CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“NEWSOM’S FIRST YEAR: ‘BIGGEST PROBLEM’ UNRESOLVED”
The
utility company blackouts that accompanied the first severe blast of the fall
fire season in October quickly became the signal events of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
first year in office, triggering the most heated public response and causing
more public inconvenience than any others.
Those
outages by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Southern California Edison
Co. among other things demonstrated how far Newsom still must go to solve the
problem he identified as California’s largest back when he was a mere candidate
– income inequality.
Not
that Newsom didn’t try to mitigate that problem. He spurred state legislators
to pass widespread rent control, encouraged incentives to build more affordable
housing, expanded Medi-Cal health care coverage and signed many more new laws aiming
to benefit middle and lower income Californians more than the upper crust.
But
while he did that, financial inequality grew in California during Newsom’s
first year, the rich gaining even more of an edge over their middle class and
poor compatriots. The blackouts put those differences in bas relief.
For
the knowledge they were coming spurred thousands of Californians to buy solar
panels and gasoline-powered electric generators that could keep their homes
going – even if only sporadically in many cases – through the blackouts. Those
became longer and more widespread than any outages during the energy crunch of
the early 2000s, which put the first nails in the political coffin of recalled
former Gov. Gray Davis.
With
millions of Californians unable to afford basic needs like rent, food and
medicines, generators that can cost thousands of dollars and solar panels that
often run $20,000 or more for a single home were not on the radar of most
Californians outside the upper income levels.
And
yet, Newsom’s going along with the plans of PG&E and Edison for those
outages, even in places where high, hot winds never occurred, exacerbated the
existing economic differences he bemoans.
His
tolerating those plans – until they were actually carried out, when he
pronounced them “intolerable,” – established him as even more of a utility
company ally than he was during July, when he helped arrange the new state
Wildfire Fund that may eventually provide more than $20 billion to cover
electric company liabilities in future fires. The money will come largely from
a monthly charge to electric customers.
So
the blackouts, especially their extremely wide range in Northern California,
could eventually cause political problems for Newsom. He’s tried to head this
off by disapproving PG&E’s proposed $13.5 billion settlement with fire
victims.
Meanwhile,
actions Newsom spurred on housing probably won’t resolve that problem, either.
By working to force housing expansion everywhere, Newsom assured that a great
share of any new units won’t be affordable to many first-time buyers, even if
they carry the “affordable” label.
When
cities like Newport Beach work to create hundreds of new dwellings, they must
deal with land prices far above those in desert or other inland areas,
including the Central Valley. So “affordable” housing usually sells for at
least $350,000, well beyond the reach of hundreds of thousands of first-time
buyers. That price also excludes virtually all of the homeless.
One
constructive move that could help with land prices, though, was creating a new
register of vacant or available state-owned lands. If those properties are sold
off cheaply and developed, they could help the housing shortage, even if they
won’t alleviate homelessness.
Newsom
also made constructive moves on gun control, signing several laws previously
vetoed by ex-Gov. Jerry Brown, including one Brown vetoed twice that allows
increased use of gun restraining orders. Newsom signed a bill allowing child
care workers to unionize and another banning smoking in state parks and on most
public beaches. He okayed a compromise making charter school finances more
transparent, set public school start times an hour later and nixed a measure to
end the practice of paying initiative petition carriers for signatures they
collect.
But
he greatly watered down a public health measure designed to prevent bogus
medical waivers from allowing parents to exempt their children from getting
vaccinations on false grounds.
All
this made Newsom’s first year a mixed bag, preventing a definitive reading on
the new governor. Which means Californians will have to stay tuned.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at
tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising
Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now
available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visitwww.californiafocus.net
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