Sacramento – Assemblymember Dave Jones (D – Sacramento) began the Legislative session with the introduction of bills to provide tax relief for working families and to reform flood liability law.

Assemblymember Jones introduced AB 21, which will implement a state-level earned income tax credit for California’s working families. The measure, applicable to state taxes, will build on the existing federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which is among the nation’s most successful anti-poverty programs.

“Every day, the vast majority of poor Californians get up in the morning and go to jobs where they work to lift themselves and their families out of poverty,” Jones said. “The EITC is another tool for these hard-working families, boosting children and adults out of abject conditions and onto a path towards better health, education, and prosperity. It’s time for California to join New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and all of the 19 states that have enacted their own versions of the EITC.”

Co-sponsored by the California Budget Project and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the bill will provide low-income workers with a tax credit pegged at 15 percent of their federal EITC. For a family with two or more children making less than $36,350, the legislation will authorize a credit worth $680 per year. For a family with one child, the maximum credit will be $412 per year. Adults with no children could qualify for a credit of about $62. The EITC is a refundable credit, meaning that a family can receive a refund even if they earn too little to face any tax liability.

The legislation also calls for a corresponding closure of state tax loopholes and unfair “tax expenditures” – special exemptions in tax law that often benefit narrow interests – to ensure fiscal neutrality.

Assemblymember Jones also introduced AB 70, which makes local governments jointly responsible for damages when a levee fails during a catastrophic flood. The bill will eliminate what Assemblymember Jones calls the “dangerous disconnect between flood control and land-use planning" in California's Central Valley.

Local governments continue to permit new developments in historically flood-prone areas without adequate evaluation of the flood danger. "More people, homes, and businesses are located behind levees than ever before, even though the levees were constructed many decades ago to protect mostly agricultural lands. Making state taxpayers solely responsible for local planning decisions is fundamentally unfair, since the state has no control over local land-use decisions. Shared responsibility should help lead to better land-use planning," explained Jones.

Jones' bill will make cities and counties jointly liable with the state for property damages caused by the failure of a project levee. The bill only applies to new developments in previously undeveloped areas.

“This bill will create a fair and equitable means of distributing responsibility for flood control damage among state and local entities. Extending liability to local development decisions will help encourage local planning agencies to give greater consideration to the potential consequences of approving development in areas without adequate flood protection,” explained Assemblymember Jones.

Since his election to the Assembly in 2004, Assemblymember Jones has focused on smart growth, affordable housing, education, flood control, poverty, access to justice, health care, environment, and labor issues. As a legislator, he has received numerous honors and awards, including being named the “most effective legislator” other than the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate President Pro Tem in 2006 by Capitol Weekly.