One Reason to Vote June 3rd: The 'Rent Control' Law

Photo by pepewk via Flickr

June 3rd is not going to be a very popular day for Californians to come out to the polls when compared to last February's Super Tuesday primary. Nonetheless, among electing state and congressional politicians, there are only two propositions on the ballot and they are stirring up controversy. Prop 98 and 99 are like good cop, bad cop, depending on how you feel about the issues, or maybe better put, if you're a landlord or not.

Prop 98 help limits government eminent domain, but under the guise of that, rent control could essentially be eliminated if passed. A provision in the bill also includes letting landlords raise rents to a unit after someone moves out, leading to more reason to look for easy evictions. There are a million rent controlled units in California, nearly 700,000 of them are in the Los Angeles area, most in the city of Los Angeles.

"Proposition 98 is a wolf in sheep's clothing that would roll back key environmental and tenant protections," Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti told the Daily News' Dana Bartholomew. Garcetti wrote a city resolution against 98 last week and supports Prop 99. "It would protect Californians from government taking property that should remain in private hands, but wouldn't negatively impact other important environmental and tenant laws."