By Charlotte West
While most of the country was focused on parades and hot dogs on July 4th, President Donald Trump signed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” — a nearly 1,000-page piece of legislation he had demanded Congress pass by the nation’s birthday. After GOP holdouts raised concerns about Medicaid changes and fiscal impacts, House Republicans ultimately passed the legislation 218-214, with all 212 Democrats and two Republicans voting against it. The sprawling legislation represents a dramatic realignment of federal spending, shifting resources from social safety nets to tax cuts and immigration enforcement, while adding an estimated $3.4 trillion to the federal deficit.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called the legislation Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Betrayal,” stating it “gives tax breaks to the ultra-rich, balloons our national debt, and guts programs that Americans depend on – including health care, food assistance, and public safety programs.” According to Newsom’s office, the bill puts 686,000 California jobs at risk through elimination of clean energy tax credits and slashes $28.4 billion in federal Medicaid funding to California.
Here’s what it means for the Central Coast:
Education
Hundreds of thousands of California’s low-income children will likely see federally funded food support and health care shrink or vanish, with cuts to social safety net programs partly offsetting $4.5 trillion in tax cuts weighted toward the wealthy, EdSource reported.
In Santa Cruz County alone, more than $10 million in funding for students with the greatest needs is in jeopardy, with Congress withholding funds that were supposed to be distributed July 1 for the 2025-26 school year, according to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. The federal education funding freeze affects migrant students, English learners, after-school programs, and student support services.
“For the executive branch to unilaterally withhold these funds is damaging to students, leaves school districts in limbo, and appears to be a violation of federal law,” Faris Sabbah, Santa Cruz county superintendent of schools, said in a statement, calling the move “unlawful.”
The bill also makes college less affordable for Central Coast students by restricting federal financial aid. The legislation adds lifetime borrowing limits for graduate student loans, restricts Parent PLUS loans, and makes students with full scholarships ineligible for Pell Grants even if they otherwise qualify, according to analysis by the University of California’s Office of Federal Governmental Relations.
These changes will particularly impact students at UC Santa Cruz and other local universities, making graduate school and professional programs less accessible to working families and first-generation college students.
Healthcare and Social Services
Thirty-seven thousand people in Santa Cruz County could lose Medicaid or ACA coverage, out of 71,000 currently enrolled in Medi-Cal, with local clinics serving 14,000 patients through 100,000 appointments annually, The Pajaronian reported.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Donaldo Hernandez, a doctor who serves as vice-chair to the California delegation of the American Medical Association, said during an event last week. “We’re going to be right here making sure that we keep doing the thing we have sworn to do, the thing we love, and that’s taking care of people in our communities.”
Monterey’s House Rep. Jimmy Panetta called the bill “a self-inflicted wound that will hurt working families throughout this country, that will decrease health coverage in the 19th Congressional District and could lead to closures of rural hospitals in our communities.”
Mee Memorial Hospital in Monterey County was also among 338 rural hospitals nationwide listed as at risk of closure following federal cuts, according to Local News Matters. While CEO Rena Salamacha said the hospital isn’t at immediate risk of closure, “sustained underfunding will place it in an increasingly vulnerable position,” particularly given that over 70% of its patients are Medi-Cal beneficiaries, many of whom are undocumented or mixed-status farmworkers and families. (For more on this, read this story on the financial crisis facing California’s rural hospitals and the impact on Central Coast communities like King City.)
The bill also makes deep cuts to health insurance (Medicaid/Medi-Cal) and food assistance (SNAP/CalFresh) programs that provide essential safety net services to a third of Santa Cruz County residents, according to County of Santa Cruz officials. “It’s incredibly disheartening that the House passed a revised budget bill, which now includes even deeper Medicaid and SNAP cuts added by the Senate, impacting our most vulnerable community members,” Chair Felipe Hernandez of the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors said in a statement.
Agriculture and Environment
Cuts to federal food assistance programs will also affect local agriculture, threatening a sector that drives much of the Central Coast’s economy. The combined gross production value of agriculture, hospitality, and service in the three counties was about $9 billion last year, driven largely by immigrant labor, Central Coast leaders noted last week during a press conference supporting immigrant communities.
Cuts to SNAP and other programs providing fresh produce to schools and food banks reduce federal demand for agriculture and impact small- and mid-sized farms, according to Monterey County Now.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau, told the publication. “Everyone is…waiting to see how it all falls out, where those dollars are going to, and what the overall implications are for the agricultural labor force.”
Immigration enforcement is the biggest concern for agriculture, Groot said, with the bill allocating nearly $30 billion to ICE enforcement, $45 billion for detention centers, and $6 billion for new ICE officers through 2029.
But there was some relief. Big Sur and other iconic public lands were spared from a proposal to sell federal lands. Initially, the bill proposed selling federal lands including Big Sur sites like Pfeiffer Beach and the Santa Lucia highlands as part of 16 million acres in California at risk – at least for now.
FEATURED IMAGE |
Enlarge
Have something to say about this story? Send us a letter.
SUPPORT NONPROFIT JOURNALISM 
GET OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
