Once again the special interests and the unions are trying to control the growth of the State, who may work, how they work and when they work. The free market, competition and workers freed from paying bribes is not on the table. Instead a new effort to tighten the vise of government on the economic throats of families and businesses. They want to further control housing in California—not the people, not the market—but radicals and extortionists.
“A group of environmental and union organizations has approved a general framework to guide debate at the state Capitol over legislation to increase the state’s housing supply.
The same groups helped defeat legislation by Gov. Jerry Brown last year that would have reduced local permitting requirements for housing projects.
The housing framework released Thursday, in a letter to the governor and legislative leaders, calls for a narrower reduction in permitting than Brown had sought in last year’s legislation. Under the new framework, permitting would be streamlined for infill projects that paid union wages and had already undergone environmental and public reviews.”
Who runs California? Not the families, voters or businesses—Sacramento is strictly a radical haven and union bastion.
Environmental, labor groups make bid to jumpstart statewide housing debate
Allen Young, Sacramento Business Journal, 1/19/17
A group of environmental and union organizations has approved a general framework to guide debate at the state Capitol over legislation to increase the state’s housing supply.
The same groups helped defeat legislation by Gov. Jerry Brown last year that would have reduced local permitting requirements for housing projects.
The housing framework released Thursday, in a letter to the governor and legislative leaders, calls for a narrower reduction in permitting than Brown had sought in last year’s legislation. Under the new framework, permitting would be streamlined for infill projects that paid union wages and had already undergone environmental and public reviews.
“There is a very strong commitment among everybody to find a real solution to this problem” of a statewide housing shortage, said Cesar Diaz, legislative director for the State Building and Construction Trades Council.
Diaz and other labor advocates helped defeat last year’s housing proposal, which would have removed requirements for environmental reviews that protect union wages.
“We all looked at it and all gave a little on certain issues,” Diaz said. “It’s an ongoing discussion.”
The framework is the product of a series of meetings held over the fall, orchestrated by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and former Assemblyman Roger Dickinson. At the time, both men were shareholders at the law firm Greenberg Traurig. (Steinberg has since cut ties with the firm.) The meetings were held on behalf of one of the firm’s clients, Resources Legacy Fund, an environmental organization Dickinson said had a professional interest in the discussion.
“People on both sides of the issue…signed onto this,” Dickinson said. “Those who indicated opposition are now in this group saying a streamlining proposal — in concept — we can support.”
The housing framework also calls for legislation to create a “permanent funding source” for affordable housing that is “on par” with the funding communities formerly received through redevelopment agencies. It asks for a $100 million fund to update local general plans to conform with state environmental laws, and it demands that any new housing rules are consistent with Assembly Bill 32, the state’s signature climate change law.
Also requested in the letter are new incentives for local governments to increase affordable housing stock, and a call to link transportation funds with housing production.
Environmental groups that signed onto the letter include the Natural Resources Defense Council and the California League of Conservation Voters. They had also opposed last year’s housing reform bill.
The framework does not include signatures from every organization that opposed last year’s housing bill, however. The California Labor Federation and California Teamsters were among those that didn’t sign on. But Diaz said that his trades council represented other union groups in the discussions.
The letter adds to a state housing debate launched this year with several pending housing bills. A bill before the State Senate would fund affordable housing with $75 fees on real estate transactions. Another proposal, by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would exempt affordable housing developments from local permitting and penalize communities that failed to meet building goals.
In the lower house, Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu of San Francisco has proposed eliminating a tax break for vacation homes in order to raise $300 million in tax credits for affordable housing.
“We hope that by showing a willingness of this diverse set of stakeholders to be part of a proposal…that these concepts comprehensively will find traction in the Legislature,” said Dickinson.
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