CAPITOL UPDATE- JANUARY 11, 2023
By Chris Wysocki
As California braces for another week of rain storms, the Governor yesterday released his first draft of the 2023-24 State Budget. California faces an immediate shortfall of at least $22 billion, but adjustments due to prior year shortfalls put the figure closer to $41 billion.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) suggests that the deficit could reach $50 billion in a recession environment. To view the LAO report, please click on the following link:
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4646
To view the Governor’s Proposed Budget, please click on the following link:
As of yesterday, the Legislature has introduced 121 budget-related bills and a total of 291 bills and two Constitutional Amendments. WMA has already identified 12 legislative measures that may have a material impact on the manufactured housing community industry (four of them have already been flagged as priority bills), and we expect this number to significantly grow in the coming weeks.
Please be on the lookout for e-mails from us asking you to personally engage with legislators as bills are set for legislative hearings. To stay up to date and learn more on bills we are tracking, please visit:
https://www.wma.org/bills-interest
Late last week, the State Senate announced committee members, although the membership is not yet reflected on the Senate’s website. Most bills WMA tracks go through the Senate Judiciary Committee as the bulk of legislation dealing with the Mobilehome Residency Law is found in California’s Civil Code Section 798.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is now comprised of 11 members (nine Democrats and two Republicans). The Chair of the Committee continues to be Democrat Senator Tom Umberg from Santa Ana and Republican Senator Roger Niello will serve as Vice Chair.
Other members include Democrat Senators Ben Allen, Angelique Ashby, Anna Caballero, Maria Elena Durazo, John Laird, Dave Min, Henry Stern and Scott Wiener. The other Republican on the committee is Scott Wilk.
To view committee membership, please visit:
Welcome to the Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary | Senate Judiciary Committee (ca.gov)
The Assembly has not yet announced committee membership, but most bills WMA tracks are assigned to the Housing and Community Development Committee.
Democrat Assemblymember Buffy Wicks will continue serving as Chair of the Committee and newly elected Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson will serve as Vice Chair.
The full committee membership is expected to be released next week. To keep updated, please visit:
https://ahcd.assembly.ca.gov/membersstaff
On another front, WMA has been working over the past several months with Kwikbit Internet to help mobilehome parks tap into federal funds that can be used to build a broadband internet infrastructure in mobilehome parks (MHPs).
Fast, reliable internet speeds of up to 1,000 mbps can be possible in parks without disruptive trenching that often comes with fiber wires being installed. To find out if your park is eligible for a free upgrade using federal funds to provide wireless One Gig internet, click here:
https://kwikbit.com/property_manager.html
This form needs to be filled out by March 10, 2023, and Kwikbit will determine your eligibility for government-subsidized internet infrastructure and respond within 5 business days.
As we go through the next few weeks, we expect over 1,000 bills to be introduced by the legislative deadline of February 17th. WMA has been working with various legislators to obtain language from Legislative Counsel relating to pro-active measures to protect our members who strive to provide attainable housing for their residents.
As I noted last week, this will be an “all hands on deck” year, and we will be reaching out to set up park tours with key legislators to educate them about the benefits our industry provides when it comes to addressing California’s housing crisis.
If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at chris@wma.org or you may also call my direct line at (916) 288-4026. Thank you for the opportunity to serve, and please get ready for a busy year in the Legislature.
