FROM SACRAMENTO TO SANTA MONICA

Governor Schwarzenegger has recently signed a new state budget. This is the earliest budget that has been approved in 5 years. It causes you to think, why would the democrats allowed the Governor to gain the upper hand by signing the budget so soon? Apparently the democrats had found out that the Governor had filmed commercials calling the democrats tax and spend politicians. They did some polls which showed the democrats would loose on that issue. Thus, the democrats decided to take the wind out of his sails and sign off on a budget now rather than see the commercials.

Senator Kuel’s bill SB61 seeks to extend the 60-day notice to terminate tenancy permanently for the rest of the state. Right now the 60-day notice requirement in Santa Monica, Los Angeles and San Francisco is scheduled to sunset December 31, 2005. The bill has passed the Senate and is now on the Assembly floor although is has not been able to move off the floor as of yet. Word has it that the Governor is willing to veto the bill however we are looking for personal horror stories as to the negative personal impact of a 60 notice requirement versus a 30 day period. Yes, there is generally a loss of money, but we are looking for a personal story to tell the Governor.

Most people know by now that the annual general adjustment in Santa Monica is 3%. If the rent is more $1600 the maximum increase is $48. This is yet another example of the Rent Control Board protecting wealthy tenants. While this might sound better than last years increase of 1.3% we merely have to look at the City Council to understand why. The City wants to raise your water bill by approximately 31% in January or if it is a 2 year phase-in they will only raise it 40%. Then again they started to think about it and may just raise it 47% over a 4 year period. Well, what is good for water is good for trash so the City is now proposing to raise your trash bill by 20 to 30%. So much for your $48 rent increase.

The City is always crying poor mouth. A recent study shows that a 9% increase in revenue to California cities coffers due to increase in property tax assessments under prop 13. I would think with the high property values in Santa Monica that our City’s revenue has increased more than that.

The city of Santa Monica is busy trying to keep up with the requirements of other cities. I think they have a special staff position to investigate all of the fees and inspection requirements throughout the state in order to heap more responsibilities on landlords and generally make your life miserable. Example, when the City of Los Angeles implemented the yearly building inspection in order to battle slumlords Santa Monica decided to require annual inspections and charge you a hefty fee for such a privilege. I saw one example where an owner was cited because a plumber failed to pull a permit to change a hot water heater which went out in the night. There was no problem with the way the heater was installed, but the city wanted their permit fees.

It appears as though Santa Monica is looking to require earthquake shutoff valves. These will cost several hundred dollars to have a licensed plumber install. Since gas is explosive by nature, I advise you to get a licensed and insured plumber to install the gas shutoff device. What will they think of next?