Are Steve Hilton's big plans DOA in the Legislature?

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Hello and welcome back to another week of Capitol Confidential! 

Election Day is nine days away.

Early in-person voting has begun, meaning there is now at least one early voting location open in each county. These locations offer voter registration, replacement ballots and language and accessibility assistance. 

In an interview with the Chronicle’s Sophia Bollag, Republican candidate for governor Steve Hilton doubled down on many of his signature campaign promises. From a tax cut to abolishing the DMV to slashing the price of gasoline, Hilton’s platform has ambitious proposals – but would he actually be able to follow through? 

Many would require support from the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature – a portion of the state government Hilton at times seems to underestimate or outright forget. 

When asked about how we would get legislative support to follow through on his pledge to make Californians’ first $150,000 of income tax-free, Hilton said he would do so through the state budget. 

“My first budget will include that working-class tax cut, your first $150,000 tax-free, no state income tax, along with the spending reductions to pay for it, like canceling high-speed rail, like eliminating Medi-Cal fraud, like stopping funding to nonprofits that make homelessness worse, etc.,” Hilton said. “As well as the 5% efficiency saving across all government departments. So that will be a package that's in the first budget.”

If the Legislature disagrees, Hilton said, he would use the line-item veto power. 

“I can just delete it,” he said. “That's what it means, a line-item veto.”

As Bollag reported, the governor’s budget is simply a proposal and requires approval from the Legislature. California doesn’t reauthorize its income taxes every year though the budget, so the governor can’t eliminate them via line-item vetoes. 

In another section of the interview in which Hilton is asked how he would work with the Legislature to lower gas prices, he said he would suspend AB32, or the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a regulation adopted by the California Air Resources Board.

But, as Bollag reported, the governor cannot simply suspend the law, and major changes to California’s Cap and Invest program would require approval from the Legislature.

Read the interview for full answers from Hilton on not only gas prices and tax breaks, but also on his promise to end the DMV and his thoughts on the death penalty. 

This year, the bottom third of the ballot is full of headline-making proposals – a billionaire tax, a voter ID measure and a potential overhaul of the state’s environmental review process. 

But at the very top of the ballot sits Prop 1, one of three bond measures facing voters, which aims to tackle an element of one of the state’s most enduring quagmires: affordable housing.