California Insider

California counties begin mailing November ballots by Oct. 5. This year’s ballot carries 14 statewide propositions, and several of them deal with taxes.

Some proposals revisit earlier decisions, such as whether an income tax increase first approved as temporary in 2012 should become permanent. Others are new, including a proposed one-time tax on the state’s billionaires.

Susan Shelley, vice president of Communications at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, offers a taxpayer advocate’s assessment of the measures and what they could change for people in California. The outcome of one measure could determine whether another becomes law.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

California’s 2026–27 budget provides more than $150 billion for TK–12 education. School districts still say they are underfunded, and many parents are asking what that level of spending delivers for students.

University of California faculty have documented a growing number of incoming freshmen who arrive with strong high school math grades yet need remedial math once they reach campus. That leaves open whether strong grades reliably reflect how prepared students are for college.

Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, a former teacher and vice chair of the Senate Education Committee, sits on the budget subcommittee that reviews school funding requests. She weighs in on how well California’s education spending translates into student learning, and where she believes accountability should start.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

For many California households, including families with two working parents on a median income, buying a home is out of reach. A bill to make townhomes easier to build would open another route to ownership, and how far it lowers prices for buyers is part of the conversation.

Proposition 45, a measure on the November ballot, would set deadlines for reviewing and approving projects. That process decides how long it takes for approved homes to reach the people waiting to buy them.

Jennifer Hernandez, a partner at Holland & Knight who leads its West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group, explains what she sees in the townhome approach and how project approvals shape California’s housing supply. Her work permitting projects for housing developers gives her a close view of what happens to homes after they are approved.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

Patients in California can enter a hospital without knowing what their care will cost. For people covered by Medi-Cal, another problem can come earlier, when they face long waits or struggle to find a physician who accepts the program.

Few other purchases are made without knowing the price, which leaves patients with little to compare before deciding where to go.

Sally C. Pipes is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and its Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Healthcare Policy. She examines what she would change about how healthcare is paid for in the United States and which parts of the system she believes should be preserved.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

For many people in California, buying a home remains out of reach. Prices stay high, while limited listings leave buyers with fewer choices.

California is changing where and how new housing can be built, with laws intended to increase supply. Whether more approvals will lead to homes at prices buyers can manage remains unsettled.

Jim Righeimer, a former Costa Mesa mayor and housing developer, and Stephen R. Sheldon, CEO of SRS Land & Capital Holdings, examine what happens after the rules change and before new homes reach the market.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

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California’s prison system is changing. The state is closing facilities, moving incarcerated people between institutions, and continuing to invest in rehabilitation. Inside prison, that goal meets a culture with its own long-standing rules, where choosing a different direction is rarely as simple as deciding to.

Nhut Vo and Oscar Rodriguez entered California prisons as teenagers and spent decades behind bars before becoming professional dog trainers. They describe what it took to step away from gang life and how working with rescue dogs became part of rebuilding their lives.

They are joined by Zach Skow, founder of the Pawsitive Change program, who shares what he has seen trying to run rehabilitation inside state prisons for more than a decade. Together, they examine what pursuing change can mean inside those walls, and why the conditions around them can make it harder.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

San Diego County voters will decide this November whether to change some of the rules governing accountability and oversight inside county government. The proposal comes as public spending and how that money is tracked remain part of a broader accountability debate in the county.

The charter reform would change parts of a system most residents rarely see, including oversight and the relationship between elected officials and county administration. San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson supports some of those changes and argues that others deserve a closer look.

Anderson, also a former state senator, explains why he believes safeguards matter regardless of who holds office. He makes the case that rules meant to prevent small shortcuts can matter most long before anyone realizes there is a larger problem.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

When people in California surrender a pet to a shelter or send an animal to a sanctuary, they expect that animal to be cared for. What happens after that can remain largely out of sight until something goes wrong.

In several recent cases around California, problems inside animal rescues went on for a long time before outside organizations were able to intervene. In this interview, we look at what can happen during that period before conditions become serious enough for outside intervention.

Gary Weitzman, president and CEO of San Diego Humane Society, helped lead the response to one of the most complex rescue operations his team has taken on. He joins us to explain what he has encountered at these properties and why animal welfare leaders are now asking the state for greater oversight of their own field.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

California families can spend years preparing a student for college, only for that student to reach graduation with little idea of what the work on the other side will actually be like. With the cost of going to college being so high, finding out too late that a career is the wrong fit can be an expensive lesson.

Students are also entering a labor market that has changed since their parents entered it. Yet many are reaching those decisions about college, training, and careers with little direct work experience.

April Barnes, president of Vital Link, and Brian Dozer, superintendent of Coastline ROP, work with students who are trying to make those decisions earlier. They join us to discuss why career exposure may need to start sooner than many families expect.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

Los Angeles is heading toward a mayoral runoff with public safety, homelessness, housing affordability, and the city’s finances still weighing on the race. Karen Bass and Nithya Raman are the two names left on the ballot, but the November electorate may look different from the one that put them there.

A significant group of voters backed someone else in the primary. Whether those voters return, and where they go if they do, leaves an important part of the race unsettled.

We sit down with Matthew Klink, partner at California Strategies, to examine the voter coalitions beneath the mayoral race. He explains what to watch as Los Angeles moves toward November and why the final contest may depend on voters neither candidate started with.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.