News release
The Chiquita Canyon Tax Relief Act (Assembly Bill 27), authored by Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, has advanced out of the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation.
The bill would make any compensation received by residents as a result of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill disaster exempt from state taxes and excluded from counting against those who qualify for state assistance such as CalFresh, according to a news release from Schiavo’s office.
“We should be doing everything we can to help families escape the dangerous conditions caused by the Chiquita Canyon Landfill disaster, not penalizing them for accepting relief,” Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, said in the release. “The Chiquita Canyon Tax Relief Act ensures that impacted residents can accept the help they need without facing the added burden of higher taxes or loss of safety-net benefits.”
For years, residents living near the landfill in Val Verde, Castaic and some areas of Santa Clarita have endured toxic air, noxious gas emissions, and severe health consequences due to an underground fire — which has recently tripled in size and is expected to burn for decades — at the landfill site, the release said.
While the Chiquita Canyon Landfill ended its assistance program earlier this year, the treatment of those aid dollars as taxable income initially created a set of barriers for those considering accepting the assistance for fear of losing essential benefits like CalFresh, Medi-Cal, or disability payments, the release said.
This bill aims to protect those who saw no option but to accept the funds and to make sure no family has to make the difficult decision between benefits and their livelihood for any future financial support received in response to the landfill crisis, the release said.
The bill next heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. If passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, it would then advance to a full vote on the Assembly floor.
