When the year began, the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom had just two must-do jobs – pass a state budget and do something meaningful about the state’s chronic and corrosive shortage of housing. The budget is a slam-dunk, thanks to the state’s fat treasury. Housing, however, is a smellier kettle...
Weakling or Bully? The Battle Over CEQA, California’s Iconic Environmental Law
In the rugged hills to the east of the Napa Valley, chainsaws and bulldozers converted a steep hillside of scrubby oak woodland and rockpiles into another vineyard. “That was an incredible rock-hopping wonderland, with frothing, amazing, waterfalling cascades every time it rained — I mean, it should have been a...
Walters: State Tax Reforms or State Tax Increases?
There is a substantial list of governance issues that former Gov. Jerry Brown said were important, but that he left on his desk for successor Gavin Newsom. For instance, although he and the Legislature enacted a very modest reform of public employee pensions, he repeatedly said it was only a...