California Voices

Forty years ago today, a year-long power struggle erupted in the state Assembly, one that fundamentally changed the Capitol's culture.

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.

Walters: The mother of all medical-care battles will erupt if Gov. Gavin Newsom tries to make good on his campaign promise to install a single-payer system.

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.

Are California's voters getting turned off by constant pleas for new taxes? A new study of what happened in very affluent, very liberal Marin County suggests that they "tax exhaustion" may be developing.

Laura Holmes Haddad, cancer-patient advocate, speaker and author: I was 37 years old, and the mother of two children ages 1 and 4, when I was diagnosed with Stage IV inflammatory breast cancer. It is a rare, aggressive form of breast cancer that attacks the lymphatic system around the breast. A clinical trial saved my life. So why aren’t more cancer patients enrolling?

Local government officials complain about rising pension costs but shy away from telling voters that is why they need to pay more taxes.