• Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham announced a new bill he introduced, AB 3360, that would give those who lease solar panels a partial sales tax exemption in an effort to lower housing costs. Individuals who fully own solar installations already receive this partial tax credit, so the bill would seek to expand the tax credit to solar panel leasers as well. Due to the California solar mandate that went into effect on Jan. 1, newly constructed single- and multi-family homes up to three stories high are required to have a solar photovoltaic (PV) system as an electricity source. According to Cunningham’s March 4 Facebook post, the PV system requirement can add anywhere from $8,000 to $12,000 to the price of a new home. AB 3360 aims to reduce the financial burden of this mandate, Cunningham said.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom concluded a statewide homelessness tour on Feb. 27 in which he “traveled the state to hear from service providers, homeless individuals, and local leaders on his administration’s homelessness response,” according to a press release. In San Jose, the last stop on the tour, Newsom met with residents that recently moved into tiny cabins. These units provide temporary housing between homelessness and permanent housing. In his Feb. 19 State of the State address, Newsom cited tiny homes as one innovative solution that his administration is encouraging to combat the homelessness crisis. After Santa Maria-based organization Operation WEBS, or Women Empowered Build Strong, built out a tiny home for a homeless woman veteran last November, Santa Barbara County 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino praised this approach as an “outside the box” solution to the Central Coast’s homelessness issues.
• With California’s state laws and goals regarding emissions and energy sources in mind, Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham recently announced a bill that would allow nuclear energy to be counted toward the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. AB 2898 proposes that emission-free nuclear energy count toward California’s statewide goal of producing 60 percent of its energy from emission free sources by 2030. In his announcement of the bill on Facebook, Cunningham wrote, “If the state is serious about [meeting] its goals without drastically increasing energy costs on people like you, nuclear must be a part of the answer.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a state of emergency on March 4 to help prepare for the broader spread of coronavirus. The proclamation—which according to a press release from the governor’s office will “make additional resources available, formalize emergency actions already underway across multiple state agencies and departments, and help the state prepare for broader spread of COVID-19”—comes following the first official COVID-19 death in California. U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) wrote in a March 4 Facebook post that he was “Proud to pass a bipartisan, bicameral $8.3 billion emergency bill that addresses this outbreak.” The emergency spending bill, signed by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Heath and Human Services Alex Azar, will be used for research on vaccine development and treatment, as well as for state and local public health efforts. Because it is classified as emergency spending, it is exempt from discretionary spending limits. On March 5, Carbajal attended a congressional briefing on coronavirus, stating in a Facebook post that the briefing “discussed that those most at risk are seniors and the chronically ill. We are working to allocate resources to those communities to [mitigate] the spread.”
This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2020.
