Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News Proposition 13 Is A Political Third Rail In California. Changing It Will Be A Hard Sell

There was a jarring reality check in the Legislature last week for interest groups plotting to change Proposition 13 and raise property taxes on major businesses.

The reality is that raising any taxes will be very hard to sell voters.

The plotters are led by some powerful public employee unions, including those representing teachers and service workers. They plan to place a citizens’ initiative on the November presidential election ballot next year.

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“If a legislator votes to change Proposition 13, they’re going to pay the ultimate price at the ballot box,” says Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable. He’s part of a big-bucks coalition that opposes ACA 1 and is gearing up to fight the ballot initiative.

Read More [[link removed]] Second Tax Measure To Fund California Schools Proposed For 2020 Ballot

The California School Boards Association is exploring whether to place a $15 billion tax for K-12 schools, early education and community colleges before voters, creating the possibility of dueling tax initiatives on the statewide ballot in November 2020.

Together with the Association of California School Administrators — its only partner so far — the school boards association has created a “Full and Fair Funding” election fund and website to solicit support. Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, who chairs the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance, is shopping the idea around the Legislature to see if there’s enough support to ask legislators to put the tax proposal on next year’s ballot.

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Two polls this year put support for a split-roll initiative in the mid-50s (54 percent of likely voters backed it in the Public Policy Institute of California poll and 55 percent of voters in a poll by the nonprofit PACE and USC). However, business groups are vowing to bankroll what could be an expensive effort to defeat it and are organizing already with FightforProp13.org, led by the California Business Roundtable, and Californians to Stop Higher Property Taxes, led by commercial real estate interests.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Groups Appeal Ruling On Taxes For Childcare, Homelessness Services

Business and tax groups have filed an appeal of a recent court ruling in favor of two separate San Francisco tax measures named Proposition C.

Three business-related groups — California Business Roundtable, the California Business Properties Association and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association — joined forces earlier this year to try to invalidate San Francisco’s Proposition C, a measure passed in November that taxes the city’s biggest corporations to deal with homelessness. The groups had filed court documents arguing that the passage of Prop. C violated the state Constitution because it only passed with a simple majority vote.

Prop. C is expected to raise more than $300 million annually for housing and homelessness services.

Read More [[link removed]] Some Californians Say Moving From Natural Gas To Electricity Will Cost Too Much

Some labor and business leaders – as well as residents of different communities around the state – are pushing back against green energy policies that Sacramento has taken on to fight climate change.

About a month ago, business and political representatives from more than 20 cities across the Inland Empire – a metropolitan area east of Los Angeles that covers parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties – held a press conference in the city of Riverside. At the meeting, they sounded off against new California Energy Commission and California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) rules designed to move energy users away from natural gas, toward electric power.

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Last Tuesday in Sacramento, the California Business Roundtable also held a press conference, bringing together labor leaders, businesspeople and citizens to call on Gov. Newsom to consider sources of energy other than electricity.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation Uber, Lyft And DoorDash Pledge $90M To Fight California Gig-Worker Law

Uber Opens a New Window. , Lyft and DoorDash threatened Thursday to spend $90 million to fight a proposed California law that would require the companies to treat their gig workers as employees, rather than contractors.

“We remain focused on reaching a deal, and are confident about bringing this issue to the voters if necessary,” Adrian Durbin, senior director of communications at Lyft, said in a statement.

As employees, workers are entitled to wage protections and benefits. The ride-sharing companies, however, contend that doing so would upend their business model, which is designed around driver flexibility.

If the ride-share companies are unable to reach a deal with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, unions Opens a New Window. and lawmakers to change the rights of their drivers, they plan to spend the $90 million on a ballot measure. However, the California Labor Federation, which sponsored the law, vowed to fight any countering ballot measure.

Read More [[link removed]] Command Center Sells California Locations

Command Center, Inc. a national provider of on-demand and temporary staffing solutions, today announced that it has agreed to sell its four California locations to Resolute Enterprises, LLC for $1.8 million. Command Center is providing seller financing for the transaction, receiving a four-year promissory note at 10% interest.

“After careful review, we determined that California has a number of regulations unique to the state, and complying with these requirements would require significant and ongoing resources which do not make sense at our current size,” commented Rick Hermanns, Command Center’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “At our current scale, we believe there are better investment opportunities elsewhere. Our focus remains to convert the remaining branches to the franchise model. We continue to expect to convert the remaining branches to the franchise model by the end of 2019.”

Read More [[link removed]] Strength In U.S. Consumer Spending Drives Economy

U.S. households ramped up their spending in July, providing reassurance that the economy’s decadelong expansion continued to roll despite slowing factory activity and global growth.

Personal-consumption expenditures, a measure of household spending, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in July from June, a pickup from the previous two months, the Commerce Department said Friday, continuing a solid performance by the economy’s main driving force.

“The consumer is still very sturdy and providing fundamental strength to the overall economy,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the National Retail Federation. “As long as we see a strong job market...the direction of the economy continues to be on track: positive but slowing.”

The prospects for continued strong spending ahead are less clear. Consumer sentiment fell in August, posting its largest drop since 2012, the University of Michigan said Friday. Richard Curtin, the survey’s chief economist, attributed the decline to Americans’ concerns about tariffs.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change What To Know As California’s Peak Fire Months Loom

California fire officials have learned through hard experience to temper their optimism.

Having just endured more than a decade of rampaging fires — 14 of the 20 most destructive fires in state history have occurred since 2007 — fire bosses say this year the glass is half-full.

“We’ve got a few things going for us at the moment,” said Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency. “We still have a snowpack. Our upper elevations haven’t dried out. Because of that, we are able to continue our fuel-reduction projects.”

Read More [[link removed]] Trump Gives Businesses Deregulation Whether They Want It Or Not

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to ease the grip of environmental rules he said were throttling businesses. But time and again, his deregulatory moves as president have drawn the ire of the very companies that were expected to benefit.

In the latest instance, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal Thursday to weaken rules on methane leaks from oil wells -- despite major oil companies insisting they don't want the relief.

Similarly, automakers have begged the White House to alter course in its plans to weaken fuel efficiency standards and pick a fight with California. And power-plant operators say an administration effort to undermine requirements for mercury pollution controls may keep them from recouping the cost of equipment.

Read More [[link removed]] California Tahoe Conservancy Awards $240,000 To California State Parks

The California Tahoe Conservancy Board has approved a grant of up to $240,286 to California State Parks for forest health management at Burton Creek State Park.

According to a news release, the funds for the project come from an earlier grant to the Conservancy from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for high-priority forest health projects designed to combat climate change and reduce the risk of wildfire.

California State Parks will use the grant to conduct manual thinning, pile burning, and prescribed understory burning on 132 acres in the wildland-urban interface, in an area of the park designated by Cal Fire as a very high fire severity zone. These actions will restore forest health to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote the long-term storage of carbon in forest trees and soils, and minimize the loss of forest carbon from large, intense wildfires.

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development Initiatives Underway For Low-Cost, Free Textbooks For California College Students

As they start a new school year, college students usually come to campus knowing their tuition and room and board costs. The big unknown is the often-hefty cost of textbooks.

Many students don’t know what textbooks they’ll need and how much the books will cost until they’ve enrolled in courses and checked their professors’ syllabi.

But universities across California, especially in the 23-campus California State University system, have become more transparent about textbooks and more proactive in assigning free, digital or low-cost books to students. And some institutions, such as the University of California at Davis, are working to revolutionize the textbook market and make it more affordable for all students.

California State University’s Affordable Learning Solutions’ initiative, which began in 2010, integrates library resources, digital books, low-cost publisher materials and open educational resources in college courses.

Read More [[link removed]] California Is Providing First-Time Students With 2 Years Of Free Tuition At Community Colleges

California will provide first-time, full-time students with two years of free tuition to community colleges in the state.

The effort is being rolled out under the state’s California College Promise program, which already provided California students with one free year of tuition at community colleges.

“This is real help for students trying to improve their lives and build their future,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement this week. “No one can argue with the fact that the full cost of attending institutions of higher learning is still far too high – both in California and across the country.”

“But by offering two years of community college tuition-free, California is taking a meaningful step toward chipping away at the cost of higher learning for students and their families,” he continued.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Seniors Facing Eviction Fear Homelessness And Isolation As California’s Housing Crisis Rolls On

Mario Canel met his wife inside the apartment where he’s lived for the last 33 years.

Canel, a house painter, was at the Silver Lake complex off of Sunset Boulevard on a job, but he and his customer quickly connected over their shared Guatemalan roots. It wasn’t long before Mario and Sabina married, and her home became his. For years, they basked in such comforts as plucking chayote from a vine outside their front window.

When his wife died in April 2005, Canel was consoled with walks throughout the neighborhood and his connection to people inside the eight-unit bungalow court. It also helped that even as the surrounding neighborhood gentrified, rent control held his rent below $400.

But three months ago, a real estate investor purchased the complex and soon told all tenants to leave. Suddenly, Canel faced the prospect of having to find a new home in a market where nearby studios rent for more than his monthly Social Security benefits — his sole means of support.

Read More [[link removed]] More Than 400 Apartments Coming To Downtown Sacramento Near The Capitol. Rents Won’t Be Cheap

Sacramento’s push for more rental housing downtown just got a solid boost.

A Washington state developer on Wednesday launched construction of the first of an expected 436 apartments in two mid-rise structures at Sacramento Commons, a residential site tucked a few blocks southwest of the state Capitol.

The project will contain the most units of any apartment complex in Sacramento’s central city, surpassing the 277-unit apartment complex under construction at 21st and Q streets. That project, called The Press, encompasses a square block and is expected to open next year at market-rate rents.

Read More [[link removed]] Rent Hikes Heap More Woes on Southern California’s Housing, Homeless Crisis

The cost of renting a home or apartment in Los Angeles and Orange counties has skyrocketed 5.8 percent in the last year.

The latest rent hike is the highest since 2005 and has increased at the fastest pace in 14 years, according to the Consumer Price Index calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A year ago, the CPI reported rent had jumped 4.7 percent. The CPI polls consumers in contrast to other rent measurements that are derived from landlord surveys to track rent costs.

The average cost of renting an apartment in both counties is now about $2,000 a month or more, depending on the area, according to the website RentCafe.

Neighboring counties of San Bernardino and Riverside also saw rental properties surge 4.3 percent since last July, according to the CPI.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion This Bill Is A Threat To California’s Free Press. It Must Be Changed

If you believe newspapers play an essential role in strengthening democracy and holding powerful leaders accountable, now is the time to speak up about Assembly Bill 5. The bill, as currently written, could force many California newspapers out of business.

It’s unlikely that Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, sought to create an existential threat to California’s free press when she authored AB 5. But in what seems like an unintended consequence of the bill, AB 5 would basically make daily delivery of the print version of the newspaper nearly impossible. Some papers have said they may turn to mail, meaning a day-late newspaper and increased subscription rates for consumers.

That’s because the bill would require newspapers to treat newspaper carriers as employees rather than independent contractors. This would disrupt and destabilize the newspaper industry at a time when accurate, credible news is most needed – and most threatened.

Read More [[link removed]] A Resurrection For Redevelopment?

Voters and elected officials adopt policies on assurances of beneficial impacts, but they often interact with other decrees to produce what are called “unintended consequences.”

Redevelopment has been a classic example for nearly seven decades, and it may be on the verge of another twist.

Redevelopment, authorized in the early 1950s, was aimed at encouraging local governments, cities mostly, to clean up neighborhoods deemed to have “blight.” They would invest in sewers, water systems and other public works that would draw in private investment.

To finance projects, local governments would float bonds and repay them with “tax increment financing.” As property taxes in the improved project areas increased, the revenue gains could be retained by the sponsoring local governments.

Read More [[link removed]] California Business Roundtable 1301 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 916.553.4093 | [[link removed]] Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] | Unsubscribe [link removed]