Californians care about results – and who’s going to be able to deliver when it comes to lowering costs. Tom Steyer has a history of getting things done for California, even when the usual politicians, and the usual way of doing things, couldn’t deliver. These are his plans.
A home is more than a place to sleep or a piece of property to be owned. It defies a single purpose. It connects you to community and it gives you belonging. It is where you build your future, raise a family, and it’s how you achieve the California Dream.
But today, that fundamental promise—the chance to put down roots and raise a family—is slipping away. Californians cannot afford to live in California. We cannot treat our housing crisis as just a mathematical shortage of assets; it is a crisis of the California Dream.
Housing underpins everything in California. I know that building more housing is possible. Nearly a decade ago, I signed on to help pass new laws to hold local governments accountable, provide permanent revenues for affordable housing programs, and streamline local zoning approvals. I’ve seen firsthand how these tools can work when they are actually enforced, and as Governor, I will use them to ensure that when builders follow the rules, they can get to work.
I’m no stranger to building housing. I’ve done it before. I co-founded Beneficial State Bank with my wife Kat Taylor—a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Beneficial State Bank has spent nearly two decades serving communities abandoned by Wall Street and working to directly dismantle the legacy of redlining and disinvestment. To date, we have financed over 17,000 affordable housing units.
California used to build more than twice as many units as it does now. We need to return to that historic level of production. We can build 1 million homes over four years and fundamentally transform affordability in our state.
Building should be easy. We should bring the same innovation and technology synonymous with California to our housing crisis. And above all else, our housing system should work for working people.
Here’s how I’ll do that—
California has created a two-tiered tax system. While working people pay their fair share, the wealthiest people and corporations exploit tax loopholes to skip out on paying billions of dollars every year.
This is money that should go to our schools, healthcare, and infrastructure. Our recent report shows how wealthy commercial property owners – including Donald Trump himself – have avoided paying taxes on what their properties are actually worth, collectively costing California $243 billion since 2012.
When corporations don’t pay their fair share, everyday Californians are left to pick up the tab, and cities and counties are forced to push taxes, impact fees, and service charges onto residents, making California’s affordability crisis even worse.
Tom is going to close these corporate loopholes, and raise $20 billion of new revenue each year to fund things like education, healthcare, childcare, and home care, all without charging working people a penny.
The electric companies are ripping us off. That’s a fact. Since 2019, electricity prices in California have risen nearly 50% – over twice the rate of inflation – costing families in California thousands of dollars.
Californians’ utility costs are double the national average. We pay higher rates here than in any other state in the continental United States, and yet we are still susceptible to frequent power outages and utility-caused wildfires.
And it’s the result of a few huge utilities having a monopoly, meaning that they can charge whatever they want. Monopolies deliver the worst product at the highest price. This is unacceptable. And it doesn’t have to be this way.
We are going to break up their monopoly power and bring utility rates down by 25% in California by bringing competition to the grid.
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Every child in California has the fundamental right to an education. But not every child in California is getting what they need to learn. As it stands, less than a third of eighth graders are proficient in reading and math, and we are in the middle of national rankings. We need to support our teachers and our schools so that they can provide the best education possible to kids.
California’s schools are starved of funding. When adjusted for cost of living, our public schools rank 31st in the nation for per-pupil funding, despite being the richest state in America and the world’s fourth largest economy.
Through cutting corporate tax loopholes, California can easily provide universal education starting at three years old, all the way through to free community college. This means any Californian can receive a great, free education from walking through the doors in pre K, to walking the stage at graduation.
When it comes to ICE — you can’t reform a criminal organization. We watched Alex Pretti and Renee Good be brutally killed in Minnesota by Trump’s masked agents while trying to speak up for their neighbors. We’ve seen continued reports of the tens of thousands of friends, neighbors, and colleagues who have been snatched off the streets, separated from their families, and disappeared to detention centers and prison camps.
We’re living through a dystopian reality, and it’s never been more important that we have state leadership that will stand up to this administration.
Good climate policy will make life for Californians not only healthier but more affordable – and the cheaper, faster, and better technologies needed to make this future possible already exist. This is how we will build a competitive, 21st-century economy, rooted in health, security, and economic opportunity.
California is the 4th largest economy in the world, and we also lead the world in environmental protections and progressive climate policies. Our state has developed and implemented some of the most forward-looking and ambitious climate policy on the planet, while retaining an innovative and thriving economy.
For over 15 years Tom has been at the front of the climate movement as an activist, philanthropist, and business leader. In 2010, he defended California’s landmark emissions reduction legislation (Cap & Trade), working with allies across labor and environmental justice to defeat Big Oil. In 2025, he rallied the public to help secure its reauthorization, delivering over $28 billion over the last decade in funding for clean energy, clean infrastructure, and well-paying California jobs.
Tom was co-chair and chief backer of Proposition 39, contributing $29.6 million to pass the measure which raised over $1.7 billion. The policy was designed to ensure the revenue was earmarked for school energy retrofits, creating union jobs.
California is uniquely positioned to continue to lead, further cementing itself at the forefront of clean energy, innovation, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Nowhere else in the world has the technologies, talent, and resources to lead on climate like we can.
Tom knows quality health care is a right, not a privilege – and that there’s too much profit, and not enough health care, in our health care system. That’s why he’s been endorsed by the California Nurses Association, and progressive single payer health care champions like Congressman Ro Khanna and Representative Ash Kalra, the author of Cal-Care.
Our next governor must face the facts. California’s current system is unsustainable for working people and businesses. Health care spending and insurance rates continue to rise well above the rate of economic growth. The total average family premium – the combination of employer and employee costs – now exceeds $25K, and is up 52% over the last decade. This year, employers are expected to face their largest increase in health care costs in 15 years, with much of that cost passed to employees.
Have these costs led to healthier and happier communities? No. They’ve lined the pockets of middle-men and insurance executives, whose entire business model is to deliver the least amount of care at the highest possible cost.
Tom believes strongly that the only way we’ll reduce health care costs, expand coverage, and promote public health when it is under attack from the Trump administration is through a single-payer system. And he is committed to getting California there.
As the largest and most powerful state, California will set an example for the rest of the United States to follow.
For generations, people have built their fortunes in California. But those fortunes should never come at the expense of working people. Here in the state that made AI possible, we win as a team – or not at all.
As the risks and opportunities of this technology come into clearer focus, it’s more important than ever for California to have courageous leaders at the helm.
We can’t let the AI era leave workers behind the way globalization left auto and manufacturing workers behind in the last century. We need to invest in tools that support and empower workers, not replace them. Because the California dream doesn’t work without work.
Tom believes that the people who stand to profit the most from this technology shouldn’t be making the rules about how it is used. Otherwise, the AI era will be another boom for billionaires – and a bust for everyone else.
As governor, Tom will stand behind companies that lead with integrity. He’ll create more of the jobs humans do best. He will make sure all Californians profit from the AI boom. He’ll expand opportunities for companies beyond the biggest and most powerful few. And he’ll put safeguards in place to hold every company accountable for keeping Californians safe.