Guest:
Graham Knaus CEO, California State Association of Counties
Guest Bio:
Graham Knaus is CEO of the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) – whose mission is to serve, support, and advocate for the state's 58 counties to ensure they can effectively serve their communities. With deep experience in public finance and governance, Knaus has been a fierce advocate for empowering counties to address core issues like homelessness, affordability, housing, and disaster response. He believes in a commonsense formula: Let the state set the goals, and let local governments decide how to get the job done.
Show Summary
What if California’s most expensive problems—homelessness, housing, affordability—aren’t being solved simply because no one knows who’s responsible? In this episode, Graham Knaus delivers a powerful breakdown of why top-down state mandates keep failing and what it will take to rebuild from the bottom up.From misaligned funding and broken incentives to the absence of clear accountability regarding homelessness, Knaus calls for a simple but radical shift: give local governments the authority, tools, and flexibility to meet their communities’ needs. He also shares candid insights into California’s affordability crisis, overregulation, CEQA’s unintended consequences, and what it would really take to let our counties thrive. If you're ready to understand California’s dysfunction—and how to fix it—this episode is a must.
Chapters
00:00 – The Role of Counties vs. the State
01:30 – Why Homelessness Efforts Keep Failing
04:25 – Who Should Be Accountable?
06:00 – Where the $30B Homeless Funds Went
07:25 – A Broken Housing System
09:30 – Planning for Water, Disasters & the Future
11:55 – Affordability Crisis and Overregulation
13:30 – California’s Hidden Strengths
14:08 – Rapid Fire: Governor for a Day, Jerry Brown, and What Outsiders Get Wrong
Connect with Graham Knaus
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Connect with State of Gold
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