City officials call on Governor to sign short-term rental reform legislation

Contact: Kayla Sherwood [email protected] (530) 844-1744

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sacramento - City officials from throughout the state are urging the Governor to sign critical legislation that would make it easier for cities to enforce local short-term rental laws, crack down on illegal units, and collect the correct amount of transient occupancy taxes owed to them.

The timing for the Cal Cities-sponsored bill, SB 346 (Durazo), is key, as California prepares to host the 2026 World Cup, back-to-back Super Bowls, and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The legislation would require short-term rental platforms to share information about properties that are listed on their websites, allowing cities to go after illegal rentals, enforce their local ordinances, and collect transient occupancy taxes.

"Cal Cities is proud to sponsor this SB 346, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Legislature and not a single vote against it," said League of California Cities Executive Director and CEO Carolyn Coleman. "We urge the Governor to sign this important measure."

Estimates show that in Los Angeles County alone, nearly 72% of Airbnb listings - about 32,500 properties - are operating illegally. But without property data from the short-term rental companies, city officials have no way of identifying these illegal rentals or enforcing local ordinances, leaving millions of tax dollars owed to cities left uncollected.

"Today, many California cities lack access to property addresses and other property-related information for short-term rentals that are needed to collect accurate tax payments under local transient occupancy tax ordinances," said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson. "SB 346 will better equip cities like Long Beach with the tools to verify the accuracy of local tax payments and enforce against unlicensed units, ensuring that short-term rentals continue to operate fairly and responsibly in our cities."

Over the years, cities throughout the state have adopted local ordinances to work with short-term rental platforms, which can bring in revenue for cities that fund city services. However, short-term rentals, when not regulated by local governments, can contribute to housing shortages and rising rents for residents.

"While tourism is vital to Sonoma's economy, we must also safeguard our limited housing stock so that local families and our workforce can continue to live here," said Sonoma Mayor Patricia Farrar-Rivas. "This bill strikes the balance between welcoming visitors and protecting the long-term stability of our neighborhoods, and I urge the Governor to sign it into law. It is one important step in helping cities like Sonoma address our housing needs."

SB 346 can be a helpful tool for cities that recognize the value of short-term rentals while simultaneously managing their impact on the housing market.

"While short-term rentals support visitation and bring revenue to our communities, they also can cause negative community impacts, including upward pressure on the availability and affordability of workforce housing," said Truckee Mayor Jan Zabriskie. "In Truckee, we manage short-term rentals in order to better balance these competing interests. We support SB 346 because it will help us improve our management of short-term rentals for the benefit of our community."

Cities throughout the state have expressed challenges in identifying properties that are vacation rentals and enforcing local policies. SB 346 gives local governments the tools to ensure short-term rental platforms adhere to local laws.

"Cities need the tools provided by SB 346 to ensure fair tax collection, strengthen local oversight of short-term rentals, and help preserve housing availability by holding short-term rental platforms accountable," said San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica A. Stewart.

SB 346 would give city officials the tools to go after bad actors without imposing additional burdens on hosts who abide by the law and follow the rules.

"Indio welcomes visitors year-round," said Indio Mayor Glenn Miller. "SB 346 brings the transparency and accountability we need from short-term rental platforms, so properties follow the rules and taxes are paid. That means fair competition for compliant hosts and stable funding for city services. We respectfully ask the Governor to sign SB 346."

In a time of budget uncertainty for the local governments and the state alike, every tax dollar counts. SB 346 is a revenue-generating and cost-saving measure for every community in California.

"Short-term rentals are a part of our community, and allow great coastal accommodations for our visitors," said Laguna Beach Mayor Alex Rounaghi. "But they also can reduce housing supply, become problematic neighbors, and be places that are hard to contact in emergencies - which is why we try to regulate them. Simple solutions, such as requiring that operators give cities the lodgings' addresses, along the lines of SB 346, are essential to balancing safety, housing, and recreational needs."

The Governor has until Oct. 9 to sign or veto the bill.

"The enactment of SB 346 will provide local communities with new tools to address neighborhood compatibility issues and ensure proper collection of transient occupancy taxes associated with vacation rentals, said Santa Barbara Mayor Pro Tempore Eric Friedman. "Passage of SB 346 is critical to assist local agencies in their effort to address impacts from vacation rentals and ensure that all visitor-accommodating services play by the same rules."

Established in 1898, the League of California Cities is a nonprofit statewide association that advocates for cities with the state and federal governments and provides education and training services to elected and appointed city officials.

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