Aug 14, 2024 | Housing, Taxes
BY BEN CHRISTOPHER
AUGUST 14, 2024
Backers pulled a $20 billion affordable housing bond off Bay Area ballots today, amid fears that it wouldn’t pass.
A $20 billion affordable housing bond — which would have been the largest ever of its kind and the subject of a campaign half-a-decade in the making — won’t go before San Francisco Bay Area voters this November after all. This morning, the board of the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority voted to scrap the measure for now, potentially punting the effort until at least 2026.
Aug 13, 2024 | Housing, Taxes
By Ben Christopher
August 13, 2024
California’s most unaffordable region is set to vote on a record-breaking affordable housing bond. Will state Democrats add a pro-union requirement to win over a powerful labor coalition?
But before developers, workers, pro-tenant and pro-building activists can start campaigning for the blockbuster borrowing measure in earnest, they’ll need to stop squabbling over who will get hired to build all the new homes and under what conditions.
Aug 8, 2024 | Litigation, Taxes
By Jason Bezis, Esq
August 8, 2024
A group of residents opposed to a $20 billion regional housing bond measure filed a court challenge today to Regional Measure 4’s (RM4) 75- word ballot question. Opponents’ Attorney Jason Bezis sent BAHFA a letter last Friday demanding a series of nine language changes to remove prejudicial language. Opponents assert that the true annual cost of the measure is nearly 36% higher than the amount shown in the ballot question.
Jul 1, 2024 | Legislation, Taxes
July 1, 2024
To nobody’s surprise, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority agreed on Wednesday morning to put a $20 billion regional bond on the November ballot in nine counties. But opponents of the mammoth tax offered a serious, compelling critique. Will Sherman reports in this Opp Now exclusive. Although outnumbered, a group opposed to the biggest housing bond in the state’s history showed up early to the MTC’s Beale Street entrance in downtown San Francisco, carrying homemade signs that read “$20b bond + 28b waste,” and “No Bonds for MTC.”
Mar 28, 2024 | Taxes
By Nicole Nixon
Thursday, March 28, 2024
It’s been 46 years since California voters approved the landmark Proposition 13 — which limited property tax hikes — and taxpayer advocate Howard Jarvis famously declared “a new revolution against the arrogant politicians” and a “tax, tax, tax, spend, spend, spend” philosophy.
Politically and demographically, California is a very different place now than it was in the 1970s. But battle lines are being drawn up both on the ballot and in court in preparation for another war over taxes.
