rates, deferred maintenance, and declining federal housing subsidies.

Rogers said the gas tax was the mechanism for funding roads, and explained that the formula for allocating money leaves Mendocino "with the short end of the stick." This is because half of the funding is allocated based on population and half based on road miles. He said Lori Wilson, chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, is leading discussion of alternatives that range from folding transportation funding into vehicle registration to a per-mile mileage tax.

Regarding housing, Rogers pointed to Proposition 1, the housing bond on the November ballot. The $11.25 billion general obligation bond would provide $10 billion for affordable rental housing, homeownership and down-payment assistance, and subsidized housing for farmworkers, seniors, students, and people experiencing homelessness. The remainder would go to the CalVet program. However, Rogers noted that small cities like Fort Bragg, Ukiah, Willits, and Point Arena would struggle to secure those funds. "We don't want Fort Bragg having to compete with San Francisco and San Jose and L.A. for dollars," he said. His fix is categorical funding — money set aside with "population thresholds or… rural designations" so places like Fort Bragg aren't going head-to-head with metros that have far more capacity to win competitive grants. Rogers noted that grant-administration capacity was also a bottleneck. A small city "already struggling to have the workforce to deliver all of the services" often has no "professional grant department," so it can't "do the proper reporting… the proper auditing to keep that money."

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/65/2b/652bc5ac-05cb-46a1-8194-e7dee6ac7adf/content/images/2026/09/image-1790640240732.png)

### SEA-LEVEL RISE AND THE MILL SITE

Donne Brownsey, a former chair of the California Coastal Commission, said she was concerned that sea level rise and a failing revetment could cause the unprotected "toxic pond" on the former mill site to saturate and flow onto local beaches and the ocean, threatening public health and the fishing industry. She noted the vulnerability of Pudding Creek, the Noyo Harbor, Van Damme State Park, and MacKerricher State Park.

Rogers acknowledged the state has not implemented a comprehensive sea-level-rise plan. "What we really need them to be able to do is look at the cascading impact of addressing sea level rise in one area, and the way that it would impact a little bit further downstream as well." He spoke about strategies for better managing water, including aquifer recharge. He noted the legislature passed a budget "junior bill" that amended the state budget to include funding to prepare for El Niño "and specifically the response that is anticipated to be needed in some areas where there might be flooding or saltwater intrusion or other types of environmental issues."

### HEALTH CARE

Susan Savage, who serves as secretary of the Mendocino Coast Health Care District Board, said the 1970s-era coastal hospital must be seismically retrofitted by a 2030 state deadline and needs a modernized emergency and surgical wing. She asked for the state's help.

Rogers said rural health care is a top priority and ran through his bills: AB 1811, addressing the local fallout from federal cuts and the loss of Health Professional Shortage Area designations, and AB 1460, which took on the pharmaceutical industry over limits in the 340B drug-discount program (he cited a one-pharmacy cap affecting Open Door). He said he is a joint author of single-payer legislation and noted his wife is an operating-room nurse.

### BOND FINANCING

Dennis Miller pointed to the high cost of using bonds for financing public projects and asked Rogers to talk about alternatives.

Rogers agreed with Miller. He said the cost of a bond is not the amount printed on the ballot. "It's usually at least 150% of what that total amount is." He said the $11.25 billion housing bond "will end up costing somewhere around $17 billion total over the 30 years." A better approach, Rogers said, would be a state-owned bank where the interest goes back into that bank to lend at low rates for rural infrastructure — instead of the interest flowing to "Wall Street or… investors."

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/65/2b/652bc5ac-05cb-46a1-8194-e7dee6ac7adf/content/images/2026/09/image-1790640240732-1.png)

### ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Gabriel Maroney asked Rogers to address economic development. "Without a powerful economy, you can't get the health care you need … all of these things we talked about, we don't have the health care or the educational system we deserve, and we're not ready for what's coming." He urged more ambitious solutions, like forest-based drug development or drone manufacture.

Rogers agreed, with a nuance. "We need a powerful economy that works for people," he said. He warned that state growth is now mostly AI-driven: "You have five AI companies that are really bolstering the state's economy. And yet what we know is at best it's going to be disruptive, and at worst it's going to be catastrophic for everyday people."

Rogers said [AB 1666](https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca%5F202520260ab1666?ref=mendolocal.news), a bill he sponsored that is sitting on Gov. Newsom's desk, would support biomass innovation parks to convert wood waste into carbon-beneficial products. Each park would also establish a community benefits program. "This does things like mass timber production that can bring down the overall cost of housing construction," Rogers said, listing other benefits. He said the bill takes advantage of a recent innovation that addresses a historical obstacle: "We have plenty of woody waste, it's hard to get it to centralized locations." One solution could be a powerful but small processor that can sit on the back of a pickup truck.

### TAX SHARING

Council Member Tess Albin-Smith asked Rogers what could be done about tax-sharing agreements, which short change smaller cities. She noted that Fort Bragg, the second largest city in Mendocino County, gets a smaller share of collected tax than Willits.

Rogers said he was focusing on sales tax agreements. Local governments only receive a fraction of the sales tax when an item is bought online. "The sales tax is actually remitted to where the distribution center is, not point of sale," Rogers said. "It drains revenue from rural cities and warps land use," he said. And, "It's a gun to the head of your local government that you will approve their distribution centers. Otherwise, you get none of the money that you are owed."

### STATE DEMONSTRATION FOREST MANAGEMENT

A representative of the Coalition to Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest thanked Rogers for the work he put in on AB 2494.

Rogers criticized Newsom's veto and what he called a "nonsensical veto message." He said the bill was a great example of partnership, with support from the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and extensive input from CAL FIRE and the timber industry. While Newsom said the bill would limit the purpose of the forest, including for scientific forestry, Rogers argued that existing law directs the forests only toward maximum production of high-quality wood products and does not recognize research as a use. "CAL FIRE has been doing it, and CAL FIRE had been doing things like inclusion of our local tribes that is not in statute."