LA Times: Ahead of final week, California lawmakers change bills to garner support for housing package

LA Times: Ahead of final week, California lawmakers change bills to garner support for housing package
September 11, 2017 Lei Lani Fera

Assemblyman Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)A package of bills to address California’s housing affordability crisis inched forward late last week ahead of a do-or-die week in the Legislature. Lawmakers introduced or changed two bills aimed at attracting support for key parts of the housing package from wary colleagues and Gov. Jerry Brown. SB 2 from Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) would charge a $75 fee on mortgage refinances and other real estate transactions other than home sales and use the estimated $250 million raised a year to help finance low-income housing construction. But Atkins has struggled to secure the two-thirds supermajority vote of the Assembly needed. No Democrats in the Assembly can vote against the measure for it to pass.

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