For Clients & Friends of The Gualco Group, Inc.
IN THIS ISSUE – “What’s out there is darkness. Uncertainty. Decline and recession. So good luck, baby!”
Former Gov. Jerry Brown, cited by the media in context of the current State revenue shortfall, from his final budget proposal in 2018
- Governor, Legislature Resolve Differences on Infrastructure & Spending
- Newsom’s Merry Band of Advisors
- Understanding New Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas: “When Sometimes You Can’t Say Things, You Have No Choice But to Listen”
- Californians Concerned About Climate Change Weather Extremes…and Paying the Tab
Capital News & Notes (CN&N) harvests California policy, legislative and regulatory insights from dozens of media and official sources for the past week. Please feel free to forward this unique client service.
FOR THE WEEK ENDING JULY 14, 2023
Governor, Legislature Resolve Differences on Infrastructure & Spending
CalMatters & Sacramento Bee
Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers were all smiles and fist-bumps at the infrastructure bill-signing this week, as they also resolved the last-minute additions to budget deliberations.
The legislative packaged is intended to make it easier for the state to build large-scale water, transportation, clean energy and broadband internet projects. There was also plenty of political back-slapping as the governor signed the $311 billion budget agreement his administration reached with Assembly and Senate leaders.
The infrastructure measures were not directly related to the budget, but Newsom shoehorned them into negotiations over the spending plan. This ticked off some Democrats, who took particular umbrage at his attempt to fast-track the 45-mile Delta Conveyance water tunnel.
The governor issued veto threats as Delta-area lawmakers fought back over including the controversial tunnel in the bill package. Newsom eventually removed the project, and lawmakers finalized the infrastructure measures last week.
On Monday, Newsom and lawmakers forgot the contentious debates in favor of praising each other and the budget, which also works to close the state’s estimated $31.5 billion spending gap.
During the final weeks of last year’s legislative session, he pressed lawmakers to pass oil well setback regulations and keep Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant open for five additional years.
He later bragged at the Clinton Global Initiative conference about having to “jam my own Democratic Legislature in the last few weeks of our session” to get the bills across the finish line. “Had I not done that, all those special interests would have prevailed again to deny and delay,” Newsom said.
When asked about using this strategy again during budget negotiations, Newsom cited his remaining time as governor and a desire to take action on climate change.
Newsom wasn’t scared to use the $31.5-billion deficit to argue the state needed to tighten its collective belt. With the strong potential for another shortfall next year, the governor and legislative leaders could be moving into prolonged leaner years.
That means more scrutiny of programs. And it means even more attention not just on enacting policy but actually implementing it.
His tone recalled his doom saying predecessor Jerry Brown, who famously declared in his final budget proposal: “What’s out there is darkness. Uncertainty. Decline and recession. So good luck, baby!”
This year’s negotiations were more fraught due to the budget deficit, a sharp contrast with record budget surpluses the last two years. The deficit is the result of a downturn in the stock market — a volatile but significant source of California’s state revenues because of its reliance on income taxes, especially those of high earners.
Bracing for potential further revenue declines, the budget deal allows the governor to delay, with notification to the Legislature, one-time spending commitments before March 1.
The budget process this year was also made more complicated when many Californians were granted until October, instead of April, to file income tax returns because of storm-related disaster declarations, which made it hard to pin down a precise figure on the state’s revenue.
Add to that Newsom’s insistence that legislators approve his recent proposal to overhaul the permitting process for major infrastructure projects by changing the landmark California Environmental Quality Act, a move that some housing advocates and developers have demanded for years.
The governor wanted a package of 11 measures, alongside the main budget bill, that aim to streamline the permitting process among federal, state and local governments; limit the time courts have to hear challenges on environmental reviews; and increase funding to state agencies.
Lawmakers pushed to consider the plan outside of the budget process so they would have more time to review its potential effects and to exempt the proposed Delta tunnel from the changes. That contentious $16 billion project would send water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta south to 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland.
Here are some other highlights of the deal — how much the state plans to invest in other key policy areas that have been sticking points since Newsom kicked off the budget process in January with his initial proposal.
Low-income families who receive state subsidies to pay for child care would see a near-elimination of copayments known as “family fees” under the budget bills that are part of the Legislature’s agreement with Newsom.
The fees, which can be hundreds of dollars a month for families, have been waived throughout the pandemic but were set to return at the end of September. Under the tentative agreement, families would not have to pay more than 1% of their incomes toward the fees.
The budget bills also include funding to raise pay for child care providers, who have demanded an immediate 25% increase in reimbursement rates (amounting to $1 billion a year) and a long-term plan to overhaul how those rates are calculated.
But how the funding gets doled out — whether the funding is a permanent raise or a temporary stipend — remains a sticking point between Newsom’s administration and the child care providers’ union. The parties are still bargaining a new labor contract for providers days before the current one expires.
In addition to other funds intended to help communities across the state recover from this year’s storms and flooding, the budget plan would provide direct relief to the towns of Planada and Pajaro. Both towns were partially under water after the winter storms. Now they are slated to receive $20 million each to help residents recover, regardless of their citizenship or legal status.
The agreement kills a proposal to create an unemployment insurance program for undocumented workers, who are ineligible for jobless benefits. Advocates had hoped to start a pilot program; then pushed instead for a working group to study the issue. Neither got the administration’s agreement in the budget.
The tentative agreement also includes $500 million to make permanent a temporary 10% increase in welfare benefits for recipients of CalWorks, the state’s cash aid program.
But lawmakers couldn’t reach an agreement with Newsom’s administration on an Assembly proposal to loosen work requirements and lessen financial penalties for recipients, which could have weakened the ties between welfare and work and focused more on supportive social services that could help a family in crisis.
The Legislature did get its way in the agreement by rejecting a Newsom proposal to use half of the state’s $900 million in reserves for social safety net programs, with lawmakers reasoning the reserves should be saved for worse budget years.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article277181458.html#storylink=cpy
https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/06/california-budget-deal-what-you-need-to-know/
Newsom’s Merry Band of Advisors
Politico
Oh, to be in Gavin Newsom‘s orbit.
The governor has been known to cast a wide net for advice, but his inner circle is much smaller. California’s chief executive relies on a close circle of advisers, staffers and confidants to guide his policy and political strategy.
Understanding Newsom’s network is key to understanding one of the most influential figures in American politics, and today, we’re laying out all the important players.
From his days in San Francisco City Hall to stumping for Joe Biden, here are the folks who help make the governor the governor.
Details:
Understanding New Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas:
“When Sometimes You Can’t Say Things, You Have No Choice But to Listen”
CalMatters California Playbook
The key to understanding new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’ leadership might be his severe childhood stutter.
Growing up, he often had his ears open more than his mouth. Now, Rivas said Wednesday in an interview hosted by the Sacramento Press Club, his greatest strength is hearing people out and engaging with the concerns of his colleagues.
“When sometimes you can’t say things, you have no choice but to listen,” the Salinas Democrat said.
That was the pitch Rivas said he made last year to his fellow Assembly Democrats as he waged a protracted, and highly political, battle with former Speaker Anthony Rendon for control of the lower house of the California Legislature. He would be a convener, inclusive, unifying the caucus’ agenda.
During the interview Wednesday, his first major public event since he was sworn in as speaker less than two weeks ago, Rivas still seemed to be figuring out what exactly that would entail.
Repeatedly emphasizing that it was only his 12th day on the job, Rivas offered few specifics about what might be a priority as the Legislature enters its final month of session, or where he would want to direct the oversight efforts that he suggested during his inaugural speech should be a greater focus for lawmakers.
Rivas did acknowledge that he wants the Assembly to pass Senate Bill 423, a contentious measure to fast-track permits for new apartment buildings in much of the state, which only narrowly advanced out of committee earlier this week when several Democratic and Republican members teamed up to override the chairperson.
“With housing, we continue to just chip around the corners on this problem,” Rivas said. “But people expect us to make progress, and much more progress.”
In a rapid-fire round, he also expressed his support for legalizing psychedelic drugs in California and raising the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 per hour. His favorite Mexican food in Sacramento, he said, is a home-cooked meal from Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, a Fullerton Democrat.
Rivas tried to draw a sharp professional boundary with his brother, Rick Rivas, who has been his closest political adviser throughout his career and works as a consultant for the American Beverage Association, a soda industry group.
“My brother is not a lobbyist. He’s never lobbied me,” the speaker said. “I will always serve the residents of this state to the best of my ability and always maintain those lines of ethics, of doing things the right way.”
Though they have a tight bond — forged by sharing a bed as children — Robert Rivas said there would be no undue influence from his brother’s clients on his agenda. Rick Rivas also advises Govern For California, a donor network that aims to counteract the influence of unions at the state Capitol and that pushed the boundaries of state campaign finance law as it boosted Robert Rivas’ speakership bid.
“How I won the speakership was through engagement and through the relationships I have built up and down this state,” he said, dismissing the notion that he bought the role. “I take that responsibility very seriously. I certainly appreciate all of the political advice my brother has ever given me. But he has a job to do and so do I.”
Californians Concerned About Climate Change Weather Extremes…and Paying the Tab
Public Policy Institute of California
Californians are concerned about extreme weather. That’s the big takeaway from a new poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, which found that 76% of those surveyed consider extreme weather a problem (and 35% specifically said it’s a big problem). And 45% reported that extreme weather events personally affected them in the last two years.
Other highlights of the statewide survey:
- 50% say they have seriously considered getting an electric vehicle and 8% already have one.
- 57% say it’s very important for the state to spend money and pass regulations to address climate change, though there’s a huge partisan split, with only 22% of Republicans in favor.
- 68% support the state’s 2045 renewable energy goal, but only 43% are willing to pay more for electricity.
- 61% say stricter environmental rules are worth the cost, though, again, only 23% of Republicans believe so.
- 58% approve of Gov. Newsom’s handling of environmental issues, while 54% approve of the Legislature’s performance.