Contra Costa Herald

News Of By and For The People of Contra Costa County, California

Governor signs Assemblywoman Baker’s contractor license bill to help consumers

By Leave a Comment

San Ramon – Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R-San Ramon) announced that Governor Brown has signed her bill, AB 2486, making it easier for consumers to find and check for a licensed contractor for construction projects.

Under current law, California consumers are required to use a licensed contractor for construction projects costing more than $500. When an unlicensed contractor is used, consumers risk suffering financial loss, costly lawsuits, and shoddy workmanship with little recourse. Regrettably, the Contractor’s State License Board website only allows consumers to search for contractors by name or license number. As a result, consumers cannot utilize the Board’s website to find a licensed contractor. Instead, they can only look up a contractor for whom they already have a name or license number.

AB 2486 fixes this problem and requires the Board to update its website to allow consumers to search for licensed contractors by zip code. This important feature will help make it easier for individuals to find contractors working in their community and prevent consumers from falling victim to the underground economy and unlicensed contractor scams.

“Although it only makes a small change to the Contractors State License Board website, AB 2486 will have a significant impact on improving consumer protection and access to important information,” said Assemblywoman Baker. “At the four Senior Fraud Seminars we’ve hosted throughout the District, constituents made it loud and clear that they want easier ways to search for and screen contractors in order to avoid and detect scams from unlicensed contractors. Making government serve more efficiently is what I’m about, and I’m so pleased that this bill has been signed.”

When unlicensed contractors are used, they provide increased risk to consumers, undercut lawful employers, and contribute to the state’s unsafe and unlawful underground economy. The Franchise Tax Board estimates that the underground economy costs the state $10 billion annually in uncollected tax revenue. AB 2486 will help combat the use of unlicensed contractors in the underground economy by making it easier for consumers to get information about licensed contractors in their area.

AB 2486 received the support of Associated Builders and Contractors of California, California Landscape Contractors Association, Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange, the California Pool and Spa Association, and the Contractors State License Board.

Prior to being signed by the Governor, AB 2486 received unanimous, bipartisan support in both the Senate and Assembly.

Baker represents the 16th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Alamo, Danville, Dublin, Lafayette, Livermore, Moraga, Orinda, Pleasanton, San Ramon, and Walnut Creek.

DeSaulnier’s per mile driving fee idea receives $750,000 in federal funding for pilot program

By Leave a Comment

Washington, D.C – Today, Wednesday, August 31, 2016, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) announced that $750,000 in federal funds will be awarded to the California Department of Transportation under the Federal Highway Administration’s Surface Transportation System Funding Alternative Program (STSFA). These funds were awarded to further build upon the Mileage-Based Fee Pilot Program (SB 1077) that DeSaulnier established during his time in the California State Senate. This pilot program will explore alternative funding mechanisms necessary to advance the construction and maintenance of California’s roads, bridges and transit systems. This funding was authorized in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on December 4, 2015.

“Given the inability of the Highway Trust Fund to sustain needed roadway and bridge repair across the country, states are leading the way in identifying innovative funding alternatives. I am pleased California was well positioned to take advantage of this federal funding opportunity as a result of SB 1077.  Our state will be at the forefront of finding innovative ways to improve safety and reduce congestion for Bay Area commuters,” said Congressman Mark DeSaulnier.

The FAST Act established the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives Program to provide grants to states or groups of states to demonstrate user-based alternative revenue mechanisms that utilize a user fee structure to maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.

Earlier this year, Congressman DeSaulnier was a keynote speaker at the Mileage-Based User Fee Alliance’s Annual Conference, where he encouraged transportation leaders to adopt similar state policies to replace the losses in gas tax revenue.

Frazier, Beall introduce bills to fund $7.4 billion transportation plan

By 1 Comment

On Thursday, August 25, 2016, Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D – Oakley) and Senator Jim Beall (D – San Jose) introduced companion bills – ABX1 26 and SBX1 1 – in the 1st Extraordinary Session to address California’s transportation funding crisis. As mentioned in a recent article, the plan includes increases to the tax on gas by 17 cents per gallon and on diesel by 30 cents per gallon, as well as a $165 annual fee on electric vehicles.

“Over the past year, I’ve worked with my colleagues, local communities and industry experts to develop an all-inclusive plan that makes necessary improvements to our transportation system. These conversations resulted in ABX1 26,” stated Frazier. “The package that Senator Jim Beall and I put forth provides vital tools to ensure California remains economically competitive. By strengthening our trade corridors and accelerating the movement of goods, this proposal keeps business in California while simultaneously creating jobs through the advancement of crucial road maintenance and enhancement projects.”

 The joint proposal provides an additional $7.4 billion annually across California’s transportation system: highways, local streets, transit, bikes and pedestrians. The plan utilizes a portfolio approach in addressing a multitude of funding needs, ensuring that everyone benefitting from California’s transportation infrastructure contributes to its continual maintenance and improvement. Additionally, important systemic reforms are included to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of funds.

“Assemblymember Jim Frazier and I have met with scores of legislators and stakeholders to craft an equitable solution that calls for everyone who drives to pay their fair share toward repairing California’s crumbling roads, bridges and trade corridors,” said Senator Jim Beall, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “Our plan includes bipartisan recommendations to increase efficiency and accountability to taxpayers.  By choosing to repair our transportation system now, we will have smoother and safer roads, generate jobs, and also save billions of dollars in future maintenance and construction costs.’’

The breakdown of new annual funding includes $2.9 billion for state highway maintenance, $2.5 billion for the upkeep of local streets and roads, $534 million to help regions restore cuts to the State Transportation Improvement Program, $516 million for transit capital projects and operations, $900 million to enhance goods movement, $80 million for active transportation projects and up to $150 million possible through Caltrans efficiencies for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

“This new proposal demonstrates real progress in the fight to secure needed transportation funding,” stated Bob Alvarado, Executive Officer of the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council. “Many in the labor community are already supportive of these efforts and look forward to helping secure the success of a funding package so we can put people to work.”

Asked if he and Beall had considered reallocating current spending to pay for their plan instead of the tax increases, Frazier responded with the following:

“In most circumstances, transportation funding has always come from a user-pay system. The General Fund is an unsteady and unpredictable source of revenue with regular fluctuations, resulting in constant funding and defunding of state-run programs. Therefore, this is not an ideal candidate for transportation projects, which can take years to plan and complete. Imagine the disappointment of developing a project only to have it cancelled last minute and without warning because state revenues are down and other programs were considered more important.”

“The proposal I laid out in ABX1-26 fixes the current transportation funding structure while still following the guiding principle of a user-pay system. This new plan utilizes a portfolio approach to diversify the collection of funds, ensuring that everyone benefitting from California’s transportation system is contributing to its maintenance and overall improvement. Additionally, the plan fixes the gas tax’s current structure, ending the instability and uncertainty of available revenues. It does this by resetting the revenue source to where it was before being altered in 2010. It then indexes it to keep pace with inflation so we can be confident that its buying power will remain strong into the future.”

The 1st Extraordinary Session was called by the Governor in June of 2015. The bills have until November 30th to be taken up for a vote before the session expires. To see the complete text of the bill, please click here.

Assemblymember Frazier represents the 11th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.

Assembly candidate Miller opposes Frazier’s gas tax increase proposal

By Leave a Comment

Dave Miller who is challenging incumbent Assemblyman Jim Frazier in his race for re-election issued a statement opposing Frazier’s proposal for an increase in the gas tax.

Following is Miller’s statement:

There are two undisputed facts that everyone should know: California has the highest Gas Prices of any state that is not an island.    There are a number of reasons for this and all of them originated in our legislature.

Gas and Diesel taxes hurt the working poor more than any other group.  The working poor are more likely to commute farther for work -that alone is enough of a burden, they have to drive more.  In addition to that, increasing the Diesel tax means that it costs more to deliver goods and services.  Businesses pass along the higher delivery cost to customers in the form of higher prices.  Which means our dollars don’t go as far as they used to.

Assemblyman Frazier, the chairman of the Transportation Committee, knows this.  He just doesn’t care.  He knows that the people that will be the most affected by this are too busy trying as hard as they can to eek out a living that they don’t have the time or money to pay attention.

Knowing that, yesterday Assemblyman Frazier joined with State Senator Jim Beall, according to the LA Times, to unveil their new gas tax plan.  Here are some highlights:

  • Additional 17 cent per gallon tax on gasoline.
  • Additional 30 cent per gallon tax on diesel.
  • $165 annual fee added to the registration fees for electric cars.

The creation of a new political bureaucracy – The Office of Transportation Inspector General. (I wonder how much of the new gas tax will have to be used to pay for that…)
Assemblyman Frazier is hoping that no one notices another key point of his tax plan.  It is designed to increase inflation annually thus triggering a higher tax on gasoline automatically.   Inflation is calculated by looking at the Consumer Price Index.  The more things cost – the higher inflation is.  So he is going to increase the costs of all goods and services by increasing the cost of fuel.  By tying his tax to inflation Assemblyman Frazier is taking his planned price increases for all goods and services -caused by his tax plan- and turning them into a self-fulfilling prophecy of ever increasing gas taxes and higher inflation.

This is not his first attempt to increase the tax on each gallon of gasoline. On January 6th of 2016 Assemblyman Frazier introduced AB-1591 which would have increased the tax on gasoline by 22.5 cents per gallon and 30 cents per gallon of diesel.  In addition to the new gas tax AB-1591 would have increased the cost of annual vehicle registration from $38 to $165 depending on your vehicle.  Like his current proposal AB-1591 would have also been tied to inflation and automatically increased annually.  AB-1591 died in committee.  But Assemblyman Frazier told the L.A. Times that he would try to push for a lame duck session to get his new bill passed.

The big issue with trying to force it though a lame duck session is that you may end up with enough legislators that lost their elections, or decided to retire, that might vote for something that their constituencies do not want since there is no political consequence.   What Assemblyman Frazier is doing here is putting politics before people.

As many of you know Jim has skipped out on 2 scheduled debates with me.  The most recent he had a fellow democrat try to come to his aide by saying that he was stuck in a committee hearing.  When the truth is that he had an hour and 45 minutes after the conclusion of his meeting to get just 35 miles.  Even if he hadn’t left the capitol for 30 minutes after his hearing AND got caught in traffic, and hit every red light,  he still would have been able to make it to the debate.

So, I have issued a challenge, anytime, anywhere. I will debate Mr. Frazier anytime, anywhere. But, he is too scared to debate a serious contender that knows the Assemblyman’s record better than the Assemblyman does, himself.

Frazier is seeking his third term in the Assembly. For more information about Miller, visit his website at www.electdavemiller.com. The election is on Tuesday, November 8.

Frazier proposes gas tax increase to fund new transportation plan

By Leave a Comment

By Allen Payton

State Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) and State Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose) presented a $7.4-billion transportation plan late Wednesday, which includes an increase of 17 cents per gallon in the state gas tax, to help pay for it. The plan would also increase the tax on diesel by 30 cents per gallon and introduce a $165 annual fee on electric cars.

The Frazier-Beall plan also includes streamlining the environmental process for repairing existing transportation infrastructure and a new Office of Transportation inspector general to oversee spending.

The pair’s proposal is in response to a report about the condition of California’s roads, highways and bridges, also released on Wednesday. See the entire report, here – TRIP_Report_August_2016

Frazier issued the following statement about the report, on Thursday:

Yesterday, The Road Information Program (TRIP) released a report detailing the current status of California’s transportation system, confirming Assemblymember Frazier’s (D – Oakley) claims that road conditions will continue to worsen without passing a transportation funding plan.

“The information released in yesterday’s report further demonstrates the desperate need to repair California’s transportation system,” stated Frazier. “This cannot be accomplished without fixing the current, outdated funding structure.”

The report details the existing condition of California’s transportation infrastructure and examines future mobility needs with an increase in population and goods movement. Included in the study is the vital role our roads, highways and bridges have on economic growth and overall quality of life. The report uncovered that deteriorating roads cost Californians $56.6 billion annually in the form of additional vehicle operating costs, congestion-related delays and traffic crashes.

“I’ve spent the past year calling for a comprehensive funding fix. If we fail to act on this now, the condition of our roads will continue on this downward trajectory,” stated Frazier. “Our residents deserve a transportation system that works for all Californians. It’s time that the Legislature comes together to pass a thoughtful, sustainable plan. To that end, I’ve worked with Senator Beall to put forth a plan that will address these concerns.”

The report concluded that addressing these significant transportation issues is essential for California to remain competitive and accommodate the demands of a modern society.

Assemblymember Frazier represents the 11th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.

 

Governor signs Frazier bill regarding highway operational efficiencies

By Leave a Comment

In July, Governor Brown signed a bill by Assembly Member Jim Frazier (D – Oakley) to remedy an inconsistency within the State Highway Operation and Protection (SHOPP) by stating that projects relating to operational improvements on state highways are eligible for inclusion in the program.

“I commend the Governor for signing AB 2289 into law,” said Frazier. “This bill adds another layer of transparency to ensure that these funds are used in the appropriate manner. As we increasingly look to traffic operation improvements to provide greater efficiencies in the operation of the state highway system, AB 2289 makes it abundantly clear that these operational improvements are to be included in the SHOPP.”

For nearly 20 years, investments in state highways, bridges, and projects to improve traffic operations facilities have always been included in the SHOPP. Oddly, current law governing the preparation of the SHOPP does not explicitly include operational improvement projects in the list of projects to be included in the SHOPP. AB 2289 puts the ‘O’ in the SHOPP.

“The Commission appreciates Assembly Member Frazier’s leadership to ensure that operational capital improvements are included as an eligible component for asset management planning and capital expenditure through the SHOPP,” stated Susan Bransen, Executive Director of the California Transportation Commission.

AB 2289 had the support of the California Transportation Commission, Automobile Club of Southern California, San Diego Association of Governments, Associated General Contractors, Transportation Agency for Monterey County, and San Francisco County Transportation Commission. This bill passed through the legislature with widespread bipartisan support and will become effective on January 1, 2016.

Assemblymember Frazier represents the 11th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.

Governor signs Sen. Glazer’s bill to ban bullet button by expanding definition of assault weapon

By Leave a Comment

A California-legal bullet button on a semiautomatic rifle. (www.gunsamerica.com)

A California-legal bullet button on a semiautomatic rifle. (www.gunsamerica.com)

Key part of a historic gun reform package

Sacramento – On Friday, July 1st, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Senator Steve Glazer’s legislation to ban the so-called bullet button, a key element of a historic gun reform package approved by the Legislature a day earlier.

Glazer, D-Orinda, is joint author with Sen. Isadore Hall, D-Los Angeles, on the bullet button ban, SB 880.

A bullet button assault-style rifle was used by the shooters who killed 14 people and wounded 21 in the San Bernardino terrorist attack last year.

“This isn’t about hunting or home protection,” said Sen. Glazer. “This isn’t about taking people’s guns away. I believe everyone has a right to hunt and to protect their families from harm in their home. It’s about a mechanism on assault-style rifles whose sole purpose is to allow someone to kill a lot of people quickly.

“We need to make it more difficult for a deranged person to enter a schoolyard, movie theater, or workplace with a rapid fire weapon. This measure is another small but important step in making our communities safer.”

Existing law prohibits the possession or sale of assault weapons and limits magazines to 10 rounds. But a loophole in the law – allowing guns with fixed magazines to be modified with a simple “tool”– had led to the manufacture of assault-style guns with magazines that can be easily detached – contrary to the spirit of the assault-weapon ban. The magazines are equipped with a button that can be pressed by a bullet or other tool to quickly detach the magazine. Since the magazine requires a tool, it was considered “fixed” and therefore legal.

To see the full text of the bill, visit the California Legislative Information website.

Opponents argued that the language in the bill was vague, among other things. According to the Firearms Policy Coalition website:

Senate Bill 880 (authored by Senators Hall and Glazer) attempts to subvert long-standing law regarding the definition of “detachable magazine”and “fixed magazine”. It relies on unclear, undefined language such as “without disassembly of the action” or “does not have a fixed magazine”and seeks to prohibit the purchase, inheritance, sale, transfer, transport, importation and manufacture of the most common and popular protected weapons of the modern era.

In Governor Brown’s signing message, he noted that the bullet button bill and certain others in the package “enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

“Gun makers have exploited a loophole in the law that expressly prohibits assault weapons in California,” Glazer said. “We’ve seen the horror of these weapons with mass murders. We should not allow weapons that are designed specifically for modern warfare to proliferate on our streets.”

Senator Glazer worked as a senior staffer for Sen. President Pro Tem David Roberti in enacting a ban, in 1989, on assault weapons in California, the first state in the U.S. to do so. As mayor of Orinda, he was a charter member of the national organization, “Mayors Against Illegal Guns.”

For more information about the “bullet button” see the article on The Trace website.

DeSaulnier gets Navy investigation of treatment of Port Chicago sailors included in National Defense Authorization Act

By Leave a Comment

Washington, DC – On Thursday, the Committee on Armed Services in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), H.R. 4909, which authorizes our nation’s defense spending. Included in the bill is a provision offered by Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11), which would require the Navy to investigate the circumstances surrounding the treatment of sailors at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Concord, California. The NDAA now moves to the floor of the House for consideration.

“Today marks an important milestone in the continued fight for recognition of the Port Chicago 50. A provision requiring the Navy to investigate whether racial bias was experienced by this group and to report their findings to Congress passed in the Armed Services Committee and is one step closer to becoming law,” said DeSaulnier.

While facing institutional segregation in the Navy, 435 African American sailors, who were not properly trained or supported, were killed when a cargo vessel exploded. This incident accounted for more than 15 percent of all African American Naval casualties during World War II. When 50 of these men understandably refused to return to the unsafe working conditions that killed their fellow sailors, they were discriminately charged and convicted of mutiny.

“I appreciate the support this measure received from my colleagues, and I will continue working to move this legislative effort forward until all of these sailors are completely exonerated,” DeSaulnier concluded.