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This letter supports the budget agreement between the California Assembly and Senate, which would provide a loan for Bay Area transit operators facing near-term operating shortfalls and restore other relief funding, amounting to $1.85 billion. It also urges the Governor to honor existing public transit funding commitments and to commit to supporting public transit service in the emerging Cap-and-Invest negotiations.

California and the Bay Area are using zero-emission appliance rules, building codes, and climate action plans to move the heating appliance market and consumers toward a gas-free future for buildings. But fragmented and outdated permitting systems are posing a barrier to adoption of electric appliances and delaying their health and climate benefits. ���ϴ�����offers five recommendations to streamline and standardize permits to improve safety, lower costs, reduce burdens on contractors and consumers, and create a fairer, more efficient system.

Assembly Bill 306 intends to improve housing affordability and make it easier for Los Angeles residents to rebuild after the LA fires. However, as written the bill may do the opposite by restricting any changes to building codes over the next six years and killing efforts to improve the building code that would save consumers and builders money. With more careful reforms to state building code, California can meet both its building sustainability and resilience goals and its housing affordability goals.

Oakland faces a fiscal crisis that is years in the making. For decades, revenues have failed to keep pace with rising costs for pensions, health care, and operations. To close its structural deficit, Oakland must commit to following its own sound financial policies, align on a budget stabilization plan, make structural changes to municipal operations, and promote long-term thinking to grow Oakland’s economy inclusively. ���ϴ�����offers nine recommendations to achieve these goals.

The Legislature and Administration have signaled that they would like to reauthorize the Cap-and-Trade program in 2025, as the program expires in 2030 and to reduce volatility in auction proceeds. SPUR's believes that the reauthorization of the Cap and Trade is an opportunity for the state to provide more predictable funding for transit operations, which would in turn help the state meet its climate goals. This letter provides five ideas to restructure the public transit programs that are funded by Cap and Trade revenues through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

The Bay Area's four largest transit operators --Muni, BART, Caltrain, and AC Transit--face severe and imminent fiscal cliffs that would trigger significant service cuts. This would undermine downtown San Francisco's fragile economic recovery, erode the Bay Area's economic competitiveness, and be detrimental to the region and state's economy and financial health. More than 50 of the city's businesses and large employers signed-on to a letter organized by SPUR, Bay Area Council, and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce to the Governor and Legislators requesting funding in this year's budget to ensure transit can continue playing a vital role in San Francisco and the region.

Public transit is essential for California to meet its climate goals, solve the housing shortage, make cities more affordable, and continue being an engine of economic prosperity, ���ϴ�����is leading a multi-sector coalition that is advocating for $2 billion in new, flexible funding for public transit over two years beginning in FY 25-26, championed by Senator Arreguìn and Assemblymember Gonzalez. Over 110 organizations across the state joined together to call on the Governor and legislators to provide emergency relief to public transit in this year's budget.

San Francisco’s new mayor has made significant strides in his first 100 days in office. To maintain the momentum for change, the Lurie administration will need to set priorities in a time of many competing needs. SPUR’s new brief offers a framework for developing policies to streamline government operations, revitalize downtown, create more housing, support transit, prepare for climate hazards and earthquakes, and reduce fossil fuel use.

SPUR, Building Decarbonization Coalition, and the Bay Area Air District are sponsoring SB 282 (Weiner) the Heat Pump Access Act. This draws on SPUR's prior work on heat pump permitting in the Bay Area, and would take bold steps to modernize permitting and reduce installation costs for residential heat pump installations statewide.