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The California Apartment Association this week vowed to continue its fight against a split-roll tax bill that would allow school districts to impose different parcel tax rates on different types of property.
SB 1021 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, passed the Senate on Monday, May 5, by a 21-15 margin and now heads to the Assembly.
Under Wolk’s bill, a school district could base tax assessments on characteristics such as parcel size, the size of improvements to the parcel and use of the land.
CAA joins a coalition comprising dozens of business groups opposed to this legislation.
Similar to last… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyLegislationTaxes
A bill that would likely offer a tax rebate to hundreds of thousands of low-income Californians renters survived its first committee hearing this week.
“It’s essential for people who are low-income and disabled to take care of a lot of their basic needs at a time when costs are raising and rents are raising,” said Mira Ingram. The San Francisco resident, who uses a wheelchair and is on a fixed income, is quoted in this KCBS story about the bill.
AB 2175, or the Renter’s Tax Assistance Act, would provide tax refunds to financially struggling renters.
“Homeowners get state tax… Read More
A bill that would make employees liable for filing “bad faith” lawsuits passed the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on Wednesday.
AB 2095 by Assemblyman Donald Wagner, R-Irvine, targets frivolous litigation by awarding an employer attorneys’ fees when the defendant can prove the worker filed suit in bad faith.
It would discourage litigation regarding technical violations on itemized wage statements that don’t harm the employee but end up costing employers thousands of dollars to defend in court.
The state’s labor code says eight categories of information that must appear in an itemized wage statement provided to the employee. The purpose… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyLegislation
An anti-Ellis Act bill is dead after its author refused to eliminate wording that would have encouraged tenants to wage court battles as a tactic to stay in rent-controlled apartments already removed from the market.
The California Apartment Association on Tuesday derailed AB 2405 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.
The bill received four votes but needed six to survive its hearing in the Judiciary Committee.
Last week, after CAA persuaded lawmakers to gut the most problematic aspects of the bill, AB 2405 advanced from the Assembly Committee on Local Government.
On Tuesday, however, Ammiano would not agree to remove… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyEllis ActLegislation
Before throngs of rental housing professionals headed to the state Capitol, the Capitol’s top elected official headed to them.
For more than 30 minutes Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown captivated a crowd at the Sacramento Convention Center, telling stories about his wide-ranging political history, offering observations about current challenges in California government and looking ahead to a possible fourth term as governor.
Brown served as keynote speaker at the California Apartment Association’s annual Legislative Conference. He and Assemblyman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, delivered talks that primed the crowd for an afternoon of meetings with legislators on bills important to the rental housing… Read More
Tagged: LeadershipLegislation
The California Apartment Association has written a letter to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, detailing several defects in his anti-Ellis Act bill before he presents it to an Assembly committee next week.
Passed by the state Legislature in 1985, California’s Ellis Act says no local government can require that a rental property owner continue to offer his or her housing for rent. Ammiano’s bill, which would gut the act, goes before the Assembly Committee on Local Government on Wednesday, April 23.
At its core, Assembly Bill 2405 would keep contested Ellis Act evictions stuck in the court system for years on end… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyEllis ActLegislation
Under California law, tenants can find rather simple ways to postpone evictions and keep living rent-free.
In many cases, unscrupulous attorneys advertise online, offering to help tenants drag out the eviction process for months — and even years.
Tenants are coached by these attorneys to check boxes on the Unlawful Detainer Answer, claiming the unit is substandard or uninhabitable.
They provide no background to substantiate their claim. This very practice gives tenants an easy 30 to 60 days extra time to live in the unit rent free. They may never have to prove anything in court.
Often a tenant’s answer… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyLegislation
State Sen. Mark Leno needs to address apartment industry concerns about his anti-Ellis Act bill, which could lock San Francisco landlords into the rental housing business for years on end, even if they’re losing money.
Those instructions came from the Transportation and Housing Committee, which narrowly approved Leno’s SB 1439 on Tuesday by a 6 to 4 vote with one abstention.
The close decision came after the California Apartment Association, a San Francisco landlord and others offered compelling testimony against the legislation. About 150 opponents of the bill crowded the committee hearing room.
“The comments by legislators today and the… Read More
Tagged: Ellis ActLegislation
A bill that could strip San Francisco landlords of their freedom to leave the rental housing business heads to a key senate committee next month.
On Tuesday, April 8, state Sen. Mark Leno’s SB 1439 goes before the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing.
SB 1439 is a direct assault on the Ellis Act, a law passed in 1985 that bars local governments from making landlords stay in the rental housing business.
Ellis especially protects owners of rental properties in rent controlled cities, where landlords can find themselves operating at a loss.
Under Leno’s bill, San Francisco would be authorized… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyEllis ActLegislation
Once again, a legislative proposal threatens to tax different types of parcels at different rates.
The de facto split-roll parcel tax comes from SB 1021 by state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis.
SB 1021 would allow 1,043 school districts to levy unlimited tax increases on select property owners through non-uniform parcel taxes. This would essentially overturn current law, as well as a court ruling, that say parcel taxes must apply uniformly.
The bill would provide numerous ways to vary tax rates.
For example, school districts could split parcel tax assessments within a district based on characteristics such as the size of… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyLegislation