| | | | |  | | By Jeremy B. White, Lara Korte and Dustin Gardiner | Presented by Connected Commerce Council | | 
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference May 25, 2023, in Richmond, Calif. | Adam Beam/AP Photo | DRIVING THE DAY: Pride Month is over, but LGBTQ issues are still making headlines. We saw major movement on the fight between the state and the Temecula school board over the weekend, but officials say they’re not done yet. More on that below … THE BUZZ — Climate adaptation, flood prevention, school renovation, home construction: California Democrats have more than $100 billion worth of projects they want to fund. But they’ll need to persuade Gov. Gavin Newsom — not to mention voters. A bond bonanza has swept over Sacramento as Newsom, lawmakers and various interest groups look to borrow billions for critical infrastructure. But pricey dreams are colliding with fiscal and political reality: California can only take on so much debt, and voters will only approve so many bonds — particularly in an era of budget deficits and economic malaise. Newsom has prioritized a behavioral health bond that would fund thousands of treatment slots, joined to a policy bill changing how counties spend proceeds from a voter-approved tax. The governor wants to finalize that measure before turning to other bonds, and he’s signaled he’d prefer it sit alone on the March primary ballot rather than compete in a crowded November election. The March versus November question is one of several overlapping calculations. Interest groups, preparing to fund bond campaigns, have polled the ideal size and shape of funding requests. No one has forgotten that voters decisively rejected the last statewide bond — for school facilities — despite Newsom’s backing. Bonds require two-thirds votes, which could mean some horse-trading as lawmakers clamor for preferred projects. Newsom is poised to play gatekeeper for all of it. He’s estimated California’s borrowing ceiling at around $26 billion, which will compel some tough choices. Lawmakers face an October deadline to put anything on the March ballot. That means bond negotiations and votes could dominate the end of session after everyone returns from recess. Nearly everyone wants something. But there’s a real risk there: Ask for too much, and voters may give you nothing. “When they sit down and look at them all, this dizzying array of bonds,” Republican Sen. Kelly Seyarto warned at a recent hearing that saw multiple bonds advance, “they're all going to end up voting ‘no’ — so we have to make a plan.” Here’s Jeremy’s breakdown of Sacramento’s bond balancing act.
| | | | A message from Connected Commerce Council: Millions of small businesses rely on online marketplaces to reach customers nationwide, track performance metrics and manage logistics. The Connected Commerce Council is making sure they have the tools they need to do it. Learn more. | | | HAPPY MONDAY. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. PLAYBOOK TIP LINE — Are YOU hoping lawmakers and Newsom prioritize a specific project for bond spending? Why is that your priority? Get in touch! We want all your hot tips, photos and story ideas. Now you can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts now. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on Twitter — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
| | | | HITTING YOUR INBOX AUGUST 14—CALIFORNIA CLIMATE: Climate change isn’t just about the weather. It's also about how we do business and create new policies, especially in California. So we have something cool for you: A brand-new California Climate newsletter. It's not just climate or science chat, it's your daily cheat sheet to understanding how the legislative landscape around climate change is shaking up industries across the Golden State. Cut through the jargon and get the latest developments in California as lawmakers and industry leaders adapt to the changing climate. Subscribe now to California Climate to keep up with the changes. | | | | | |  | FRESH INK | | |  Great Oak High School students leave campus in protest of the district's ban of critical race theory curriculum in Temecula, Calif., on Dec. 16, 2022. | Watchara Phomicinda/The Orange County Register via AP | SHELVED — The conservative-leaning Temecula Valley Unified School District adopted a state-compliant social studies curriculum Friday, ending this chapter of a feud with Gov. Gavin Newsom while other tensions over LGBTQ materials continue to simmer around the state. The Southern California school board had initially moved to block a set of textbooks for first through fifth graders because it mentioned gay rights icon Harvey Milk. That quickly caught the attention of the governor and Attorney General Rob Bonta, who launched a civil rights investigation, threatened a $1.5 million fine and said the state would order textbooks for the district if it didn’t adopt materials for the upcoming school year. The district is not totally backing down from its anti-LGBT rhetoric. The board voted to strike out a portion of the curriculum that discusses the gay rights movement. The textbook does not include Milk, but his biography does appear in other materials, per the Los Angeles Times. Newsom praised the fact that, now “students will receive the basic materials needed to learn,” but said the Temecula dispute is just one example of a wider trend toward “extremism.” “This has never been about parents’ rights. It’s not even about Harvey Milk — who appears nowhere in the textbook students receive,” the governor said in a statement late Friday. “This is about extremists’ desire to control information and censor the materials used to teach our children.” The board’s decision also doesn’t clear them of legal scrutiny, Newsom said. “Temecula has a civil rights investigation to answer for,” he said in the statement. The governor has yet to weigh in on another LGBTQ fight just up the road at Chino Valley Unified School District, where board members on Thursday passed a measure requiring schools to inform parents if their students identify as transgender or ask to use pronouns that don’t align with the ones assigned at birth. Bonta sent a letter raising concerns about violations of student privacy, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond attended the meeting to speak against the measure — but was ultimately escorted out by security offices while angry parents cheered. Another story that caught our an eye: The New York Times’ Jill Cowan tells us of an incident in San Diego, where two people checked out all the materials in their library’s Pride Month display, vowing to hold the books hostage until librarians agreed to “permanently remove the inappropriate content from the shelves.” The incident was first reported by The San Diego Union Tribune. That was met with an outpouring of support from the community, which sent the library new copies of the books that had been taken. Roughly 180 people gave more than $15,000 to the library system, The Times reports.
| | | | A message from Connected Commerce Council:   | | | | | WHAT WE'RE READING TODAY | | — "Who will stand up for renters? Their elected representatives, who also rent,” by The New York Times’ Conor Dougherty: “Looking to highlight their renter status and the 17 million California households that are tenants — a little less than half the state — last year, Mr. Haney and two Assembly colleagues, Isaac Bryan and Alex Lee, founded the California Renters Caucus.” — “Some of California’s 'cheapest' cities have seen the biggest rent hikes,” by CalMatters’ Ben Christopher: “Inland cities including Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia and Riverside — once cheaper options than pricey places such as the Bay Area — are no longer refuges from California’s housing affordability crisis.” — “Santa Barbara News-Press files for bankruptcy,” by the Santa Barbara Independent’s Jean Yamamura: “More than 150 years of history ended on Friday when the Santa Barbara News-Press declared bankruptcy in a Chapter 7 filing by Ampersand Publishing, LLC. The online edition that day was the last news Santa Barbara will receive from the newspaper.” — “The wild story of triumph and tragedy behind Tony Bennett’s ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco,’” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub: “But the song — and its evolution — have a complicated backstory. It includes triumph, tragedy and a notably cruel rejection by San Franciscans, all of which may have forged an even stronger bond between the performer and his adopted city.” — “‘Come on Barbie, let’s go govern.’ California politicians jump on the ‘Barbie’ bandwagon,’” by The Sacramento Bee’s Grace Scullion: “Barbie’s plastic is fantastic — and malleable, apparently, for a whole range of political causes.”
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