ARTICLE
On Tuesday, April 18th your new Chamber CEO, Casey Beyer, joined 21 other business executives in an all-day legislative advocacy trip to our State Capitol. With deep state-wide connections, Casey was approached by the co-chairs of the R.E.A.L. Coalition and invited the Santa Cruz Chamber to join. Also attending their first R.E.A.L Coalition Advocacy Day was Kate Roberts, President of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. The co-chairs of the organization believed there was a missing piece in their advocacy demographics where no busi-ness association represented the central coast. Now, the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce and the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership fill that void. What is the R.E.A.L. Coalition? The advocacy group, R.E.A.L Coalition was founded in 2008 by Orange County Business Council CEO Lucy Dunn and Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. The Coalition works collectively across four core policy areas: Economic Competitiveness/Housing, Education & Workforce Development, Transportation Infrastructure and Water. It is not ironic that those four core issues mirror the work plan of the Chamber’s advocacy. Becoming a member of the coalition grows the Chamber’s business network with a statewide presence and neatly aligns to our local policy advocacy. Now, we have the opportunity to reach the policy decision makers in Sacramento for effectively. Coalition members include chambers and economic development alliances and leadership councils from Sacramento to San Diego and from the Inland Empire to California’s central coast. As they say in advocacy speak - we have strength in numbers. The R.E.A.L Coalition is now made up of 22 of California’s most influential business associations together representing more than 15,000 California employers who employ 3.9 million Californians. We are delighted to be in such good company as we work to develop positive relationship with state policy makers. The all-day Sacramento Legislative Advocacy Day was a chance to re-connect with business leaders from around the state, many of which Casey has known for years. The day was a non-stop speed dating opportunity to talk with state senators and assembly members, chief policy makers in the State Senate, the Executive Secretary (Chief of Staff) for Governor Brown and a special guest speaker over lunch with our State’s Transportation Secretary. Our visit was tai-lored around the current policy issues of the moment: transportation, housing, water, and climate change. Below is a brief report of our meetings with these policy leaders focusing on the leaders’ primary policy priorities for 2017. Assembly Minority Leader, Chad Mayes, 42nd District (R-Rancho Mirage)- a self-described “governing conservative,” He seeks to identify pragmatic policy solutions that will better the lives of Californians and ensure that the state remains a global leader in the 21st Century. He said California is two states - one of high income earners but also a state with the highest poverty rates in the Nation. A strong proponent of early education and pre-school, he believes California must address our demand v. supply housing problem by streamlining the permit process. He wants to work across the aisle to provide more housing opportunities for rural areas of the state. Assemblyman Vince Fong, 34th District (R-Bakersfield) - leader in the conversation on energy independence in California and worked to develop policies that permit business expansion and enhance job opportunities for local residents. Assemblyman Fong’s top priorities is business climate, economic development, CEQA reform, and budget transparency. He has authored AB 77 which is legislative review of all regulations set forth by any state department. In the review process the legislature can ask for clarification if a regulation on the books is still necessary and if not a review process to remove the regulation. Assemblyman Marc Steinforth, 40th District (R-Rancho Cucamonga)- Vice Chair of Hous-ing and Community Development. The Assemblyman’s focus in on home ownership where he has introduced AB 53 Homeownership through savings when there would be a state income tax credit for single filers at $10,000 or $20,000 for married filers which would be for first time homebuyers or home buyers who are potential buyers who haven’t been home owners for the past three years. He also supports streamlining the regulatory and permit process to increase housing production. Kip Lipper, Chief Energy & Environmental Policy Advisor to the Senate Pro-Tem Kevin de Leon. Lipper is a 40 year veteran of the state legislature. He is often referred to as California’s 41st State Senator for his ability to craft legislation and secure voter approval. As Senator de Leon’s chief policy person, Lipper welds a lot of influence on what policy issues move in the State Senate. He stated that three items will drive the policy discussion now that the legislature and Governor have passed a $52 billion transportation bill. Focus will be on an infrastructure bond for water, drought, flood and fire protection which will compliment the 2104 Water Bond that passed which has not been fully implemented. Other items on the Senate list possible park bond and SB 584 which would be comprehensive energy package with the goal of 100% clean renewable standards. Senator Jim Beall, 15th District (D- San Jose)- Chair, Senate Committee on Transporta-tion and Housing. Senator Beall was the principle legislator who worked for the last two years to push a transportation bill (SB 1) through the Legislature. The Senator labeled SB 1 as a Fix-it bill. The next step after passing this legislation leads to ‘trailer bills’ process which includes a mixture of funding priorities for state highways, bridges and relief on congestion corridors. Projects and implementation measures for transportation will focus on efficiency of services, maintenance of effort and on-budget project delivery. He was in a celebratory mood because of the significant milestone this created in the State Capitol passing a 2/3 vote threshold and increasing the gas tax for the first time in over quarter of a century. Karla Nemeth, Deputy Secretary, Water Policy, California Natural Resource Agency. Karla is Governor Brown’s senior advisor on Water Policy with two decades of experience in California and Washington State. She provided a very detailed plan that the Brown Administration is working on for the next 18 months related to water conservation, negotiating a water conveyance (delta plan) that engages al the stakeholders in the water policy arena from farmers, environmental leaders, water purveyors and small and large to urban users in Northern and Southern California. She confirmed that the Governor wants to have a better more efficient and sustainable water delivery system that has been ‘work in progress’ for the last six years. She also provided a brief update on the Orville Dam situation noting that the rock bed of the dam base was designed 50 years ago using the standard of the day. A $275 million bid to the Orville fix is in process. Assemblyman Jim Frazier, 11th District (D- Fairfield), Chair, Assembly Transportation Committee. Frazier was the lead author of the transportation bill (AB 1) in the Assembly. That legislation was rolled into the final package SB 1 that passed the Legislature on April 6th. He came by to thank the Coalition for its support of the legislation and described the hard work of his staff to not give in to legislators and the ‘people in the building’ (referring to the State Capitol) While he was not surprised that it took some ‘give aways’ to a couple of legislators who wanted special treatment for their respective districts in lieu of voting for the bill. He is delighted that the bill passed and now it will be ‘pay-as-we go’ to implement transportation improvements statewide. Assemblyman David Chiu, 17th District (D- San Francisco), Chair- Assembly Committee on Housing & Community Development. Judson True, the Assemblyman’s Chief of Staff stepped in to meet with us while his ‘boss’ was chairing a committee meeting. Mr. True has worked with the Assemblyman since his days on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. True stated that the Assemblyman’s priorities is to address California’s (statewide) housing crisis. On Monday of this week, the Assemblyman held a press conference with other Legislators calling for a variety of approaches, including a new permanent source of affordable housing funding, creative ways to reduce homelessness, streamlined housing production, and strengthened enforcement of the state’s housing laws. There are over 130 bills in the State Legislator that are designed to address every facet of our housing problems. The Coalition asked explicitly to address the housing supply demand imbalance, reform CEQA that reduced or eliminate du-plicative permit processes, encourage local government to meet their RHNA housing require-ments where the state would reward those communities that actually meet their obligations. Nancy McFadden, Executive Secretary to Governor Brown. Nancy is the power broker within the Governor’s office who acts as his liaison to the legislature. She is no-nonsense policy wonk who pushes to get things done that the Governor wants to achieve in his last 18 months in office. Now that SB 1 passed, she said the focus of the Administration will be on meeting those commitments in the bill, getting the funds out as quickly and as efficiently as possible and make local government accountable for their project delivery. She noted that Governor will turn his attention to the budget exercise once the May Revise updates are reported, and he’ll stick to his promise of a budget that is balanced and fair to California’s needs. Finally she concluded by stating the Cap N’ Trade funding will be a top priority, water conveyance and addressing a sustainable plan for California’s future. She did not have an easy answer for meeting our housing demands but said the Governor will work with the Legislature on a solution. Brian Kelly, Secretary, California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Kelly has a been one of the lead transportation consultants in the state legislature for the past twenty years and in July 2013 as appointed as the first Secretary of CalSTA. During our lunch time conversation with Secretary Kelly, he offered his perspective on the legislative achievement in passing SB 1. However, his primary focus is implementing the legislation to ensure projects get built, and put a funding system in place so state highways are repaired, congestion corridors are the priorities and integration of state work with local government is strategically aligned. On a local note, both Casey and Kate offered our gratitude to Mr. Kelly for the repair work is on-going in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties where flood damage, mud slides have severely impacted our region. We also asked that the State ensure local transportation authorities are looking for innovative solutions to address the congestion on our highways, county roads and local streets.
On Tuesday, April 18th your new Chamber CEO, Casey Beyer, joined 21 other business executives in an all-day legislative advocacy trip to our State Capitol. With deep state-wide connections, Casey was approached by the co-chairs of the R.E.A.L. Coalition and invited the Santa Cruz Chamber to join. Also attending their first R.E.A.L Coalition Advocacy Day was Kate Roberts, President of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. The co-chairs of the organization believed there was a missing piece in their advocacy demographics where no busi-ness association represented the central coast. Now, the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce and the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership fill that void. What is the R.E.A.L. Coalition? The advocacy group, R.E.A.L Coalition was founded in 2008 by Orange County Business Council CEO Lucy Dunn and Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. The Coalition works collectively across four core policy areas: Economic Competitiveness/Housing, Education & Workforce Development, Transportation Infrastructure and Water. It is not ironic that those four core issues mirror the work plan of the Chamber’s advocacy. Becoming a member of the coalition grows the Chamber’s business network with a statewide presence and neatly aligns to our local policy advocacy. Now, we have the opportunity to reach the policy decision makers in Sacramento for effectively. Coalition members include chambers and economic development alliances and leadership councils from Sacramento to San Diego and from the Inland Empire to California’s central coast. As they say in advocacy speak - we have strength in numbers. The R.E.A.L Coalition is now made up of 22 of California’s most influential business associations together representing more than 15,000 California employers who employ 3.9 million Californians. We are delighted to be in such good company as we work to develop positive relationship with state policy makers.
The all-day Sacramento Legislative Advocacy Day was a chance to re-connect with business leaders from around the state, many of which Casey has known for years. The day was a non-stop speed dating opportunity to talk with state senators and assembly members, chief policy makers in the State Senate, the Executive Secretary (Chief of Staff) for Governor Brown and a special guest speaker over lunch with our State’s Transportation Secretary. Our visit was tai-lored around the current policy issues of the moment: transportation, housing, water, and climate change. Below is a brief report of our meetings with these policy leaders focusing on the leaders’ primary policy priorities for 2017.
Assembly Minority Leader, Chad Mayes, 42nd District (R-Rancho Mirage)- a self-described “governing conservative,” He seeks to identify pragmatic policy solutions that will better the lives of Californians and ensure that the state remains a global leader in the 21st Century. He said California is two states - one of high income earners but also a state with the highest poverty rates in the Nation. A strong proponent of early education and pre-school, he believes California must address our demand v. supply housing problem by streamlining the permit process. He wants to work across the aisle to provide more housing opportunities for rural areas of the state.
Assemblyman Vince Fong, 34th District (R-Bakersfield) - leader in the conversation on energy independence in California and worked to develop policies that permit business expansion and enhance job opportunities for local residents. Assemblyman Fong’s top priorities is business climate, economic development, CEQA reform, and budget transparency. He has authored AB 77 which is legislative review of all regulations set forth by any state department. In the review process the legislature can ask for clarification if a regulation on the books is still necessary and if not a review process to remove the regulation.
Assemblyman Marc Steinforth, 40th District (R-Rancho Cucamonga)- Vice Chair of Hous-ing and Community Development. The Assemblyman’s focus in on home ownership where he has introduced AB 53 Homeownership through savings when there would be a state income tax credit for single filers at $10,000 or $20,000 for married filers which would be for first time homebuyers or home buyers who are potential buyers who haven’t been home owners for the past three years. He also supports streamlining the regulatory and permit process to increase housing production.
Kip Lipper, Chief Energy & Environmental Policy Advisor to the Senate Pro-Tem Kevin de Leon. Lipper is a 40 year veteran of the state legislature. He is often referred to as California’s 41st State Senator for his ability to craft legislation and secure voter approval. As Senator de Leon’s chief policy person, Lipper welds a lot of influence on what policy issues move in the State Senate. He stated that three items will drive the policy discussion now that the legislature and Governor have passed a $52 billion transportation bill. Focus will be on an infrastructure bond for water, drought, flood and fire protection which will compliment the 2104 Water Bond that passed which has not been fully implemented. Other items on the Senate list possible park bond and SB 584 which would be comprehensive energy package with the goal of 100% clean renewable standards.
Senator Jim Beall, 15th District (D- San Jose)- Chair, Senate Committee on Transporta-tion and Housing. Senator Beall was the principle legislator who worked for the last two years to push a transportation bill (SB 1) through the Legislature. The Senator labeled SB 1 as a Fix-it bill. The next step after passing this legislation leads to ‘trailer bills’ process which includes a mixture of funding priorities for state highways, bridges and relief on congestion corridors. Projects and implementation measures for transportation will focus on efficiency of services, maintenance of effort and on-budget project delivery. He was in a celebratory mood because of the significant milestone this created in the State Capitol passing a 2/3 vote threshold and increasing the gas tax for the first time in over quarter of a century.
Karla Nemeth, Deputy Secretary, Water Policy, California Natural Resource Agency. Karla is Governor Brown’s senior advisor on Water Policy with two decades of experience in California and Washington State. She provided a very detailed plan that the Brown Administration is working on for the next 18 months related to water conservation, negotiating a water conveyance (delta plan) that engages al the stakeholders in the water policy arena from farmers, environmental leaders, water purveyors and small and large to urban users in Northern and Southern California. She confirmed that the Governor wants to have a better more efficient and sustainable water delivery system that has been ‘work in progress’ for the last six years. She also provided a brief update on the Orville Dam situation noting that the rock bed of the dam base was designed 50 years ago using the standard of the day. A $275 million bid to the Orville fix is in process.
Assemblyman Jim Frazier, 11th District (D- Fairfield), Chair, Assembly Transportation Committee. Frazier was the lead author of the transportation bill (AB 1) in the Assembly. That legislation was rolled into the final package SB 1 that passed the Legislature on April 6th. He came by to thank the Coalition for its support of the legislation and described the hard work of his staff to not give in to legislators and the ‘people in the building’ (referring to the State Capitol) While he was not surprised that it took some ‘give aways’ to a couple of legislators who wanted special treatment for their respective districts in lieu of voting for the bill. He is delighted that the bill passed and now it will be ‘pay-as-we go’ to implement transportation improvements statewide.
Assemblyman David Chiu, 17th District (D- San Francisco), Chair- Assembly Committee on Housing & Community Development. Judson True, the Assemblyman’s Chief of Staff stepped in to meet with us while his ‘boss’ was chairing a committee meeting. Mr. True has worked with the Assemblyman since his days on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. True stated that the Assemblyman’s priorities is to address California’s (statewide) housing crisis. On Monday of this week, the Assemblyman held a press conference with other Legislators calling for a variety of approaches, including a new permanent source of affordable housing funding, creative ways to reduce homelessness, streamlined housing production, and strengthened enforcement of the state’s housing laws. There are over 130 bills in the State Legislator that are designed to address every facet of our housing problems. The Coalition asked explicitly to address the housing supply demand imbalance, reform CEQA that reduced or eliminate du-plicative permit processes, encourage local government to meet their RHNA housing require-ments where the state would reward those communities that actually meet their obligations.
Nancy McFadden, Executive Secretary to Governor Brown. Nancy is the power broker within the Governor’s office who acts as his liaison to the legislature. She is no-nonsense policy wonk who pushes to get things done that the Governor wants to achieve in his last 18 months in office. Now that SB 1 passed, she said the focus of the Administration will be on meeting those commitments in the bill, getting the funds out as quickly and as efficiently as possible and make local government accountable for their project delivery. She noted that Governor will turn his attention to the budget exercise once the May Revise updates are reported, and he’ll stick to his promise of a budget that is balanced and fair to California’s needs. Finally she concluded by stating the Cap N’ Trade funding will be a top priority, water conveyance and addressing a sustainable plan for California’s future. She did not have an easy answer for meeting our housing demands but said the Governor will work with the Legislature on a solution.
Brian Kelly, Secretary, California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Kelly has a been one of the lead transportation consultants in the state legislature for the past twenty years and in July 2013 as appointed as the first Secretary of CalSTA. During our lunch time conversation with Secretary Kelly, he offered his perspective on the legislative achievement in passing SB 1. However, his primary focus is implementing the legislation to ensure projects get built, and put a funding system in place so state highways are repaired, congestion corridors are the priorities and integration of state work with local government is strategically aligned. On a local note, both Casey and Kate offered our gratitude to Mr. Kelly for the repair work is on-going in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties where flood damage, mud slides have severely impacted our region. We also asked that the State ensure local transportation authorities are looking for innovative solutions to address the congestion on our highways, county roads and local streets.