California in Focus

(The Center Square) – California lawmakers called Wednesday for the state’s “insurer of last resort,” the California FAIR Plan, to evolve to insure more properties throughout the state. The remarks come after years of the number of FAIR Plan policyholders climbing because of many private insurance companies declining to renew existing policies or pulling out of doing business in the Golden State altogether. This has pushed more and more homeowners in the state to turn to the California FAIR Plan.

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(The Center Square) – Amid concerns that there might be as large as an $18 billion budget deficit in the coming year, California lawmakers started writing the state’s budget with the help of finance officials. The California Assembly Budget Committee Tuesday heard the concerns of officials from the state’s Finance Department and Legislative Analyst’s Office, which issued its budget report in November 2025.

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(The Center Square) – Days after Gov. Gavin Newsom released his budget proposal, the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office released its own report that addressed Newsom's rosier-than-anticipated budget outlook for the coming year. The Legislative Analyst’s Office assessment of the governor’s budget deems it's “alarming” because of the administration’s multiyear budget deficits.

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(The Center Square) - California’s main state retirement fund, CalPERS, announced the hiring of a new chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer whose listed duties include integrating DEI principles into investment practices, and recruiting staff for DEI-informed proxy voting and ESG investing, The Center Square has learned.

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(The Center Square) - Many illegal immigrants in California will become ineligible for Medi-Cal coverage in the new year, according to new guidance from state officials.The Department of Health Care Services, which administers the state’s Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal, announced the move in August. The department stated on its website that immigrants with “unsatisfactory immigration status” will not be able to sign up for Medi-Cal on Jan. 1. That's a reference to illegal immigrants.

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(The Center Square) - A new report released by the California State Auditor's Office found more than $5.1 million of waste, misuse or improper spending of taxpayer funds. The report comes just weeks after the Legislative Analyst's Office released its own report that the state faces an $18 billion shortfall for the 2026-27 budget.

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(The Center Square) - Lawyers supporting and opposing California’s congressional redistricting maps made their closing arguments in the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles. The case is now in the hands of a three-judge panel, led by U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton. Judges will decide whether to grant plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction that would keep the Proposition 50 maps from taking effect.

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(The Center Square) - Overtime paid by the City of San Diego increased 65% between 2019 and 2024, city records show, while the number of city employees earning $100,000 or more in just overtime nearly doubled, an investigation by The Center Square found. The city faces a $18.1 million shortfall for the current fiscal year. City of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is ordering a halt to non-essential overtime, but the city still projects a deficit of at least $89 million for the next year.

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(The Center Square) - California is spending $278.4 million this year on its “Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants” program that provides state-funded payments largely to qualified elderly and disabled non-citizens who were rejected from the federal Supplemental Security Income program due to their immigration status, state records show.

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(The Center Square) - More than two years after groundbreaking on a new “university innovation district” in the San Diego-area city of Chula Vista, lawmakers and community members still don’t know how much a new university would cost. While local and state lawmakers and staff didn’t know the cost, a recent report compiled by architectural firm O'C Insight shows that phase 1 of the project is estimated to cost more than $2.1 billion.

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