SACRAMENTO — California is flooded with money and Gov. Gavin Newsom will outline how he thinks the nation's most populous state should spend it Thursday when he releases a revised version of his $200 billion-plus state budget. The Democratic governor has already proposed new spending to expand health care for...
Gov. Newsom Wants to End Tax on Tampons, Diapers
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, unveiled Tuesday what they call a "parents' agenda," including proposals to end the sales tax on tampons and diapers and to use revenue from legal marijuana sales to expand child care programs. "The governor and I are proud parents...
Walters: How Budget 'Trailer Bills' Are Misused
In the jargon of the Capitol, “trailer bills” are measures that accompany the annual state budget – in theory making the changes of law necessary to implement the budget’s fiscal policies. In practice, they serve another, much different function – to sneakily do things that might otherwise be difficult to...
Central Valley Raises Its Voice To Boost Business
The 2019 legislative session was just getting underway in Sacramento. The ink was barely dry on hundreds of proposed bills (many of them mere placeholders) drafted by Assembly members and senators to address the myriad issues facing those who live, work, and do business in the state of California. In...
Walters: Politicians Like to Keep Us in the Dark
Every year, governors and state legislators load up bills that supposedly implement the state budget with all sorts of extracurricular provisions benefiting those to whom they owe favors. They use these “trailer bills” because they can be, and often have been, passed very quickly after being drafted, thereby concealing their...
Walters: A Cautious Budget With a Bold Housing Plan
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. For nearly two hours, Newsom explained his $209.1 billion 2019-20 budget and fielded questions from reporters, displaying in minute...
California Gives $9.7M for Cheech Marin's Chicano Art Museum
LOS ANGELES — Months after California legalized recreational marijuana the state is giving stoner comedian Cheech Marin's Chicano art museum $9.7 million. It must be fate. The money was tucked away in the $139 billion California budget Gov. Jerry Brown signed Wednesday. Museum Scheduled To Open in 2020 The Cheech...