Jones: Newsom and Democrat Legislative Leaders need to get serious about housing

SACRAMENTO – California Senate Caucus Chair Brian Jones, R-Santee, called on Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Democrat colleagues in the Senate and Assembly to abandon their “Sacramento knows best” approach to housing.

“For the last year and half the Governor and Democrat legislative leaders have obsessed over SB 50 and its state mandate approach to housing,” Jones said. “In the end, the Democrat supermajority could barely convince even half of their rank and file members to support SB 50.

“Right off the bat here’s three things to jump-start housing in California:

“Abolish the $10,000 forced solar power mandate on every new home – if someone wants to get solar and can afford having $10K added to the price of their home, fine, but if not, our nanny state government should not be forcing the extra cost on every California family.

“Reduce (or eliminate) some of the many fees on homebuyers and homebuilders that keep rising, which in turn keeps forcing the cost of buying a home higher and higher.

“Reform CEQA so that long-planned residential communities get an expedited review through the environmental and judicial process. Democrat politicians routinely do this for billionaire sports team owners and millionaire players for their palaces so why not do this for the hardworking California family looking to buy a home?

“All three of these things could be accomplished this year. Republicans remain committed to work with legislative leadership and the governor to address and begin to solve California’s housing crisis,” Jones said.

On Jan. 30, Jones rallied the majority of his Republican caucus to withhold support for Senate Bill 50 on the Senate Floor. It was the second vote in two days that the Senate took on SB 50. The measure failed by identical 18-15 votes on consecutive days. Only three out of 10 Republicans supported SB 50, and 15 of the 29 Senate Democrats were unwilling to support SB 50.