Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News There's Another Proposition 13

Last week when my Official Voter Information Guide arrived in the mail, I saw immediately that it was 47 pages long and mostly on one topic: Proposition 13. I can’t imagine it took that many pages to explain the pluses and minuses of the original Proposition 13 back in 1978. With this version, it looks like something the voters should be careful to read in full before voting. Unfortunately, many will not and instead will go by the sound bite ads they hear on radio or TV, or see on social media.

Likely there are apt to be more ads in favor because of how many organizations seem to be on board with the measure, including the usual suspects like the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Charter Schools Association and various other school groups, like the California State PTA. The governor has thrown his political weight behind it, as have associations representing school boards, the UC regents and the community colleges’ board of governors. Then there is the California Building Industry Association, California Business Roundtable and California Chamber of Commerce. No surprise over any of them because for each, there is food at the table should the proposition pass.

Who is on the opposition side? There are not many. One is the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. A second is state Sen. Brian Jones, R-Santee. On social media, there are a number of “grassroots” organizations also opposed.

Read More [[link removed]] Study: Prop. 13 Reform Could Add $1.2B In Santa Clara County Revenue

A new report from University of Southern California researchers breaks down estimated local benefits of an upcoming ballot measure to reform Proposition 13, including $1.2 billion in Santa Clara County — assuming county assessors can handle the momentous task of implementing the changes.

Overall, an estimated $12 billion could potentially be reclaimed by communities across the Golden State, if currently proposed changes are made to the state’s property tax system, according to the USC Dornsife Program for Environmental and Regional Equity’s February report.

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Other proponents of the initiative include Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez, Working Partnerships USA, SEIU Local 521, SOMOS Mayfair, San Jose Teachers Association, SIREN and the League of Women Voters. Opponents include the California Business Roundtable, California Chamber of Commerce, California Taxpayers Association and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, named after the Orange County businessman that spearheaded Prop. 13’s 1978 approval.

Read More [[link removed]] California's Initiative Spending Could Top $500M As Groups Fight For Signatures, Attention

Forget the presidential election. For California voters, the epic November 2020 fights will involve a colossal collection of ballot initiatives.

Amending the landmark Proposition 13 property tax law. Exempting Uber and Lyft drivers from a sweeping new labor restriction. Tribes and card rooms vying for new gambling revenue, doctors battling lawyers over malpractice payouts. A revamped data privacy campaign taking aim at Silicon Valley. Renewed pushes to regulate dialysis clinics and dissolve a rent control prohibition. The bail industry fighting for its life.

A coming surge of high-impact, big-money fights has California poised to surpass all-time spending records set in 2018.

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Real estate interests and construction union allies will spend big again to defeat a second consecutive rent control ballot measure. Business and real estate groups have pledged whatever it takes to defeat a labor-backed “split-roll” effort to lift Prop 13’s commercial property tax protections.

“When you look at these initiatives, all of them — even though they’re different — have an impact on jobs moving forward. It’s just on different sectors of the economy,” said California Business Roundtable President Rob Lapsley, who’s organizing a concerted business effort to combat split roll. Lapsley argued that many campaigns are making a flawed assumption that if surging turnout “is anti-Trump, it will be pro-tax and anti-business.”

Read More [[link removed]] All Eyes On March

The California Target Book’s latest California political update, “All Eyes on March”, will be this Thursday, the 13th, from 1:30 until 5:00 in the CalChamber Conference Room, 1215 K Street, 14th floor.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla headlines the event that features panel discussions on Ground Campaigns, Independent Expenditures and Ballot Measures, as well as an overview of the hot legislative races in the March 3 primary.

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BALLOT MEASURES with Gale Kaufman, Kaufman Campaign Consultants; Rob Lapsley, California Business Roundtable; Ned Wigglesworth, Spectrum Campaigns; moderated by Target Book editor and public affairs and government relations specialist Marva Diaz

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation U.S. Consumer Spending Picks Up, While Manufacturing Declines

Consumer spending in the U.S. picked up slightly in January after a weak holiday season, while manufacturing started the year on a decline, suggesting forces that slowed 2019 growth continued at the start of this year.

Government and survey data released Friday showed consumers remained upbeat, but the manufacturing industry was struggling. “There seems to be this ongoing dichotomy between business and the consumer sector,” said Gregory Daco, an economist at Oxford Economics.

Businesses reined in investment in three out of four quarters in 2019, and remained constrained by weak global growth, trade tensions—and now China’s coronavirus outbreak that threatens to upend global supply chains.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Industrial Production Sputtered In January

U.S. industrial output fell in January, driven down by unseasonably warm temperatures and a halt in production at Boeing Co.

Industrial production, a measure of factory, mining and utility output, decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in January from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Friday.

Utility production dropped 4% last month, with electric and natural-gas utilities falling 3.2% and 7.7%, respectively, as Americans cut back on their energy consumption during a warmer-than-usual January.

Boeing’s woes also held down industrial output. The aircraft company halted production of the 737 MAX jet in January, leading to a 7.4% decrease in aerospace production and a 0.1% decline in overall manufacturing output last month. For the year through January, manufacturing production was down 0.8%.

Read More [[link removed]] Drop In Energy Prices Slowed U.S. Inflation In January

A sharp drop in energy prices slowed U.S. consumer inflation at the start of this year.

The consumer-price index—which measures changes in how much Americans are paying for everyday items ranging from clothes to grocery items—rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in January, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was a smaller increase than in December, when the index added 0.2%.

Energy prices fell 0.7% from the previous month, with gasoline down by 1.6% as global fuel demand ebbed amid China’s coronavirus outbreak. The trend is likely to continue in 2020, with the International Energy Agency forecasting global oil demand will fall in the first quarter because of an expected economic slowdown in China.

“The drop in energy prices in January certainly held back the overall inflation gain,” said Michelle Girard, chief U.S. economist at NatWest Markets. “In February, you’re going to see more of that given the falloff in oil prices as a result of the coronavirus and concern about global growth.”

Read More [[link removed]] California Is The Place To Be--Unless You're Middle Income And Need An Affordable Place To Live

If you’re looking for a job or a healthy lifestyle, California remains a dream come true.

Our economy created 3.4 million jobs in the 10 years since the worst of the Great Recession, accounting for one out of every seven new U.S. hires. The nine-county Bay Area would itself be the nation’s richest state, although the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire together would rank 48th among all states in wealth.

California continues to improve its health outcomes, ranking 12th among all states, compared with a ranking of 25th in 1994. Credit our low rates of smoking, obesity and occupational hazards, high physical activity, and enviable clinical care.

But there’s a problem.

Many Californians can no longer afford California.

Read More [[link removed]] New California Labor Law AB 5 Is Already Changing How Businesses Treat Workers

At Yogala Studios, a small, cozy storefront in Echo Park, the teachers work mostly part time, some giving just one class a week. Workshops are offered in “the ancient spiritual, philosophical and meditative traditions of yoga and tantra,” as well as in “meditation to tap into our creative potential to move through negative blocks.”

Recently, though, the studio has had to confront a very modern challenge: It is reclassifying its instructors, who had always been independent contractors, as employees with extensive labor protections because of California’s sweeping new law, Assembly Bill 5.

They aren’t complaining. “These are yogis,” said owner Samantha Garrison. “They look on the bright side of things.”

Across California, AB 5 is upending workplaces, prompting lawsuits, furious social media campaigns and a multimillion-dollar ballot initiative, sponsored by Uber, Lyft, Postmates and DoorDash, which are refusing to grant employee status to their tens of thousands of drivers.

Read More [[link removed]] Promoting Gig Economy Won't Help Low-Income Workers: Report

Forcing companies to consider freelance workers as employees could reduce these workers’ incomes and deprive many from reaching the first rung on the jobs ladder, according to a Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) report.

“The goal of a California law that took effect last September was to improve conditions for gig workers. In practice, it has led to mass layoffs of freelance workers in the media and the film industry,” says Peter St. Onge, senior economist at the MEI and author of the publication. “Despite good intentions, forcing employers to provide benefits to contract workers risks making matters a lot worse.”

California Bill 5 took effect on Jan. 1 and it effectively turned freelancers into employees, says St. Onge.

The sharing economy has created more than 60,000 Canadian jobs per year on average between 2005 and 2016. Consumers can now easily hire someone to deliver groceries, shovel the driveway, walk the dog, mow the lawn or call a cab — but some regulators are increasingly hostile to this new type of job creation, says the author.

Read More [[link removed]] Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's Comments About San Francisco Are A Warning Sign For The City's Tech Future

When Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told investors this week that he’s planning for a future with a more distributed workforce, his Bay Area peers could easily relate.

“Our concentration in San Francisco is not serving us any longer, and we will strive to be a far more distributed workforce, which we will use to improve our execution,” Dorsey said on Twitter’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday, adding that he expects to spend time traveling this year.

San Francisco, while always posing a unique set of challenges, has become an unmanageable place for many companies as they look to expand. It commands the highest salaries of any U.S. city and has some of the most expensive real estate, both commercial and residential. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of nearby companies, including the most valuable in the world, ready to poach your top developers and sales reps.

The tech talent in the Bay Area is undeniable. But with cloud infrastructure, faster internet speeds in more remote areas and a new generation of communications and collaboration tools, more companies are finding it advantageous to hire elsewhere. Online lender LendingClub slashed its San Francisco workforce last year and moved jobs to Utah, and Stripe announced in May that it was hiring over 100 remote engineers in 2019.

Read More [[link removed]] Sign Language: Warning Signals In The Silicon Valley Economy

After a decade of unprecedented growth, Silicon Valley is starting to show signs of strain.

The latest edition of the Silicon Valley Index, the annual overview of the region’s economic and social wellbeing, reveals both an economy that’s starting to slow down as well as a society that’s being stretched and stressed.

Some examples from the report released Wednesday morning:

The region showed the largest number of people leaving Silicon Valley since 2005 with nearly 8,000 more people leaving than moving here. Housing prices have doubled in that timeframe, but took a marked dip last year. While we continue to add to our payrolls, job growth around the region slowed to 1.7 percent last year. Homelessness in the region has doubled since 2011, with 5,500 more people living on the streets or in shelters in 2019 compared to eight years earlier. Read More [[link removed]] Economic Inequality Is Both A Cause And Consequence Of The Housing Crisis

Like the country as a whole, Los Angeles is caught in a downward economic spiral of its own making. A City Hall-assisted housing crisis has been made worse by economic inequality, while City Hall’s counterproductive, trickle-down responses have created even more economic inequality. These two processes feed on each other, and the objective result is that the rich get even richer at the expense of everyone else.

A few data points reveal how massive economic inequality has become in the United States, how it is getting worse, and how it prices out millions of Americans from housing in good times, and even more in bad times, such as the Great Recession. Beginning in 2007, at least seven million families lost their homes. Most of them became renters, while the foreclosure kings who bought their houses – Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross – are now Trump cabinet members.

UC Berkeley economist Emanuel Saez has documented how economic inequality in the United States increased from it low point in the late 1970s, to its current level, which matches the 1920s. According to Prof. Saez, the top .1 percent (.001) of earners have incomes that are, on average, 196 times greater than the bottom 90 percent. If we look more closely at this 90 percent, 140 million of them live in official or unofficial poverty.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change Would A California Takeover Of PG&E Make Energy Cheaper And Safer? Maybe Not

Trinity County did in the 1990s what Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening to do today: It wrested control of the power grid from Pacific Gas & Electric.

The origin story of Trinity Public Utilities District, which now serves several thousand customers in Northern California, is an encouraging precedent for advocates of replacing PG&E with a government-run utility. Trinity customers pay half as much for electricity as PG&E customers do. The public utility’s rates, set by a locally elected board, have hardly changed over the years.

At the same time, Trinity faces several lawsuits and $138 million in claims stemming from a 2017 wildfire — the same type of financial liability that landed PG&E in bankruptcy court. Trinity is contesting those claims, saying its equipment didn’t cause the fire.

Read More [[link removed]] The False Promise Of "Renewable Natural Gas"

To stay in line with the targets laid out in the Paris climate agreement, the US needs to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, known as “deep decarbonization.” Virtually every credible study on deep decarbonization agrees on the basics of a strategy to get there.

The heart of the strategy is cleaning up the power grid, which is currently responsible for 28 percent of US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It must be rapidly transitioned to zero-carbon sources like renewables, hydro, and nuclear.

Concurrently, two of the biggest sources of GHGs, transportation and buildings, must switch over to run on that zero-carbon power. The transportation system (29 percent of US emissions) is almost entirely powered by gasoline and diesel; it must transition to electric vehicles to the extent possible. And buildings (also 29 percent of US emissions) are now frequently heated and cooled by oil or, more commonly, by natural gas; they must transition to electric heating and cooling to the extent possible.

Read More [[link removed]] Reject Newsom's $1 Billion Green Loan Fund, California Legislature's Analyst Says

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office is recommending the state legislature reject Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal for a $1 billion green loan fund.

When Newsom released his state budget proposal in January, he announced the four-year revolving loan program, meant to help grow small- and medium-sized climate-friendly businesses.

The progam is intended to jumpstart businesses like electric vehicle charging stations, climate-friendly farming initiatives and other sustainability projects that have a hard time attracting private capital.

“As we grow, we must demand that the benefits of this growth be widely shared by workers and small businesses – not just those with access to huge amounts of capital,” Newsom said at the time.”

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development California's Community Colleges Chancellor Defends New Online College

Despite a bumpy start and an abrupt change in its leadership, California’s new online college is on track and moving in the right direction, the chancellor of California’s community college system told state senators Thursday.

“While at times the road has been rocky, I believe Calbright is well on its way to achieving the objectives the Legislature established and that my office expects of them,” Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley told senators at a joint oversight hearing at the State Capitol Thursday.

Calbright College, which began admitting students last fall, is intended to provide online courses to older workers who are already in the workplace, but need additional skills to advance in their careers, and has been in a startup mode since it was approved by the Legislature in 2018. It has also been the target of fierce criticism from several unions representing faculty and other workers at the community colleges.

Read More [[link removed]] Newsom Wants More Dyslexia Screenings, Services For California Students

A new plan by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who struggled with dyslexia as a child, would pay for more screenings and services for the thousands of California students with dyslexia — a condition that advocates say has not received enough attention in schools.

The California Dyslexia Initiative, which the governor announced last week as part of his 2020-21 budget proposal, would set aside $4 million for screening, professional learning for teachers, research and a conference on dyslexia, a learning disorder that affects one’s ability to read and write. Although the amount is small compared to the overall education budget, it lays the groundwork for future investment and brings much-needed attention to the issue, advocates said.

“This is a very big deal. It’s fantastic news,” said Megan Potente, co-educator outreach manager for Decoding Dyslexia California, an advocacy group that lobbies for better dyslexia services in schools. “Gov. Newsom is bringing more attention to dyslexia than we have seen in decades.”

Read More [[link removed]] College Costs, Teacher Shortage Still Top Concerns In Poll Of California Voters

Reducing gun violence, making college more affordable and addressing the teacher shortage again are on the minds of California voters, who also said they would support raising teachers’ pay and spending more for schools, according to a new PACE/USC Rossier poll.

PACE, an independent research nonprofit affiliated with several California universities, and the USC Rossier School of Education released their annual poll on Friday. The survey of 2,000 registered voters was representative of the state’s ethnic makeup, geography and party affiliation; 28 percent of the respondents were parents with children under 18. The poll organization Tulchin Research conducted the survey in early January.

Perhaps reflecting a rise in pessimism about education, fewer voters gave schools high grades this year, and the proportion of people who said they’d encourage young people to become a teacher dropped significantly compared with four years ago.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Multifamily Owners Brace For Another Rent Control Battle

The California multifamily industry is preparing for another costly fight against a new rent control initiative on the November ballot.

Earlier this month, the Rental Affordability Act, backed by AIDS Healthcare Foundation owner Michael Weinstein’s Housing Is A Human Right organization, gathered 1 million signatures to qualify its latest measure that, if passed, would expand rent control in the state.

The RAA would give municipalities the power to implement and expand rent control policies that limit how much landlords can hike rent each year. It would also allow vacancy control, which limits how much a landlord can increase rent when a new renter moves in. Currently, when a tenant moves, the landlord is able to bring that unit to market-rate pricing.

Read More [[link removed]] Oakland Prosecutors Decline To File Charges In Moms 4 Housing Case

Alameda County prosecutors on Thursday told attorneys for the Moms 4 Housing group that occupied a vacant West Oakland home for about two months that four people arrested during their eviction last month in West Oakland will not be charged.

Legal counsel for the Moms 4 Housing group was informed around 1 p.m. Thursday that prosecutors reviewed reports by the sheriff's office and will not charge Misty Cross, Tolani King and two supporters for the group.

"This is the right result, the just result," Emily Rose Johns, senior associate with Siegel, Yee, Brunner and Mehta, said in a statement.

Moms 4 Housing occupied the home at 2928 Magnolia St., which was purchased in July by Southern California-based Wedgewood Properties.

Read More [[link removed]] Garcetti, Schwarzenegger Address Homelessness

Homelessness is a significant issue among California voters leading up to the March primary election, according to a poll USC released at a Thursday event hosted by USC Schwarzenegger Institute and the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation. A panel of past and present government officials also spoke on the state of homelessness in California at Town and Gown during the event.

More than 150 students attended “Unhoused: Addressing Homelessness in California,” which included input from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson regarding potential solutions to homelessness and public perceptions of the housing crisis in California.

According to poll results, more than a quarter of voters know individuals who have personally experienced homelessness and felt the need for a combination of stricter restrictions and compassionate policies.

Read More [[link removed]] How Rent Control Policies Could Impact The Single-Family Market

When all is said and done, 2019 may be remembered as the year of rent control.

California, New York, and Oregon passed new statewide legislation in 2019 under the guise of rent reform, and Illinois is considering following suit. With the nation’s housing deficit now running at more than 1 million units, and rents continuing to rise in many markets across the country, the clamor for rent control has only increased in recent years.

“Since 2017, 14 states and the District of Columbia have attempted to expand rent control either through the legislature or via the ballot box,” says Jim Lapides, vice president, strategic communications at the National Multifamily Housing Council, a trade association that represents apartment groups. “Those 14 states and the District represent more than half of the existing rental apartment homes in the country.”

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Housing Chief Ben Carson Urges California To Work With Feds On Homelessness Crisis, Draws Skepticism

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Thursday urged California leaders to work with the Trump administration to solve the state’s growing homelessness crisis, drawing skepticism from some attendees at a forum in Los Angeles.

“This is the can-do nation. We’ve overcome much more difficult problems than this. But when we have overcome them, we have overcome them together,” said Carson at the event held at the University of Southern California. The forum was hosted by the USC Price School of Public Policy and the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, with the goal of examining solutions to the crisis.

Specifically, Carson called for streamlining regulations such as zoning and density restrictions that he said block the construction of housing.

“It becomes a labyrinth because of all these things that are layered on top of each other,” he said. “Can we fix that? We absolutely can. Again, it comes back to working together. We’re not enemies.”

Read More [[link removed]] California Bullet Train Costs Jump By More Than $1B

The high-speed bullet train that is set to be built between Los Angeles and San Francisco is going to cost even more than the Golden State originally anticipated.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority this week pegged the cost of completing the project at $80.3 billion in its draft 2020 business plan – $1.3 billion more than previously expected.

The Authority mainly attributes the price hike to a delay in the projected completion of a line between Silicon Valley and the Central Valley, by about 1.5 years. It also names inflation and more accurate estimates as reasons for the adjustment.

Authority CEO Brian Kelly referred to the revised cost as "virtually unchanged" from previous estimates.

With the funding currently available, the Authority will move forward with a line from Merced to Bakersfield.

The controversial project has a deadline of 2022 for finishing the tracks for the first section, which it says is on schedule.

Read More [[link removed]] Cost Of California's High-Speed Rail Rises, But Trains To SF, LA Still In The Works

The cost of running high-speed trains between San Francisco and Los Angeles has grown — again — to $80 billion, a sum the state is yet to muster for a project that continues to be mired in politics and doubt.

Still, the financial estimates released Wednesday by the California High-Speed Rail Authority show the agency expects to have enough money to launch at least part of the visionary rail system: 171 miles of service through the Central Valley, connecting the fast-growing cities of Merced and Bakersfield, by 2029.

Segments to San Francisco and Los Angeles — and ultimately a train that whisks riders between the two coastal cities in 2 hours and 40 minutes — continue to be designed. They’re scheduled to be up and running just a few years after the Central Valley line. That is, if the money can be found.

Read More [[link removed]] As Droughts Ebb, California’s Water Issues Remain

Last July 27 was a big day for Cristobal Chavez. That’s when the 62-year-old, who lives on a small farm outside Porterville in Tulare County, met California Governor Gavin Newsom. The governor was in the impoverished, drought-struck area to talk with local residents and sign into law state Senate Bill 200, which established the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund. Chavez resides in the Sierra foothills with his wife, their two grown daughters and six foster children, and talked about his land with the governor, who wore jeans and a blue shirt for the occasion.

The one-time trucker had moved into his foothills home from Los Angeles in the early 2000s after injuring his back in a workplace accident. Unable to work as a trucker, he hoped that this rural retreat would come with a lower cost of living. It wasn’t, however, all clear sailing; he told Newsom how his farm had been hit by water shortages a few years ago and, when he borrowed more than $15,000 from friends to drill a deeper well, discovered his water was so contaminated with nitrates that it was undrinkable.

Chavez’s story wasn’t anomalous. At the height of the last drought, which lasted from 2011 until early 2019, entire tracts of East Porterville ran dry as hundreds of wells ceased to pump any water. Throughout the Central Valley and around the state, thousands of families had similar tales to tell. For the thousands of Californians who were living on land that had run dry, survival meant bottled water, or water trucked in by nonprofit organizations.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion Regulating The 'Gig Economy' Is More Complex Than The Legislature Anticipated

Sacramento legislators are tripping over themselves trying to patch all the holes in AB5, the flawed law championed as California’s protection from Big Tech worker abuses. Instead of taking a thoughtful approach to address seismic shifts in our economy, they have chosen to cook up a hodgepodge of exemptions and fixes that do not address the societal and economic changes we are experiencing. And now, sadly, they are resorting to trying to buy off small nonprofits with one-time AB5 “compliance assistance” grants.

The reason for the mess appears twofold.

First, our rapidly evolving economy exhibits incalculable variations of worker/contractor/employer/collaborator arrangements far too complex to be reasonably regulated by the 69 words of the law’s ABC Test. As currently structured, it is California’s statutory default to define all workers as employees unless the hirer can prove that a worker is independent according to the ABC Test. For instance, the “B” portion of the test requires that the service to be performed by a contractor must be “outside the usual course of the business of the employer.” For example, if a wedding event planner secures a large wedding gig and wants to contract assistance for the big weekend with additional helpers they will have to hire the assistants as W-2 employees. The hirer must pay the state required unemployment insurance taxes, make sure to provide proper workplace accommodations and rest breaks, and pray to God they do not make a mistake that exposes them up to a Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) scam lawsuit.

Read More [[link removed]] How Gov. Newsom Can Use His Budget To Promote Sustainable Development, Economic Growth

The Sacramento region has a unique opportunity to meet the housing demand in our diverse rural, suburban and urban region. We need more housing and better connectivity, while reducing our contribution to climate change.

Fortunately, there is a solution that will spur economic development, if state leaders will support it.

Our organizations, the Sacramento Metropolitan and Sacramento Asian Pacific Islander chambers of commerce, are requesting that the Governor’s Budget include, and the state legislature vote to support, $100 million a year for four years to fund an innovative pilot program called “Green Means Go.”

California and the Sacramento area are experiencing a housing crisis. Our region needs to build at least 11,000 new housing units per year to meet demand for the next 20 years. But the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), which created “Green Means Go,” forecasts the region will build just 6,500 units in 2020. This gap of 4,500 units annually means we won’t meet the housing needs of market impacted by an incoming tide of Bay Area transplants and growing homeless community.

Read More [[link removed]] Bernie Sanders's Magical Thinking On Climate Change

The prospect of Bernie Sanders becoming the Democratic nominee has startled many people who worry that his brand of democratic socialism won’t sell and would pave the way for a second Trump term. This might well be true, but it considers Sanders solely through the lens of electability. Surely the more important question is not whether his programs would be popular but whether they are good. It’s time to stop grading Sanders on a curve and to start asking what the country would look like if he were to become president.

Let’s consider the topic that he argues is “the single greatest challenge” facing the United States and a “global emergency”: climate change. Sanders wants to commit the country to achieving 100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030, and the total decarbonization of the economy by 2050. These are laudable though ambitious goals. The question is, how will the United States go about meeting them?

Under President Barack Obama, the United States reduced emissions more than any other country. It did it through many paths, but the biggest one was — fracking.

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