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Good morning, California. It’s Monday, January 31.

Concept vs. reality

“It’s one thing to say, it’s another to do.”

That was Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent assessment of a proposal to create a state-funded single-payer health care system, which faces a do-or-die vote today in the state Assembly along with a host of other controversial bills.

But it also points to a larger, more fundamental challenge at all levels of government: Once you pass a law or create a program, how do you successfully implement it and ensure that it executes on its stated goals? As Newsom put it in June 2020, as protests swept the country following George Floyd’s murder: “Program-passing is not problem-solving.”

The difficulty inherent in translating a law’s aspirational language into reality is evident in this stunning project from CalMatters’ Rachel Becker, which examines how one of California’s landmark environmental justice laws is playing out more than four years after it was passed.

Some of her key findings:

• The law — which was hailed as “unprecedented,” “groundbreaking,” and “a catalyst to change the way we work with communities” — was supposed to clear the air for low-income communities of color that bear the brunt of California’s air pollution.
• But, after more than four years and more than $1 billion in state funds, it’s impossible to say...

Read Full Story: https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2022/01/air-quality-california/