California has a housing problem, a housing problem it has had for decades. The cost and time required to build a new home in the state have soared, largely due to a state law passed in 1970, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
When the law was first passed, the primary concern was the state’s environmental issues. However, as the decades have passed, it has become increasingly apparent that CEQA has done little to help the environment; instead, it has grown the state’s bureaucracy and enabled special interest groups and unions to stymie needed construction projects in the name of environmental protection.
As a result, California is suffering from a housing crisis that could have been easily avoided.
Now, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, with his eyes on a run for the White House in 2028, has used his clout to push legislative reforms to CEQA.
This week, Newsom signed two bills — Assembly Bill 130 and Senate Bill 131 — that eliminate a number of CEQA’s more onerous regulations. Of course, these bills passed in the first place thanks to Newsom, as he threatened to reject the state budget unless a number of hesitant Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. “This was too important to play chance,” Newsom argued upon signing the bills.
Boy has his tune changed. In making the case for this week’s about-face, Newsom noted the fundamental problem with the CEQA. “We have seen this abuse over and over and over again,” he complained. “We have fallen prey to a strategy of delay. As a result of that, we have too much demand chasing too little supply. This is not complicated, it is Econ 101.”
It violated Econ 101 when he and his fellow Democrats regulated everything in the first place.
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The Golden State’s biggest hangup was its submission to ecofascist special interest groups that repeatedly asserted outsized and even erroneous concerns over and against the needs of the state’s residents.
Thanks to these ecofascists, a state that was once the primary destination for anyone who wanted to make it big in America has increasingly become the state from which anyone who wants to make it big flees.
California has become a state modeling what not to do. A dramatic fall from its previous status as the state that everyone sought to emulate. The fact of the matter is that today, much of the country despises California’s political and social climate.
Apparently, Newsom has recognized this problem — at least politically. He realizes that if he seriously entertains the thought of ever residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he must engage in leadership that actually works to fix real issues, rather than peddling excuse-laden rhetoric. He must work toward the political middle, which means eschewing the radical and fringe ideologies that Democrats have increasingly catered to.
There’s another element at play in the background. The last thing he wants is a bunch of bad press over the quagmire of red tape and regulations that prevent the wealthy from being able to quickly rebuild their homes after the devastating fires burned out the Pacific Palisades.
Those residents equal money and votes, and the last thing he needs is to make enemies there.
While these reforms to CEQA are primarily intended to improve Newsom’s political prospects, they are a necessary change that could help the Golden State reduce the time and cost of building new homes. Compared to New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani’s socialist rent-free proposal to tackle the city’s housing costs, Newsom sounds like a guy who actually knows sound economics.
