Government Watch

• U.S. Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, announced she is cosponsoring H.R. 11, the Build America Bonds to Create Jobs Now Act. The measure will extend the successful Build America Bonds program (BAB) which helps state and local governments finance the rebuilding of schools, hospitals, water systems and transit projects at significantly lower costs.

State government

• A bill authored by Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, to provide tax relief to the victims of the San Bruno disaster cleared its first legislative committee yesterday.

Assembly Bill 50, which exempts from state taxes the disaster relief payments victims received from PG&E, Red Cross and the city of San Bruno following the gas explosion, passed out of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee with unanimous support. The measure also exempts the capital gains from home sales to PG&E following the disaster.

The measure impacts at least 668 residents who received roughly $9.5 million from various sources.

The bill now advances to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which could take up the reform as soon as next week.

AB 50 is an urgency measure that Hill hopes to deliver to the governor prior to April 15 so that San Bruno disaster victims will not be hit with an added tax burden when they file their 2010 returns.

Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Hill’s AB 11 X6, which allowed San Bruno homeowners who had qualified for a $7,000 state property tax exemption to still receive that write-off even if their homes were destroyed as a result of the Sept. 9 gas pipe explosion. The measure also allowed homeowners and business owners to deduct income losses resulting from the explosion and fire. In addition, the bill provided assistance to the city of San Bruno, local schools and San Mateo County by requiring the state to backfill first-year local revenue losses resulting from downward reassessment of taxpayers affected by the disaster.

• U.S. Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, was one of only two senators to receive a perfect score on all three major environmental scorecards in 2010. Last week, the California League of Conservation voters released their scorecard in which Yee scored a 100 percent, which follows percent scores for Yee from the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action.

County government

• County Supervisor Don Horsley will hold coastside office hours at different locations to give constituents an opportunity to raise questions and provide comments.

From 10 a.m. to noon Friday Feb. 25 and Friday, March 11, Horsley will be at the Sheriff’s Office substation, 500 California St., Moss Beach.

From 10 a.m. to noon Friday, March 4, Horsley will be at the Oceana Market, second-floor community room, 200 Eureka Square, Pacifica.