California

Mark Herbert, California director for Small Business Majority, Concord Although California leads the nation in expanding healthcare coverage, too many middle income entrepreneurs and small business employees are struggling to afford health insurance. Something is being done about this problem, but it isn’t quite enough just yet. As part of the next state budget, California […]

Elaine M. Howle: California voters took the job of redistricting out of the hands of politicians and gave it to a first-ever citizens commission. The result is a process that ensures fairness and equity in campaigns. And we’re about to take our second walk down that very important road.

Jared Martin: In this legislative session, our state’s leaders have spoken with great passion about solving the housing crisis. They say this is the most critical issue facing California. They question how our state’s future will look if we don’t act now. Yet lawmakers haven’t been willing to take the tough votes to move forward meaningful policy that advances the solution: supply.

Glenn Sacks: During the Cold War, Americans were rightly dismayed by 1970s Soviet history textbook’s portrayal of D-Day and America’s role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Current Russian textbooks and statements by some Russian leaders are similarly problematic. But they’re not the only ones distorting the truth. I know because I am a high school history teacher in the largest public school district in California.

With an expected Senate special election victory in June, the ranks of female political role models will inch higher at the Capitol and an even broader array of issues may gain attention. Still, when combined with the 2018 electoral successes, women will comprise fewer than one-third of the 120-member Legislature.

Raising property taxes on businesses means they will pass on the costs to every Californian by increasing prices on just about everything we buy and use, from diapers and day care to gasoline and groceries. That’s the last thing hardworking families need.

Death and taxes are all but certain. But the bright side is that the power to tax ultimately lies with the people, as Californians have the constitutional right to vote on local taxes, and the right to elect state officials with taxing power.

As the cost of health care, housing, food, and transportation continue to rise, we must make work pay better. Expanding the California earned income tax credit will do that for those who need it most.

Under the "housing first" model, programs that require sobriety or engagement in life-improvement services are ineligible for government funding. This is a travesty for people seeking to escape the hold of drug addiction, and a threat to their children. Already traumatized children should not be placed in housing where drug use is permitted.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime death penalty opponent, has announced a moratorium on executions in California. His move over-rides a decision the state’s voters made in 2016 to maintain capital punishment.