CA lawmakers move slowly on ‘urgent’ affordability plans

Five months after Democratic legislative leaders urged their colleagues to focus on bills that would make California more affordable, lawmakers don’t have much to show for it.

As CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu explains, last week Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas of Salinas unveiled four new select committees — which are essentially working groups tasked with addressing specific policies — to tackle what Rivas said are the “biggest cost drivers for Californians.” The committees will take aim at:

• Lowering the cost of child care;
• Making food more affordable;
• Making housing more affordable;
• Reviewing the effectiveness of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which some argue leads to higher gas prices.

The committees, however, won’t meet until June. In the meantime, Rivas has backed a handful of measures that would speed up housing construction. Senate Democrats also unveiled three bills last week to lower energy costs, increase housing supplies and expand job training.

But some analysts question whether the state can legislate its way out of its most intractable issues — especially while President Donald Trump’s tariffs are increasing prices and have the potential to upend various California industries.

• Garry South, longtime Democratic strategist: “(The bills) all sound good on the surface, but I don’t think there’s any predictability that if any of them pass, or all pass, that all of a sudden we are going to be out of the housing crisis in California.”

Read more here.

Speaking of the Legislature: A bill that would make soliciting minors for sex a felony embroiled Democratic lawmakers in controversy last week, after the bill’s author, Assemblymember Maggy Krell, objected to changes that would exclude soliciting older minors who are 16 and 17 years old. Some Democrats and criminal justice reform advocates argue that the provision would punish older teenagers in consenting relationships.

But Republicans, as well as a few other Democrats including Krell, say those concerns are largely hypothetical, and that prosecutors wouldn’t spend time charging teenagers for having consensual sex. Read more from CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang.

After deadly wildfires tore through Los Angeles County in January, survivors are alleging that State Farm is delaying or denying property insurance claims, and they’re calling for the state’s insurance chief to investigate, writes CalMatters’ Levi Sumagaysay.

Last week California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara sent a letter to the company’s chief executive, asking for a copy of State Farm’s standards for reviewing and processing smoke damage claims. Lara also asked State Farm to commit to covering at least 75% of survivors’ personal property without having claimants submit detailed inventories of their belongings. The company has until Friday to respond to Lara’s letter.

Meanwhile, California homeowners are suing State Farm and other insurers, accusing the companies of conspiring against policyholders after the wildfires. State Farm is also awaiting approval from an administrative law judge for its request for temporary emergency rate increases after receiving the initial green light from Lara in March.

A State Farm spokesperson said the company has received roughly 12,500 claims related to the fires, and have paid over $3.12 billion to customers. It estimates it will pay more than $7 billion in claims from the L.A.-area fires.

Read more here.

From CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn:

California and Texas are contrasts in the country’s culture and political wars, but are also home to two of the nation’s most prominent public university systems. So it’s no wonder that a vacancy in California is filled by a Texan.

On Friday the Board of Regents of the University of California voted to hire the chancellor of the University of Texas system, James B. Milliken, as the next president of the UC. His base salary will be $1,475,000. The current president, Michael V. Drake, said last year he’d step down July, 2025. Milliken takes the job in August.

Milliken brings higher-education governance experience in politically liberal and conservative states, having led the large and economically diverse City University of New York, which includes numerous community colleges. That diversity of contexts will likely benefit his tenure as UC’s leader: He must navigate the pressures of a largely progressive California Legislature that seeks access to more low-income students at the UC while also facing the Trump administration’s deep scrutiny of the nation’s universities’ practices and missions, including the UC’s.

Milliken sought to address those pressures last Friday, without mentioning the political climate by name.

• Milliken, to regents after his appointment: “Talent is not determined by zip code, national origin, race, gender or wealth. But too often, over history, opportunity has been. Education, and particularly public higher education, is the most effective bridge we have found to connect talent and opportunity.”

Last week an investigation by CalMatters and The Markup revealed how digital trackers on Covered California’s website sent visitors’ health information to LinkedIn. Following the story’s publication, a proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed alleging that the tracking violates state and federal law, and a California congressman has called for a federal probe. Find out more from CalMatters’ Colin Lecher and Tomas Apodaca.