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SA Page 7 LEAGUE COMMENTS from page 3 ..... LEG HEARINGS from page 1 . . . . . . . . . particular the need for infrastructure near afford- able housing. Following the opening comments by the committee chairs, Judy Nevis, acting director of the state's Department of Housing and Commu- nity Development (HCD) and Di Richardson, legislative director of the California Housing Fi- nance Agency, provided an overview of the hous- ing programs administered by their respective agencies, including those funded from Proposition 46, the housing bond measure passed in 2002. According to HCD, the state has awarded approximately $1 billion for affordable homes as of June 2005. It is anticipated that the remaining Prop. 46 funds will be exhausted later this year. Representatives from a number of organiza- tions and housing advocacy groups testified, with virtually all supporting the need for additional bond or other long-term, reliable funding for housing. These groups included the California Associa- tion of Realtors, the California Building Industry Association, Housing California, California Legal Assistance Foundation, Western Center on Law and Poverty, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) and the League of California Cities. The LAO representative raised questions about administrative costs associated with Prop. 46 housing projects, saying that their analysis showed that 9-10 percent of the Prop. 46 monies set aside for the 21 programs of HCD and CalHFA went towards administrative costs, vs. the stan- dard of 5 percent. League testimony pointed out that affordable housing will not be built without public subsidies. While Prop. 46 housing bond funds helped to fill the gap over the past two years, the funds will soon be exhausted, and the gap must somehow be filled. The governor has proposed a $222 billion investment over 20 years in transportation and air quality, K-12 and higher education, water supply and flood control, and new or expanded prisons and courthouses. Funding for the infrastructure proposal would come from bonds, new fees, federal funds and existing general funds - and no new taxes. The budget anticipates that voters would be presented with a total of $68 billion in bonds over the next decade, including bond measures totaling $25.2 billion that would be presented this year on the June or possibly No- vember ballots. Several legislators have also been working for some time on bond proposals. These are: SB 1024 - Perata (transportation, housing, levee protection and other issues); SB 153 - Chesbro (park bond and restoration of agricultural, coastal, cultural, forest and other resources); SB 395 - Escutia (court facilities); andAB 1783 - Nunez (infrastructure funding from bonds, fees, assess- ments). There are also two initiatives relating to infra- structure that have been filed with the Attorney General: a bond measure filed by an envionrmental coalition, to fund drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, river and coastal protection; and a constitutional amend- ment that would end the transfer of Prop. 42 funds to purposes other than transportation. (The group sponsoring the Prop. 42 measure has now received their title and summary from the Attorney General, and plans to start their signature-gather- jng drive the week of January 30.) Hearings Provide First Look at Govenror's Proposals This week's hearings represented legislators' first look at the specific bills that have been intro- duced to implement various aspects of the governor's bond package. In each hearing, administration representatives discussed their goals and intentions for each proposal, followed by comments and concerns of stakeholders. Continued on Page 8 Visit the League's Official Website--www.cacities.org PRIORITY FOCUS - PAGE 7 January 27, 2006 - Issue 14 ...... ,-_....u',-,.... ,",---'U' ,-_.. ,--_.. -"""'-'---'--