Gavin Newsom's Go-To Guy for Advice on California Business and the Economy

Our final “Policy and a Pint” of 2019 was a talk with a former dairy-farm boy from the Central Valley who is now the go-to guy for Governor Newsom about California’s economy, job growth, economic development and getting the High Speed Rail train built.

Lenny Mendoca’s mission now is to make the Central Valley the most desirable place to live in California, with good jobs, great transit, more housing and less inequality.

Listen to our podcast of this talk with Mendonca to find out how California’s head honcho of economic/ business development is doing on getting Bay Area CEOs interested in a valley that’s called something other than Napa, Sonoma or Silicon.

And because Mendoca is owner of Half Moon Bay Brewing, and moderates a similar speaker series called “Brews and Views,” we figured Ruhstaller Beer’s basement taproom in Downtown Sacramento was the best place to talk with him.

Hear about the “Future of Transportation in Sacramento”

California’s Capital City is getting attention nationwide for its alt-transportation methods, from red Jump bikes and scooters to shared electric cars and an entirely-revamped bus network.

But it’s not always a smooth ride. There are multiple complaints about how Jump bikes are blocking sidewalks, and Jump scooters are not that safe for their drivers or the people they run into. There’s talk of the City planning to impose a fee-per-ride ordinance that Jump says is expensive and prohibitive to expanding its services. The streetcar project is in jeopardy, with project bids for construction way higher than expected, and far beyond the project budget. And can SacRT ever get anyone to ride its light rail?

The future of transportation in Sacramento is off to a great start, but how will these bumps in the road affect it? And how will we — as users, taxpayers and voters — affect and be affected by these new transit methods?

Listen to the podcast of the discussion we held this with the people who are in charge of taking us where we want to go, but differently — on Soundcloud, iTunes and the other major podcast-gathering websites.

Listen to "The Future of Downtown Sacramento"

John Dangberg, assistant city manager for Sacramento, had this to say about the Golden 1 Center, which opened a little over a year ago: "We've gone from a valuation of $22.5 million to well over $1 billion in value. " And with the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel, Punch Bowl Social, TheBank_629J, and a bunch of new eateries on the 700 K block opening up, Dangberg only expects that valuation to rise.

Listen to Dangberg and our other panelists in the podcast recording of our "Future of Downtown Sacramento " discussion at the Crocker Art Museum talk about housing, parking, restoring historic buildings, revitalizing the riverfront, new modes of transportation, bringing in new jobs, and putting more arts and culture into downtown.

We broke the podcast down into specific parts (refer to our "Podcast Timeframe" to go to certain sections), but the whole discussion is a great way to learn more -- and get excited about -- the future of Downtown Sacramento. There's a lot in the works.

The Gas Tax: Jerry Brown Won the Battle Over It This Year. Will Republicans Win the War Over It in Election 2018?

California's new gas tax goes into effect November. 1. That means most drivers will see the price of gas go up by 12 cents per gallon, diesel will increase 20 cents a gallon. Starting January 1, you'll be charged a new annual vehicle fee ranging from $25 to $175, depending on the value of your car. Even electric cars, which don't use gas, will will pay a $100 annual fee (starting in 2020).

The gas tax increase is expected to raise more than $50 billion to fund Caltrans' "Fix It First" project, which aims to repair roads and bridges, and improve traffic congestion, across the state. Will they spend it wisely?

Governor Jerry Brown fought hard to get the gas tax (officially known as Senate Bill 1) passed last April, saying "real money" is needed to fix California's transportation systems, which have gone unrepaired and unexpanded for decades.

But the state's Republicans are fighting back, actively working to repeal the gas tax. There are two separate efforts to put repeal-the-gas-tax measures on the November 2018 ballot. And they say that because their polling on the gas tax shows it to be extremely unpopular, there's an excellent chance SB1 will be repealed a year from now.

So even though the gas tax kicks in on November 1, the Gas Tax War is just beginning.

Listen to this "Policy and a Pint" podcast as we discuss the gas tax and what it consists of, where the money goes, why it's a good thing, why it's a bad thing and -- most importantly -- how it affects you as a California driver, and maybe your vote next November.


 

A Contentious Issue: Placer County's Measure M

A Weekend-Before-The-Election podcast special: Four panelists go head-to-head on Placer County's Measure M. It's one of 16 ballot measures in California counties that ask voters to increase their sales tax to pay for transportation improvements (Sacramento has Measure B).

Placer's Measure M is certainly an interesting one -- both the Tea Party and the Sierra Club are against it. Two of their representatives came onto our "Policy and a Pint" panel last week in Roseville to debate against a Placer County supervisor and the Yes on Measure M campaign manager.

As you'll hear, it was a passionate debate over a contentious issue -- but everyone shook hands and saluted each other at the end.

Listen to the podcast here