Democratic State Sen. Steve Glazer is behind a failed bill that would have ended controversial sales tax kickbacks to online retailers such as Apple and Amazon.
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Martin do Nascimento
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CalMatters
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Topline:
California cities funnel $1 billion in online sales taxes back to wealthy corporations, but the state Senate killed a bill that would change the rules for those arrangements. The vote came down to whether senators represent a city with a major retailer in a tax-sharing agreement in their districts.
The backstory: As shoppers have switched to buying goods on their smartphones and computers, officials have debated for years about where sales tax revenue should go for purchases made online. Should it be the location of the buyer or the seller? Currently, it’s the seller. And companies have significant discretion about choosing their “point of sale” for tax purposes. This gives the companies that promise local jobs and municipal revenue boosts from warehouses, offices or retail centers tremendous bargaining power over local governments as they negotiate agreements that funnel sales tax money the cities collect back to the corporations.
Read more ... for the dueling perspective on this issue as well as the details of the bill itself.
Some of the most liberal and conservative members of the state Senate agreed recently that if you buy an iPhone in Los Angeles it shouldn’t help pay for police in Cupertino.
But the bipartisanship wasn’t enough to pass a bill that would change the rules allowing corporations wide discretion to choose who gets their online sales taxes, forcing cities to compete by offering companies huge tax kickbacks to win their favor.
“When we’re talking about how much you’re losing in tax dollars, let me tell you, it’s over $1 billion … given back to companies,” Sen. Steve Glazer, the bill’s author, told his colleagues on the Senate floor late last month. “One billion dollars that would go to public services in all of our jurisdictions.”
The opposition to Glazer’s Senate Bill 1494 was also bipartisan, some of it from senators who represent cities that benefit from the current rules. Cupertino, for example, gives 35% of the taxes it collects from Apple – about $4.5 million per year – back to the company. Still, nearly three quarters of the city’s sales tax revenue comes from Apple, according to Bloomberg Tax, which has extensively covered the issue.
As shoppers have switched to buying goods on their smartphones and computers, officials have debated for years about where sales tax revenue should go for purchases made online. Should it be the location of the buyer or the seller? Currently, it’s the seller. And companies have significant discretion about choosing their “point of sale” for tax purposes. This gives the companies that promise local jobs and municipal revenue boosts from warehouses, offices or retail centers tremendous bargaining power over local governments as they negotiate agreements that funnel sales tax money the cities collect back to the corporations.
For Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda, the agreements with local governments that kick back sales taxes to the firms are fundamentally unfair. He believes that if Californians buy something online, they expect taxes to go to the local government where the transaction took place – not to some city that could be hundreds of miles away. He told his Senate colleagues it creates a perverse system of “winners and losers.”
“Ninety-three percent of the cities are losers,” he said. “I can tell you that if you live in cities like Los Angeles, you’re a loser; San Francisco, Oakland, you’re a loser; San Diego, you’re a loser.”
A bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers, some of whose districts include cities that were in Glazer’s “loser” category, voted to support his bill on May 23. The supporters included liberal Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who has a 100% rating from the Sierra Club and 0% from the California Chamber of Commerce, and conservative Sen. Brian Dahle, a Republican from the state’s rural northeast corner with a 100% rating from the chamber and 0% from the Sierra Club.
Dahle, who lost a bid for governor in 2022, split with the California Taxpayers Association on this vote even though he sides with the anti-tax group’s position on bills nearly 90% of the time, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database.
“We hear every day on this floor about disadvantaged communities and people not getting a fair break in California and the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” he said on the Senate floor. “Think about this: This is not a tax increase or decrease. This is about distribution. These multibillion dollar companies in California are robbing your community and putting in that tax base that I pay in (Lassen County) in their pockets, getting even more rich off the backs of a tax.”
But the arguments from the likes of Glazer and Dahle weren’t enough for the bill to pass the 40-member chamber. It got 17 votes in support and just 11 votes against, but 12 senators did not vote, which counts as a “no.”
As CalMatters has reported, lawmakers regularly avoid voting on controversial bills to avoid angering colleagues or to eliminate a record of their opposition on sensitive matters. There is no distinction for legislators who abstain or are absent.
Many of the opposing senators have communities that benefit from the tax agreements, or they sided with cities and counties that argue the tax agreements are valuable tools that help disadvantaged communities promote economic development and create jobs.
Not surprisingly, Cupertino’s senator, Dave Cortese, a Democrat, voted “no.”
Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democratic former Stockton city councilmember, also cast a “no” vote. She told her colleagues that the current tax system doesn’t necessarily benefit just wealthy Silicon Valley communities.
“This bill is about what local governments can do with the resources they have,” she said. “So I’ll tell you some of the winners, and you tell me if they’re the big guys or not. City of Dinuba, city of Fresno, city of Merced … city of Tracy, city of Stockton. You know who those folks are? The little guys that live on that corridor, that breathe that diesel, that smell that gas, that have a lot of our jobs taken.”
California State Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton, listens to legislative testimony at a hearing last year.
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Photo by Rahul Lal
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CalMatters
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She noted that Stockton alone receives about $1.5 million to $2 million a year from such an agreement. She didn’t say which company, and her office didn’t respond to CalMatters’ request for clarification. Stockton officials also didn’t respond to CalMatters’ request.
But Glazer told CalMatters those sorts of arguments are shortsighted since changing the tax system would funnel $1 billion in tax kickbacks that corporations receive from these agreements to communities across the state. It frustrated him that the influential League of California Cities opposed the bill, since the organization’s lobbyists regularly complain to lawmakers that “our cities are struggling and our cities are suffering” from lack of revenue, Glazer said.
“You’ve given more than $1 billion away of public money to these wealthy corporations,” Glazer said. “How can you come up here to Sacramento complaining about not having money?”
The League of California Cities told lawmakers in a letter opposing the bill that the proposed regulations were unnecessary since its members had agreed to place a cap on the corporate kickbacks, “provide enhanced transparency and public review, and make equitable changes” to how the taxes are distributed.
Sen. Kelly Seyarto, a Republican and former Murrieta mayor, said the tax-sharing agreements allow little communities like his to compete with bigger cities to lure in major business developers. He told the Senate’s Local Government Committee in April that if the Glazer’s bill would have passed, they wouldn’t be able to.
“And for smaller communities like the one I came from,” he said, “that’s death.”
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published May 27, 2026 5:49 PM
Arnali Ray and Mary Venderley of Hollywood Food Coalition participated in Hollywood 4WRD's neighborhood count May 19.
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Aaron Schrank
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LAist
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Topline:
An independent homeless count showed Hollywood's unsheltered population was flat over the past 18 months, despite ongoing efforts to move people inside. It also found a surprising increase this month in people living in tents in the neighborhood.
Why it matters: A RAND Corporation report released last week found Hollywood’s unsheltered homeless population stayed mostly unchanged throughout 2025, as reductions in tent encampments were offset by large increases in vehicle-dwellers and so-called “rough sleepers." Findings released Wednesday by Hollywood 4WRD, a public-private coalition, show that flat trend continued in Hollywood over the past four months but also found more people were living in tents and fewer in cars than RAND had observed in January, a surprising reversal.
The findings: About 745 people were camping in Hollywood and East Hollywood on May 19, according to the count. About 19% slept in tents or makeshift lean-tos. An estimated 35% slept in cars, vans or RVs. Meanwhile, 45% were rough sleepers camped directly on sidewalks and streets. The count covered 29 census tracts and relied on volunteers from local homeless service provider organizations. They followed methods developed by RAND researchers, who also verified Hollywood 4WRD’s findings.
A coalition that organized an independent homeless count in Hollywood found the neighborhood’s unsheltered population has remained flat over the past 18 months, despite ongoing city-led efforts to move people inside.
A RAND Corporation report released last week found Hollywood’s unsheltered homeless population stayed mostly unchanged throughout 2025, as reductions in tent encampments were offset by large increases in vehicle-dwellers and so-called “rough sleepers,” people living on the streets without even a makeshift roof over their heads.
Findings released Wednesday by Hollywood 4WRD, a public-private coalition, show that trend continued in Hollywood over the past four months. But the group also found in May that more people were living in tents and fewer in cars than RAND had observed in January, a surprising reversal of the recent overall trend.
“ It's not something we expected to find,” said Brittney Weissman, Hollywood 4WRD’s executive director. “The headline has been that there are no tents and no encampments left in Hollywood, but that’s not the case right now. So, we’ll have to see where this goes.”
About 745 people were camping in Hollywood and East Hollywood on May 19, according to the count. About 19% slept in tents or makeshift lean-tos. An estimated 35% slept in cars, vans or RVs. Meanwhile, 45% were rough sleepers camped directly on sidewalks and streets.
Organizers say understanding and tracking those breakdowns over time helps make sure the right services are directed to the right people and develop new outreach strategies for people falling through the cracks.
“ We can really only meet the moment if we know who's there and we adapt to the need,” Weissman said.
The count covered 29 census tracts and relied on volunteers from local homeless service provider organizations. They followed methods developed by RAND researchers, who also verified Hollywood 4WRD’s findings.
Terry Boyd, left, repairs a bicycle rim in his tent at an encampment along Hollywood Blvd. and Gower Street on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024
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Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times
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Timely data
Official homeless counts from the region’s lead homelessness agency, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, occur once a year. The latest official estimates are based on 14-month-old data. The results from this January’s official count are expected sometime this summer.
Service providers said they want more frequent and precise data.
“ It feels good to have the data immediately and figure out what we need to do,” said Arnali Ray, executive director of the Hollywood Food Coalition who volunteered for last week’s count.
Service providers in Hollywood have relied on data from The RAND Housing Center, which led bimonthly counts of the neighborhood, along with Venice and Skid Row, since 2021. That project, the Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey, or LA LEADS, conducted its final unsheltered counts this January and released its results last week.
RAND is looking for funding to restart the project, researchers said. In the meantime, the researchers said they hope community efforts like Hollywood 4WRD’s can help fill the void.
“You need to understand the homeless population to end homelessness,” said Louis Abramson, lead author of RAND’s LA LEADS study who consulted on Hollywood’s count. “As RAND's marquee project in this field ends, the best thing we as researchers could do was give the community the tools to gain this understanding in perpetuity for themselves.”
In 2022 and 2023, RAND’s LA LEADS estimates were in line with LAHSA’s official point-in-time tallies. But RAND found LAHSA increasingly undercounted the unsheltered population in both 2024 and 2025.
That has increased demand for independent data-gathering among service providers and public officials.
Hollywood 4WRD said it aims to complement, not replace, official data.
“Our annual count sometimes misses people,” said Weissman. “ We can really only meet the moment if we know who's there and we adapt to the need.”
Hollywood 4WRD deployed its count of 29 Hollywood and East Hollywood census tracts from the Hollywood Partnership's pit stop building on Hollywood Boulevard.
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Aaron Schrank
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LAist
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Building on RAND’s work
Official estimates from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority showed a nearly 18% citywide reduction in unsheltered homelessness between 2023 and 2025, along with small declines in overall homelessness.
RAND’s previous surveys found declines in overall street homelessness in Hollywood throughout 2024, led by reductions in tent-encampments through programs like Inside Safe. Tent dwelling dropped by nearly half between late 2021 and January 2026 within RAND’s LA LEADS study area, including a 23% drop in 2025 alone. But those reductions were mostly offset by an increase in rough sleepers and vehicle dwellers.
RAND’s survey data suggested tent removal could be contributing to the rise in rough sleeping. About half of rough sleepers surveyed reported losing a dwelling within the past year, and 46% of those said it was confiscated or towed by government officials.
Vehicle dwellers are, on average, more likely to have jobs than people living in tents, researchers said. Rough sleepers are harder for outreach workers to engage and have greater health needs.
Hollywood 4WRD said its findings might encourage some providers to advocate for more safe camping and safe parking programs in Hollywood.
Eastside residents can still apply after oil spill
By Alejandra Molina | Boyle Heights Beat
Published May 27, 2026 2:30 PM
Qualifying Eastside residents can apply for the South Coast Air Quality Management District's residential air filtration program.
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Shutterstock
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Topline:
Amid concerns following the East L.A. oil spill, residents in East L.A. and Boyle Heights can apply for free air purifiers through the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Who can apply? The residential air filtration program is open to residents of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Eastern Coachella Valley and parts of Commerce. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Why it matters: Parents, teachers and environmental advocates have raised concerns about possible health risks after crews punctured an underground pipeline, spilling more than 2,000 gallons of crude oil onto East L.A. streets and into storm drains. Some students and teachers on Friday complained about strong odors, with some reporting feeling nauseous or dizzy.
As concerns linger after last week’s East L.A. oil spill, qualifying Eastside residents can still apply for free in-home air purifiers provided by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
The residential air filtration program is open to residents of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Eastern Coachella Valley and parts of Commerce. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Parents, teachers and environmental advocates have raised concerns about possible health risks after crews punctured an underground pipeline, spilling more than 2,000 gallons of crude oil onto East L.A. streets and into storm drains. Some students and teachers on Friday complained about strong odors, with some reporting feeling nauseous or dizzy.
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice warned about potential respiratory exposure to nearby residents. “The oil releases volatile organic compounds,” said mark! Lopez with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “Benzene is of particular interest because it’s so hazardous. When people breathe it in, that exposure is happening.”
The air filtration program, which predates the spill, aims to reduce residential exposure to particulate matter (PM), defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets in the air so small they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems, in neighborhoods disproportionately affected by air pollution.
Funding for the units comes from Assembly Bill 617 (AB 617), a state law passed in 2017 aimed at addressing environmental justice concerns in such neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods of East L.A., Boyle Heights and Commerce are impacted by rail yards, freight and freeway activities, as well as industrial activities at refining, rendering and processing facilities in the area, according to the California Air Resources Board.
How to apply
To qualify, applicants must submit the first page of a utility bill or property tax statement to verify residence in one of the four target areas. Specific boundaries for these areas for program eligibility are available here.
Interested applicants can find more information on the program and apply online here.
The following is a South Coast AQMD guide on how to apply:
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Robert Garrova
explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published May 27, 2026 1:19 PM
Crisis workers Alice Barber (L) and Katie Ortiz (R) sit in a Penny Lane Centers crisis response vehicle
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Robert Garrova
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LAist
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Topline:
The Los Angeles City Council’s recently approved budget includes funding to expand a city program that diverts police from some mental health crisis calls to 911.
The backstory: Since launching in 2024, trained clinicians with the city’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response (UMCR) have handled over 20,000 calls ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. About 96% of those calls were resolved without police or a response from the L.A. Fire Department.
What's new? The new city budget includes funding to expand those teams from nine police divisions — including Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West L.A., Olympic and West Valley — to a total of 15.
Read on... for more about plans to expand the city program
The Los Angeles City Council’s recently approved budget includes funding to expand a program that diverts police from some mental health crisis calls to 911.
Since launching in 2024, trained clinicians with the city’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response (UMCR) have handled over 20,000 calls ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. About 96% of those calls were resolved without police or a response from the L.A. Fire Department.
The new city budget includes funding to expand those teams from nine police divisions — including Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West L.A., Olympic and West Valley — to a total of 15.
“In a year where many programs continue to fight for service funding from the city, it’s so great that we are able to continue prioritizing this,” Godfrey Plata, deputy director of progressive policy advocacy group the LA Forward Institute, told LAist.
Plata said UMCR’s expansion is one more step toward taking the program citywide, which his group hopes to do by the 2028 Olympics.
The crisis teams are slated to go online within the six additional police divisions by June 2027. It’s not yet clear which police divisions will be selected for expansion.
In 2024, the city partnered with three nonprofit organizations — Exodus Recovery, Alcott Center and Penny Lane Centers — to provide teams of trained clinicians in service areas spread across L.A. The teams are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the Police Department’s Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West L.A., Olympic and West Valley divisions.
Crisis response workers are trained in de-escalation techniques, mental health, substance use, conflict resolution and more, according to a report from the Office of City Administrative Officer. The teams don’t have the authority to order psychiatric holds for people in crisis, but they can work with them to find help locally, and spend more time on follow up than law enforcement can.
In its first year, Los Angeles’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response sent teams of unarmed clinicians to more than 6,700 calls for service, ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. About 4% were redirected to the LAPD. Average response times have been under 30 minutes.
Examples of these interactions include members of the teams taking food to a woman who was crying and hungry, working with a business owner to engage with someone sleeping in a parking lot and sitting with a family for nearly three hours to help resolve a conflict involving a relative.
The department said it’s worked with the teams of clinicians to divert calls for service away from fire first responders since September 2025. The department saw 144 calls diverted to UMCR in the month of March alone.
“We’ve found them to be an incredible asset and ally to addressing some of the issues in the field,” LAFD Chief Jaime Moore told council members at the hearing. “The recommendation would be to expand the program, get it into more police divisions which would then get it into more of our battalions and our bureaus."
Destiny Torres
is LAist's general assignment reporter and brings you the top news you need for the day.
Published May 27, 2026 12:28 PM
Matthew Perry in 2022.
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Phillip Faraone
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Matthew Perry’s former live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in prison for his role in the actor's overdose death. He was also fined $10,000.
What we know: Iwamasa injected Perry with ketamine several times in October 2023, including three times on the day the Friends actor died, according to the plea agreement. The agreement also says Iwamasa found Perry unconscious at least twice in October 2023.
Background: Perry died in October 2023 in his Pacific Palisades home. The L.A. County medical examiner determined the cause was “acute effects of ketamine.” According to the plea agreement, Sangha worked with alleged drug dealer Erik Fleming to distribute ketamine to Perry. On Oct. 28, 2023, Perry's personal assistant injected the actor with at least three shots of ketamine provided by Sangha.
Who else has been sentenced? Iwamasa is the fifth person sentenced in Perry’s overdose death. For their roles in Perry’s death, San Diego physician Mark Chavez was sentenced to eight months of house arrest, along with community service. And Santa Monica-based doctor Salvador Plasencia was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in federal prison. Drug dealer Jasveen Sangha was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and Erik Fleming was sentenced to two years.
