State of Gold

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**State of Gold**

**Restoring the California Dream One Bold Idea at a Time**

California was once a beacon of prosperity, hope and innovation – symbolized by the Gold Rush, Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Today it’s the least affordable state in the nation and plagued by poverty, homelessness, and sky-high taxes. How did we get here, and how do we turn California around?

State of Gold is a media platform and citizens’ movement dedicated to restoring the California dream. Host and longtime real estate and tech executive Jon Slavet combines practical wisdom and insurgent energy, as he sits down with voices from across the spectrum.

The show will examine and promote the best ideas from any corner to solve the state’s most pressing issues. State of Gold cuts through the noise to explore what’s gone wrong in the Golden State – and what it’ll take to make things right.

**www.stateofgold.com**

Latest Episodes:

Restorative Justice for Selling Children? | Shannon Grove Oct 23, 2026

Show notes

Guest:

Shannon Grove, California State Senator (12th)

Guest Bio:

Shannon Grove is a Republican California State Senator representing the 12th District, which includes much of Kern County and the southern Central Valley. An Army veteran, she co-founded Continental Labor and Staffing Resources and still serves as its CEO. She served in the State Assembly from 2010 to 2016 before winning her Senate seat, and she later led the Senate Republican Caucus. Grove is known as Kern County’s loudest voice on oil and energy, the author of SB 237 to restart Kern drilling, and a persistent advocate for child safety and victims’ rights. With her Senate term ending in 2026, she is running for the State Board of Equalization, District 1.

Show Summary

“I don’t vote for tax increases,” says Senator Shannon Grove. Host Jon Slavet sits down with the California State Senator as she runs for the Board of Equalization in a race against Democrat Nelson Esparza. Grove explains what the BOE does, from overseeing county assessors to defending Prop 13’s two-thirds vote, and calls an $11.25 billion veterans bond a Trojan horse after $24 billion spent on homelessness. The two dig into the billionaire tax and why it could reach any taxpayer. Then the talk turns to energy: SB 237’s 2,000 Kern County permits a year, Valero’s Benicia closure, and why importing refined fuel from overseas makes no sense. Grove recounts a colleague pitching restorative justice for people who traffick children, the Safe Passage for Youth Act now on the Governor’s desk, and SB 1373’s fight over mental health diversion. She closes with Jay Leno crashing a press conference.

Chapters

00:00 – Death and Taxes: Why the Board of Equalization Matters

01:31 – An 8,000-Vote Race: Grove vs. Esparza on Taxes

02:07 – Holding the Line on Prop 13 and the Two-Thirds Vote

03:16 – $24 Billion on Homelessness and an $11.25 Billion “Veterans” Trojan Horse

04:02 – The Billionaire Tax: A Door to Taxing Everyone

05:21 – SB 237: Why 2,000 Kern Drilling Permits Can’t Flip a Switch

07:21 – Refineries Closing: Importing Fuel from India and Japan

09:45 – Kern County, Energy Capital: 58% of California’s Renewables

11:34 – Restorative Justice for Child Traffickers? Inside the Legislature

14:15 – Safe Passage for Youth: Paris Hilton and Survivors on the Governor’s Desk

16:02 – SB 1373: The DSM-5 Loophole in Mental Health Diversion

17:47 – Leno’s Law: Jay Leno Crashes the Press Conference

Connect with Shannon Grove

X: https://x.com/ShannonGroveCA
Facebook (Senate office): https://www.facebook.com/ShannonGroveCA
Facebook (BOE campaign): https://www.facebook.com/ShannonGroveForCA
Instagram (Senate office): https://www.instagram.com/ShannonGroveCA/
Instagram (BOE campaign): https://www.instagram.com/shannongrove4ca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-grove-b17b4116/
Campaign Website (Grove for BOE 2026): https://shannongroveca.com/

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Connect with State of Gold

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

UC Is Now Teaching College Kids MIDDLE SCHOOL Math | Gloria Romero Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Gloria Romero, Candidate for CA Lt. Governor

Guest Bio

Gloria Romero is a former California State Senator who represented East Los Angeles and served as Senate Majority Leader. A longtime champion of school choice and education reform, she left the Democratic Party, and is now the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California. She is also endorsed by the American Independent Party and the Bakersfield Californian.

Show Summary

Host Jon Slavet welcomes back Gloria Romero, candidate for Lieutenant Governor, who says the biggest difference between her and Fiona Ma is education policy. Romero argues that K through 12 schools and the University of California have now collided, after 3,000 UC professors warned that students arrive unprepared and need remedial middle school math. Her fixes: bring back the SAT, tighten teacher tenure that now comes after just 15 months, pay for merit, and expand school choice. She rejects the claim that testing is racist and cites a striking figure: at current rates, a Black kindergartner in LA Unified would need 54 years to reach reading proficiency. Romero lays out her path to victory through the Republican base, independents, disaffected Democrats and the Central Valley, and tells voters Trump is not on this ballot. She closes with her day one plan for two extraordinary sessions, one to rebuild the budget from zero and one to go after waste, fraud and abuse.

Chapters

00:00 – Gloria Romero vs. Fiona Ma: The Biggest Difference

01:18 – Education: The Issue That Eats Half the Budget

03:04 – 3,000 UC Professors Sound the Alarm

05:07 – Teacher Tenure After Just 15 Months

05:59 – Bring Back the SAT, Merit Pay and School Choice

07:17 – Is the SAT Racist? The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

08:43 – 54 Years to Reading Proficiency in LA Unified

10:13 – The Math to Win: 200,000 LA Republicans Who Didn’t Vote

12:04 – No Flyover Country: Why the Central Valley Matters

12:46 – Trump Is Not on This Ballot

14:58 – Day One: Two Extraordinary Sessions on the Budget

16:55 – Going After Waste, Fraud and Abuse

18:23 – Not a Red State or a Blue State, a Golden State

Connect with Gloria Romero

Campaign website: https://www.gloriaromero4ltgov.com/
X: https://x.com/gloriajromero
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gloriajromero.ca
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gloria_jromero/

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

"You Can’t Have Sunlight Without the Sun": Does MAGA Survive Trump? | Victor Davis Hanson Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

Guest Bio

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist, military historian and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and a farmer who still lives in his family’s 150 year old home in California’s Central Valley. He has written dozens of books on ancient warfare and modern politics. His newest, The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement, is becoming a bestseller.

Show Summary

“You can’t have sunlight without the sun,” Victor Davis Hanson says, quoting a senior official on whether MAGA can outlast Donald Trump. Host Jon Slavet sits down with Hanson in his family home to discuss his new book, The Counterrevolution. They start with the midterms and why Republicans have failed to address affordability, then turn to the Iran war. Hanson argues it is not a forever war, citing 38 days of combat, 19 fatalities and a $40 billion cost, and he warns against negotiating with a regime he believes is near collapse. The conversation moves to the threat from within: Tucker Carlson, Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene, the antisemitic fringe JD Vance must reject, and influence peddling around the White House. Drawing on Thucydides, Hanson explains how lawfare destroys the norms its users later need. He closes with the changes he says nobody talks about, from Latin America to NATO to military recruiting.

Chapters

00:00 – Back at the Farm: A 150-Year-Old Home and The Counterrevolution

00:51 – Shaky Midterms: Prices, Affordability and Selling the Boom

03:40 – A Binary Choice: Democratic Socialists and a 50-50 House

07:00 – Is Iran Jacksonian? The War Seven Months In

08:37 – Cutting Off the Mothership: Hezbollah, the Houthis and Why Not to Negotiate Now

10:21 – “I Decide What’s America First”: Can MAGA Outlast Trump?

13:31 – Jilted Egos and the Groyper Problem: Why J.D. Vance Must Draw the Line

17:51 – Thucydides on Faction: Lawfare and Who Weaponized Justice

20:00 – The Critical 5 to 10%: Independents, Latin America and NATO

22:02 – The Undersold Wins: Military Recruiting and the Border

Connect with Victor Davis Hanson

X: https://x.com/VDHanson
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victor.d.hanson/?hl=en\
Official Website: https://victorhanson.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

Trump's Midterm Strategy Is Wrong and Karl Rove Knows Why | Karl Rove Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Karl Rove, Republican Political Strategist and Former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush

Guest Bio

Karl Rove is one of the most influential Republican political strategists in modern American history. Known as "The Architect" of George W. Bush's two presidential campaigns, Rove served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Bush White House from 2000 to 2007. Before his government career, he ran Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked on more than 75 Republican campaigns across 24 states. He writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal, appears regularly on Fox News, and is the author of the New York Times bestseller Courage and Consequence.

Show Summary

"Authenticity matters," says Karl Rove, and he means it as a warning. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with the Republican strategist who helped put George W. Bush in the White House, to talk about what the GOP is getting wrong heading into the 2026 midterms, and what it would take to get it right.

Rove argues that the current Trump-centric strategy is a mistake. If the president isn't popular, don't make him the issue. Let candidates like Mike Rogers in Michigan and Steve Hilton in California run as individuals. He points to Trump's biggest policy win, securing the southern border, and asks why the president never went to the border to celebrate it with the local (mostly Democratic, mostly Latino) officials who would have praised him on camera.

The conversation moves to the Texas Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico, the 2028 presidential field (Rove is blunt about JD Vance: "How do you go from saying Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler to saying I'm honored to be his running mate?"), and a California voter ID ballot initiative that Rove says could start rebuilding Republican credibility in the state. He closes with the story of his great-grandfather Olaf Julius Rove, a Norwegian peasant who came to America with nothing and whose great-grandson ended up working in the White House.

Chapters

00:01 – Welcome: Karl Rove, "The Architect," on State of Gold
00:16 – The Ideal Republican Candidate: Why Authenticity Beats Consultants
01:17 – The George W. Bush Playbook: Four Big Issues and One Nobody Expected
03:04 – Dan Schnur's Rule: Authenticity, Authenticity, Authenticity
03:35 – Trump's Midterm Strategy: Why Making the President the Issue Is Wrong
04:05 – Let Candidates Shine: Mike Rogers, Susan Collins, Jon Husted, Steve Hilton
05:06 – Message Discipline and Selling the Border Win
05:21 – The Border Success Trump Never Celebrated
06:52 – Too Little, Too Late: The Midterm Convention and the $5,000 Dividend
07:37 – Three Explanations for One Promise: Tariffs, Profits, or Reconciliation
08:08 – Trump's Billion Dollar War Chest: Why Holding Back Is Indefensible
09:24 – Super PAC Math: When $1 of Campaign Money Equals $10 of PAC Money
10:42 – Paxton vs. Talarico: YouTube Dominance and the Texas Senate Race
11:12 – Paxton's History of Running Behind the Ticket
11:43 – Austin, Travis County, and Why Talarico Went Left
13:14 – The 2028 Field: JD Vance, Rubio, Youngkin, Kemp, Cotton, Cruz
14:59 – Is Vance Authentic? Rove Says No
15:31 – Hillbilly Elegy vs. the Milwaukee Speech: Populism vs. Conservatism
16:32 – The Populism Trap: Why Grievance Politics Aren't Optimistic
17:03 – Lincoln's Lesson: "As Our Case Is New, So Must We Think Anew"
17:33 – How Republicans Win California: Quality Candidates and Wedge Issues
19:04 – Voter ID on the California Ballot: A Common Sense Reform Play
20:06 – Carl DeMaio, Reform California, and the Signatures to Get It Done
20:53 – Voter ID Doesn't Suppress Turnout: The Alabama Example
22:25 – The DSA Playbook: Force Democrats to Own Their Party's Fringe
23:10 – "Workers Deserve More": The Stump Speech for Every Republican
24:26 – America at 250: Rove on Resilience, History, and the Worst Times
25:30 – The Country That Keeps Stepping Forward
26:16 – Olaf Julius Rove: From Norwegian Peasant to the American Dream
27:32 – The Desk, the White House, and the Gift of Being American
28:33 – Reagan's Lesson: "We Can Be the Shining City on the Hill"
29:05 – Jon's Family Story: From Ukraine Through Ellis Island to California

Connect with Karl Rove

X: https://twitter.com/KarlRove
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karlrove/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/karlrove/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlrove/
Official Website: https://www.karlrove.com/

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

Only 40% of LA Republicans Voted and They're Still Complaining | Roxanne Hoge Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Roxanne Hoge, Chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party

Guest Bio

Roxanne Hoge is the Chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party, the largest Republican county party in the United States. A legal immigrant from Jamaica and a U.S. citizen, Hoge is a former business owner, actress, and SAG member who has run for California State Assembly and the LA County Board of Supervisors. She has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and OANN, and writes for the California Globe. She ran the LA County GOP's voter turnout operation through recent election cycles including the successful campaign to replace George Gascon with Nathan Hochman as District Attorney.

Show Summary

Only 40% of registered Republicans in LA County voted in the June 2026 primary. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with LA County GOP Chair Roxanne Hoge to ask why Republicans keep complaining about a system they refuse to show up for.

Hoge makes a blunt case: Everything most people call voter fraud, from ballot harvesting to bloated voter rolls, is already codified in California law. The left has been building this architecture since 2011, starting with driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, then Motor Voter automatic registration, and now a system that pushes voter registrations to anyone who interacts with state government. She wrote to both Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Department of Justice asking for election monitors and got no response from Bonta, just hate mail.

The conversation then turns to LA's taxpayer-funded campaign matching system, which has quietly grown from a voter-approved 1:1 match in 1990 to a 6:1 ratio today. Raise $100,000 and the city hands you $600,000. Hoge argues the system is nearly impossible to use without public sector union ground operations, and that Mayor Karen Bass made a political mistake by publicly touting it. Hoge also calls for outlawing public sector unions entirely, warning that unfunded pension liabilities are "coming like a train, unlike the bullet train, a train that will actually hit us." The episode closes on the LA City Council's push for non-citizen voting and why Hoge believes California's best-run cities share a common thread: Conservative leadership at the local level.

Chapters

00:00 - Cold Open: "Voter Fraud Is an Excuse for Not Doing the Work"
00:16 - Welcome: Roxanne Hoge on Republican Voter Turnout in LA County
00:30 - Voter Fraud vs. Voter Apathy: The Real Reason Republicans Lose
01:17 - Charlie Brown and the Football: Why Conservative Wins Get Reversed
02:22 - Gascon Out, Hochman In: Proof That Turnout Works
02:56 - Ballot Harvesting, Motor Voter, and the Legal Framework of "Fraud"
03:42 - The Open Letter to Rob Bonta and the Unsecured Ballot Box on Skid Row
04:34 - Election Monitors and the DOJ: What Hoge Asked For
04:59 - Automatic Voter Registration and How It Harms Legal Residents
05:40 - 200,000 Missing Republican Voters: Fix Your Own House First
06:08 - The Basketball Analogy: Stop Whining About the Refs and Play
06:32 - LA's 6 to 1 Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Match: How We Got Here
08:24 - Karen Bass Broke the First Rule of Fight Club
08:40 - DSA-Backed Candidates and the Stakes for Non-Democrats
09:11 - The 88 Cities of LA County: Where Common Sense Still Wins
10:09 - Queen for a Day: Outlaw Public Sector Unions
10:50 - The Sword of Damocles: Unfunded Pensions Coming Like a Train
11:31 - Non-Citizen Voting: The LA City Council Push
11:54 - Incrementalism: From School Board Votes to Full Franchise
12:54 - Pre-Registering 16-Year-Olds and Boiling the Frog
13:21 - Would Non-Citizen Voting Pass? The Exodus Problem
14:28 - Support the LA GOP: lagop.org and Every Dollar Goes to Turnout

Connect with Roxanne Hoge

X: https://x.com/RoxanneHoge
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roxanne-hoge-42323193/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goplosangeles/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LosAngeles.GOP
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GOPLosAngeles/videos

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

The Billionaire Tax, Voter ID, and 12 Other Initiatives That Will Shape California's Future | Jon Fleischman Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Jon Fleischman, political commentator and author of the "So Does It Matter" Substack

Guest Bio

Jon Fleischman is a veteran California political commentator, publisher of the "So Does It Matter" Substack, and one of the state's most respected voices on ballot initiatives, fiscal policy, and taxpayer advocacy. His voter guide covering all 14 November 2026 ballot propositions is a go-to resource for California voters looking for clear, principled analysis.

Show Summary

Jon Fleischman joins Jon Slavet to break down California's November 2026 ballot, which features 14 propositions, the most in recent memory. They cover six key measures: Prop 3, which would make the 13.3% top income tax rate permanent after voters were promised it was temporary; Prop 39, Carl DeMaio's voter ID initiative; Prop 40, the so-called billionaire tax that Fleischman warns is really an "everyone tax" because it gives the legislature unchecked power to levy wealth taxes on anyone; Props 41 and 42, counter-measures that would nullify the billionaire tax if either gets more votes; and Prop 43, the Save Prop 13 initiative restoring the two-thirds requirement for local special taxes. Fleischman explains how the California Teachers Association bankrolls the tax push, why even Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra oppose the billionaire tax, and how Hoover economist Joshua Rauh calculates it would cost the state $25 billion. The episode closes with which ballot outcome will send the strongest signal about California's future.

Chapters

00:00 – Jon Fleischman on California's November Ballot
00:24 – 14 Ballot Initiatives Overview
00:57 – How Ballot Measures Reach California Voters
02:28 – The Attorney General's Ballot Language Bias
03:03 – Prop 3: Making the 13.3% Tax Rate Permanent
03:47 – How the Teachers Union Drives Prop 3
05:01 – Impact on Small Business Owners
05:31 – Prop 39: The Voter ID Initiative
06:18 – Will the Anti-Trump Campaign Kill Voter ID
08:04 – Prop 40: The Billionaire Tax
08:39 – Why Newsom and Becerra Oppose Their Own Party
10:20 – The Everyone Tax: Why All Californians Should Worry
11:38 – The $25 Billion Cost Nobody Talks About
12:33 – Props 41 and 42: The Billionaire Tax Poison Pills
14:46 – Prop 43: Save Prop 13
15:13 – The Howard Jarvis Deal That Made Prop 43 Possible
16:51 – Which Ballot Outcome Will Define California's Future

Connect with Jon Fleischman

X: https://x.com/FlashReport
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-fleischman-0205024/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonFleischman/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jonfleischman

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

California Has One Governor's Debate and CNN Is Running It | John Phillips Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Guest

John Phillips, KABC Talk Radio Host & OC Register Columnist

Guest Bio

John Phillips is a Southern California radio host, political commentator, and columnist for the Orange County Register. He has covered California politics for two decades and has been called the state's political historian by figures in the California political establishment. Phillips is a regular voice on the intersection of state policy, elections, and the consequences of one-party rule in the Golden State.

Show Summary

California has one gubernatorial debate this November, and CNN is moderating it with out-of-state hosts who have no stake in the issues destroying the state. Host Jon Slavet sits down with veteran California political commentator John Phillips to walk through the full landscape of the November 2026 ballot: the governor's race between Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, the LA mayor's race between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, 14 ballot initiatives including three major tax measures, and the homelessness crisis that no level of government seems willing to solve. The conversation closes on the LA mayor's race, the homelessness industrial complex, and a historical parallel that sticks: in the 1930s, when Upton Sinclair nearly won the governorship on a platform of government ownership of farms and factories, California's business elites (the Chandlers, Hearst, Louis B. Mayer) stepped in and stopped it. Today's elites, Phillips says, the Elon Musks and Peter Thiels, have the resources to do the same. Will they?

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome: John Phillips on the State of California Politics

00:30 – One Debate, CNN Moderators, and the Issues They Won't Touch

00:59 – Homelessness, Insurance, the Bullet Train: California-Only Problems

02:46 – The Train to Nowhere: Waste, Fraud, and Uber Blacks to Sacramento

03:51 – Becerra 60, Hilton 38: The PPIC Polls and the Basement Strategy

05:30 – Embarrass Becerra Into Debating: Boyle Heights and the Cold Storage Fire

06:38 – 14 Ballot Initiatives and the Case for Direct Democracy

07:18 – Hiram Johnson, Southern Pacific, and Why Initiatives Exist

08:06 – The SEIU and CTA: The New 800-Pound Gorilla in Sacramento

09:39 – Prop 43: A Supermajority for Local Taxes (Currently Failing)

10:08 – The Billionaire Tax (Prop 40): How It Split the Labor Movement

11:19 – Will the AI Industry Leave California? The Catastrophic Risk of Prop 40

13:01 – Bass vs. Raman: The LA Mayor's Race Nobody Wants

15:13 – The Doctored Fire Report: Karen Bass Can't Learn from Failure

16:03 – Defund the NGOs: The Homeless Industrial Complex

16:51 – Enforce the Rules: Rehab, Treatment, or Prison

17:39 – Dr. Drew and the Missing Coordination Between City, County, and State

18:20 – Nothing Changes Until People Vote Differently

20:18 – Upton Sinclair and the Elites Who Saved California Before

21:29 – Today's Titans (Musk, Brin, Thiel) Won't Step Up. Yet.

Connect with John Phillips

X : https://x.com/Johnnydontlike
YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@randywangradio

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

California Is Ranked Dead Last for Business. Here's the Treasurer's Fix | Fiona Ma Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Fiona Ma, California State Treasurer

Guest Bio

Fiona Ma is California's State Treasurer, overseeing the state's debt portfolio, investment pool, and savings programs including CalSavers, CalABLE, and the ScholarShare 529 plan. A CPA by training, Ma has held five elected offices over three decades: San Francisco Board of Supervisors, State Assembly, State Board of Equalization, and two terms as Treasurer. She is currently running for Lieutenant Governor against Republican Gloria Romero in the November 2026 general election.

Show Summary

California ranks dead last among all 50 states for business climate, according to the latest Chief Executive magazine survey of CEOs. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with State Treasurer Fiona Ma to ask what she would do about it if elected Lieutenant Governor in November 2026.

Ma, who spent her pre-government career as a real estate tax accountant advising businesses on where to locate, makes the case that California has failed to create meaningful incentives to attract or retain companies. Texas now has more Fortune 500 headquarters than California, and Ma says the state government's lack of outreach to business leaders is a core part of the problem.

The conversation covers a wide range of policy ground: the $1,600 per acre tax burden crushing family farmers, a wine grape surplus with no market, the cannabis industry (where 60% of sales are now illegal due to tax rates as high as 40%), the philosophical debate over billions in state spending on undocumented residents while citizens struggle with affordability, and Ma's work launching the Early Wealth Partnership Navigator with Google.org to help families access savings programs. Ma also signals openness to a California flat tax, calling the current system too complicated for ordinary taxpayers.

Chapters

00:00 - Cold Open: "I Used to Advise Companies to Leave California"
00:15 - Welcome: Fiona Ma on the Lieutenant Governor Race
00:30 - Resume vs. Policy: The Contrast with Gloria Romero
01:29 - Agriculture Deep Dive: 250 Farm Tours and Counting
02:53 - The $65 Billion Ag Industry Under Siege
03:19 - $1,600 Per Acre: The Tax Burden on Family Farmers
04:00 - Wine Grapes With No Buyer: A Real Crisis Right Now
05:28 - CEO Survey: California Ranked #50
06:05 - What Incentives Does California Actually Have?
07:37 - Newsom's CEO Phone Calls and the Real Response
07:55 - Education: The LG Sits on UC, CSU, and Community College Boards
08:44 - Pell Grants, Cal Grants, and the 85% In-State Shift
09:51 - Student Housing Crisis: Living in Cars, Driving Hours
10:18 - Paid Internships: The RIT Model That Works
10:53 - Billions for Non-Citizens While Citizens Struggle
11:29 - Unintended Consequences: Emergency Rooms as Primary Care
12:17 - Cannabis Banking: An Obsession With Good Reason
12:56 - Auditing Dispensaries by Counting Cars in Parking Lots
14:14 - Ten Years Later, Still No Real Banking Access
14:50 - Revenues Down 30%: The Black Market Flourishes
15:53 - Cultivation Tax, Distribution Tax, Local Tax: The Full Stack
16:34 - 60% of the Market Is Illegal Products
17:20 - The Fix: Lower Taxes, Better Banking, Federal Action
18:51 - Supporting Kids and Families: The Early Wealth Navigator
20:12 - One Stop Shop: Why Families Shouldn't Need 10 Websites
21:43 - Queen for a Day: The Single Biggest Priority
22:28 - A California Flat Tax: Could It Work?

Connect with Fiona Ma

X: https://x.com/fionama
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fionamacpa/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionamacpa/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/fionama
State Treasurer's Office (official site)
Campaign website

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

CA Democrats Killed All 3 of Her Affordability Bills | Suzette Valladares Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Suzette Valladares, California State Senator

Guest Bio

Suzette Valladares represents California's 23rd Senate District, spanning Santa Clarita, the Antelope Valley, and the high desert. Born and raised in Los Angeles to a family that has been in California for a hundred years, she was first elected to the State Assembly in 2021 before moving to the Senate, where she has made affordability the test she applies to every vote. She is a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and one of Sacramento's most persistent authors of public safety legislation, from human trafficking enforcement to lifetime protective orders for victims.

Show Summary

Senate Democrats killed all three of Senator Suzette Valladares' affordability bills in a single day. She joins host Jon Slavet fresh out of session to explain who runs Sacramento, starting with the story behind her politics: A Latino family a century deep in California, now watching relatives leave for Texas and Arizona because they can no longer afford the state they were born in. The same pattern runs through her public safety work. Her MAST Act, a statewide human trafficking task force bill built to include survivors, passed the Senate without a single no vote and died in Assembly appropriations. Kayleigh's Law, which would let judges issue lifetime protective orders so victims can stop re-petitioning courts every few years, was whittled from lifetime to 25 years, to 20, and then gutted entirely. She also explains why every sexually violent predator released in Los Angeles County has been placed in her high desert district, and what would happen if one were ever headed for Beverly Hills. The back half is about how she wins anyway: The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, a build-first energy answer that pairs small modular nuclear with extending Diablo Canyon, the E15 fuel bill that could save drivers 20 to 40 cents a gallon, and the Reagan rule she governs by: It is amazing what you can achieve if you do not care who gets the credit.

Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome: Senator Suzette Valladares
00:28 – Three Affordability Bills, Killed in One Day
00:49 – 100 Years in California, Family Leaving Anyway
01:42 – The CARB Letter: Refineries and Cap and Invest
04:17 – Mend It or End It?
04:30 – Build First: Small Nuclear and Diablo Canyon
05:26 – Public Safety and the MAST Act
10:15 – A Task Force Without a Single Survivor
11:47 – Kayleigh's Law: Gutted in Appropriations
13:33 – Predator Placements in the High Desert
16:16 – The Beverly Hills Double Standard
16:56 – Inside the Problem Solvers Caucus
19:24 – E15: 20 to 40 Cents Off a Gallon
21:10 – Reagan's Rule: Credit Doesn't Matter
21:48 – Writing an Op-Ed Across the Aisle
23:44 – What Gives Her Hope: The Next Generation

Connect with Suzette Valladares

X: https://www.x.com/senvalladares
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/senatorvalladares
Facebook (Official): https://www.facebook.com/SenValladares
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzette-martinez-valladares-53794a28/

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

Rent Control Destroys a City Better Than Bombing It | Nick Gillespie Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Guest

Nick Gillespie, Editor at Large, Reason Magazine

Guest Bio

Nick Gillespie is editor at large at Reason, the libertarian magazine founded in 1968 under the banner of "free minds and free markets", where he has spent 32 years making the case for limited government and individual autonomy. He hosts The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie and co-wrote The Declaration of Independents, which argued a decade ago that unaffiliated voters had become the largest bloc in American politics. The grandson of Italian and Irish immigrants who arrived in 1915, he lives in New York City, where he watched the Democratic Socialists of America take the mayor's office up close.

Show Summary

"They are beating nothing with something." That is how Nick Gillespie, editor at large at Reason, explains the sudden rise of democratic socialism in America's blue cities. The DSA has a young, motivated army and a big promise: rent control, price controls, Medicare for all. What it ran against in New York was Andrew Cuomo's sense of entitlement. On the national stage, Gillespie says, JD Vance fielded a question about expensive gas and the high cost of living without mentioning tariffs, the Iran war, deportations of the people who build houses, or federal spending that went from $4.4 trillion to $8.8 trillion in two fiscal years.

Gillespie then takes apart what the socialists are actually selling. The goal is a world without billionaires, which in practice means a world without the dynamic economy that raises living standards. Price controls failed in the 1970s and everywhere else they have been tried. He also names who is buying: highly educated, mostly white, upper income voters for whom socialism is a source of meaning and a status symbol. The same generational signaling, he argues, explains why anti-Israel politics now travels bundled with the socialist package. The back half goes wider. Independents are the biggest voting bloc in America and Gillespie argues both parties are "paper mache" institutions, one captured by the DSA, the other by a backward-looking leader in Donald Trump. He defends Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as builders rather than looters, explains why Starlink may be Musk's most revolutionary product, and closes on America's 250th year: bullish, because we always do the right thing after trying all the wrong ones. Then a warning for Jon's home state. California and New York are handing their future to Texas and Florida, and it is entirely about governance.

Chapters

00:00 – Cold Open: Beating Nothing With Something
00:24 – Welcome: Nick Gillespie of Reason
00:30 – Why Socialism Is Rising in Blue Cities Now
01:40 – New York's Mayoral Race: Mamdani, Cuomo, and Sliwa
02:50 – JD Vance and the $100 Gas Tank Answer He Skipped
03:59 – $4.4 Trillion to $8.8 Trillion: Where Inflation Came From
04:46 – What Socialists Are Selling vs. What They Can Deliver
06:14 – Abundance: Build More Housing and Prices Fall for Everyone
07:53 – Who Votes DSA: Educated, White, Upper Income
08:37 – Symbolic Grievance and the Cost of the Wrong Degree
09:17 – Why Socialism Comes Bundled With Anti-Israel Politics
11:41 – The Right Plays the Same Signaling Game
12:27 – Independents: America's Largest Voting Bloc
12:54 – The DSA Owns the Democrats. Who Takes the GOP?
13:47 – Elon Musk, First Trillionaire: Cautionary Tale or Victory?
14:16 – Two Ways to Get Rich: Looting or Building
16:25 – America at 250: Why Gillespie Is Bullish
17:40 – One Generation Away From Losing Liberty
18:20 – California and New York Are Handing It to Texas and Florida

Connect with Nick Gillespie

X: https://twitter.com/nickgillespie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.gillespie.940
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gillespienick/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-gillespie-2ba38786/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheReasonInterview

X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
Website: www.stateofgold.com

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