A critical new federal audit calls out California for doing too little to prevent fraudulent spending of homelessness funds. Nearly $320 million was at risk. Calmatters explains.

Even though County Supe Susan Ellenberg is peddling wild conspiracy theories to explain the demise of the ill-conceived regional housing bond, RM4, the reasons for why it was pulled from the ballot are pretty straightforward: Bay Area voters are already taxed to the breaking point. The bond wouldn't make much of a dent in local affordable housing. And most of the huge monies requested wouldn't even go to building new housing. Thomas Buckley explores in California Globe.

In a clear defeat for tax-happy city councils like San Jose's, and the local Housing Industrial complex, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority bowed to the inevitable and yanked its deeply flawed housing bond from the ballot. Press release from leading, multi-party opposition group, www.20bilionsreaons.com, below. 

Obvious and pronounced tax-fatigue among Bay Area residents (who are some of the highest-taxed people in the country) is at the core of BAHFA's decision to pull RM4, notes Ben Christopher at Calmatters.  Which makes one wonder what kind of bubble BAHFA's board was living in such that they couldn't see citizens' financial pain until the election was nigh.  

During the SJ City Council's debate about taking positions on ballot measures, D10 DM Batra warned the Council they were moving too fast and deciding without adequate input. The recent admissions by BAHFA that the RM4 ballot language (which the City Council endorsed) was inaccurate confirmed Batra's concerns. His original comments from the 6.04 council meeting, below.

At the 6.04 SJ City Council meeting, CM Doan probed city staff about the many unanswered questions regarding the mammoth RM4 regional housing bond (which the Council endorsed). Last week, a discredited BAHFA acknowledged that their ballot language had a whopping mistake in it--lowballing annual costs to taxpayers by more than a eye-popping $240 million per year. Transcript from the 6.04 Council meeting (edited for clarity) below.

As an antidote to biased local South Bay media, the San Mateo Daily Journal offers thoughtful, balanced reporting of RM4's ballot language errors and why families making more than $200k per year might receive subsidies.

At at an encampment photo-op in LA, Gov. Newsom issued a sharp funding threat to cities too slow, or unwilling to get more aggressive about remediating dangerous homeless public camping. Newsom said he would start taking funds away from cities and counties which are not doing enough. Tran Nguyen at LA Daily News reports. 

The on-the-ball SF Standard digs into the numbers about where all the homeless people SF is bussing outa town end up. And--no surprise--the most popular destinations are California cities.