California State Analysts Recommend Delaying Governor's Proposal Expediting $20 Billion Water Project
California's Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), an independent government agency, has recommended that policymakers wait to implement Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent proposal to expedite the state's Delta Conveyance Project.
'Deferring actions would allow the Legislature more time and capacity for sufficient consideration of the potential benefits, implications, and trade-offs,' the LAO said in a
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New Texas Laws Boost Homestead Exemptions For Homeowners
Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows hailed the passage of legislation aimed at delivering property tax relief on May 30, though critics argue the measures fail to address escalating tax burdens driven by government spending. The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 4, Senate Bill 23, House Bill 9, Senate Joint Resolution 2, Senate Joint Resolution 85, and House Joint Resolution 1, which, if approved by voters in November, will increase homestead exemptions and business property tax exemptions. 'Never before has the Texas Legislature allocated more funds to provide property tax relief than they did this session,' Abbott said in a press release. 'I will sign these bills into law to deliver lasting relief for Texans and their families, and I urge Texans to approve the new increases in the homestead and business property tax exemptions this November.' Senate Bill 4 raises the homestead exemption to $140,000 for all homeowners, while Senate Bill 23 increases it to $200,000 for seniors and disabled individuals. House Bill 9 enhances tax exemptions for business inventory, a move small businesses have pushed to eliminate. The joint resolutions propose constitutional amendments to make these exemptions permanent, pending voter approval. 'When I became Lieutenant Governor in 2015, the homestead exemption was a tiny $15,000,' Patrick said in the press release. 'Since then, we have increased it to $100,000, and with the passage of Senate Bill 4 and Senate Bill 23, it is now $200,000 for seniors and $140,000 for non-seniors. The average senior homeowner will no longer pay any school property taxes for the rest of their life as long as they live in their home.' Speaker Burrows added, 'With the Legislature's overwhelming passage of additional property tax relief, Texas home and business owners are on their way to keeping more of their hard-earned money.' Abbott declared property tax relief an emergency item in his 2025 State of the State Address, following a 2023 session in which Patrick called that year's relief package 'the largest property tax relief package in Texas history, and likely the world.' Despite these claims, property taxes rose by $5.4 billion in 2024, a 6.6% increase from 2023, according to state comptroller data cited by economist Bill Peacock, per Center Square. Counties raised taxes by 10.4%, school districts by 6.4%, special districts by 6.1%, and cities by 3.9%. Critics, including economist Vance Ginn, argue that the Legislature's approach of temporarily compressing rates and increasing exemptions merely shifts the tax burden without reducing it. 'Texans want to own their homes – not rent them from the government forever,' Ginn said, according to Center Square. 'They want a government that lives within its means, just like they do. And they want honesty – not headlines – from their elected officials.' Ginn advocates capping state and local spending growth to population growth plus inflation, requiring a two-thirds vote for increases, and using the state's surplus to eliminate school district maintenance and operations taxes. Fiscal conservatives have criticized the current budget as 'a bloated, big-government plan masquerading as conservative reform,' warning, as Ginn did, 'If we continue down this path, Texas won't just resemble California – we'll become it.' Taxpayers on social media have echoed these concerns, arguing the Legislature's spending habits undermine relief efforts.
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Opinion - Why we left California: Its legislature put crazy woke ideology ahead of kids' wellbeing
In 2019, my family packed our belongings and left California, the state we had called home for most of our lives. Why? Well, high taxes were part of the equation. But more than anything, we left to protect our then 10-year-old daughter from a system that no longer made sense— or felt safe. One moment crystallized it: sitting in the pediatrician's waiting room, we learned that once our daughter turned 12, we would no longer have access to her medical records without her consent. That's not parental empowerment. That's state intrusion — and it was just the beginning. California's unraveling isn't just about affordability or policy overreach. It is also about a government that has deprioritized the safety, dignity, and wellbeing of children in favor of a progressive-left agenda. Take Assembly Bill 90, which requires community colleges and state universities to create overnight parking programs for the 4.2 percent of homeless students in their systems. On the surface, it sounds compassionate. In reality, it is a stark admission of policy failure. In 2016, California adopted the federal 'Housing First' model, which promises permanent housing units — without preconditions — to all struggling with homelessness. This policy was overlaid onto a system that already ranked 49th in the nation in housing units per resident, and that builds just 40 percent of the affordable units it needs annually. Instead of fixing these systemic failures, AB 90 effectively turned parking lots into student housing, exposing students to crime, isolation, and instability. Assemblymember Darshana Patel (D) stood virtually alone in raising student safety concerns. In a party-line, 6-2 vote, the bill passed committee. Then there's Assembly Bill 379, written to increase penalties for child sex traffickers. Unfortunately, that version didn't survive. Progressive-left lawmakers stripped the bill of protections for 16- and 17-year-olds — the very age group most targeted by traffickers, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. California's majority party couldn't bring itself to protect minors from sexual exploitation, because somehow this apparently conflicted with their political narrative. The same pattern shows up in school sports. Two common-sense bills intended to safeguard fairness and safety for female athletes were killed in committee. These bills would have barred biological males from competing against girls— something California Gov. Gavin Newsom himself has admitted to be 'deeply unfair.' Decades of research and a 2020 study published in Sports Medicine confirm the physical advantages biological males have over females, even after hormone therapy. To refuse to acknowledge this reality is to deny basic science. It isn't just unfair but dangerous to have males competing in girls' and women's sports, especially contact sports. All this is happening while California funnels billions into climate initiatives and green infrastructure despite ranking 41st in K-12 education and 39th in school safety. California also leads the nation in youth depression and self-harm, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And let's not forget that during the COVID-19 pandemic, California kept students out of classrooms longer than almost any other state. That decision caused historic learning loss— particularly among low-income students. To date, there has been no meaningful academic recovery plan. What's the matter with California? To sum up: Parents can't access their children's medical records without the children's permission; students' dorms are the backseats of their Honda Civics; vulnerable teens go unprotected from traffickers; female athletes are deliberately put at risk. These aren't glitches. They are all symptoms of a deeper collapse — a moral and political refusal to prioritize the wellbeing of children over ideology. California once led the nation in education, innovation, and opportunity. Now, despite its natural beauty and economic power, it has become a cautionary tale about what happens when a government trades responsibility for radicalism. That's why my family joined the hundreds of thousands of net residents who have moved away to other states in recent years. Unless its leaders correct course — putting kids first and politics second — California won't just keep failing her children. She will also set a dangerous precedent for the rest of America. Michele Steeb is the founder of Free Up Foundation and author of 'Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic,' based on her 13 years as CEO of northern California's largest program for homeless women and children. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Here we go: Legislators back to pass a budget
Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) The state's budget expires in 27 days and legislators are back in town to make sure there's a spending plan in place July 1 to avoid a government shutdown. Leadership unveiled budget 'allocations' Monday night that show how the Legislature will spend about $50 billion in general revenue, or state funds, across various government agencies. Most of the money will go to two areas: education and health care with the former receiving more than $22 billion and the latter about $17.5 billion. The budget will also include 2% pay raises for roughly 100,000 state employees. Those workers won't have to worry about increased health insurance costs either because the chambers have agreed to pump hundreds of millions into the state employee health insurance trust fund to keep it solvent in lieu of increasing costs for state workers. As a reminder, monthly premiums for most employees are set at $50 a month for individuals and $180 a month for families. Senior-level employees have an even better deal on their monthly premiums: $8.34 for individuals and $30 a month for family plans. The pay raises were first reported by Florida Politics and confirmed in a statement the Senate released from Sen. Cory Simon, a Republican whose district includes Leon County, home to the state government and tens of thousands of its employees. Simon praised Senate President Ben Albritton and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Ed Hooper for the investment in state employees calling it 'important for recruitment, retention, and morale.' 'Florida has one of the lowest per capita populations of state workers in the country. We have a lean, but strong and talented state workforce, and it's important to me that we invest in maintaining top talent to serve the people of our state. 'A pay raise for our hardworking and dedicated state employees has been a priority of the Senate throughout the entire budget process. The allocations finalized last week include funding for a 2% across the board pay increase for state workers ($1000 minimum). Also important, what often goes unseen is the significant investment the state is making in state employee health insurance. Again this year, employees are being held harmless from increases in premiums and copays,' Simon said in the statement. 'As we move forward into the conference, the Senate will continue to prioritize additional targeted increases for law enforcement, firefighters, and other professions where we need to further increase salaries to remain competitive with the private sector.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
