Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Storyland Will Sparkle for All Visitors With $1 Million City of Fresno Grant

6 hours ago

Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath’s Bat-Biting Frontman, Dies at 76, BBC Reports

11 hours ago

What’s Fresno County Worth? Property Tax Roll Grows by Billions of Dollars

13 hours ago

Fresno County Authorities Seek Help Locating Missing Woman and Infant

13 hours ago

Maddy Institute Fundraiser to Highlight Central Valley’s Impact at State Capitol

13 hours ago

No Aid Supplies Left and Staff Are Starving in Gaza, Says Norwegian Refugee Council

14 hours ago

US Justice Dept. Asks Epstein Associate Maxwell to Speak to Prosecutors

14 hours ago

Trump’s Golden Dome Looks for Alternatives to Musk’s SpaceX

14 hours ago

Fresno Unified’s Free Immunization Clinics for Students Start in August

16 hours ago
Walters: Newsom Wheels and Deals on Big Issues
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 6 years ago on
September 5, 2019

Share

Gavin Newsom wasn’t born when the TV game show “Let’s Make a Deal” began its run but he’s channeling its host, Monty Hall, during the final days of his first legislative session as governor.
Every few days, it seems, Newsom announces that he and legislative leaders have agreed on one of the session’s major issues, most prominently — so far — rent control and charter school oversight.


Dan Walters
CALmatters

Opinion
Additionally, Labor Day saw a Newsom declaration that he supports Assembly Bill 5, arguably this year’s most controversial bill. It would place in state law, with some modifications, a state Supreme Court ruling that tightens up the legal definition of employment, striking a blow at widespread use of contract workers.
As the overall tone of Newsom’s initial year emerges, one bill at a time, he’s clearly moving California at least a few notches to the left, into ideological territory that his predecessors, including Jerry Brown, were not willing to explore.
That’s not unexpected, given what he said during last year’s campaign. Nevertheless what he’s doing now, and what he had already done in his first state budget, invite some skepticism about their long-term effects.
Sometimes, making a political deal becomes an end unto itself. Politicians, especially high-profile officeholders such as governors, often become more interested in making a deal than ensuring it’s the right deal.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

The classic example of the syndrome is what happened in the final hours of the 1996 legislative session, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature rushed to enact an ill-conceived “deregulation” of the electric power industry without considering the potential downside risks.
It exposed California to manipulation of its electric power market, led to the bankruptcy of one major utility (Pacific Gas and Electric) and the near-insolvency of another (Southern California Edison) and has cost Californians countless billions of dollars in their utility bills.
PG&E is once again in bankruptcy, this time because of huge wildfire damage costs, and Newsom is working feverishly on some kind of deal to intervene as immensely powerful financial interests, including the utility’s stockholders and bondholders, squabble over its future.
What could possibly go wrong? The question answers itself.
Rent control is another potential downer. California’s chronic shortage of housing has sent costs skyrocketing and while rent control might help some tenants, it also sends a negative message to housing developers.
The pending proposal would apply only to older housing units, but once rent control is lodged in state law, Newsom, et al, will be pressed to expand its reach and that possibility will discourage the massive investment California sorely needs.

Companies Directly Affected by AB 5

Moreover, it’s unlikely that the session will directly confront the not-in-my-backyard attitudes of local governments, which also discourage new investment. Newsom says he wants more construction, but so far Newsom and legislators are moving in the opposite direction.

Newsom is building his short run record, but whether it will benefit California in the longer run is an open question.
Meanwhile, at the behest of unions, they are imposing new limits on the expansion of charter schools to protect the finances of traditional public schools. But they also limit options for children in low-performing schools, and thus could doom those kids, particularly those from poor families, to sub-par educations.
Finally, there’s AB 5, which would bolster the traditional form of work – on a payroll, with fringe benefits – but undercut the fast-growing “gig economy.”
Three companies directly affected by AB 5, Uber, Lyft and Doordash, have pledged $90 million toward a possible ballot measure to overturn the measure, so its passage probably isn’t the last word.
Newsom is building his short run record, but whether it will benefit California in the longer run is an open question.
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.
[activecampaign form=31]

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

Trump Announces Trade Deal With Japan, Including 15% Tariff

DON'T MISS

Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another

DON'T MISS

Visalia DUI Operation Nets 17 Arrests Over Weekend

DON'T MISS

Storyland Will Sparkle for All Visitors With $1 Million City of Fresno Grant

DON'T MISS

Former Madera Charter School Executive Charged With Embezzling Federal Funds

DON'T MISS

Fresno Unified Doesn’t Respond to Public Records Requests. Is District Hiding Something?

DON'T MISS

US Appeals Court Will Not Lift Limits on Associated Press Access to White House

DON'T MISS

Feds Award $93 Million to Key San Joaquin River Salmon Restoration Project

DON'T MISS

With Backing From Dyer, Ashjian Reinstated to Measure C Panel

DON'T MISS

Fresno Shooting Leaves One Dead, Authorities Looking for Witnesses

UP NEXT

Masked Raids and Impersonators Driving Force Behind Terror Campaign Across Nation

UP NEXT

I’m Not Leaving Measure C and COG Can’t Make Me: Brooke Ashjian

UP NEXT

I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.

UP NEXT

California Is Finally Adopting Phonics, Fulfilling a Grandmother’s Dream

UP NEXT

New CA Budget Papers Over $20 Billion Deficit, Ignores Day of Reckoning

UP NEXT

Trump Is Winning the Race to the Bottom

UP NEXT

Why California Ag Is at Odds Over Converting Land to Solar Farms

UP NEXT

Federal Immigration Crackdown Threatens California’s Historic Housing Reforms

UP NEXT

Governors Should Be the Face of the Democratic Party

UP NEXT

MAGA Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Jeffrey Epstein

Storyland Will Sparkle for All Visitors With $1 Million City of Fresno Grant

6 hours ago

Former Madera Charter School Executive Charged With Embezzling Federal Funds

6 hours ago

Fresno Unified Doesn’t Respond to Public Records Requests. Is District Hiding Something?

7 hours ago

US Appeals Court Will Not Lift Limits on Associated Press Access to White House

7 hours ago

Feds Award $93 Million to Key San Joaquin River Salmon Restoration Project

7 hours ago

With Backing From Dyer, Ashjian Reinstated to Measure C Panel

8 hours ago

Fresno Shooting Leaves One Dead, Authorities Looking for Witnesses

8 hours ago

Epstein Files Fight Leads US House Republicans to Start Summer Break a Day Early

9 hours ago

Obama Reiterates Conclusion of Attempted Russian Interference in 2016 Election

9 hours ago

What Do Fresno Families Pay in Taxes? Study Says 11th Lowest Rate in Nation

10 hours ago

Trump Announces Trade Deal With Japan, Including 15% Tariff

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a trade deal with Japan that he said will result in Japan investing $550 bill...

5 hours ago

Containers are pictured at an industrial port in Tokyo, Japan, July 2, 2025. (Reuters File)
5 hours ago

Trump Announces Trade Deal With Japan, Including 15% Tariff

American Jews are fracturing over Israel’s war in Gaza, as a generational divide deepens between older Jews who see Israel as essential for Jewish survival and younger Jews who view its actions as a moral crisis incompatible with liberal values. (Shutterstock)
6 hours ago

Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another

6 hours ago

Visalia DUI Operation Nets 17 Arrests Over Weekend

6 hours ago

Storyland Will Sparkle for All Visitors With $1 Million City of Fresno Grant

A U.S. Justice Department logo or seal showing Justice Department headquarters, known as "Main Justice," is seen behind the podium in the Department's headquarters briefing room before a news conference with the Attorney General in Washington, January 24, 2023. (Reuters File)
6 hours ago

Former Madera Charter School Executive Charged With Embezzling Federal Funds

FUSD Fresno Unified paper shredder gvwire
7 hours ago

Fresno Unified Doesn’t Respond to Public Records Requests. Is District Hiding Something?

AP's members leave the U.S. District Court, on the day a judge hears arguments in the Associated Press' (AP) bid to restore access for its journalists to cover press events aboard Air Force One and at the White House, after the Trump administration barred the news agency for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 27, 2025. (Reuters File)
7 hours ago

US Appeals Court Will Not Lift Limits on Associated Press Access to White House

Artist Rendering of Sack Dame and Arroyo Canal Project Site for San Joaquin River Salmon Restoration Project
7 hours ago

Feds Award $93 Million to Key San Joaquin River Salmon Restoration Project

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

Search

Send this to a friend