The Brief

Anaheim is home to some of the region’s biggest draws: Disneyland, Honda Center and the Angels Stadium. And now, city leaders are poised to take a bigger slice of the income generated from these and other venues and use it to benefit residents and employees.

City leaders are set to vote on a potential gate tax at the venues in October. And, at Tuesday's City Council meeting, leaders will decide if some funds generated from the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District Fund can be used to support affordable housing.

Here’s a breakdown on the two proposals:

The gate tax

Earlier this month, Anaheim City Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava brought up the idea of a tax on tickets and parking at the city’s entertainment destinations, including Disneyland, Angel Stadium and Honda Center. She proposed putting a measure on the ballot in 2026, allowing residents to weigh in on implementing the gate tax. That debate was set to come in front of the city council Tuesday night, but the discussion was postponed until October.

The proposal comes as the city is facing a $60 million budget shortfall. Income generated from the tax could be used toward capital projects and investments such as a new police facility or senior center, according to Rubalcava.

Rubalcava said at the last meeting she does not want Anaheim residents taxed to make up that difference. Instead, if the tax passes, it would be levied on ticket sales at these venues. Millions of people visit the entertainment destinations. Earlier this year, Disney welcomed its 1 billionth visitor.

Community leaders are also lending their support to the gate tax.

“ I would really want to see a gate tax happen for the city so that we could use some of this revenue to support housing, community services, all across the board services that we would need for the city,” said Marisol Ramirez, interim co-director of nonprofit Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, known as OCCORD.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposal.

Affordable housing assistance 

A second measure coming before the City Council this week would help residents and those who work within the city who struggle to keep up with the cost of housing within Anaheim’s borders.

City leaders are poised to approve a resolution that would channel 9% of the income generated by the city’s hotel tax toward the Anaheim Housing Trust Fund.

That funding would allow the city to underwrite three initiatives:

• The First-Time Homeowners Program: This would offer a down payment assistance loan for low- and moderate-income households to help buy a home within the city. The loan will be specifically for first-time homebuyers who work for facilities in the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District. The district was created in 2018 to promote and make area improvements to benefit the hotels in the Platinum Triangle and Anaheim Resort area. It’s funded through a hotel tax. 

• The Housing Stability Program: This program would provide a one-time emergency assistance payment to very low-income or low-income people to prevent displacement, eviction and homelessness. This program would also be aimed at employees who work for a facility within the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District. 

• The Build More Homes Initiative: To develop affordable rental and for-sale housing for qualified people who work at facilities within the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District.

How we got here

Ramirez, the community leader with OCCORD, said that despite the city being home to some of the top entertainment destinations in Southern California, residents have not always benefited because city leaders “ have not done the best in regards to negotiating good contracts with these venues.”

She said city leaders have previously negotiated with these business entities so the businesses — not the residents — get the benefit.

For example, former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu recently served time in prison for soliciting a $1 million campaign contribution from the Angels baseball organization in exchange for passing them confidential “city specific” information while negotiating the sale of Angel Stadium. The information would have benefited the owners of the Angel baseball team instead of the city.

The majority of our jobs in the city of Anaheim are service sector jobs, "servicing a lot of these entertainment venues,” said Ramirez. “A lot of residents that work in these entertainment venues don't actually get to participate in these venues because of the costs associated.”

To her point, just last week, a judge ordered the Walt Disney Co. to pay millions in back pay to 51,000 current and former Disneyland employees. The backstory there: In 2018, Anaheim voters passed a measure that required employers who benefited from tax subsidies in the city to pay their employees above the minimum wage. Critics say that never happened. And employees filed a class action lawsuit.

Disney argued that the measure did not apply to them, but Orange County Superior Court Judge William Claster disagreed, and approved the $233 million settlement.

 ”When you see companies like this setting the standard for workers and the standard of what their labor is worth that sets a domino effect for what families are able to afford, if they can afford to stay living in their city, if they can afford the groceries, if they can afford their monthly rent,” Ramirez said. “It's a huge responsibility for local governments, for council, for Mayor to negotiate first and foremost on behalf of residents.”

How to keep tabs on the Anaheim city council

The Anaheim City Council meets on scheduled Tuesdays. Meetings start at 5 p.m.

Here’s how you can follow along:

• Attend in person: The board meets at City Hall, Council Chambers, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim
• Watch the live broadcast
• Here’s how to submit a comment or contact the council

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.