LA Daily News: In passing bill, California Legislature ignores housing problems

Legislators showed they’re not concerned about California’s well-documented housing crisis by passing a bill last week that extends wealthy Marin County’s exemption from state housing rules and allows the county to continue to limit home building. Gov. Jerry Brown will show he doesn’t care either, if he signs it. The housing provision, inserted into Senate Bill 106 by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, lets Marin County’s largest cities and incorporated areas maintain extra restrictions on how many homes developers can build through 2028. SB106 is one of those budget “trailer” bills, so it’s sneaky to boot — it didn’t have to go through the usual legislative committee process. Putting exceptions to affordable housing rules, which have nothing to do with the state budget, into a budget trailer bill at the 11th hour so that they sail through without even the usual legislative vetting is no way to run a transparent state government.