Federal Budget Will Impact Valley

In December, Congress passed a massive $1.1 trillion budget deal, approving approximately $650 billion in permanent incentives to spur business development and boosting spending by about 6 percent. Just as many consumers rush around in spirited last-minute holiday shopping, members of Congress often use their impending deadline to bundle legislation into a budget deal, resulting in a flurry of activity at the end of the year, some of which impacts local policy concerns. In the 2015 year-end charge, new regulations were passed for earthquake safety, and the agricultural and energy industries achieved long-sought goals by seeing harmful mandates and regulations repealed. Perhaps one of the most exciting things that Congress was able to accomplish was a five-year extension of wind and solar energy production, including a 30 percent tax break for sun power. This is something that the Valley Industry and Commerce Association has supported for years for a number of reasons. California often tries to put the cart before the horse on energy emissions standards – which explains part of the concern regarding VICA’s victory over some of the energy mandates that were sought by Sacramento lawmakers, because the limits sought just weren’t feasible. But the only positive way to spur these types of businesses to develop alternative energy is to incentivize the process. This break could help jump-start investment in renewable sources, which is urgently needed in California. The state derives about one-fifth of its energy from renewable sources, which is less than halfway to the mandate of 50 percent recently signed into law with state Senate Bill 350. And speaking of responsible legislation, VICA was also very supportive of the federal effort to increase earthquake safety. By putting more than $8 million into an early detection system, federal lawmakers showed the need to address this concern. We hope this will encourage our own Legislature in California to reconsider Assembly Bill 428, which, along similar lines of earthquake preparedness, offered tax credits for developers to make seismic retrofits. Although Congress didn’t fully address the region’s multistate water concerns, legislators did free up about $50 million to fight California’s emergency drought, which should boost California’s vital farming sector. We’re sure this will also be an issue again for representatives from California and beyond during the next legislative session in Congress. Congressional lawmakers also approved a rule change that should help our farmers and the price of dinner – a repeal of the nation-of-origin labels for beef and pork ranchers. The requirements were found to be in violation of World Trade Organization regulations, and could have instigated more than $1 billion in tariffs from Canada and Mexico. Across its roughly 2,000 pages, the budget deal also invigorates the economy of another critical state resource that we have long limited. Oil producers in California will see a 40-year ban lifted on crude oil exports. As California looks for ways to create and produce more jobs, these all seem like positive steps forward. Stuart Waldman is president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a Sherman Oaks-based business advocacy organization that represents L.A. County employers at the local, state and federal levels of government.