Expect California Gov. Gavin Newsom to postpone signing a controversial housing bill until after the November 5 elections. Newsom would do well to follow in the cloven footsteps of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who put the brakes on a deeply unpopular $15 congestion tax for vehicles traveling south of 60th St. in Manhattan.
For Newsom, the burr under voter's saddles is Assembly Bill 1840, a proposal which would grant illegal immigrants $150,000 toward a new home, with 0% down. The bill passed in the state Senate 25-14 on Tuesday, then in the Assembly by a vote of 45-15.
The drafting of the wildly generous bill comes at a time when Californians, and indeed all Americans, are feeling the housing crunch. There has never been a time in American history when a housing has been so expensive on an adjusted or unadjusted basis.
California Republicans have complained bitterly about the bill, as reported in the New York Post:
"'I didn’t know it was possible to make the border crisis and the housing crisis worse with just one vote, but Democrats found a way,' California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) said in a statement. 'Giving taxpayer-funded housing subsidies to illegal immigrants will drive costs even higher and encourage more chaos at the border,' he added. 'This is crazy and it needs to stop.' Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita), who is the granddaughter of legal immigrants, expressed similarly strong opposition to the measure on the Assembly floor Wednesday. Sanchez argued that migrants crossing the border illegally 'look to California’s current policies like a giant Welcome sign. Welcome to California, where illegal immigrants get free health care, free food, and now a free home with 0% down,' she said. 'This is not rocket science. If you’re giving out free stuff, more people are going to come.'"
The first problem not addressed in the Post is the outflow of jobs from California...followed closely by New York. Giving freebies to illegals is wrong on its face, but doing so in a time when jobs are scarce and the housing market is so overpriced for taxpaying citizens is beyond the pale.
In the last five years, the largest net losses in employment were in California and New York. The largest net gains: Texas and Florida.
The other salient issue: corruption in the California Democratic Party. In a stunner, even the New York Times has weighed in on the problem.
Of course, the Times only goes so deep into the fatty layer of Cali corruption, they won't cut into muscle. They frame it, primarily, as Los Angeles and San Francisco pols taking money from China for development deals. They leave the Pelosis and their son Paul Pelosi, Jr. out of the mix, and of course Newsom gets a free pass. But it is noteworthy that that the Times is willing to admit California is a dirty hive of supermajority corruption:
"Over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, exceeding the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois...A heavy concentration of power at Los Angeles City Hall, the receding presence of local news media, a population that often tunes out local politics and a growing Democratic supermajority in state government have all helped insulate officeholders from damage, political analysts said. But political analysts say the Democrats’ present lock on political power leaves little opportunity for Republicans to effectively raise the issue of corruption as a campaign issue.
“When a political party enjoys that much uncontested power, there’s no penalty for stepping over ethical or legal lines,” said Dan Schnur, a former head of the state Fair Political Practices Commission and a former Republican who is now an independent.
A two-year-old reform effort to curb some of the extraordinary power conferred to individual council members in Los Angeles has foundered. “When you talk about reducing individual council member discretion over land use, there is real pushback,” Nithya Raman, a council member who sits on the city’s charter reform committee, said.
It's a big deal when the NYT admits to Democrat corruption, but in the end, it's a drop in the bucket. As for the housing for illegals bill, Gov. Newsom has until September 30 to make a decision on AB 1840. That would be right before the elections, so look for him to find a legal means to table it until afterward.
