Special Reports

This report analyzes the potential effects from recently adopted and currently proposed regulations having significant effects on the cost of new housing in California.  Specifically, these regulations considered include proposals that would require all housing in California to be built while paying workers at prevailing wage levels along with Zero Net Energy requirements, increasing local requirements for affordable units, and offsets, VMT reduction, and other measures related to the state’s climate change policies.

Recent analysis by LAO stated that after factoring in housing costs, total annual costs for attending Community College in California goes from the lowest to the 7th highest in the nation for students not living at home with their families. The following LAO conclusions were based on 2013-14 data. California housing prices have escalated rapidly since then.

The recent release of the 2014 American Community Survey data provides an opportunity to gauge how California commuters have responded to this shifting policy. The data clearly reflects that even with the well-documented and rapidly rising costs of the state’s traffic congestion and costs associated with the deteriorating condition of the state’s roads, California workers continue to rely on single occupant vehicles for the primary mode of commuting. Moreover, their reliance on this mode of travel continues to grow both in absolute and relative terms.

Summary Both California and the federal government have relied heavily on publicly and privately funded subsidies to incentivize development of alternative energies and related energy efficient products.  As the state is now considering potentially major expansions of these programs, it is appropriate to consider whether this approach as applied in the past has been broadly distributed, or instead has in practice favored specific income groups or regions.

The extent of the state’s two-tier economy is sharply illustrated by the patterns of economic growth over the past quarter century in two of its key jobs centers: Los Angeles County and the Bay Area.

SB 617 Rulemaking Documents
SB 617 (Chapter 496, Statutes of 2011) created a new process under which state agencies proposing the adoption, amendment, or repeal of major regulations are required to conduct an economic impact assessment.  A major regulation has been defined by Department of Finance as a regulation that will have an economic impact on California businesses and individuals in an amount exceeding $50 million in any 12-month period.  SB 617 is an important first step in ensuring that California regulations are prepared with consideration to their impacts on the economy, job creation, and the long-term health of the state’s fiscal situation.