In March 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood before a crowd in Sacramento’s Cal Expo event center and made a promise: He’d send 1,200 tiny homes to shelter homeless residents in the capital city and three other places throughout the state. The move was part of Newsom’s push to improve the...
What Drives California’s Budget Decisions? A Lot of Politics, Not as Much Data
Frustration came through loud and clear as legislators hurled question after question at the head of the state’s homelessness interagency council: Why, after years of planning and billions of dollars invested, is there so little to show for the effort? “You come into a budget committee and there’s no numbers,”...
California Cracked Down After a Crash Killed 13 Farmworkers. Why Are Workers Still Dying on the Road?
FIREBAUGH — Adorned with Mexican flags, a cluster of crosses in the dirt on the side of a two-lane highway is the only sign of lives lost. On any given day, passenger vans whiz by rows of almond trees, carrying farmworkers to the orchards and vineyards that stretch across Fresno...
$20 Billion: The Delta Tunnel’s New Price Tag
California’s contentious and long-debated plan to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and pump more water south finally has a price tag: about $20 billion. The Rising Cost of the Delta Tunnel Project The new estimate for the Delta tunnel project — which would transform the massive water system that sends...
Gig Companies Spent $200M to Write a Labor Law. State Supreme Court Could Throw It Out.
The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next Tuesday in a case that could change the fate of more than 1 million gig workers in the state — and perhaps the way we hail rides, order takeout, or get groceries delivered. Four years ago, voters approved Proposition 22, a...
Should California Be Able to Require Sobriety in Homeless Housing?
Desperate for a way to help the tens of thousands of people living in tents, cars and RVs on California’s streets, lawmakers are attempting to upend a key tenet of the state’s homelessness policy. Two new bills would allow state funding to support sober housing — a significant departure from...
Sustainable Farms Need to Come Together, Not Cast Blame Over California Methane Program
Re: “How California’s prized solution for methane gas is backfiring on farmers“ I am a family farmer just like the author of a recent commentary critical of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, or LCFS. The difference is that my farm actively participates in the methane reduction program enlisted by the...
California Passed a Law to Stop ‘Pay to Play’ in Local Politics. After Two Years, Legislators Want to Gut It
Described by its author as the “most significant political reform” in decades, a 2022 law designed to limit businesses’ and contractors’ attempts to sway local elected officials with campaign contributions cleared the California Legislature without a single “no” vote. Two years later, some of the same legislators who backed the...
Californians Will See Lower Electricity Rates and a New Fee That Won’t Vary with Power Use
State utility regulators decided Thursday to let California’s largest power providers stick their customers with a new monthly flat fee in exchange for a reduction in the overall price of electricity, a controversial change to the way that millions of households pay their utility bills with weighty implications for state...
California Schools Can’t Keep Pace with Utility Bills. Lawmakers Must Fix New Solar Rules.
Serving as a school board president requires a deep dedication to ensuring districts have the resources needed to provide every student with a high-quality education. Sadly, that core mission has been challenged by runaway utility costs draining resources from already cash-strapped budgets. School districts such as Oakland and Clovis Unified,...