A must-read: In a 50-minute interview with CalMatters, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis talks about what she and can’t do in the job on higher education, income inequality, offshore oil drilling and other issues. She also discusses her political ambitions.
“The waters off of the coast around Southern California are far more valuable to us as a state in terms of recreation, in terms of habitat, in terms of trade,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense to have this activity going on.”
But don’t expect the commission to move to shut down the remaining rigs any time soon. While there has been a moratorium on new oil and gas leases in state waters since the 1969 Santa Barbara spill, a few companies still have contracts to operate and Kounalakis said it would be prohibitively expensive to buy them out. She has instead sponsored legislation to boost the development of offshore wind energy facilities.
She is intrigued by experiments with a guaranteed income in cities such as Stockton and is watching the outcome. But, like Underwood Jacobs, she does not favor taking additional steps to raise the hourly rate beyond its current trajectory tied to inflation, which will bring the minimum wage to $15.50 for all workers in 2023.
“I’m supportive of the process that we are on right now in implementing the higher minimum wage,” Kounalakis said. “It’s important to recognize that unions in California have actually done a good job in making sure that their members are paid enough, or more anyway than minimum wage, and getting benefits and other things.”. Though her office has no authority over housing policy, she said the state must work more closely with the private sector to boost development.
“People are coming and going all the time — coming here from around the world or around the country to start a business, and then after that business matures, or frankly, they’re just ready to go home, they might leave,” Kounalakis said. “When you draw the lens back to really understand the state of California, it is important to know that we have always had these boom-and-bust cycles, since the first massive wave of immigration happened during the gold rush.
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