Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News CRE Tough Foe In Defeat Of Lease Relief Bill, Policymaker Says

California's powerful commercial real estate industry clearly led a very successful campaign against failed tenant-relief legislation SB 939, according to state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who represents San Francisco.

The controversial bill would have enacted an eviction moratorium protecting California small businesses, while also giving many of the state's hospitality tenants an easier path out of their existing lease agreements.

Speaking with Bisnow Thursday, following the bill's rejection at the hands of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the SB 939 co-author called its fate "deeply disappointing" and said he thinks it would have passed the Senate floor had it not been stymied in committee this month.

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As SB 939 circulated through California's legislature, CRE leaders described it as deeply unfair, unnecessary and economically ruinous, and California Business Roundtable President Rob Lapsley said the group was prepared to sue.

Read More [[link removed]] Winegrape Growers Concerned Over Split-Roll Measure

A measure that could be approved for the November ballot this week would raise property taxes by repealing parts of Prop. 13 and replacing them with what’s called a split-roll tax. Agriculture is supposed to be exempt.

But Anthony Russo, a partner at Russo McGarty and Associates, explained on Wednesday to members of the California Association of Winegrape Growers that a range of agricultural properties would still be included. Russo and the California Business Roundtable have been leading the opposition to the measure.

Farmland would be exempt, but not vineyards and orchards, or food-processing facilities and barns, Russo explained. Yet how other property would be treated is unclear. Eric Miethke of Capitol Law and Policy Inc., who is also part of the coalition, pointed to vacant land not currently being farmed as one example of the measure's ambiguity.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation U.S. Consumer Spending Rebounded in May, But Virus Surge Poses Economic Threat

Americans increased spending at a record pace in May, helping the economy dig out of a severe recession, but a new rise in virus infections threatens the nascent recovery.

Personal consumption—how much Americans spent on goods and services—rose 8.2% in May from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said Friday. That was more than double the prior all-time high since record-keeping began in 1959.

Consumer spending, which represents more than two-thirds of economic demand in the U.S., remained far below prepandemic levels—down 12% from February. It isn’t clear if Americans will continue to spend at May’s pace. One factor that likely drove the boost was a surge in money from federal stimulus checks and unemployment benefits.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Initial Unemployment Benefits Steady At 1.5 Million in June

The number of workers seeking jobless benefits has held steady at about 1.5 million each week so far in June, signaling a slow recovery for the U.S. economy as states face new infections that could impede hiring and consumer spending.

Applications for unemployment benefits were slightly below 1.5 million last week, at 1.48 million the Labor Department reported Thursday. While weekly totals have gradually eased from a late March peak of nearly 7 million, they also remain well above the prepandemic record of 695,000 in 1982.

Meanwhile, the number of people receiving benefits, an indicator for overall layoffs, was 19.5 million in the week ended June 13, down slightly from previous weeks.

Read More [[link removed]] California’s Economic Recovery Will Be Like A Slow ‘Nike Swoosh’

California is unlikely to recover its pre-coronavirus prosperity over the next three years, economists say, even as the state slowly rebuilds from a catastrophic economic lockdown.

The Golden State’s gradual recovery will probably mirror the nation’s trajectory, according to a new UCLA forecast.

“The public health crisis of the pandemic morphed into a depression-like crisis in the [U.S.] economy,” wrote David Shulman, a senior economist at UCLA Anderson Forecast.

The trajectory of the nation’s economy will be like a “Nike swoosh,” Shulman wrote: Real gross domestic product will plunge this quarter — at a 42% annual rate — and then gradually rise, not returning to its late-2019 peak until early 2023.

Even that gradual return to normal activity is based on a somewhat optimistic scenario — that the COVID-19 pandemic will subside, avoiding a pause in the recovery or another wave of shutdowns.

Read More [[link removed]] Companies Agonize Over Reopening Timetables As COVID-19 Spreads

Businesses from factories and offices to salons and bars, once hopeful about a smooth reopening this summer, are now grappling with whether to close, stay open or find some in-between as the number of cases of Covid-19 increases in dozens of states.

Apple, which said Friday it would close nearly a dozen stores in four states, said Wednesday it would shut seven more in the Houston area, where cases have doubled so far this month. Restaurants around the country that recently reopened have closed again for anywhere from three days of deep cleaning to two full weeks so staff could self-quarantine after outbreaks.

In California, where new cases reached new highs Tuesday, workers for Walt Disney pressed the company to delay the planned July reopening for its theme parks in California and Florida, saying the company is forcing them into unsafe situations.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Banks Hauled In $1.85T In New Q1 Deposits

U.S. banks had a fantastic first quarter in terms of new deposits, with the top 50 banks adding nearly $2 trillion of assets, more than 10 times the average quarterly increase for the entire banking sector.

The 50 largest U.S. banks added $1.853 trillion in assets during the first quarter, a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence shows.

That compares to an average of $142 billion in assets added each quarter dating back to 1999 and an average of $118 billion increase since 2009, according to an Axios analysis of banking data produced by the Fed.

Read More [[link removed]] Budget Deal Shields Neediest Californians, Shifts Burden To Middle Class

The work of crafting a pandemic-era state budget was never going to make California Democrats happy. The question, as soon as the economic fallout from the coronavirus became evident this spring, wasn’t whether there would be cuts, but rather, who would take them and how deep they would go.

The answer, detailed in an agreement Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom reached to close a $54 billion deficit, is that middle-class families are likely to feel the biggest burden, while the neediest Californians are largely — though not completely — spared.

Unless the federal government comes through with billions of dollars in stimulus funds, state government employees will lose about 10% of their compensation, and California’s two university systems will lose a combined $602 million, raising the possibility of tuition increases. On the other hand, programs that help people who are homeless, elderly or dependent on the government for health insurance — as well as funding for K-12 schools and community colleges — will not suffer most of the cuts that Newsom proposed last month.

Read More [[link removed]] California Democrat Says It's 'Cruel And Inhumane' Not To Extend COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits Past July

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said Monday that it is “cruel and inhumane” not to extend expanded COVID-19 unemployment benefits past July, when they are current expected to expire.

Takano called for the Senate to move the House-passed HEROES Act to extend the benefits, which were approved as part of an earlier coronavirus relief package, saying the reopenings amid the pandemic have “not resulted in a miraculous recovery.”

“It's complete madness, the dithering, the delay and the idea that we're gonna incentivize all these people to go back to work by taking away their unemployment benefits,” he told The Hill’s Steve Clemons. “This is a cruel and inhumane vision.”

Read More [[link removed]] Data Privacy, Rent Control And 9 Other Measures Qualify For California Ballot

California voters will weigh in this November on whether to expand a landmark data privacy law, alter a decades-old law that limits property taxes on businesses and exempt ride-hail giants Uber and Lyft from a new state labor law.

They are among 11 measures Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified on Thursday for the Nov. 3 ballot. Others include two constitutional amendments approved by the Legislature, which would overturn the state’s ban on affirmative action and restore the voting rights of people with felony convictions who are on parole. A referendum will ask voters to decide whether the state should eliminate cash bail.

Read More [[link removed]] Businesses Ask Congress To Bail Out Governments, Sensing Tax Targets On Their Backs

City halls and statehouses are getting a boost in their scramble for federal aid from an unexpected source: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber, whose primary job is to look out for big businesses, says if help doesn’t come, states and cities will likely lay off more workers, cut services and raise taxes, deepening the economic crisis. Businesses are concerned, especially about taxes.

As state and local governments struggle with how to plug pandemic-induced budget holes, businesses see a play in helping them get aid from Congress to avoid shouldering more of the burden.

Read More [[link removed]] What No One At City Hall Wants To Admit: Los Angeles’ Finances Are In The Toilet

The short term and long term financial outlook for the City of Los Angeles is only getting worse according to the City’s Preliminary Official Statement for the issuance of up to $1.85 billion of Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes.

The proceeds of this offering will be used to prepay about $1.3 billion in required pension contributions. The balance, $550 million, will be used to fund the City’s operations for the next seven months until the revenue from property taxes hit the books. This increase of $100 million from last year is intended to fund virus related expenses (hopefully reimbursable from the State or Washington) and, in the short term, to cover virus related revenue losses from the City’s seven economically sensitive taxes.

Read More [[link removed]] San Francisco’s Proposed Business-Tax Hikes Draw Cheers — In Dallas

As the Bay Area business community reacts to measures that would boost taxes in San Francisco and across California, the prospect of making it more costly to do business here is welcome news among those seeking to attract the region’s companies to Dallas.

“I have deep concern about the myriad of taxes going on the ballot and the effect this could have on the decision of San Francisco companies to relocate all or parts of their operations,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council.

“Taxes equal Texas,” Wunderman said, reflecting the growing concern in the Bay Area business community over about a half dozen proposals to raise taxes or create new levies on businesses in San Francisco.

That’s on top of statewide efforts to remove Proposition 13’s protection on property-tax increases for commercial and industrial property and talk of an annual “head tax” on each employee working at large companies in California as the state tries to cover costs stemming from Covid-19.

Read More [[link removed]] Appeals Court Hears Arguments On SF Tax On Big Businesses

A California Court of Appeal panel yesterday heard oral arguments on a lawsuit seeking to block the city from collecting taxes from the biggest corporations in town to fund homeless services – and while it’s often hard to tell from the questioning which direction the court will go, the evidence presented by the city was solid.

The case involves Proposition C, Nov. 2018 ballot initiative that raised gross receipts taxes slightly on companies with revenue of more than $50 million. The $300 million or so a year that it would generate would go for affordable housing and other services to combat homelessness.

The measure passed with 61 percent of the vote – but the ultra-conservative Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association sued the city, saying that under Prop. 13 (1978) a tax dedicated to one program needs a two-thirds vote.

Read More [[link removed]] Trump Suspends Work Visas – And Silicon Valley Isn't Happy

President Trump’s executive order to suspend new H-1B, L-1 and other temporary work visas for skilled workers and managers through the end of the year has met with broad criticism in Silicon Valley.

The L-1 visa that allows companies to transfer employees from overseas offices and the H-1B program for workers in specialty occupations are both popular with tech companies. Several tech executives were quick to condemn the executive order on Twitter, including Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.

Read More [[link removed]] Black-Owned Businesses Face A System Set Up Against Them. COVID-19 Makes It Worse

It takes a lot to turn an idea into a small business: A storefront or some office space. Equipment, inventory, personnel, not to mention marketing, permitting and insurance.

All that costs money. Without funding, those businesses can’t launch or else quickly fail. And without cash to smooth over rough patches, a single emergency can destroy a company. That’s why it can be so devastating to be turned down for a business loan — which disproportionately happens to Black-owned businesses.

Read More [[link removed]] California To Escalate Legal Battle With Gig Companies Over Worker Classification

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra plans to file a preliminary injunction to compel Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as employees, escalating a battle with major technology companies, based on a memo sent Wednesday morning from his office.

Becerra and the attorneys of major cities filed a lawsuit earlier this year to compel gig tech companies to treat their drivers as employees, not independent contractors, per a newly operative California law that creates a statewide labor standard tilted more toward classifying workers as employees who must receive wage and benefit guarantees.

Now Becerra and the city attorneys of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco will seek a preliminary injunction to immediately halt what they call misclassification of drivers.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change California Re-Evaluating Its Landmark Climate Strategy

As the coronavirus pandemic and recession hits California, the governor’s top environmental official has launched a comprehensive review of the cap and trade program that has been the cornerstone of the state’s strategy to fight climate change.

California has been relying on its carbon trading program for nearly half of the greenhouse gas reductions it has promised by 2030. Now, in a letter obtained by CalMatters, California EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld laid out plans for re-examining the program and whether it’s likely to meet its goals.

Read More [[link removed]] California Adopts First-In-The-Nation Requirement That Trucks Go Electric

Electric cars are ubiquitous on California’s freeways, but not so much electric trucks. That’s about to change.

On Thursday, California became the first state in the nation to require trucks to go emissions-free, a major step in combatting dirty air, notably in poorer communities ringed by highways and warehouses, and addressing the prickly problem of climate change.

Resisting opposition from the trucking industry and oil companies, the California Air Resources Control Board approved a rule that forces automakers to sell a minimum number of zero-emissions big rigs, delivery vans and large pickups, starting in 2024. The quotas will be phased in and by 2035 require most new trucks in the state to produce no pollution at all.

Read More [[link removed]] Shale Oil Recovery Seen Taking Years After Decade Of Excess

As oil prices tick up to $40 a barrel following a pandemic-induced plunge, there’s a sense the shale industry is snapping back to life with Continental Resources Inc., EOG Resources Inc. and Parsley Energy Inc. all saying they’re restarting closed wells.

But top industry forecasters are painting a far darker picture. The reopenings, they say, will do little to bring new growth to an industry being increasingly starved of cash by Wall Street after a decade of excess. Even before the pandemic, investors were demanding companies spend no more than they earn. Now, that’s become a major barrier to future growth.

Read More [[link removed]] California’s Clean Energy Programs Are Mainly Benefiting The Rich, Study Finds

One lesson from the ongoing uprising against anti-Black racism is that the United States has made far too little progress against rampant inequality. The police killing of George Floyd has brought new attention to the fact that Black Americans breathe dirtier air, are more likely to be homeless and are far more likely to be killed by police, among many consequences of systemic racism.

A new study from a team of UCLA researchers illuminates a different — but related — manifestation of inequality.

Read More [[link removed]] Filling Trump Void, California Steps In To Protect Birds, Wetlands

On a foggy November morning, the 900-foot container ship Cosco Busan was lumbering through San Francisco Bay when it struck a support tower for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The collision gouged out a long scrape on the ship’s side, sending 54,000 gallons of sludgy petroleum billowing into the bay.

Heavy fuel oil slathered across 150 square miles, an estimated 7,000 birds died, as much as 30% of herring spawn died and 200 miles of coastline in five counties had to be cleaned up.

The penalties that followed the 2007 spill were prescribed by a federal law, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which has sheltered nearly every bird species in the nation for 102 years. The shipping company was fined $44.4 million, with more than $32 million set aside for rehabilitating birds and restoring their habitat, work that is still occurring.

Read More [[link removed]] Plastic Particles Are Raining From The Sky — Just Another Front For A Pervasive Pollutant

The problem is rampant: tiny pieces of plastic littering the world.

They float in giant patches in the Pacific. They wash down rivers and creeks. They seep into the soil of hills and valleys. And now, a growing body of research says they’re falling from the sky.

One of the latest studies, which examined microplastics in national parks across the West, suggests that these mostly invisible particles are drifting high in the atmosphere and dropping out with wind and rain, sometimes thousands of miles from their source. An average of more than 100 bits of plastic is likely accumulating across every square meter of the country each day, according to the researchers.

Read More [[link removed]] Education and Workforce Development California Budget Deal Preserves School Funding, Assumes Newsom 'Trigger' Approach

Gov. Gavin Newsom has reached a budget deal with state lawmakers that spares schools and safety net programs from deep cuts but strikes a blow to public universities and courts for now.

The differences between Newsom and lawmakers centered on how to accommodate a projected $54 billion deficit in the immediate absence of another federal aid package. Senate and Assembly leaders had resisted Newsom’s reliance on broad cutbacks, pushing to more deeply draw down reserves and seeking to spare education and health care programs.

The agreement will provide K-12 schools a small increase from the current fiscal year — with funding deferrals from the state — but does not explicitly authorize a cost-of-living adjustment, a key piece of talks, according to a source close to negotiations. While school employee unions wanted that COLA, the administration lobbied against it to avoid triggering automatic raises as called for by some district contracts.

Read More [[link removed]] Subsidized Child Care Providers Spared Cuts In California Budget

Child care subsidies for low-income and at-risk children will not be cut under the 2020-21 California budget agreement reached by the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.

Newsom had originally proposed to cut the payments for subsidized child care providers by 10%.

The budget still slashes major investments made in last year’s budget that would have expanded state-subsidized preschool to 10,000 more children, built new preschool and child care facilities and increased training for early childhood teachers. Also gone is a plan to create a new department for early learning and care that would oversee all child care programs.

Read More [[link removed]] Child Care, An Industry Struggling Even Before COVID-19, Now In Dire Need

The child care industry in this country wasn’t in great shape before the pandemic. Advocates and child care workers say COVID-19 has pushed it to the brink of collapse, as centers have been forced to close or operate with greatly-reduced enrollment.

About 350,000 child care workers are currently out of a job. On Tuesday, the House Worker and Family Support Subcommittee held a hearing on the crisis.

Read More [[link removed]] Thousands Of Community College Students Withdraw After A Lost Semester Amid Coronavirus

Stevie Carpenter dropped out of high school, earned his GED, enrolled at L.A. City College and at age 25 has been accepted to attend UC Davis this fall, where he plans to study neurobiology.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown another major challenge at him: online classes. Carpenter couldn’t keep up with general chemistry, a requirement for his major.

“I couldn’t take chemistry without a teacher…. It’s difficult to just read a book and go off the examples,” he said.

Read More [[link removed]] San Francisco School Board Votes To Cut Ties And Funds From Police

The San Francisco Unified School District will no longer partner with or fund the San Francisco Police Department, following a unanimous vote on a resolution today by the city’s Board of Education.

“It’s been a long time coming,” President Mark Sanchez said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Read More [[link removed]] Measures To Defund, Reform Los Angeles School Police Rejected By School Board

The school police department in Los Angeles Unified, the largest school police force in the nation, will remain intact and fully funded — although reform remains possible in the near future.

Despite mounting demands from students, activists and labor unions to diminish the role of school police in California’s largest school district, the L.A. Unified school board on Tuesday evening rejected two motions that would have reduced spending on the district’s police department. One would have cut spending on the department by 90% by 2024. The other would have immediately reduced funding by almost 30% and left the door open to completely eliminating the department.

Read More [[link removed]] Students Push UC To Abolish Police Departments

Ahmad Mahmuod was headed home from the library late one night during his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley when he sensed someone following him. The person’s shadow came closer, and then a voice called out, “Young man.”

Mahmuod recounts that he turned to see an officer with the campus police, who asked to see his identification. Hands shaking, Mahmuod told the officer he was going to reach into his pocket, then slowly retrieved his student ID card. Even after seeing the ID, however, the officer continued to ask questions, Mahmuod says. What was Mahmuod studying? Could he name the mascot of the Cal football team?

Eventually, the officer was satisfied, but Mahmuod recalls returning to his dorm with his heart racing, unable to sleep that night. While UC Berkeley police say they have no record of the stop, Mahmuod says he felt sure he had been stopped because he was Black, and it was the first of several times that he considered leaving Berkeley.

Read More [[link removed]] UC Students Must Ready For An Online, Socially Distanced Fall

Yadira Rayo-Peñaloza, an incoming senior at UC Berkeley, nearly sat out the fall term. She didn’t want to spend another semester learning online, where she expects all her classes to be when school starts up again late August.

Rayo-Peñaloza, along with her girlfriend and a few of her other friends, weighed her options, considering the likelihood of finding work during a pandemic and what a pause would mean to her financial aid, and ultimately decided she’d remain a student in the upcoming school year. “It was a hard decision to just say that we’re definitely going to go back in the fall.”

Read More [[link removed]] California Legislature Places Affirmative Action Measure On November Ballot

California voters will have the opportunity in November to reinstate affirmative action in university admissions and public hiring, a quarter-century after California prohibited those considerations.

After hours of debate in which lawmakers repeatedly invoked the imperative to move closer to racial equality and invoked prejudice they had faced in their own lives, the Senate passed Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 on a 30-10 vote. If passed by voters, the measure would overturn Proposition 209, the 1996 voter-passed initiative that prohibited race as a factor in admissions policies for universities and in government hiring and contracting decisions.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Time Is Running Out For America's Most Vulnerable Renters

America's renters are rapidly approaching a cliff. The federal eviction protections put in place in response to massive pandemic-related job losses are set to expire at the end of August and some state and local protections are already expiring, with eviction proceedings resuming in several states. In addition, the temporary CARES Act boost to unemployment insurance benefits ends by July 31 even though millions of people are still out of work and struggling to pay rent.

The United States is heading rapidly toward an eviction crisis. More federal funding — coupled with state and local policy action — are needed to ensure renters can keep their homes in the months ahead.

Read More [[link removed]] California Renters And Landlords To Face Off At The Ballot Box

Rent control is on the November 2020 ballot, reigniting a decades-long debate amid California’s worst housing crisis in recent memory.

The initiative comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has out of work tenants panicking about making the rent when it comes due after the state of emergency has passed. Many landlords, in turn, wonder if they can scrape together enough for mortgage payments to outlast the bad times.

Read More [[link removed]] California Found Hotels For 10,000 Homeless Residents. What Next?

When Alan Tolbert first walked into San Francisco’s Hotel Whitcomb in April, he couldn’t help but smile. For the first time in two years, he had a room to call his own.

Tolbert is one of more than 10,000 homeless seniors and people with medical conditions who were able to move into hotel rooms in California through a state-led effort to isolate and quarantine people during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced the program, dubbed Project Roomkey, in April as a temporary solution to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among people living in emergency shelters and outdoor tent communities. As of Friday, the state had filled 10,644 hotel rooms, and leased a total of 15,837.

Read More [[link removed]] L.A. City Council Passes $100-Million Coronavirus Rent Relief Program

Nearly 50,000 Los Angeles families hurt by the economic and health fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic could get help from a $100-million rent relief program passed by the City Council on Tuesday.

The money would provide up to $2,000 in rental assistance for low-income households who have lost work, fallen ill or had to assist sick family members during the crisis.

Read More [[link removed]] Once Booming San Francisco Apartment Market Goes In Reverse

Rents in San Francisco, the most expensive apartment market in the U.S., are tumbling as the city’s vaunted tech sector sheds jobs and more tenants leave the city.

The apartment vacancy rate in San Francisco rose to 6.2% in May, according to apartment data firm RealPage. That’s up from 3.9% only three months ago, after stay-at-home orders went into effect and more people in the city decided not to renew their leases.

San Francisco’s median rent in May for a one-bedroom apartment was also down 9.2% compared with a year ago at $3,360 a month, according to listings platform Zumper. That was still the highest monthly rent of all major U.S. markets, Zumper said, and a reminder of how steeply rents in the city climbed before their more recent descent.

Read More [[link removed]] Massive New Home-Building Target Set For Bay Area

Aim high, Bay Area planners and developers — state housing officials want the nine counties and their 101 cities to double the pace of home and apartment building in coming years.

A preliminary goal from the state Department of Housing and Community Development calls for 441,000 new housing units to be built in the Bay Area between 2022 and 2030, more than twice the region’s target from the last eight-year cycle. The region is falling short of meeting its current goal of building 187,990 new homes with only two years left to catch up.

Read More [[link removed]] Sacramento Leaders Hand Congress $11 Billion Construction Wish List

Glimpsing a silver lining in the coronavirus cloud, Sacramento leaders on Monday handed their Congressional representatives an $11 billion list of ready-to-build infrastructure projects for potential federal funding that would help modernize the region and add thousands of jobs for residents hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump administration and Congress have indicated they may be willing to make good on long-stalled promises to inject trillions of dollars nationally into building roads, rails, water treatment, flood control, improved emergency preparedness, affordable housing and high-speed internet, among other infrastructure.

Congress and the Trump administration already have approved trillions of dollars in emergency relief this spring under the CARES Act, with much of it going to individuals, businesses and local governments to shore their finances during the ongoing economic troubles of the COVID-19 crisis.

Read More [[link removed]?] Editorial and Opinion Tax Raisers Target Businesses—How Long Will Businesses Stay In CA?

Businesses, particularly corporations, are the targets of tax raisers in the legislature, at city hall and on the ballot. Piling on business taxes in a state notorious for its poor attitude toward business, one wonders how long businesses will put up with it before leaving. As Jim Wunderman, the president and CEO of the Bay Area Council told the San Francisco Business Times, “Taxes equal Texas.”

The state legislature recently eliminated business tax credits, suspended the net operating loss deduction, and made other moves to find budget revenue with $9.2 billion from business. San Francisco and Oakland, as examples, are looking at proposals to restructure their business taxes with the goal to raise revenue from big businesses. Coming on the November ballot is the largest property tax increase in history aimed at corporations, although in reality all businesses will feel the effect. The property tax measure is backed by politicians such as the mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as the largest public employee unions in the state.

How long will businesses put up with this treatment?

Read More [[link removed]] Budget No. 4 Won’t Be The Last

Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced this week that they have a deal on a new state budget to take effect on July 1.

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic plunge, they said, “we have agreed on a budget that is balanced, responsible and protects core services — education, health care, social safety net and emergency preparedness and response.”

Not quite. It’s not only the fourth 2020-21 budget that Newsom, et al, have drafted so far, but it’s dead certain not to be the last because it’s far from balanced.

Read More [[link removed]] Absurd Bill To Give Tenants A Decade To Repay Rent Should Be Rejected

We remember when California legislators would occasionally float far-reaching and irresponsible bills simply to make an ideological point. Those bills typically would get a hearing and then would quietly get shelved. These days, however, even some of the craziest ideas have a reasonable chance of passing.

When we first heard about Senate Bill 1410, we figured that its supporters couldn’t be serious. Designed to provide relief to renters who lost income during the coronavirus shutdowns, the bill would let renters defer their rent during the emergency without fear of eviction – and then would give them until 2034 to pay back unpaid amounts. You read that right: until 2034.

Read More [[link removed]] Defund The School Police? It’s Not That Simple

Parents’ concerns about fights among students and other safety issues have led to a growing police presence at public schools, whether the officers are hired as school employees or are provided by the local police department. Their numbers grew further after a series of high-profile tragedies in which a disturbed student or outsider brought guns to a school and killed multiple students and teachers. Although rare, these incidents created a misguided sense that campuses needed to be well-armed in self-defense.

Now, however, the nationwide protests against police killings of Black people have prompted some to question the armed presence at schools that was embraced after the Newtown and Parkland shootings. As protesters call for shifting funds from police departments to unarmed social service specialists, the question is natural: Why not do the same for kids? The leadership of United Teachers Los Angeles is calling for defunding L.A. Unified School District’s police department and spending the money on more counselors (who would be members of UTLA). Similar demands are being made across the nation.

Read More [[link removed]] Coronavirus Rent Freezes Are Ending — And A Wave Of Evictions Will Sweep America

Today, it's estimated that anywhere from 20 million to 28 million American renters are perilously close to eviction. The truth is, the nation is failing them. And not for the first time.

Even before COVID-19 struck, America faced its worst housing crisis in a century. According to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, 20.5 million families already struggled to scrape the rent together, and only 1 in 4 eligible renter households received financial assistance. Between the scarcity of federal housing support and the loss of 4 million affordable housing units over the last decade, it's no wonder renters are increasingly vulnerable to eviction. According to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, four evictions were filed every minute in 2016, when the national unemployment rate was 4.7 percent. Today, unemployment is close to three times that level.

Read More [[link removed]] Local Governments Are Undermining State Laws That Encourage 'Granny Flats'

It’s well known that California is in the midst of a housing crisis that grows more severe all the time. For decades, we have seen too few homes built, and those that are built are too expensive. The poor and middle class suffer the most from the housing shortage, increasingly finding themselves priced out of homes and apartments located near good jobs and schools.

This problem has been well documented, so there is no excuse when our cities refuse to allow individuals to take steps to alleviate the housing shortage. Yet communities across California continue to oppose the simplest of housing reforms: allowing property owners to build accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, commonly known as “granny flats” or “in-law apartments.”

Read More [[link removed]] Dolores Huerta On A November Ballot Measure On Commercial Property

The crisis caused by coronavirus threatens the livelihoods of each and every one of us, testing the strength and resolve of our community — and we may not know the full extent of its damage for years to come. We know that this crisis has further exposed inequalities in communities throughout California, and we know that big solutions will be needed to recover from this and reinvest in the future. The Schools and Communities First ballot initiative in November will be key to this.

In the face of this unprecedented hardship, we Californians have proven to be strong, caring, compassionate and, above all, resilient. From Gov. Gavin Newsom on down, folks throughout the state have been faced with impossible decisions, and stepping up in ways we never thought we’d have to.

Read More [[link removed]] We Can Ditch Office Culture For A Healthier Future By Teleworking

The COVID-19 shelter in place orders have demonstrated that many of us can work successfully from home and adopt healthier lifestyles. In the past three months, we have reduced traffic on our streets and highways, and more people are teleworking.

For decades, there has been a push to get cars off the road by encouraging more carpooling, bike riding and the use of public transportation. But those efforts didn’t produce the seismic shift in thinking about how we work until COVID-19 forced many of us to work from home, nor did they produce the stunning impact on our air quality.

We can leave office culture behind and embrace a healthier future of work.

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