(INSIDE CALIFORNIA POLITICS) — This week on Inside California Politics, billionaire real estate magnate Rick Caruso sat down with host Nikki Laurenzo to discuss the one-year anniversary of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires, the potential next steps for his political career and the proposed California wealth tax.

While Caruso commended the state government for its initial response to the fire, the business mogul said the state needs to do a better job when it comes to getting insurance to pay out.

“Certainly, one of the areas that we really have got a problem for a lot of people is insurance,” Caruso said. “And the insurance that’s controlled by the state of California needs to pay out quicker and pay out fully because most people’s insurance in terms of temporary rental has run out after a year.”

“So they’re either forced to move back into a home that hasn’t been remediated because the insurance company is maybe challenging the remediation cost or they’re homeless,” he continued. “So we shouldn’t be putting people into that position and the state needs to take the lead to make sure our own insurance programs controlled by the state paid out, like I said, very quickly and robustly and not be challenging homeowners who have lost everything.”

When asked if he had any political plans, Caruso, who ran for mayor of L.A. in 2022, said he was preparing to make an announcement soon.

“I’m going to announce in a couple of weeks,” Caruso said. “We’re coming down for a landing on this. I promise you that.”

On the subject of the proposed one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires recently reviewed by the state’s Legislative Analysts Office, Caruso said that while he didn’t mind paying more taxes, he did not think the proposal was a good idea.

“I think the issue is, are we getting our money’s worth for it?,” Caruso said. “And what we don’t want to be doing in the state of California is pushing out very innovative, creative, smart people — who albeit are wealthy — but if you give them an incentive to leave, they’re going to leave.”

Caruso said he didn’t believe the tax would provide enough funds to address the health care concerns it is ostensibly meant to address.

“Govern with common sense and don’t be governing with these one-time taxes. It doesn’t even solve the problem,” Caruso said. “I mean, if you’re trying to solve the health care problem, which needs to be dealt with, the loss of potential funds of providing health care, this will not fill that gap. So there’s not even a nexus between the solution and the problem.”

Then, political analysts Andrew Acosta and Rob Stutzman joined Inside California Politics to discuss the sudden death of Congressman Doug LaMalfa, who had represented California’s 1st Congressional District since 2013, and Newsom’s final State of the State address to the California legislature.

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