In the News

California is home to one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation, and it is no secret that many Californians are unable to afford to rent or own a home. One-third of renters in California spend more than half their income on housing; California has 22 percent of the country’s homeless population while only 12 percent of its total population; and homeownership rates are at their lowest since the 1940s.

Access to housing is a basic human need, and ensuring Californians have access to an affordable place to live is critical to every Californian’s quality of life. That’s why I have authored Senate Bill 540, which streamlines California’s Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to spur housing construction in areas identified by cities and counties as Workforce Housing Zones.

Currently, housing construction projects are subject to individual environmental reviews even if they would be undertaken in the same underlying zone. This can result in costly project delays and serve as a disincentive to housing construction.

Getting a bill passed to restore funding that four recently incorporated Riverside County cities lost in a 2011 state budget maneuver has proven to be a task of Sisyphean proportion.

Repeatedly, area legislators have pushed bills through the state legislature that would return the approximately $16 million per year taken from Jurupa Valley, Eastvale, Menifee and Wildomar -- only to see them vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown despite bipartisan support.

State Sen. Richard Roth, however, remains undaunted. The Riverside Democrat wrote SB 37, which, like SB 817 last year and SB 25 the year before, seeks to reverse the losses the four cities sustained when the state stripped their motor vehicle license fee revenue.

"This is an issue I have been fighting for since before I was elected to the state Senate and one I will continue to fight for until we have secured a victory," Roth said in written statement.

It’s a new legislative session in Sacramento, which means it’s time for state Sen. Richard Roth’s annual quest to help four Riverside County cities.

Once again, Roth, D-Riverside, has filed a bill to restore vehicle license fee funding to Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Wildomar and Menifee. The four relatively new cities lost that money 2011, when state lawmakers diverted the fees in the face a budget shortfall.

More than once, similar bills offered by Roth have sailed through the Legislature, only to be vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who cities the need to keep money in the state’s general fund.

A previous state budget forgave a Riverside County fire debt to provide financial relief for the four cities. But local officials still want their vehicle license fees, and Roth is determined to deliver.

SACRAMENTO – Without a single “No” vote in the Senate or Assembly, an important bill authored by Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) that would eliminate the statute of limitations for rape and related crimes in California cleared its final legislative hurdle earlier today.  SB 813 now advances to Governor Jerry Brown for consideration.

Seeking to ensure justice for victims and survivors of felony sexual offenses, SB 813 would allow the indefinite criminal prosecution of rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation, and sexual penetration.  California law presently generally limits the prosecution of a felony sexual offense to only 10 years after the offense is committed, unless DNA evidence is found which then offers a victim additional time.