Governor Takes Fight for Tax Credit to Salinas
March 15, 2010
By Greg Robertson
Gov. Schwarzenegger continued his push for a new homebuyer tax credit in California, taking his pitch to Salinas on Monday in his fourth event since announcing the proposal during his State of the State address in January.
Schwarzenegger was again joined by CBIA Chairman John Young at the event, as well as Labor Secretary Victoria Bradshaw and Republican Assemblyman Van Tran. 
“We need to go and inspire again people to go out and to buy homes, and I think that the tax credit does that,” Schwarzenegger said from a Standard Pacific Homes development in Salinas.
The development is a prime example of what happened in 2009 when the first state tax credit was in place. Standard Pacific saw an increase of 750 percent in home sales in Salinas during the tax credit, which offers $10,000 back to buyers.
Young said sales doubled overall across the state during the 2009 program, which lasted only a few months before the $100 million pool of money was exhausted.
The governor’s new proposal calls for $200 million, and also includes buyers of existing homes.
“The people of California deserve action; the legislators should create that action,” Schwarzenegger said.
Bradshaw said the tax credit is just part of a jobs initiative focused on putting Californians back to work. Unemployment in the state currently stands at 12.5 percent and is much higher in many areas.
“We are all very excited about the Governor’s initiative,” Bradshaw said. “This one in particular, because it not only gets people back to work, but it puts people into homes.”
Young said the homebuilding industry has seen 90 percent of the workforce lose their jobs over the past three years, and it goes beyond construction employment.
“Engineers and architects and civil engineers and decorators of model home complexes, the people in the company offices that do the work for new homes,” Young said. “Those people have lost their jobs.”
Schwarzenegger said jobs is his top priority, and the tax credit is a key part of his initiative.
“”You cannot bring the economy back if people don’t have jobs,” he said. “And that is why we have to have, you know, a vision for the future, and we’ve got to go and look at this as an investment for the future of California.”
Schwarzenegger first proposed the tax credit during his State of the State address Jan. 6. Since then, he has made pitches in Fresno, San Diego, Bakersfield and Salinas for the tax credit, which has moved to a suspense file in the state Senate. The Governor said he will continue to fight the tax credit until the Legislature acts.
“Inaction is, of course, no option,” he said Monday. “So this is why I just want to again put the spotlight on this very important issue.”
A transcript and video of the Salinas event is available on the Governor's website.
Greg Robertson is the editor of CBIA.org. Photo credit: Justin Short, Office of the Governor.
