Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

2 hours ago

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

3 hours ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

3 hours ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

4 hours ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

7 hours ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

8 hours ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

8 hours ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

8 hours ago
Walters: A Cautious Budget With a Bold Housing Plan
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 6 years ago on
January 11, 2019

Share

Jerry Brown is a hard act to follow but his successor as governor, Gavin Newsom, acquitted himself well – if very lengthily – in presenting his first state budget on Thursday.


Opinion
Dan Walters
CALmatters Commentary

For nearly two hours, Newsom explained his $209.1 billion 2019-20 budget and fielded questions from reporters, displaying in minute knowledge its provisions and underlying issues.
For nearly two hours, Newsom explained his $209.1 billion 2019-20 budget and fielded questions from reporters, displaying in minute knowledge its provisions and underlying issues.
It was three times as long as the typical budget unveiling each January, an exercise that Brown’s first budget director four-plus decades ago, Roy Bell, once described as a “dog and pony show,” and maybe the longest news conference ever held in and around the Capitol.
Newsom’s major point, which he repeatedly stressed, was that even with the state treasury flush with billions of extra tax dollars, he’s being careful about making long-term commitments that could backfire in a recession and, instead, is devoting the vast majority of those dollars to one-time spending and/or paying down debt, including unfunded pension liabilities.
Newsom called it “budget resiliency,” noting that even a moderate recession could slash revenues by $70-plus billion over three years, overwhelming the state’s “rainy day fund” and other reserves.
In effect, he’s continuing Brown’s cautious approach to expensive commitments, while offering one-time appropriations and start-up funds for the ambitious expansion of health care, early childhood services and other big-ticket programs he also advocates.

Newsom Fully Embraces Housing Shortage

While Newsom stressed the budget’s finances, it’s also a policy document whose most important segment deals with the state’s most pressing issue, a chronic and growing shortage of housing that has driven costs sky-high, discouraged private sector investment and caused the state to have the nation’s highest level of poverty.
Brown was only tangentially interested in housing, but Newsom is fully embracing the issue and is pledging vigorous, even coercive, action to deal with it, pointing out that since 2007, the state has built only 40 percent of the housing it needs.
While committing more money to low-income housing, Newsom also outlined a new response to the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) attitudes in many communities toward more construction.
He would replace the state’s toothless local housing quotas with regional quotas and penalties for not meeting them.
“Homelessness and housing have to be looked at on a regional basis,” he said. “We are going to establish real goals, break them down by regions and hold them accountable,” Newsom said, warning, “If you don’t meet the goals, we’re going to take (transportation) money from you.”

High Time for State to Do More About Housing

Newsom also wants corporate employers, especially those in Silicon Valley, to “step up and help us” increase housing supply. “We are doing our part and I will be asking them to do their part,” he said.

Newsom’s budget declares that the state needs to be building 200,000 new units a year to keep up with demand and they would cost, at an average of $350,000 per unit even for so-called “affordable housing,” about $70 billion a year.
Finally, Newsom threw cold water on efforts to resurrect redevelopment in cities, which had once been a major source of low-cost housing funds. With other efforts underway, he said, redevelopment, which has problems of its own, is probably not needed.
It’s certainly high time for the state to do more about housing than occasionally throwing some token funds at it.
Newsom’s budget declares that the state needs to be building 200,000 new units a year to keep up with demand and they would cost, at an average of $350,000 per unit even for so-called “affordable housing,” about $70 billion a year.
Even governments in a state as economically prosperous as California don’t have that kind of money, so truly solving the housing crisis requires making private investment more attractive. And that means confronting NIMBYism head-on, something Brown talked about but never did.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

DON'T MISS

US Military Says 200 Marines Being Sent to Support ICE in Florida

DON'T MISS

Boeing Secures $2.8 Billion US Satellite Contract

DON'T MISS

Kaweah Health Names Its New Chief Nurse. She’s From Texas

DON'T MISS

Clovis Police Say At-Risk Missing Woman Found Dead in Mariposa County

DON'T MISS

Over 100 Former Senior Officials Warn Against Planned Staff Cuts at US State Department

DON'T MISS

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

DON'T MISS

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Recover Some of the $40,000 in Fireworks Stolen From Bullard High Team

DON'T MISS

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

UP NEXT

From Victims to Perpetrators: Israeli Soldiers’ Nazi Comparisons and the Unfolding War Crimes in Gaza

UP NEXT

Dear Mayor and City Council, Fresno’s Housing Bottlenecks Are a Modern Form of Redlining

UP NEXT

A Path Forward on Immigration Reform That Strengthens America

UP NEXT

Israel Faces Genocide Accusations Amid Gaza Food Aid Killings

UP NEXT

I Detest Netanyahu, but on Some Things He’s Actually Right

UP NEXT

Much of LA’s Community of Immigrants Is Hiding, Leaving a Hole in the Fabric of the City

UP NEXT

Things Netanyahu Might Say if Injected With Truth Serum

UP NEXT

California Politicians Ignore Ag’s Troubles, but Boost Movie Business

UP NEXT

Trump’s Courageous and Correct Decision to Bomb Iran

UP NEXT

How the Attacks on Iran Are Part of a Much Bigger Global Struggle

Kaweah Health Names Its New Chief Nurse. She’s From Texas

51 minutes ago

Clovis Police Say At-Risk Missing Woman Found Dead in Mariposa County

1 hour ago

Over 100 Former Senior Officials Warn Against Planned Staff Cuts at US State Department

1 hour ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

2 hours ago

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

3 hours ago

Fresno Police Recover Some of the $40,000 in Fireworks Stolen From Bullard High Team

3 hours ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

3 hours ago

Trump to Sign Bill on Friday at 5 p.m., White House Says

3 hours ago

Colombia President Recalls Ambassador to US

3 hours ago

Riverdale High School Coach Arrested for Allegedly Arranging to Meet Minor

4 hours ago

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

As the drama unfolded Wednesday night into Thursday, Rep. David Valadao was one of the initial holdouts on voting for the “One Big Bea...

16 minutes ago

16 minutes ago

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

An ICE agent talks with migrants about their scheduled appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Father’s Day, to learn about their immigration status, in Chicago, Illinois., U.S., June 15, 2025. (Reuters File)
39 minutes ago

US Military Says 200 Marines Being Sent to Support ICE in Florida

Boeing logo and miniature satellite model are seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters File)
48 minutes ago

Boeing Secures $2.8 Billion US Satellite Contract

51 minutes ago

Kaweah Health Names Its New Chief Nurse. She’s From Texas

Clovis Police are searching for Pathmani Goonawardena, 82, who went missing nearly three weeks ago and was last seen driving a white Volvo near Copper and Auberry, possibly en route to Coarsegold. (CHP)
1 hour ago

Clovis Police Say At-Risk Missing Woman Found Dead in Mariposa County

A general view of a U.S. State Department sign, on the day U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 4, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Over 100 Former Senior Officials Warn Against Planned Staff Cuts at US State Department

An electric vehicle charging location is shown from the view of a drone in Carlsbad, California, U.S., May 14, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

Actor Michael Madsen arrives at the Hollywood Film Awards in Beverly Hills, California November 1, 2015. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend