Issues

Education

As your Assemblymember I have made it a priority for the Legislature to protect Proposition 98 educational funding, insuring that our schools are the absolute last items on the chopping block during budget battles.

I have fought to increase school aid by $23 billion over the past five years. We have revised the state formula to drive more money into districts with more low-income students and English learners.

In 2018, our State budget add a $609 million increase in funding for colleges and universities and I fought and secured $800,000 for the Los Angeles Valley College Family Resource Center that provides support to student parents, and workforce participants as they earn their degree.

I will continue working hard to increase K-12 and higher learning aid to make California schools the best in the nation.

Housing & Homelessness

For decades, the rising cost of housing and lack of funding for supportive services have left the most vulnerable citizens and families of LA County without shelter, or jobs, or help to harbor them during rough times. With the Great Recession of 2008 and the housing crisis of today, we have more people living on the streets than ever before.

Since 2015 the State, County, and City governments have come together with the voters to create the funding mechanisms needed to address our lack of affordable housing and services which create a pathway out of homelessness here in LA County.

Within the first six months of July 2017 – December 2017:

Outreach teams contacted more than 4,000 individuals experiencing homelessness;
More than 3,300 homeless families and adults were placed in permanent housing; and
More than 7,000 participants entered crisis, bridge, and/or interim housing.

In Sacramento, our State Legislature’s 2017’s State Housing Package included more than $100 million for programs to help the homeless, which will roll out in at the end of 2018. Additionally, California’s cap-and-trade program has been assisting, with 20 percent of profits reserved for affordable development near transit stops. To date, $443 million has been used to fund 58 developments and creating 4,500 new affordable homes across California, with $97 million in funding awarded to projects in Los Angeles which helped create over 1,270 affordable unites for individuals and families in need.

Additionally, I commend LA County voters for overwhelmingly passing Proposition HHH in 2016 and Measure H in 2017, ensuring we will have funding for housing and services for the next decade. During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, just the first year of the 10 year Measure H campaign, LA County spent approximately $200 million dollars on Homeless Services. So far LA County has put $8 million toward homeless prevention for individuals and families; $68 million toward subsidized housing; $9 million toward income assistance; $24 million toward case management and services; and $90.6 million toward creating the coordinated entry system.

As of early April 2018 there are: 24 Total Prop HHH projects in predevelopment consisting of 1,793 total units and 1,291 total supportive housing units built; and 3 HHH developments planned here in the San Fernando Valley.
Even with all these efforts, we are still a far away from housing all the homeless and getting them the help they need to get back on their feet, but we are making progress.

Film & TV Tax Credit Extension

The film industry is the heart of Los Angeles, providing hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs to families across California. To protect these jobs I championed a number of bills designed to grant tax credits to movies made in California, in an effort to attract new jobs and keep old ones in the State.

I am proud to report that I have authored legislation to extend our wildly successful Film & TV Tax Credit. The current film tax credit is set to expire on June 30, 2020. AB 2936 extends the highly successful film & TV tax credit to 2025.

The film & TV tax credit has generated an additional $1.4 billion in wages for our below-the-line crews and a sustained 12% increase in hours worked. These are middle class jobs that contribute directly back to our local economy.

The film industry is vital to the state of California’s economy, supporting more than 190,000 direct jobs and $17 billion in wages in California. As your Assemblymember I will continue to work with studios, unions, and small business to keep film production jobs here.

Transportation

As a San Fernando Valley resident I understand how frustrating traffic is; as an Assemblymember I decided enough is enough. I fought to pass legislation lifting the ban on light-rail in the San Fernando Valley, allowing local communities, CalTrans, and the City of Los Angeles to have a real discussion on how to reduce traffic without limitations.

Now, the San Fernando Valley has three new light-rail projects being discussed. We have the light-rail from San Fernando Valley down Van Nuys Blvd, one of the busiest streets in the city, converting the highly successful Orange Line to light-rail, and Metro is studying options to link the SFV with the Westside to LAX.