{"id":98546,"date":"2025-12-17T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/98546\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:30:08","slug":"calchambers-ceqa-reform-boosting-californias-economy-and-state-budget-advocacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/98546\/","title":{"rendered":"CalChamber\u2019s CEQA Reform: Boosting California\u2019s Economy and State Budget – Advocacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"financialNew analyses of the California Chamber of Commerce ballot measure to streamline and modernize the construction of essential projects find it could result in a multibillion-dollar boost to the state\u2019s economy and, in turn, add new jobs and revenues to help pay for vital government programs.<\/p>\n

Separate reviews by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office (LAO)<\/a> and the Blue Sky Consulting Group<\/a>, a research firm comprised of veteran state policy experts, found ample evidence of the economic benefits contained in the Building an Affordable California Act (BACA).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results of these in-depth studies are not only a reflection of why we want voters to take action in 2026, but also why we are so sure the proposal is key to California\u2019s long-term prosperity,\u201d said CalChamber President and CEO Jennifer Barrera. \u201cOur state has so much potential that\u2019s being locked up by well-intended but outmoded processes, and the Building an Affordable California Act will be a catalyst toward making the state a more affordable place to live and work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Likely to Result in Savings\u2019<\/p>\n

The LAO review<\/a>, issued on Dec. 10, 2025, found that the net effect of BACA provisions \u2014 especially those related to shortened time limits for agencies and the courts \u2014 would \u201clikely result in savings in the longer term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analysts also concluded that inflationary costs of public works projects could decrease under new timelines for review. Completion of more private sector projects, the LAO report points out, \u201ccould lead to an increase in tax revenues, such as property tax revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Impacts of Even Modest Changes<\/p>\n

The Blue Sky Consulting Group report<\/a> found that even a 5% increase in annual statewide spending on essential projects \u2014 as defined in the Building an Affordable California Act \u2014 could generate $12 billion a year in additional economic output and more than 38,000 new jobs in construction and other sectors.<\/p>\n

The resulting wages, profits, and taxable sales would, in turn, add some $220 million a year to California\u2019s general fund and $89 million in annual revenue for local governments.
The Blue Sky report notes that increased productivity in the construction sector will \u201callow firms to produce more output given the same inputs\u201d \u2014 in essence, more bang for the buck.<\/p>\n

Costs will also go down, the report\u2019s authors conclude, when a project\u2019s backers are no longer saddled with indefinite delays and bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese delays impose costs in the form of uncertainty,\u201d they write, \u201cgiven that investors may require a higher rate of return to compensate for the uncertainty and development costs may increase by more than the rate of inflation during the delay period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government costs are also likely to go down.<\/p>\n

The current open-ended reviews \u201cimpose significant time burdens on government staff, who must prepare updated technical analyses, draft revised impact studies, and coordinate the review process across several public departments,\u201d the report notes. It also points out that local and state governments would see cost pressures go down when building their own public works projects.<\/p>\n

The Building an Affordable California Act<\/a>, a comprehensive plan to modernize the permitting process while keeping all the state\u2019s environmental protections in place, will soon receive title and summary from the Office of the Attorney General and is on track to appear on the ballot for voters to consider in November 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New analyses of the California Chamber of Commerce ballot measure to streamline and modernize the construction of essential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14705,7,9,8,10174],"class_list":["post-98546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-building-an-affordable-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-ceqa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}