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Indybay Feature

Schwarzenegger vetoes the Renters' Rebate!

by Bill Carpenter (wcarpent [at] ccsf.edu)
Governor Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto power to eliminate $150 million in tax rebates to low-income elderly and disabled renters. This was the governor's single biggest line-item veto in the budget, eliminating all funding for renters under the Senior Citizens Renters Tax Assistance program.

The program, in effect for decades, made senior and disabled renters who earn less than $44,096 eligible for up to $347.50 as a tax rebate. Last year, 467,000 tenant households received payments under this program. The average payment was $316 per recipient.

Low-income seniors rely on these funds and many had already filed applications for the tax rebate this year. With the governor's veto, the Franchise Tax Board now will not pay these claims.

--Tenants Together
California's Statewide Organization for Renters' Rights


Part One of the November 19, 2008, rally is a four-minute QT movie. 56MB. Parts Two & Three are down below the stills.
Copy the code below to embed this movie into a web page:
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§Part Two, Renters' Rebate Rally
by bc
Copy the code below to embed this movie into a web page:
§Part Three, Renters' Rebate Rally
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Copy the code below to embed this movie into a web page:
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Comments (Hide Comments)
All the Democrat legislature has to do is pass a bill with funding for this and other programs for low income people and announce that NO other bill will be passed until this one becomes law.

Of course, it's unlikely that the Democrats will do such a thing unless and until there is a massive protest movement demanding THAT and a lot more.
by zombo
Get used to it, and get ready.
by cp
yeah - with all the talk about high mortgages, and families facing homelessness when they lose a job and quickly can't afford the $3000 payment, I wish there were more coverage of high rents.
They keep using the metric of mortgage:rent ratio as a way of showing how inflated house prices currently are. Rents and building prices are different markets, driven by availability of credit, number of flippers/fraudsters, and the working-class economy (unemployment level, locations of jobs etc). But why don't they talk about how rents really are similarly obscene to the high house prices. Craigslist is a hard way to get an idea of average rents due to all the spam. Looking at studios, I keep finding that anything below $1000 is really a room in someone's basement. Paying above that goes above 33% of my income, and I'm a fairly privileged person with 2 college degrees working in genetics. What the heck is everyone else doing for a living around here. My friends in Oakland public schools don't live too well either. Anyone with the slighest additional burden such as having a child so they require a bit more space, or needing to cover for an elderly parent, medical costs, or a declining retail or restaurant business, do not have an outlet because rents are pretty high even in Fruitvale or San Lorenzo. Also, if you take the view that you need to scrimp to pay more than 33% of income on rent (i.e., the rest of that is going to electronics and entertainment?), it really means you're not doing anything for your kids or saving anything for retirement - and life will look scarce if you live >5yrs beyond 65.
I don't really believe the idea that rents will go up as people go into foreclosure or delay house buying. It might at first, but at some point, shouldn't renters just hit the bottom of their bank accounts? Yet, I haven't seen prices come down yet.
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