Issues

MAKING IT EASIER AND MORE AFFORDABLE TO LIVE, WORK, AND OWN A SMALL BUSINESS IN CALIFORNIA

It is unconscionable that so many people are unable to afford to live in our district. It’s predominately the middle class and young people going to lower cost states like Arizona and Texas, not the super wealthy. A key focus of Brian’s campaign is to make California more affordable for everyone–and that means prioritizing working families: putting them in a position where they are not forced to drive hours to their jobs and can afford to own a home, pay their bills, and send their kids to good schools. 

We need to make it easier and more affordable to build the housing we need–and we also need to take on other drivers of high costs, especially child care and elder care. It is a scandal that only 16% of our kids who qualify for subsidized child care are offered slots. And we should use every tool to confront Trump policies targeted to hurt California and our residents. 

It’s also not enough to work the supply side and flatten the cost curve; we should also deal with the other side of the affordability equation: helping Californians earn more by working to attract and retain employers who provide high-wage jobs.

A recent study named LA the most unaffordable city in the nation. With single-family homes costing $1 million or more, the average monthly mortgage payment is now $5,932. If this trajectory continues, homeownership will become impossible for future generations of “missing middle” wage earners—teachers, police officers, nurses, and others who earn too much to qualify for government assistance but too little to afford a home.

Brian’s plan: Focus relentlessly on policy outcomes that make California more affordable rather than those that drive up the cost of living.

• Prioritize workforce housing–we can better recruit and retain public servants by offering them a good deal on housing in or near the communities they serve. 

• Provide down payment assistance to new home buyers to tackle one of the biggest barriers to entry for purchasing a new home. 

• Make government part of the housing solution by offering below-market leases of public lands that are not environmentally sensitive or in fire danger zones to help change the economics of building more affordable units. State and local governments own thousands of acres of underutilized land near transit, job centers, and schools–prioritize using that land for mixed-income and workforce housing. 

• Speed up permitting and streamline regulations so that building can start soon after financing is secured rather than languishing for years. It shouldn’t cost twice as much per square foot to build multifamily in California as it does in Texas. 

• Make it faster and therefore less expensive to build the infrastructure we need to hit our low cost clean energy goals. 

• Continue to modernize CEQA so that our environment is protected but projects that can create jobs and build housing are not stuck in years of reviews. 

• Make better use of cheaper, faster modular and manufactured housing. 

• Incentivize more affordable housing for seniors and families, rather than just singles. 

• Incentivize home hardening both to protect structures from fires and to lower insurance costs–support legislation that connects higher standards with more affordable and reliable insurance. 

• Adopt best practices from New York and other states that have dramatically expanded commercial to residential conversions for vacant office space. 

• Review existing small business regulations to streamline compliance and lower their costs. Review regulations on California agriculture to maintain quality but lower food costs. (Look at the PermitSF model of “cutting out the nonsense and focusing on common sense.”)

• Expand the film and TV tax credit to truly be competitive with other states, and bring back high-paying entertainment jobs, and support the many local businesses that work with and alongside local productions. 

• Create a dedicated funding stream to fund universal child care, starting at six months. 

• Continue to work toward universal health care, with a public option–CalCare for All Who Want It. Expand community health clinics–with a goal of 100% uptake of preventative care–which is both cheaper and more humane than emergency room care. 

• Create tax credits for working people that would lower the cost of public college and transportation.

Brian believes that the first responsibility of state government is to keep people safe. But today, too many Californians fear walking their kids to school or a public park. Too many cars have been broken into. And too many small businesses have faced catastrophic damage, stolen merchandise, and lost sales as a result of smash and grab robberies and vandalism. 

In the richest state in the richest country in the world, it shouldn’t only be those who can afford private security that feel safe. Brian supported Proposition 36 as a Democratic political consultant; its victory was part of a critical effort to bring balance back to the system: to get folks the mental health and drug treatment they need, to put nonviolent offenders on a path to rehabilitation, and to hold repeat professional criminals accountable. Just as we shouldn’t go back to mass incarceration, we shouldn’t go back to a time when police wouldn’t press charges because prosecutors wouldn’t follow the law.

In the fight against crime and homelessness, we haven’t focused nearly enough on outcomes and results. We must ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and accountably to keep people safe…and to more effectively address the root causes of crime–poverty, addiction, and a lack of opportunity.

At the same time, hate is on the rise. Antisemitism… racism… Asian Hate… and the outrageous discrimination against our Latino neighbors have made so many of us feel less safe in our communities.

The policies of the Trump administration are making Californians less safe. State and local governments should work together to write laws that protect our people from out of control enforcement agencies like ICE while, at the same time, working to deter crime and make people feel secure in their communities.

Brian’s plan: Prioritize public safety, deter crime, and ensure that California’s law enforcement and fire agencies are able to meet the needs of our local communities.

• Work to ensure both high standards and adequate staffing and funding for law enforcement agencies across the state.

• Promote and fund community-based policing and services–and early interventions–for those at risk of falling into cycles of incarceration.

• Scale up community nonprofits that are effectively and transparently taking on homelessness, crime prevention, and antirecidivism.

• Fully fund Proposition 36 and include more funding for local governments to support addiction treatment and behavioral/mental health programs, as well as housing and homelessness services. Take the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program (HAAP) up to $1 billion/year.

• Review the effectiveness of programs fighting homelessness and use transparent metrics to determine whether they are working; if not, we should either change the program or end it.

• Support victims’ rights and programs that work to prevent and deter crime.

• Continue to expand funding for security around religious institutions, schools, cultural centers, and at-risk communities.

• Study and regulate the use of e-bikes among children and near schools.

• Increase funding for social and wraparound services, after-school and summer school programs, and expand the California Service Corps to provide more opportunities for at-risk youth.Item description

PROTECTING OUR LAND, AIR, AND WATER and CUTTING POLLUTION TO ADDRESS THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Senate District 24 contains so many of the crown jewels of California, including dozens of miles of precious coastline–some of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and environmentally valuable land in America. For the past 12 years, Senator Ben Allen has been an extraordinary steward of the district, and he leaves big shoes for his successor. As a founding board member of the American EV Jobs Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to electric vehicles, Brian has taken on leadership roles in the fight to protect the environment and transition to a climate resilient economy.

For California as a whole, the Trump administration is the greatest threat to our environment. They have weaponized the federal government against us, reversed environmental progress in legislation and regulation, and–at every turn–have threatened our ability to set our own goals and policies.

These are Brian’s top priorities:

1. Helping the Pacific Palisades and Malibu recover from last year’s devastating fires, which includes such urgent environmental crises as air quality and soil testing to ensure that the area is safe for residents and can be rebuilt sustainably.

2. Reducing carbon pollution–funding, building, regulating, and inventing our way to actually hitting the ambitious climate goals that California has set.

3. The quality of our air and water, including pollution on our beaches and off the coastline.

Brian’s plan: Protect our coastline and coastal waters, fulfill and expand California’s environmental goals, and take on the Trump Administration

• Fully fund and support litigation against the Trump administration’s attack on our environment by the state, local communities, and other stakeholders. 

• Make climate change a budget priority, including support for lower and middle income Californians, and those most impacted by pollution, to decarbonize their lives and reduce their energy costs.

• Invest in our clean energy infrastructure to lower energy costs for Californians.

• Fund clean vehicle support programs and a $3500/year EV tax credit for first-time EV buyers in California, regardless of income.

• Protect our coastal waters and use every tool to stop the Trump administration from drilling off our coast and in all protected areas.

• Invest in research and deployment that is explicitly focused on bringing down the cost of electrifying homes–both single family and multi-family–and simplifying the process.

• Make it easier and cheaper to put solar panels and batteries on homes as well as on schools, government, and commercial buildings.

• Build clean energy projects on developed land, such as rooftops, brownfields, reservoirs, and agricultural lands with degraded soils, and streamline permitting appropriately. Renewable projects on developed land should be able to get permits quickly, reliably, and with a clear set of rules they have to meet. 

• Encourage clean tech entrepreneurship in the state and support research and deployment to develop and scale new technologies that can reduce the cost and increase the speed of decarbonization. 

• Increase water efficiency for urban, industrial, and agricultural uses.

• Ensure that water systems are modernized, focusing on reducing leakage and improving reliability from aging infrastructure, encouraging water efficiency, water recycling and local groundwater recharge projects, and supporting natural water management infrastructure through wetlands restoration. Make sure that every Californian has access to clean and abundant drinking water. 

• Invest in the research, development, and deployment of desalination plants that use less energy, do minimal damage to the environment, and are significantly cheaper to build and operate.

• Confront toxics in our food and consumer products, expand safe disposal and efficient recycling. 

• Expand green spaces and tree cover in all of our communities, protect agricultural lands that provide both food security and wildlife habitat, and fully fund California’s state and local parks services to ensure that every Californian can have access to the natural world.

The 2025 Palisades Fire devastated the communities of Pacific Palisades and Malibu and changed the lives of thousands of residents, business owners, first responders, and workers.

Nearly seven thousand structures burned to the ground, and those that remained were left with significant damage, including lead in the ground and toxic ash in the air. Worst of all, it is now clear that this disaster was not only preventable; it was mismanaged before, during, and after. We need to learn the lessons so that this never happens again…and do everything possible to create a path home that is faster, less expensive, and more sustainable.

Homes, small businesses, parks, schools, places of worship, and more must be rebuilt. While some construction has started, championing the renewal of these communities is one of the most important responsibilities of our next State Senator.

Brian’s Plan: Provide Leadership, Oversight, and Accountability for the Rebuilding of these Jewels of SD24

• Hire and designate one staff person, ideally from the community, who is solely focused on the Palisades and Malibu rebuilding–cutting red tape and helping residents return;

• Partner with local community groups and leaders on the ground who have been filling in the gaps and fighting for transparency, accountability, and public health;

• Champion locally-driven leadership to manage the logistics of the rebuilding so that it leverages efficiencies of scale, lowers costs, and doesn’t create a traffic nightmare;

• Ensure that testing and remediation processes follow clear health and environmental standards that the government, insurance companies, and the private sector all buy into. Residents and visitors must feel safe to live, work, and play in the community and surrounding areas;

• Play a lead role on insurance reform to ensure that home hardening actually leads to sustainable coverage and predictable costs. Solid, affordable coverage should be available to everyone, and insurers must be held accountable;

• Push to exempt disaster zones from ULA;

• Leverage sales and property taxes to help support sustainable rebuilding;

• Waive all permitting fees;

• Support low-or-no interest loans for home hardening;

• Help sustain a one-stop shop for permitting, assisted by accessible staff and technology, and allow for self-certification whenever possible;

• Provide clear, direct communication about the rebuild and process with residents and local stakeholders;

• Provide support–financial and logistical–to the community’s schools and recreation spaces;

• Work with all levels of government to ensure we receive the aid to which we are entitled;

• Tackle the public safety challenges facing a community in which homes are in various stages of development and rebuilding. Home and business owners should not need to hire private security to ensure the safety of their land, properties, and belongings. 

America faces a crisis of gun violence—and California is not exempt. Because of our strong gun safety laws, we have the seventh lowest gun death rate among the fifty states. But we still lose far too many Californians to gun deaths—more than three thousand people in our state every year. That is one gun violence death every three hours. We have to do more. 

As the husband of an educator and the parent of two school-age children, Brian knows that nothing is more important than keeping our kids and communities safe. It is a tragedy in this country that we are constantly mourning victims of gun violence and school shootings rather than solving the problem. Everytown for Gun Safety and GIFFORDS both rank California as best in the nation in terms of the strength of our gun laws, and as a longtime supporter of both organizations, Brian is committed to expanding California’s leadership role in eliminating the scourge of gun violence. In the State Senate, 

Brian will lead on this issue…and build coalitions to pass the most effective, comprehensive gun safety laws in America.

Brian's core idea: California should be a national model for gun safety and training. 

• While our legislature and governors have made great strides, our safety and training protocols are not as strong as those in states like Massachusetts, Illinois and New York. This must change; on this issue, California must lead the nation and strengthen our licensing and training requirements to make sure anyone who buys a weapon is prepared to be a responsible owner;

• We must ban not just assault weapons, but guns that can be easily converted into assault weapons and automatics. We must pass Legislation that eliminates any possibility of guns being converted after-market to assault weapons. AB 1127, authored by Asm. Jesse Gabriel and signed by Governor Newsom in October 2025, is a great model, but we can and should go further: we should ban the sale of any weapon that CAN BE converted into a machine gun;

• We must eliminate all sales and gun show loopholes and strengthen gun dealer inspections and protocols to ensure that all sellers are following California law.

• We must take on technology before advancements are unstoppable–regulating 3D printed weapons and the use of AI in building and converting weapons of the future;

• Partner with School Police to improve safety measures in classrooms and on campuses 

• We must prioritize safety and keep guns out of the hands of those who pose the greatest risk: domestic abusers and those in the midst of mental health crises. To do this, we should expand background checks, red flag laws, programs that prevent domestic violence offenders from being able to purchase weapons; and we should incentivize safe storage programs and protocols. 

• We should continue to keep up the pressure on manufacturers, holding them accountable for misuse and dangerous enhancements.

We must ensure that we are fully funding and implementing proven gun safety initiatives including CVI (Community Violence Prevention) programs and making up for cuts by the Trump Administration. CVI programs should be encouraged and funded across the state. Such programs have been proven to reduce shootings in low income and minority communities while providing a safe space for those most at risk of being affected by gun violence: impressionable youth and potential victims. The goal should always be prevention, and by increasing funding to programs that are working and nonprofits on the ground, we can provide more resources–such as food, shelter, and job training–t

Brian Goldsmith has spent years taking on the scourge of antisemitism in California, around the country, and in our politics. At a time of record high antisemitic attacks, Brian has focused on the battle against hatred. He is fortunate to have been raised in a strong Jewish family that is deeply engaged in this cause.

Long before October 7th, Brian signed up as the first senior adviser to Democratic Majority for Israel and led national efforts to elect people who stand up for Jewish Communities and allies to Congress. During his tenure, DMFI PAC won more than 80% of its races.

Defeating hate and discrimination is one of the reasons Brian is running for State Senate. In Sacramento, he will work with the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and help lead that fight.

Brian’s plan: Support and Defend the diverse communities that actually make California great

• Stand up against Asian Hate, racism, Islamophobia, and what our Latino brothers and sisters are facing right now with unconstitutional ICE raids

• Defend and fully fund landmark legislation against antisemitism in K-12 schools. In 2025, Brian publicly supported AB 715, educating the public and conducting outreach to undecided legislators. Thanks to Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur and Jesse Gabriel–both of whom are supporting Brian’s campaign–and the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, AB 715 passed overwhelmingly and was signed into law by Governor Newsom. Now, as the bill continues to face attacks on multiple fronts, it is more important than ever that the Jewish community elect allies to the Legislature to protect and defend these critical protections.

• Lead on other key priorities:

1. Defend and expand security grants

2. Safeguard religious places of worship

3. Fight BDS and all attempts to break the bonds between California and Israel.