The tax measure has wide support from politicians across the region, including co-authors state Sens. Jim Beall (D-San Jose), Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) and Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and assemblymembers from San Jose, South San Francisco, Monterey and San Francisco.
“These funds are crucial to modernizing and improving our regional rail, which has been ignored and underfunded for decades,” said Wiener in a statement. “We need to get serious about improving gridlock on our highways.”
This year, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has a bill, SB35, with similar goals to the governor’s.
Streamlining the state’s regressive zoning and development laws in exchange for the housing we need is not an easy compromise for state legislators, but it’s a wise one. The alternative is the status quo — a housing crisis that’s pricing out more and more Californians.
“By not building enough housing, we are driving up evictions and homelessness, pushing people out of our state and jeopardizing the success of young people,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco in a recent statement as Senate took up a range of bills aimed at boosting supply and streamlining construction of affordable housing.
Senate Bill 35, sponsored by Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, provides for streamlined approvals of multifamily developments that meet a series of conditions in cities that are falling short of local housing needs. It earned bipartisan support in the Senate and is now before the Assembly, which should follow suit.
Solar energy production could rise as a result of another measure approved by State Senate on Wednesday.
SB 71 from Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would require solar panels to be installed on many new buildings in the state.
“To meet our goals, we need solar and other renewable energy in every city and neighborhood in California,” said Wiener.
A bill authored by state Senator Scott Wiener and sponsored by Equality California to protect the rights of LGBT seniors in long-term care facilities was passed Wednesday by the California state Senate in a vote of 26-12. SB 219, dubbed the LGBT Senior Long-Term Care Bill of Rights, is a major step forward in advocating for the vulnerable and often marginalized LGBT senior population in the state, and it will now head to the Assembly for their vote.
The state Senate approved a bill that would allow bars to stay open until 4 a.m. Wednesday, bringing San Francisco and other California cities one step closer to a later last call.
The bill, which state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced in February, would allow communities to decide if local bars can serve alcohol past the current 2 a.m. cutoff. It will now move to the state Assembly for a review and vote — one of the last steps for the bill before it hits the governor’s desk.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said in a statement that the decision is “a huge win for transit riders, the Bay Area’s economy and environment and public transportation generally.”
To address the imbalance, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) designed Senate Bill 35. It would require many local governments to say “yes” to new housing in areas zoned for high-density development so long as developers include some affordable units. Senate Bill 167 from Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) would add teeth to existing state law that hinders cities from blocking affordable housing projects.