Government Watch

AB 1217 also addresses electioneering communications that attack or support candidates during election season without specifically advocating for election or defeat. This is a growing problem, with over $26 million in reported expenditures since 2010. This bill closes a loophole in the DISCLOSE Act requiring independent expenditure ads for and against candidates to clearly display the top three funders. AB 571 addresses local campaign contributions limits. California is one of a very few states to have contributions limits for state campaigns, but no local limits. This legislation would establish a contribution limit of $4,700 at the local level for cities and counties who have not adopted their own limits. The bill also maintains local control since a local jurisdiction may choose to opt out by establishing its own contribution limits, whether higher or lower, according to Mullin’s office.

• The California Assembly approved three bills by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, that would encourage greater adoption of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), commonly known as “in-law units” or “granny flats,” and gives priority to more affordable housing projects when surplus public land becomes available.

Ting’s ADU bills aim to make it even easier and faster for homeowners to build livable space on their properties by speeding up the approval process to 60 days; prohibiting restrictive local requirements pertaining to lot size and parking; allowing more types of units, such as units in multi-family dwellings, to be approved with less bureaucratic review; and creating a Small Home Building Standards Code to make construction more cost-effective and safe, according to Ting’s office.

Under AB 1486, Ting’s Surplus Land legislation gives more affordable housing projects the first right of refusal to build on public surplus land, taking advantage of strategically located sites next to transit, schools and jobs that have remained dormant for decades. All three housing proposals now head to the Senate for consideration. All bills must reach the governor’s desk by mid-September, according to Ting’s office.