Updates on Sponsored Bills
The County's state lobbyists from Nielsen Merksamer will provide an update on the status of the County's sponsored bills.
Other Bills of Interest
Please see Attachment A, the County's Master File of Bills of Interest. Attachment B is the list of Advocacy Letters the County has prepared in 2023 to date.
CSAC has a few measures that they would like to highlight:
Support
AB 578 (Berman) Multifamily Housing Program: No Place Like Home Program would revise the minimum annual loan payment developers must pay to cover the cost of project monitoring for the Multi-family Housing Program and the No Place Like Home Program by capping the annual amount the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) may charge at $150 per unit, adjusted for inflation, or 0.42% of the total project loan, whichever is less. To make meaningful progress in helping those who are unhoused, CSAC developed the ‘AT HOME’ Plan. The six-pillar plan is designed to make true progress to effectively address homelessness at every level - state, local and federal. CSAC is supportive of these updates to the affordable housing monitoring fee that would provide additional private financing to increase the number of affordable housing units being built each year.
AB 653 (Reyes) Federal Housing Voucher Acceleration Program would create the Federal Housing Voucher Acceleration Program to provide housing search assistance,landlord incentives, and deposit resources to help tenants with vouchers find and secure housing. AB 653 would specifically require HCD to allocate $200 million to establish, administer, and fund a grant application process and award grants to public housing authorities on or before July 1,2024, as well as require HCD to provide technical assistance to applicants that receive the grant funds. The bill would also require housing authorities that have low lease-up rates to apply evidence-based tools to help voucher families move to low poverty neighborhoods and to work with HCD to further analyze and improve their voucher policies. CSAC is supportive of this measure since it would provide meaningful policy changes that support county efforts to address significant barriers in providing housing to low-income individuals, which ultimately prevents individuals from becoming homeless.
AB 1033 (Ting) Accessory dwelling units: local ordinances: separate sale or conveyance would authorize local agencies to adopt ordinances to allow the separate conveyance of the primary dwelling unit and accessory dwelling unit (ADU) or units as condominiums. This bill would require any ordinance to comply with both the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, which governs homeowners’ associations, and the Subdivision Map Act, which governs the subdivision of property. In addition, AB 1033 would require any ordinance allowing separate conveyance of these units to stipulate that, prior to allowing separate conveyance, all liens on the property are satisfied or that all lienholders consent to the recordation, and that a safety inspection of the ADU is conducted. CSAC is supportive of this measure given that it complements the ‘AT HOME’ Plan in providing increased flexibility and streamlining to generate more affordable housing.
SB 356 (Archuleta) Housing: Code Enforcement Incentive Program: Community Code Enforcement Pilot Program would modernize the Code Enforcement Incentive Grant Program by making cost-of-living adjustments to award sizes, simplifying matching fund requirements for local governments, incentivizing the certification of code enforcement officers, and expanding partnerships with community-based organizations. CSAC supports ensuring statutory requirements in Government, Public Resources, Health and Safety Codes, as well as the Building Standards Code regulations work coherently to incentivize and streamline the delivery of affordable, equitable and safe housing. By reactivating the Code Enforcement Incentive Grant Program, the Legislature can spark innovation in building code enforcement to identify better and remediate deteriorated housing conditions before problems become so severe that buildings become uninhabitable. These grants allow local agencies to test new technologies, practices, and community partnerships to protect tenants from unhealthy housing conditions.
Oppose Unless Amended
AB 1504 (McCarty) Planning and zoning: electric vehicle charging infrastructure: public right-of-way requires cities and counties to complete a plan for the installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the public right-of-way, and makes changes to the statewide assessment of EV charging infrastructure the California Energy Commission (CEC) must prepare pursuant to existing law. In developing the plan, numerous requirements and considerations are placed on local agencies. Existing local regulations are not barriers to electric vehicle charging station deployment, but rather a process, overseen by engineers, safety, and design professionals to protect the public from hazards. County governments have finite resources but must process electric vehicle charging station permits, as mandated by state law, with truncated timetables that place them ahead of other permittees with projects related to affordable housing, rebuilding disaster-stricken areas, approving Americans with Disabilities Act improvements, and reviewing rooftop solar panel projects, just to name a few.
============================================================================
Urban Counties of California (UCC) provided a recap of several significant bills:
AB 702 (Jackson) – Bill to Redirect JJCPA Resources Held for Further Deliberation Until 2024
AB 702, by Assembly Member Corey Jackson, proposes to redirect Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) funds, revise the composition of local Juvenile Justice Coordinating Councils (JJCC), and recast various elements of required multiagency juvenile justice plans. This measure largely mirrors previous legislative efforts – AB 1007 (Jones-Sawyer, 2020) and SB 943 (Bradford, 2021). AB 702 was scheduled for hearing in the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday; the author decided to pull the measure from hearing next week and designate it as a two-year bill.
UCC, RCRC, and CSAC had weighed in with joint opposition to this measure, primarily because of provisions that would require redirection of 95 percent of JJCPA funds to community-based organizations or non-law enforcement public entities. These changes would have considerably destabilized core probation support of local juvenile justice programs and services at the local level. JJCPA funding is in many jurisdictions dedicated to staffing and personnel costs that make up the backbone of our juvenile probation departments. These expenditures have been and continue to be wholly eligible and lawful under JJCPA.
The county coalition raised as part of its opposition advocacy that the proposed redirection in AB 702 appears to ignore constitutional protections enacted under Proposition 30 (2012) that ensure resource certainty and stability for all programs realigned in 2011, including JJCPA. The proposal also is especially troubling given that counties are (1) working diligently toward full implementation of SB 823 (2020), which shifted responsibility for the care and custody of all system-involved youth to county responsibility and (2) supporting the transition of and subsequent care for several hundred young people who will remain in the jurisdiction of the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) once all state facilities close on June 30, 2023.
AB 68 (Ward) – Bill Limiting County Land Use Authority Won’t Advance in 2023
The Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee will not hear AB 68 by Assembly Member Chris Ward who represents portions of San Diego County. The bill had attracted significant opposition from developers and business interests, in addition to significant local government concerns related to land use authority and jurisdictions’ ability to meet state housing goals.
AB 68 would have imposed significant new limitations on the ability of a county to zone land for housing or extend water and sewer service outside of census-designated urbanized areas. Moreover, the bill made no changes to reduce the regional housing needs allocated to unincorporated areas and would have seriously impeded county efforts to comply with state housing targets through rezoning because the provision allowing local agencies to override its strict limitations on new development required a compliant housing element.
The bill also turned traditional land use planning and approval practices on their heads by requiring counties to show that there are no alternative residential or commercial properties that could accommodate proposed developments subject to the bill’s limitations. Finally, while the bill purportedly included exceptions when rezoning is needed to meet regional housing needs, it required detailed findings that must be endorsed by the gubernatorially-appointed Office of Planning and Research.
AB 412 (Soria) – Legislature Grapples with Distressed Hospitals
Since the closure of Madera Community Hospital, the Legislature has been increasingly interested in the health of California hospitals. Beverly Hospital in Montebello filed for bankruptcy, and several other facilities are publicly talking about their financial distress. The Assembly Health Committee heard AB 412, a measure by Assembly Member Esmeralda Soria who represents portions of the Counties of Fresno, Madera, and Merced. The bill would establish the Distressed Hospital Loan Program (DHLP), which – until January 1, 2032 – would provide interest free cashflow loans to (1) not-for-profit hospitals and public hospitals, as defined, that are in significant financial distress or (2) governmental entities representing a closed hospital.
During the policy committee hearing this week, Assembly Member Soria remarked that “[t]his issue of hospital closures is really important as the state continues to pursue expansion of coverage. This is a reminder that folks in my area may qualify for Medi-Cal, but what does that mean if they can’t access care?”
Assembly Health Committee passed AB 412 with a unanimous 15 to 0 vote; the bill next heads to Assembly Appropriations Committee for a fiscal review. The Newsom Administration is increasingly interested in the distressed hospital issue, and rumors continue to swirl about whether there will be early budget action to create a funding stream for distressed hospitals. More to come.
SB 770 (Wiener) – Union Dynamics Emerge Over Unified Health Care Financing
The Senate Health Committee’s hearing on SB 770, by Senator Scott Wiener, revealed labor disagreements on how to move forward on single-payer health care. The California Nurses Association (CNA), which has long advocated for single payer, testified in opposition to SB 770. The measure directs the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency to pursue waiver discussions with the federal government with the objective of a unified health care financing system that incorporates specific features, including a comprehensive package of medical, behavioral health, pharmaceutical, dental, and vision benefits, without cost sharing for essential services and treatments.
SB 770, sponsored by Healthy California Now, is supported by several labor unions, including California Conference of Machinists, California Federation of Teachers AFL-CIO, California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, National Union of Healthcare Workers, UNITE-HERE, AFL-CIO, as well as other health care advocates such as Western Center on Law and Poverty.
In its opposition, CNA argued that action on the single payer issue is long past due; the nurses’ view is that enough groups have been convened and enough reports have been written on the issue. Rather than put any additional effort into the approach contemplated in SB 770, CNA urged to Legislature to move a bill laying out a single payer system, then ask the federal government for permission to finance and implement it. Other opponents to SB 770 include the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Association of Health Plans.
For its part, CNA is sponsoring AB 1690, by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, which currently expresses legislative intent to guarantee accessible, affordable, equitable, and high-quality health care for all Californians through a comprehensive universal single-payer health care program that benefits every resident of the state. AB 1690 is a two-year bill.
Senate Health Committee passed SB 770 measure on a 7-2 vote, with three members abstaining. The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider the measure next.
|