BN Daily E-Journal

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will allow the construction of a new 75,000 seat stadium in City of Industry. The developer, Majestic Realty Co. hopes to lure teams like San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers to the Los Angeles area.

Officials state that construction of this new stadium will create approximately 18,000 new jobs and $762 million in revenue.

As of January 1, 2010, the new California Energy Code will become effective.  It will be known as the 2008 California Energy Code and can be found at the State’s Energy Commission website at http://www.energy.ca.gov/index.html

The link to the new codes is hard to find so here is the address that will take you directly to that page http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/2008standards/

The new codes are only available in digitized format at this time, so you will need to download them.  Also available are the Residential and Non-Residential Manuals that you will need.

Since these new regulations will catch up, and in some cases may even exceed our current local energy requirements, please note that our current Santa Barbara Energy Ordinance will sunset (as planned) and not be in effect after January 1, 2010.

If you want to see what has changed, you can download the “marked version” of the standards and that will show what has been deleted, added, or changed.

There are several other files on the “../2008standards” page that you should look at to help incorporate these changes in your submittals. 

Technical questions are best directed to the State Energy Board staff as listed online, however, you may contact Chris Hansen at chansen@santabarbaraca.gov or by phone at (805) 564-5485 if you have general questions in regards to these or other codes. -This information has been reposted as a public service announcement.

Learn the Export Business
OCTOBER 29, 2009 2:30 PM – 5PM
Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro
RSVP: BJRDRSVP@lawa.org Contact: Maria Alva, Marketing Division at (310) 732-3841
Click here to view the flyer for more informaiton.

Each State is designated a share of the stimuluspackage, and California will receive more than $80 billion in funding.

The Stimulus package is expected to provide the following for California1:

• Expect to create and/or save 396,000 jobs over the next two years

• Includes over $15 billion for health and human services and $12 billion for education programs with $3.1 billion currently available for schools to prevent teacher layoffs and protect education programs

• Includes in excess of $4 billion spent on transportation infrastructure, more than half on highways, bridges, and roads; to date, $625 million has already been directed to 57 projects generating over 11,000 jobs

• Expect up to $35 billion in tax relief, including a “Making Work Pay” tax credit of $400 for individuals and $800 for families

• Includes an additional $100 a month in unemployment benefits for individuals, as well as a 65% subsidy for COBRA health insurance coverage

• Provides a 13% increase in monthly food stamps while recipients of Social Security and Supplemental Security Income receive $250

With the national unemployment rate at 8.5%3 and California’s unemployment rate at 11.2%3, the Stimulus package is bringing funds and spending to jumpstart the state’s economy and your employment opportunities.

Although most cities are still not seeing the permits of years past, there has been some small movement. Stimulus money and budget money has moved into local agencies which is causing a small movement in the Government sector.
In the Private sector, we also see a sparkle of hope, which is partially from the fires last year and other construction activity could be due shifts in home ownership or bargain hunters looking for better pricing on their construction projects.

As part of the economic stimulus package, Congress created a first time home buyers tax credit of $8,000 to be collected at tax time. However, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) plans to allow FHA approved lenders to provide home buyers with the up front cash to be used as an immediate down payment at closing (rather than at tax time).