California Governor Gavin Newsom, long a darling of the progressive elite, has donned a new mask. On June 30, he signed Assembly Bill 130/Senate Bill 131, claiming the move would:
“…build more housing, faster, and create strong affordable pathways for every Californian. Today’s bill is a game changer, which will be felt for generations to come.”
Typically, that kind of rhetoric from Newsom would signal government subsidies and boondoggles, but this is not the case.
This time, the bills eliminate provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a 1970 law that has ballooned into a bureaucratic behemoth, strangling home building and inflating costs. Newsom’s move, as detailed by Steven Greenhut, for Reason, appears to be a calculated pivot—a bid to shed his radical leftist image as he eyes a 2028 presidential run. But don’t be fooled. This reform, while substantial, is a drop in the bucket for a state drowning in a housing crisis and hemorrhaging residents, largely due to the very policies Newsom has championed.
