KELSEYVILLE
Kelseyville Elementary School Benefits from Measure U Upgrades
Kelseyville Elementary School (KES) has put Measure U funding to good use. To improve student safety, it has rearranged, paved, and painted the parking lot where students are dropped off and picked up, and by mid-November, students will enjoy the benefits of a brand-new Multi-Use Room (MUR).
In the parking lot, there will be two car lanes on the far side: one for parking and one for driving through and dropping off students. KES Principal Barbie Gleason will inform parents of this with a phone call and a letter that includes a map. And to assure a smooth start to school, KES personnel will be out directing parents the first week of school, so everyone knows where to go and what to do.
The MUR (scheduled to open Nov. 11 according to school officials) will allow all KES students to gather indoors in a single location. The MUR will provide a nice facility where they can all eat together indoors. KES will also be able to hold rallies and other big events there, including sporting events. And KES is not the only school to benefit from the MUR. Because the facility includes a high school regulation-sized basketball court, Mountain Vista Middle School students will also be able to use the MUR to practice and compete in sports such as basketball and volleyball.
To stay up to date with KVUSD activities and events, visit kvusd.org or follow them on Facebook.
—Submitted
SACRAMENTO
Newsom embraces a Trump tax cut
After rejecting numerous tax hikes this year, legislators will have a chance in the coming weeks to show whether they’re willing to cut taxes, specifically for developers.
Embracing a tax cut championed by President Donald Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a $100-million-a-year tax break for investors, but with a California spin.
What it is:
Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul created so-called opportunity zones, granting generous tax breaks to investors who put money into many types of developments in economically strapped areas .
Trump’s one-time communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, has touted the concept, as has Ivanka Trump.
After mentioning opportunity zones early in the year, the governor released details of his proposal late last week.
California has designated 879 opportunity zones in 57 counties, in such locales as Stockton, Fresno and Watts.
California developers would get a break on state taxes so long as they invest in low-income housing or green tech within any of the 879 zones. Green tech would range from wind, solar or biomass plants to electric vehicle charging stations.
Pro:
Lobbyist Chris Micheli, representing Cal OZ, a business group, called Newsom’s proposal “an important step forward in California embracing the potential of opportunity zones, particularly as a new pathway to grow our clean economy and expand housing options for low- and moderate-income Californians.”
Con:
The California Tax Reform Association, which includes organized labor, said “it is clear that the vast majority of the tax benefits will be realized by wealthy investors—including those out of state.”
—CALMatters
Feeding farm workers, quietly
Farm worker families afraid of going to food banks because of immigration raids are turning to clandestine food handouts in Santa Cruz County.
Erica Hellerstein of the Bay Area News Group reported on the secretive food banks as part of The California Divide, a CalMatters collaboration examining income inequity in California.
Organizers say farm workers’ fear has intensified after arrests at poultry operations in Mississippi earlier this month, and after the Trump administration’s proposed to deny green cards to immigrants who use public assistance.
Ann Lopez, of the Center for Farmworker Families and organizer of the operation:
- “They can’t afford to pay for the food that they harvest. They can’t afford a decent diet. This is the kind of life they live: impoverished, abused, living in constant fear. This is no way to treat essential workers that feed the country.”
—CALMatters
