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La Mirinda coalition hears state budget, housing bond and wildfire funding updates
Summary
Town and city leaders heard a legislative update from Townsend Public Affairs that summarized the signed state budget, highlighted $900M for homeless prevention and $700M for multifamily housing tax credits, and outlined trailer-bill and ballot measure items affecting wildfire preparedness, e-bikes and regional funding.
Casey Elliott of Townsend Public Affairs briefed the La Mirinda Tri Cities on the recently signed state budget and priority legislation affecting local governments. He said the Legislature and governor produced "a balanced budget" and described the package as one of the largest in recent memory: "The total budget spending this year is just over $350,000,000,000," Elliott said.
Elliott emphasized targeted investments in housing and homelessness, including $900 million for the state's homeless prevention program and $700 million for multifamily housing tax credits. He also said budget trailer bills connected to Proposition 4 (the resources bond) remain under negotiation and noted a legislative effort to standardize home-hardening certification (AB 1934). On public-safety funding, Elliott said the budget included $50 million for Proposition 36 implementation.
On regulatory and policy items, Elliott described a change that will subject prewritten, cloud-hosted software to sales tax beginning Jan. 1, and he previewed several bills of interest locally: SB922 (franchise-fee clarification), SB1408 (CCTA-related legislative vehicle) and an e-bike bill (AB2346) that would allow more local control over speed limits and safety standards. He said many measures remain subject to August and September trailer-bill and veto timelines.
Council members asked how bills would interact with local wildfire mapping and Zone 0 discussions; Elliott said some measures would be tangential to zone mapping and that the statewide home-hardening certification aims to set consistent expectations for owners and contractors and could help insurers evaluate risk.
The legislative briefing closed with an overview of federal appropriations status for local projects; Elliott advised local staff that appropriations are likely to arrive after November elections and could begin moving in December or January.
