Stephanie Castro and Robert Rivas are vying for the District 29 Assembly seat. Rivas, currently representing District 30, is considered the incumbent candidate for District 29 following redistricting of the assembly which occurred in December 2021.
In the June 7 primary, the top two vote-getters running for each Assembly seat will advance to the general election in November. With no other candidates running in the 29th District primary, Castro and Rivas are guaranteed places on the general election ballot.
BenitoLink reached out to both candidates with identical questions.
Stephanie Castro, 50, is running as a Republican candidate. She was born in Santa Clara, raised in South San Jose, and has lived in Hollister since 1998. Castro is a teacher by profession and earned her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from CSU-Chico. She has gone on to earn a multiple-subject credential from CalStateTEACH and a single-subject secondary art credential from the University of Phoenix.
BenitoLink: The San Benito County Board of Supervisors has said Prop 13 (property tax distribution) has long stalled revenue for the county, with 56% of that money going to school districts and 11% going to the county. Are there changes to Prop 13 that need to be made to help rural counties like San Benito?
Castro: No, I don’t believe that Prop 13 needs to be touched in order to bring in revenue as there are other opportunities to secure revenue from, such as the California lottery funding. There have also been many measures and sales tax increases that the people have voted on that have helped school districts and the county. Unfortunately, some districts and the county have mismanaged their funds, so I don’t feel giving them more money to mismanage is the answer.
For example, the Hollister school district recently faced a $6 million dollar shortfall in which they grossly mismanaged taxpayer money, so do they deserve more taxpayer dollars? Or should they prove that they are capable of using the funds they are entrusted with in a worthy manner first? Appropriately, California spends more money on education and allocates more money per student than any other state in the union. First in funding, yet rotates between 36th and 48th in ranking for least educated*. This is very troublesome to say the least.
(*Editor’s note: According to the most recent U.S. Census figures as reported by the Education Law Center, California ranks 32nd in the nation for funding, spending $14,258 per student, which is below the national average of $15,487. New York, which spends $26,631 per student ranks highest in funding. California currently ranks 38th in education in the country, according to the National Assessment of Student Progress. )
The state is facing a years-long drought. What is your solution to managing water while allowing local farmers and ranchers to be successful?
One of the main answers is holding the legislature accountable for giving our governor the green light to empty what remaining water we did have in our reservoirs and lakes into the ocean, wasting much of our water reserves. This looks like a very poor decision was made for no apparent reason. Unchaining the blue valves and giving farmers access to the groundwater reserve could be one answer to the mismanagement of our water reserves. This partially man-made drought has added fuel to the fire, so to speak, and our representatives must take responsibility for their actions.
Many residents feel San Benito County is overlooked. One case could be the planned high-speed rail passing through the county but not having a stop, or Gavilan College relocating to Gilroy. As the representative, name three things you can make happen that will benefit the county with respect to transportation, education, recreation or economic vitality.
In regards to transportation, I would communicate the necessity for the expansion and revision of the Hwy 101 to Hwy 25 bypass that would make getting onto 25 much safer for our San Benito County residents heading home from their jobs, and safer for those driving further south to San Juan Bautista, Aromas, Salinas, etc. In addition, I’d make the widening of Hwy 25 a priority project to oversee during my watch.
I’d like to create legislation for parents to ensure that they will have a say in their child’s education. They will be empowered to have a choice whether to mask, vaccinate, and say what their children should be taught, like the highly controversial critical race theory course, aka ethnic studies, and whether they want their child to partake in the comprehensive sexuality education agenda. That will encourage school boards to work with parents and will promote a team effort.
I would love to write a bill that would reopen San Justo Reservoir so that we can bring fishing, swimming, picnicking, boating, and water recreation back to our county. I would love to see some type of recreation center built here with either a waterslide and swim center or a skating arena with roller hockey leagues or even both.
I think not having an Independence Rally again was a missed opportunity for Hollister’s economy to bounce back. I think there are so many neat areas that could be utilized more for economic growth as far as venues are concerned, like the amphitheater up at Hollister Hills. The May Day picnic at Bolado Park is a great idea and will bring the community together, as well as benefit our economy a little bit for now.
Caltrans has wasted millions of dollars on projects in San Benito County, including the Hwy 25 curve realignment (1/8 of a mile costing $22 million) and the grading correction on San Felipe/HWY 25. With limited funding coming to the county, how can you keep Caltrans accountable to ensure proper infrastructure.
Complete oversight should come from the planning commission over Caltrans. It should not come out of our budget if Caltrans made the mistake. They need to be held responsible for the money they wasted by the planning commission, and the supervisors must ask tough questions to hold them accountable. Caltrans should eat their own mistakes if indeed it was their error. If the oversight commission makes good choices that they can implement, then they will be successful in keeping Caltrans accountable and it will come to fruition.
With the move to electric vehicles, how do you ensure rural areas such as San Benito County won’t have too few charging stations?
Sacramento needs to look at the big picture and plan accordingly if they really think that is the best solution. I’m not quite convinced that electric cars solely are the way to go, because they will still use an enormous amount of fossil fuels to build the batteries, charge the batteries, etc. Then, after 10 years, what happens to those batteries and cars? It costs about $10,000 to replace the car’s battery and most people sell their car before then so they don’t have to deal with it. So what is going to happen to all these cars with dead batteries? Are they going to a landfill? To the auto wreckers? Will they be harmful to the environment when they are eventually no longer usable? Who will salvage them? Where will the batteries go? There are many more questions to think through before we just jump on the electric bandwagon. Having enough powering stations in just San Benito County, I believe, is the least of our worries at this point.
Moreover, fossil fuels are still going to be used to build cars. They waste resources just as much as building gas-powered cars. They will use an exorbitant amount of electricity to run, yet what happens when our governor calls for mandatory brownouts that he supports and praises? How will the electric car owners charge their cars during those times? In addition, electric vehicles are not family-friendly on the pocketbook. They are not friendly for the construction worker who is struggling to make ends meet. We will need more recharging stations all over the place in shopping centers, at hotels, airports, in parking garages, etc. and there will be ancillary repercussions for those too. Charging takes time. Most people are in a hurry to get from point A to point B and gas fuels quickly and gets people on their way in no time. Who has time to wait somewhere for their car to fully charge? We hardly have time to wait for our cell phones to charge, let alone our cars to charge. We must take this and other ramifications into consideration before we even consider making this a requirement of all Californians.
Robert Rivas, 42, is a lifelong San Benito County resident and a registered Democrat. He attended both CSU-Sacramento and San Jose State University. Prior to winning election to the Assembly in 2018, he served two terms on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. In 2020, he was appointed as chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee and elected as vice-chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus. He successfully sponsored several bills including the COVID-19 Farmworker Relief Package, Golden State Teacher Grant Program and the Oil Transportation Safety Act.
BenitoLink: The San Benito County Board of Supervisors has said Prop 13 (property tax distribution) has long stalled revenue for the county, with 56% of that money going to school districts and 11% going to the county. Are there changes to Prop 13 that need to be made to help rural counties like San Benito?
Rivas: There is no question that rural counties lack adequate resources to fund infrastructure improvements and robust public services for local residents. I have helped previous efforts to raise revenue for public safety and fire protection—but more is needed. I will continue to work with local elected officials to determine the best path forward to build a strong local economy.
The state is facing a years-long drought. What is your solution to managing water while allowing local farmers and ranchers to be successful?
Having lived in an agricultural region my entire life, and now serving as the chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, I have seen first-hand the impact of the drought on our agricultural community. We live in one of the most productive agricultural regions on the planet—the food we grow here helps to feed people across the world. All available options, from increasing water storage capacity to utilizing more reclamation water, need to be on the table to make sure our farmers and ranchers thrive.
Many residents feel San Benito County is overlooked. One case could be the planned high-speed rail passing through the county but not having a stop, or Gavilan College relocating to Gilroy. As the representative, name three things you can make happen that will benefit the county with respect to transportation, education, recreation or economic vitality.
Throughout my time in the Assembly, I have worked to bring much-needed funding back to San Benito County and the surrounding region. However, we still have a lot of work to do. I will continue to be a voice in Sacramento for local stakeholders and organizations. Specifically, I will continue to work with officials at the state and federal levels to secure funding to better equip the county to provide broadband service to residents, improve local roads and infrastructure, and to build safe and adequate housing to address the affordability crisis.
Caltrans has wasted millions of dollars on projects in San Benito County, including the Hwy 25 curve realignment (1/8 of a mile costing $22 million) and the grading correction on San Felipe/HWY 25. With limited funding coming to the county, how can you keep Caltrans accountable to ensure proper infrastructure.
Our streets and roads in San Benito County desperately need maintenance and upgrades. Ultimately, we need to think creatively about long-term transportation solutions. I have been working with community leaders and other state legislators to secure additional funding for our district’s transportation needs and speed up the pace of much-needed maintenance and repairs. We must modernize the oversight process of Caltrans and work to cut down on any inefficiencies to save time and resources. This will accelerate the construction of transportation infrastructure projects and ensure taxpayer funds are spent effectively.
With the move to electric vehicles, how do you ensure rural areas such as San Benito County won’t have too few charging stations?
In my time in the Assembly, I have worked to secure additional funding for electric vehicle charging stations throughout rural areas of the state. I will continue to advocate for additional electric vehicle infrastructure throughout our region.
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