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Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton announced a sweeping new economic plan Monday that would controversially suspend some of California’s most stringent regulations for a decade to kickstart a building boom across the state.
“For 10 years, California will have one overriding priority: build again,” Hilton said in a speech prepared for the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
“So in the light of recent election results in other Democrat-dominated states like Michigan and New York, we must stand firm against the further rise of socialism in California, and what that would mean for our economic future,” he added.
Hilton argued that California workers face a greater threat from the state’s entrenched, left-leaning bureaucracy than from billionaires, blaming progressive policies for eroding job opportunities, incomes and quality of life.
He pointed specifically to young Californians, noting the state has the second-highest youth unemployment rate in the nation despite embracing policies popular among young, college-educated voters elsewhere.
Hilton’s proposal calls for a special legislative session during his first week as governor to seek a 10-year suspension of rules, regulations, government-imposed costs and bureaucratic processes that Hilton says are driving businesses and development out of California.
The ambitious plan would target CEQA, the state’s landmark environmental law, as well as PAGA lawsuits, Vehicle Miles Traveled rules and taxes on investment — along with regulations Hilton says add costs without a clear public benefit.
Getting such sweeping changes through the Democratic-controlled Legislature could be a tall order, but Hilton suggested some of the changes could be enacted through executive powers.
“If they reject this offer, I am well prepared to use executive authority and the governor’s control of state agencies to achieve as much of it as possible incrementally,” Hilton said.
“But that would obviously be slower, harder, and sub-optimal.”
Hilton, who is facing off against Democrat Xavier Becerra in the November runoff, said clean air and water standards would remain in place while permitting and legal challenges would be dramatically streamlined.
“California will have clear deadlines. One decision. One appeal. Then build,” he said. “For 10 years, California should become the easiest, not the hardest place in America to build something that matters.”
The plan calls for an enormous expansion of housing, manufacturing and infrastructure, including semiconductor factories, AI infrastructure, aerospace and defense facilities, nuclear power plants, reservoirs, desalination facilities, roads, bridges, ports and entirely new communities.
Hilton argued that California could develop another 1% of its land — about 1 million acres — and create enough room for 5 million people in single-family homes while at least doubling the state’s manufacturing capacity.
One of the forces holding California’s economy back is “climate posturing,” Hilton said, arguing that it, along with high taxes, burdensome regulation, litigation and powerful union interests, has driven residents and businesses to competing states like Texas.
“This is not left versus right,” Hilton said. “It is builders versus blockers. Creativity versus bureaucracy. Growth versus decline.”
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