Guest Commentary

Re “California is a wondrous place. I’m leaving,” Dec. 15, 2019: California’s history is full of people like Andrew Malcolm. They come expecting California to live up to some Hollywood ideal; they leave disappointed.  California is a real place. We have real wonders and real ugliness. Accepting any place as your life home requires a […]

Andrew Malcolm: California is a special place. I've lived here by choice twice, nearly a quarter-century in total. I have no regrets about living here. And I don't regret leaving here. As the neighbor said, "California's not the same anymore."

Dane Strother, Sacramento-based Democratic strategist: I moved to California to learn. I’m here to watch. I’m here to work. I’m slowly not adding three hours every time I check the time. I’m grudgingly waiting for the walk sign. I have one professional chapter left to write in life and the new drawings on the Etch-A-Sketch are of new friends and a place I believe in.

Erica Costa, former Assembly Fellow: Differences between Republicans and Democrats permeate much of what occurs in the Capitol. But the California’s Assembly Fellowship Program can prepare people for meaningful careers in a highly charged partisan atmosphere, regardless of their party affiliation.

Austin Brown and Dan Sperling, UC Davis: Imposing fees on electric vehicles in California could reduce their sales by 10–24%. The result would be a small increase in transportation funding would come at the expense of the long-term benefits that electric vehicles deliver for individuals and for society. The upshot is that imposing new fees won’t solve our transportation problems. It will only make them worse.

Re “‘Tax exhaustion’ may be on the horizon,” Dan Walters, Dec. 9, 2019. Conflating Marin and Los Angeles parcel tax defeats misses the billion-dollar elephant in the room.    In the four highest cost counties in California—Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara—well over half a billion dollars of property tax, collected for and allocated […]

Re “Spending California’s surplus, how lobbying affected one consumer protection bill, and what came of Schwarzenegger’s Million Solar Roof goal,” WhatMatters, Dec. 10. It really upset me to see the reporting on Assemblyman Phil Ting’s proposal to use California’s budget surplus to throw more money at undocumented immigrants. Although a noble and generous gesture, I […]

Nat Kreamer and Mark Ferron, Advanced Energy Economy: More than half a million Californians work in the advanced energy industry, which makes the products and services required to power economies with 100% clean, reliable, safe electricity. Partnering with this industry will provide Gov. Newsom and his team expertise and resources to help solve California’s wildfire and blackout crisis.

an Smutny-Jones, Independent Energy Producers Association: It is understandable why lawmakers are angry about PG&E’s failure to invest properly in its infrastructure as local communities have suffered greatly from power shutoffs and wildfires. It is wrong, however, to blame California’s world-leading renewable energy policies.

Dr. John Maa, San Francisco surgeon: An entire generation of youth has been exposed to the dangers of a lifetime of nicotine addiction by Juul’s actions. As California is home to Juul, we have a special obligation to take the lead in ending this epidemic.