ACTION Apartment Association

Santa Monica moves forward with ballot measure to tax luxury real estate sales

06/10/2020 5:26 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monicans will be asked to vote this November on a new tax on luxury real estate that would raise about $3 million each year for public services.

The city of Santa Monica is looking for a way to generate some extra money as its traditional revenue sources — sales and hotel taxes and parking fees — suffer during the pandemic and accompanying recession. City Council voted Tuesday to move forward with a ballot measure that would tax real estate sales over $5 million at $6 per $1,000 of sales price, or $30,000 for a $5 million property. Currently, all real estate transfers are taxed at $3 per $1,000.

The other measure that a representative sample of 562 Santa Monica voters were polled on between May 26 and May 31 was an increase in the business license tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1988 and is lower than the tax charged by the city of Los Angeles.

Santa Monica Council Reviews FY 2020-21 Operating Budget

06/10/2020 5:12 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

At its meeting last night, June 9, 2020, the Santa Monica City Council provided direction on the City’s proposed FY 2020-21 budget and biennial FY 2020-22 capital improvement program budget. The budget reflects an organizational restructuring in response to the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), including measures to close a projected $224 million budget deficit.

SANTA MONICA RENT CONTROL BOARD NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS

06/10/2020 7:53 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Public hearings on the following topics will be conducted during the Santa Monica Rent Control Board meeting on Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. via teleconference:

1) Consideration of imposing a $32 ceiling (or maximum increase) on the 2020 annual general adjustment of 1.4%;

2) Consideration and adoption of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board’s Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Operating Budget; and

3) Consideration of amending Regulation 11200 to clarify that a “business day” is any day that the Board is staffed and conducting business, regardless of whether City Hall is open to the public; and to provide for the deferment of registration fee payments with respect to units occupied by tenants who were unable to pay rent due to a loss of income occasioned by COVID 19.

AND: https://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/Rent_Control/About_the_Rent_Control_Board/Agendas_and_Minutes/2020/RcB061120.pdf

Council to Consider Charging for Candidate Statements

06/09/2020 11:50 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Local candidates will have to pay $1,700 if they want the City Clerk to distribute their candidate statements to voters, according to a proposed resolution the City Council will take up today.

In the past, the City has paid the cost of printing, handling, translating and mailing candidate statements that appear in the Supplemental Sample Ballot that Santa Monica voters receive.

Santa Monica City Council to discuss cutting annual budget by $192 million

06/08/2020 2:23 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica City Council is set to cut the city’s budget by up to 25% as coronavirus decimates the hospitality and retail sectors that generate most of its tax revenue.

City Council will discuss the budget Tuesday afternoon after meeting two weeks ago to restore $6.4 million in funding to programs that city staff had proposed eliminating. Under the proposed budget, all city departments except the Santa Monica Police Department and Santa Monica Fire Department would see significant funding cuts, which city staff say are needed to avoid a $224 million budget deficit over the next two years.

Rental prices fall on Los Angeles & Santa Monica Apartments

06/08/2020 7:47 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

It took a pandemic to make it happen, but Los Angeles and Santa Monica rental prices appear to be on the way down for the first time since the Great Recession, according to a new report from real estate data tracker CoStar.

Between the first week of February and today, rental prices in LA fell from $2.51 per square foot to $2.49 per square foot, on average. That amounts to a roughly $15 price reduction for a 750-square-foot one-bedroom apartment.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE PROPOSED FY 2020-21 BUDGET

06/06/2020 8:40 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council, Housing Authority, and Parking Authority of the City of Santa Monica will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget on June 23, 2020.

Santa Monica Overwhelmed. SMa.r.t.

06/05/2020 12:01 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Chaos, anguish, despair, and lawlessness gripped our city on Sunday. By Monday, anger, disbelief, and heartbreak were the words of choice. One Hundred Fifty-Five businesses had “significant” damage. Over Three Hundred Fifty reported some loss. Nine fires set. Citations issued to Four Hundred Thirty-Eight people. None spent a night in jail. A petition to remove the Chief of Police has garnered over 37,000 signatures in five days.

One in Ten Santa Monica Rent Control Tenants Failed to Pay Full Rent

05/29/2020 10:49 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

As rent becomes due Monday, a survey found that approximately 10 percent of Santa Monica rent control tenants did not pay their full rent in April and May due to the impacts of the coronavirus emergency.

The ongoing survey of landlords and tenants conducted by the Rent Board and presented at its meeting last Thursday provides a glimpse of the economic impacts of the shutdown on the beach city.

City Hall releases draft of next year’s budget

05/29/2020 10:29 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica City Council approved Tuesday a plan to restore $6.4 million in funding to programs that city staff had proposed eliminating to fill a $224 million budget deficit over the next two years.

The city also released a draft budget for next fiscal year, which starts July 1, showing that about 469 city employees have been bought out or laid off ⁠— 20% of its former workforce of 2,298 full-time equivalent positions. The $607.4 million budget proposed for next fiscal year is nearly 25% smaller than last year’s budget, and projected revenues will be 20% smaller at $537.6 million.