The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) is one of the state’s treasures, supplying invaluable, in-depth research into our thorniest issues such as water, housing, transportation and, most importantly, the state’s socioeconomic fragmentation. California’s politicians rarely make any progress in addressing those issues, but PPIC’s research — and its high-quality...
Bay Area Has Highest Income Inequality in California
It’s official: The gap between the Bay Area’s haves and have-nots is wider than anywhere else in the state. Top income earners in the Bay Area make 12.2 times as much as those at the bottom of the economic ladder, according to new research from the Public Policy Institute of...
Poll Reveals Mounting Pressure on Newsom to Fix Homelessness
Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke powerfully about California's homelessness crisis during his Wednesday stop in Fresno, saying “Enough is enough. We got to own this. We got to meet this moment." Listen to this article: But, in addition to fulfilling the moral imperative of giving people a hand up, the governor has...
School Bond Backers Have Some Selling to Do, Poll Shows
California voters have resoundingly approved tens of billions of dollars in state school construction bonds over the last two decades. But a new survey suggests that voters have yet to similarly warm up to the latest and heftiest proposal to come before them: a $15 billion state bond for public schools, community colleges...
Walters: 2020 Property Tax Measure Altered
Sponsors of a 2020 ballot measure to increase property taxes on factories, stores, warehouses, office buildings and other commercial real estate withdrew it this week and launched a revised version. It would be, the union-led sponsoring coalition said, an improvement that eases the potential impact on small business. More likely,...
Walters: 2020 Property Tax Measure Altered
Sponsors of a 2020 ballot measure to increase property taxes on factories, stores, warehouses, office buildings and other commercial real estate withdrew it this week and launched a revised version. It would be, the union-led sponsoring coalition said, an improvement that eases the potential impact on small business. More likely,...
Needy School Districts Getting More Money. What About Needy Kids?
Six years into California’s effort to target school funding more to disadvantaged students, new research has found that high-need districts are getting substantially more money. But the report released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California indicates poorer schools getting most of the extra help are relying on less experienced and...
Walters: Housing Shortage Crisis Looms Large
When the state Legislature returns to Sacramento this month after its summer vacation recess, it will have just four weeks to do something meaningful about California’s single most important issue – a housing shortage that takes a heavy economic and psychological toll on many Californians and is getting worse. While...
Walters: California’s Two-Tier Society
Thirty-four years ago, two researchers delved into California’s rapidly changing demographic and economic trends and saw “an emerging two-tier economy with Asians and better-educated non-Hispanic whites and blacks competing for the prestigious occupations while poorly educated Hispanics and blacks scramble for the lower status jobs …” The study, titled “Population...
Kamala Harris Up, Biden (Way) Down in Latest California Poll
A new poll gives Sen. Kamala Harris a narrow lead among Democratic voters in her home state of California, but otherwise shows the race is still up in the air. That’s probably terrible news for Joe Biden. And the poll is also bound to disappoint Pete Buttigieg. The mayor of...