Rent Control is Back on the Ballot

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, October 18, 2024…

• California will need to bring in more gasoline from out of state now that one of its big refineries, Phillips 66, is shutting down. 
• Medi-Cal will, for the first time, will cover traditional health practices, like music therapy.
• Rent control is on the ballot again, for the third time in six years.

The Future of Oil Without Phillips 66

Phillips 66 announced plans to shut down their Los Angeles-area refinery by the end of next year. Severin Borenstein is the faculty director of the energy institute at UC Berkeley’s Haas school of Business. He says the California Energy Commission has questions to think through.

“‘How are we gonna make it work in a way that doesn’t cause a real burden, particularly on low-income households who are almost certainly gonna be the ones who still have the older cars that burn gasoline?”

Borenstein also said overall, California’s transition to electric vehicles could lead to fewer refineries in the state. Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery makes up roughly 8 percent of California’s crude oil capacity.

Rent Control Tries Again 

Proposition 33 once again puts rent control on the ballot. The previous initiatives failed, but the idea is gaining momentum in California, and nationally. Even President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have embraced it. Still, rent regulations remain controversial.

When Annmarie Bustamante moved into her East Oakland loft a few years ago, it was a major improvement compared to her living room. But it was not rent controlled. Even though Oakland has a local rent cap, the property was exempt because of state law.

While cities in California can pass their own rent control policies, state law limits how far those policies can go. Single family homes and condos are exempt. So are properties built after 1995 — or earlier in some cases. And landlords are allowed to reset rents when a new tenant moves in. Proposition 33 would get rid of those limits. And Bustamante is all for it.

“We need to give the cities an opportunity to create their own rent control laws so that people will have a stronger voice in steering those,” Bustamante said.

Polling shows rent control is becoming more popular among California voters. But landlords like Gustavo Gonzalez aren’t fans.

“It just seems like every day there’s a new policy that restricts the ability of small mom and pops to manage their buildings and to take care of their tenants,” Gonzalez said.

He owns two small apartment buildings in San Jose and says his maintenance costs and property taxes keep going up, and rent caps make that hard to manage.