The California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) invited the Honorable Betty Yee to interview with the Board of Directors and discuss her positions and proposals on a range of economic issues facing the state. Yee, the former State Controller and State Budget Director is running as a Democrat to become California’s next governor.
She is the first gubernatorial candidate to accept CALED’s invitation to discuss furthering economic development in California, an opportunity that has been extended to all major Democrat and Republican candidates. Meetings with other candidates are anticipated to occur over the next several months.
The conversation with Yee covered a range of topics related to economic development and the state’s economic future, including California’s business climate, manufacturing, workforce development, the relationship between state and local governments, and redevelopment tools. Yee expressed her support for improving the state-local partnership, streamlining regulations, and bringing back local redevelopment agencies (RDAs) if elected California’s next governor.
“Let’s put the right guardrails on and have that be the focal point of our state/local relationship for what we’re delivering for the public,” said Yee when discussing re-establishing RDA’s, which she acknowledged would have its challenges. In a related discussion, Yee pledged to support the efforts of existing infrastructure financing districts.
Yee, the daughter of immigrant parents who owned a small business in San Francisco, spoke in detail with the board about the challenges of California’s business climate and the need to support businesses both small and large. She acknowledged that as businesses grow, they often consider moving to other states because of California’s lack of affordability and the burden of taxes and regulations.
Among her proposals is a sector-specific pilot program to reduce interagency complexities and provide navigators to support businesses in complying with state requirements.
“I think we all would agree, some regulations are purposed, but there has to be an element of reasonableness for how many we need, and I think it’s time to unravel this on a top-level,” said Yee, in hopes this would spur a return of manufacturing to the state.
Since announcing her candidacy in March 2024, Yee has traveled throughout California, including rural areas, and repeatedly noted to the board that “innovation happens in all corners of the state.” She said, if elected, she would work with local governments and agencies to help grow rural economies through economic development partnerships, workforce initiatives, programs with K-12 and higher education, apprenticeships, and supporting grants.
In this conversation, CALED officials also identified the challenges they face with land acquisition and disposition authorized under one set of laws to support local economic development efforts, that is conflicting with other state laws and regulatory efforts.
“I think the beauty of state/local partnership is the understanding of when the state needs to step in and when the state needs to get out of the way. It’s a healthy collaboration when we’re able to understand what the goal is that we’re trying to achieve, and if there are barriers that are a matter of state policy that we need to change, we can certainly pursue those,” Yee replied.
In response to a question about the challenges of homelessness and affordability, Yee proposed a multi-pronged approach to help get people into housing and connected with resources, while trying to support the organizations that are offering assistance.
She pointed to a program in Alameda County that brings one-room units to encampments to provide temporary shelter to those experiencing homelessness, and pitched an effort to help prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
“I think the response to homelessness has been a mess. We spent over $24 billion in state funds on homelessness programs, and I will be the first to say I don’t know what we got for it,” Yee told the board.
Yee also spoke of the need for California to stand out in the broader market. The state became the world’s fourth-largest economy in 2024, and Yee called for the state to work with global partners to grow and support local economies.
“Our secret sauce is the diversity of our regions, the diversity of our talents and the diversity of our industries,” said Yee. “We need to grow our economy. We need to figure out how to sustain a global economy and how we can become much more financially and fiscally resilient from the federal government.”