It is unlikely that I would write another book on California politics. My next book would be called Unintended Consequences. It would detail how political policy decisions can change to have unanticipated consequences.
There are many examples of this syndrome, but these are just two.
In the 1960s, a newly elected governor. Ronald Reagan signed two pieces that sought to reform the care and treatment for the mentally ill in the 1960s. They began a process to eliminate the state’s large number of mental hospitals and replace them with community mental health clinics. Reagan wanted to save money, and advocates for the mentally ill decried the prison-like atmosphere of the hospitals.
Reagan, his successor governors, and the Legislature never fulfilled the promise of community mental healthcare care. This left many mentally ill people to fend for their own and contributed to the current homeless crisis.
Two seemingly distinct acts in late 1970s led to the dominance by public employee unions of the Legislature. They were the 1975 extension of collective bargaining rights to California public employees and the 1978 passage of Proposition 13.
Proposition 13 indirectly transferred financial responsibility to schools and much of the local government to state. The concentration of financial power in Sacramento made it possible for unions to reform the Legislature into a pro-union body.
Reagan also signed the California Environmental Quality Act. It was intended to force project sponsors to evaluate their environmental effects and reduce as much as possible any adverse effects.
CEQA has evolved into a legal morass over the more than 50 years since its passage. It can block even the most benign projects indefinitely if opponents raise objections, which often have nothing to do environmental protection.
Construction unions are not afraid to file CEQA lawsuits. This is in an attempt to force project managers to give their members exclusive access. CEQA has become so burdensome, the Legislature will often give high-profile projects like this years Super Bowl stadium Inglewood specific exemptions from certain provisions of CEQA.
CEQA is a major reason California isn’t able to build enough housing, particularly for low- and medium-income families to meet demand. People who don’t want such housing in their communities use CEQA to stop construction or delay it until it becomes financially impossible.
Berkeley is the latest example of CEQAs being bent to serve purposes not intended. Save Berkeleys Neighborhoods sued the city government to stop the University of California from expanding enrollment.
Alameda County Judge Brad Seligman affirmed the challenge to UC’s plans for a new academic facility and faculty housing. He declared that the CEQA studies of the projects were inadequate and did no adequate analysis of impacts on noise, housing, and displacement. The university was also required to stop enrollment at 2020-21 levels.
This is the same attitude that has been so destructive to Californias housing market and its housing production. It will also block access to the university for many thousand students who planned to attend.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown once called CEQA the Lords work, even if he was not willing to do it.
It is still.
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters