California Voices

Susan Kirsch, Livable California: We have a housing problem, but the crisis is the loss of democracy brought about by the financialization of housing. When legislators become champions of the simplistic explanation that cities are to blame, they abandon critical thinking, their constituents, and their oaths of office.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Legislature face tough decisions on legislation to speed up housing construction.

Dan Schnur, USC’s Annenberg School of Communications: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to sign a bill that would require Donald Trump to disclose his tax returns to qualify for next year’s California primary ballot was a savvy political maneuver for our governor. But the practical impact of Newsom’s maneuver is negligible and the potential downside is considerable.

Garry South, Democratic consultant: Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. Gov. Newsom was right–morally, legally and politically—to sign Senate Bill 27 requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the primary ballot. Good for him for being a Democratic governor with the courage to do so, and to take the resulting flak.

Legislators are working on a plan to shift money from California's bedraggled bullet train project to improvements in commuter transit.

Elizabeth Simons, Heising-Simons Foundation: In Gavin Newsom, California finally has a governor who gets the need for high quality, accessible early childhood education and care. And yet California voters rank early childhood spending below other educational priorities. Why the disconnect?

California has become a two-tier society with incomes, housing costs, education and ethnicity its markers.

Re: “California’s other fiscal crisis,” Dan Walters, July 29. Dan Walters does what he does best and makes a complicated and seemingly sleep-inducing issue insight concern. It seems you can’t spell California state government without federal money these days. Walters reminds us that California’s place as the fifth-largest economy in the world is a fine […]

Ruben Honig, United Cannabis Business Association: Cannabis consumers cannot trust that they are using safe products unless they purchase from licensed retailers. Many third-party advertisers in California, as well as apps, encourage cannabis ads whether or not the business is licensed. That is patently unfair to licensed operators, and it is anti-consumer.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is being hammered by allegations that he took campaign contributions from insurance industry sources and favored contributors.