California
Blog
California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies
Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011. At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
Blog
Is California Already Tired of Newsom’s “Winning” So Much This Legislative Session?
President Trump said many times during the 2016 election that the American people would “win” so much under his administration that they would get tired of winning. Now that the 2019 legislative session is over, Gov. Gavin Newsom may be making the same boast.California’s new governor was, by all accounts, ...
California
California — Still Crazy After All These Years
The California Legislature session has ended for the year, so there’s little it can wreck over the next few months. But enough damage was done since January to last beyond 2019 and deep into the Blue future. It’s easy for the rest of the country to dismiss Sacramento’s lawmaking. After ...
California
Steven Greenhut – 2019 End-of-Session Wrap-Up
Longtime Capitol journalist Steven Greenhut of the R Street Institute joins us for our annual end-of-session wrap-up. We discuss all the hot issues from this legislative session, including the debate over who is an independent contractor and who is an employee, the fight over charter schools, the potential return of ...
Blog
California Homeless Czar Overthrown In Favor of Task Force
Gov. Gavin Newsom will not after all appoint a homelessness czar, as he had promised he would during the 2018 campaign. Now, if he would just disband the homelessness task force that was formed in the spring. While running for governor last year as the state’s homeless crisis became a ...
California
Battle over “progressive” solutions leaves independent contractors on edge
As the final week of the legislative session was winding down, the Senate and Assembly in party-line votes approved Assembly Bill 5, which will codify the state Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling, leaving as many as 2 million freelance workers with an unsure future. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who publicly endorsed the ...
Blog
Is Universal Basic Income Really a “Freedom Dividend”?
On Thursday night, the Democratic presidential candidates will meet for the next presidential debate in Houston. One surprising candidate who qualified for the Houston debate and has attracted a small but growing following of supporters (known as the Yang Gang) is Andrew Yang. Yang’s platform consists primarily of one issue ...
Health Care
Sally C. Pipes Comments on CA Medi-Cal expansion in CALmatters story
Democratic legislators are advancing a bill that aims to provide free health care to low-income undocumented seniors — an idea that they floated earlier this year, but which failed to make it into the state budget because of concerns over its cost. The bill, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Maria Elena ...
Blog
California Policymakers Will Never Fix The State’s Housing Crisis By Looking Backward
Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have made it clear they believe rent control is one of the solutions to California’s housing shortage. According to the Los Angeles Times, an agreement announced late on the Friday evening before the Labor Day weekend between the governor and legislative leaders “would cap rent ...
Agriculture
California Lawmakers Always Thirsty for More Water Laws
Water policy is one of those topics that can leave newcomers and casual listeners feeling inundated. The regulations that govern state and federal water policy are laced with a flood of acronyms and terms, with a steady gush of changes to state water policy and regulation over the past decade. ...
California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies
Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011. At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
Is California Already Tired of Newsom’s “Winning” So Much This Legislative Session?
President Trump said many times during the 2016 election that the American people would “win” so much under his administration that they would get tired of winning. Now that the 2019 legislative session is over, Gov. Gavin Newsom may be making the same boast.California’s new governor was, by all accounts, ...
California — Still Crazy After All These Years
The California Legislature session has ended for the year, so there’s little it can wreck over the next few months. But enough damage was done since January to last beyond 2019 and deep into the Blue future. It’s easy for the rest of the country to dismiss Sacramento’s lawmaking. After ...
Steven Greenhut – 2019 End-of-Session Wrap-Up
Longtime Capitol journalist Steven Greenhut of the R Street Institute joins us for our annual end-of-session wrap-up. We discuss all the hot issues from this legislative session, including the debate over who is an independent contractor and who is an employee, the fight over charter schools, the potential return of ...
California Homeless Czar Overthrown In Favor of Task Force
Gov. Gavin Newsom will not after all appoint a homelessness czar, as he had promised he would during the 2018 campaign. Now, if he would just disband the homelessness task force that was formed in the spring. While running for governor last year as the state’s homeless crisis became a ...
Battle over “progressive” solutions leaves independent contractors on edge
As the final week of the legislative session was winding down, the Senate and Assembly in party-line votes approved Assembly Bill 5, which will codify the state Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling, leaving as many as 2 million freelance workers with an unsure future. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who publicly endorsed the ...
Is Universal Basic Income Really a “Freedom Dividend”?
On Thursday night, the Democratic presidential candidates will meet for the next presidential debate in Houston. One surprising candidate who qualified for the Houston debate and has attracted a small but growing following of supporters (known as the Yang Gang) is Andrew Yang. Yang’s platform consists primarily of one issue ...
Sally C. Pipes Comments on CA Medi-Cal expansion in CALmatters story
Democratic legislators are advancing a bill that aims to provide free health care to low-income undocumented seniors — an idea that they floated earlier this year, but which failed to make it into the state budget because of concerns over its cost. The bill, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Maria Elena ...
California Policymakers Will Never Fix The State’s Housing Crisis By Looking Backward
Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have made it clear they believe rent control is one of the solutions to California’s housing shortage. According to the Los Angeles Times, an agreement announced late on the Friday evening before the Labor Day weekend between the governor and legislative leaders “would cap rent ...
California Lawmakers Always Thirsty for More Water Laws
Water policy is one of those topics that can leave newcomers and casual listeners feeling inundated. The regulations that govern state and federal water policy are laced with a flood of acronyms and terms, with a steady gush of changes to state water policy and regulation over the past decade. ...
