Senate Standing Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. And the Senate Committee on Military and Veterans affairs will begin in 60 seconds. So we'll look at. My watch.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you all. And to the veterans in the room especially, welcome. We thank you for being here. We thank you for your service. God bless you, whatever branch you served. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines, or the Space Force. We appreciate your service.

And here in California, no doubt, we love you dearly. And we will begin today. We have one item on the agenda. So before we present the Bill, let's establish a quorum. And we're going to hang on just a minute because we have one Senator coming down. And once we establish the quorum, we'll go ahead and begin.

We can go ahead and. zero, you're there. Perfect. Well, thank you, Madam Secretary, for establishing the quorum. Please read the roll.

[Roll Call]

And we have a quorum. Thank you. And I'd like to express my appreciation to Senator Menjewar. And because she is the chair of another Committee and she was going to get going to that. So again, I thank you. Thank you both. So we will go on. So now I would like to present my Bill, Senate Bill 623. So I'll step down.

Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, before you do, can I get a point of privilege here? I'd like to congratulate my previous District Representative Diego, who was on my team for three years, and he got a huge promotion and is now a consultant with this Committee. Very excited for him. Very excited. He's a good man right there.

Well, Senator, there's also something else that we have to celebrate. Give me your hand. Give me your hand. Aquista Most. So the old term. Sisa Pueda. Here we are. Right. And if you look to my left and to my right, and the entire Committee is called diversity. And that's what California is all about. That is our strength. Thank you for bringing that up, Senator.

Thank you.

Thank you. So now I'll step down. And if you'll take over.

Senator Archuleta, you have the only Bill today, SB623. Would you now present the Bill?

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen and Committee Members, we will now move on to Senate Bill 623. If I may for just a moment. I think I left the item on the desk. I picked up the wrong one. I apologize, Mr. Chair. We will make that correction immediately.

Thank you. And once again, Mr. Chair, thank you for taking on that position for me. I'm here to present Senate Bill 623, which makes it necessary statutorily to change and implement a Senate constitutional amendment. Number four.

SCA4 seeks to provide property tax relief to veterans and their families by removing a provision in the Constitution that prevents veterans claiming the homeowner's exemption from also claiming the disabled veterans or veterans exemption, thereby allowing eligible veterans to stack the exemptions.

This would allow a veteran who qualifies for the veterans homeowners exemption or the disabled veterans exemption to also receive the homeowner's exemption. The measure would also remove property limitations that veterans must meet in order to qualify for the exemption. For these reasons, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Well, I thank you for the presentation. Do you have any witnesses in support?

Yes, sir, I think I do. There we go. Come on up.

Please approach the microphone and.

Yeah.

No official witnesses. No official witnesses. Anyone that wants to testify in support, please approach the microphone. Good.

Good afternoon. Can you hear me?

Yes.

My name is Danielle Hall. I am a disabled veteran myself. I am the daughter of a disabled veteran, a Vietnam War veteran, Korea Air Force, and also the mother of an airman and a sailor. So a long legacy of service. I just wanted to say that I support your.

Your Bill and I'm grateful for the provisions that you make for those of us who have served our country to be able to stack those benefits in a way that benefits us. And I'm. I'm grateful for you doing that today, sir.

Thank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Sky Ainsworth. I'm an army veteran, resident of ELF Central California, and I support the Bill.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Michelle Bolton. I am the chair for the VA San Diego Healthcare System Mental Health Advocacy Council. I am a Navy veteran and I am in support of this Bill.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Tara Jones. I'm a Gulf War era veteran. I am one of the directors for the San Diego Veterans Coalition and I am in support of this Bill.

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Eric Janssen. I'm a Marine Corps combat veteran of. Two Afghanistan deployments and I'm in support of this Bill. Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Tonya Seviz, an Air Force disabled veteran and I support this Bill.

Thank you.

I feel like I have to come down a little. zero, I can move it here. Good afternoon. My name is Janelle Gordon and I'm of the honorary Army Veteran and I'm in support of this Bill 623 I believe. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Dr. Chyn Lee and I am in support of this Bill. I work with veterans on who have had health care challenges in a holistic manner with great results.

Thank you.

Also I'm a 3 time lifetime achievement award from 4 Pres. 3 Presidents of the United States.

Well, congratulations. Jeff Neal, I represent the county of San Diego. Also in support. Thank you. William Taylor. I'm also a 23 year army veteran in support of 623 and better access for veterans. Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Jeff Rosales, Marine Corps combat veteran in support of 623. Thank you.

I am Kelly Raleigh, founder of Kindbrain and I am support of 623.

Thank you. Any other witnesses in support? Seeing none. Are there any witnesses in opposition that wish to voice that opposition? Seeing none. I'm going to bring this to the Committee and see if any of the Committee wishes to make statement. Seeing none.

My observation is I presided over the revenue tax Committee this morning and we heard this Bill and had tremendous support and comments. I want to thank the Senator Archuleta for your dedication to this issue and to all the veterans issues.

I know that veterans across the state appreciate the work that you've done and they look forward to hearing this Bill and other bills that you'll be producing and that most of us on the Committee will be supporting. With that do you have closing statements?

Yes. I would like to thank you and again thank our veterans in the room and certainly Tom Umberg who is our army veteran and then the Committee Members who serve in the United States Navy. I appreciate that. But especially to the audience who represent all branches of service, thank you for coming forward today to support this Bill.

Obviously 623 is something that we've all been waiting for. Those veterans are fortunate enough to own a piece of property now can joint venture together with the county and state and everyone else to be recognized and bring those two opportunities together. So they called it stacking but we call it recognition of our veterans.

So I want to thank you for that. And with that I ask for an aye vote.

Do I hear a motion so moved. Motion is moved. Will the secretary call the roll?

Senator Archuleta.

Aye.

Senator Archuleta. Aye. Senator Groves, this motion is do pass to the Committee of Appropriations. Senator McNerney.

Aye.

Senator Menjevar and Senator Ombert.

Aye. You want it three eyes.

The vote is three to no. Is the Bill out or is it on hold? The Bill will be on call pending, Senator.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to hold. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to hold. Hold the roll open until Senator Menjivar gets back from her Committee, and then we'll have the full Committee vote and we'll go from there. So I understand those of you who have other things to do, you're.

You're welcome to leave, and those would like to stick around for the very end, please stay with me. And I want to thank the Committee, thank the veterans. Once again, this is a big, big step for our veterans and those who own a piece of property to receive that tax exemption.

So with that, I think we're ready to. We're going to just hold off. So we're not going to adjourn. We'll just take a timeout. All right, thank you so much.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your patience. We're going to open the roll in the Senate Committee on Military and Veterans affairs, and we are going to. We gave everyone an opportunity to vote, and I know that some of the Senators that are out in the committees can't break away, but we do have a quorum.

We were able to establish that, and we were able to establish the vote to move it out of Committee. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to an adjournment, and I will tell everyone. To our veterans, thank you.

This Bill is vital for our veterans, and I really appreciate the support on Senate Bill 623. So with that, thank you for your service, everyone. Meeting adjourned.