Golden State Today

California Governor Gavin Newsom says the state needs massive tax hikes and more regulations to slow economic development and stop global warming.

At least one leading GOP challenger to Newsom, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, actually shares many of his Democrat rivals’ sentiments.

Faulconer, kicking off his campaign as his term as mayor ends this month, is expected to tout San Diego’s “Climate Action Plan,” launched in 2015, among his proudest accomplishments.

That plan — while very popular among San Diego Democrats and environmental activists who supported Faulconer— includes regulatory initiatives paid for with higher taxes and energy prices on employers and consumers.

“In San Diego, ‘climate action” isn’t just a phrase— it’s a way of life,” Faulconer wrote in the introductory letter to his most recent Climate Action Plan annual report. “We’re taking bold action to accomplish our goals and protect the environment for the next generation.”

It’s a counterintuitive strategy for a Republican to support higher taxes for any purpose, much less to counter global warming. But Faulconer isn’t moderating his views— even as he tries to win support from conservative Californians who believe state taxes are already too high.

Faulconer has criticized President Donald Trump for pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement, signed by President Barack Obama. Critics say it raised energy costs on American consumers and destroyed U.S. energy jobs; supporters say it would stop global warming. 

In response to Trump’s move, Faulconer joined San Francisco Mayor London Breed as co-chair of the Sierra Club’s “Mayors for 100 percent Clean Energy” activist group. It sought to encourage all U.S. mayors to ban coal and natural gas power in their cities by 2035.

The Sierra Club supports the so-called “Green New Deal,” proposed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (D-NY), which would institute a federal ban on coal and natural gas altogether in the U.S.

$177 billion in San Diego County tax hikes

Critical to Faulconer’s plans for San Diego— and Newsom’s for California— is government action to stop people from driving cars and trucks.

That includes stopping California freeway expansion and introducing punitive measures to make driving more expensive. Faulconer and other supporters of such measures, like State Assemblyman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), want to raise taxes to build more bicycle paths and rail systems.

The San Diego Association of Governments regional planning agency known as “SANDAG” is proposing $177 billion in tax hikes towards this end, “transforming” the region away from the automobile over the next three decades. That includes a sales tax increase it hopes to put on the 2022 ballot.

Faulconer is a public supporter of their plan. Last year he said he looked forward to “seeing it  come to life.”

Gov. Newsom announced in Sept. that he would “phase out” gasoline-powered cars in California by 2035— an even more ambitious plan than that of Faulconer and SANDAG.

“This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” said Governor Newsom. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”