Latest news with #Bill13
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How state funding is affecting Illinois college tuition
State universities in Illinois are facing a growing problem. State funding has not kept up with rising costs, leading schools to raise tuition. That move is causing lagging enrollment. Students from low- and middle-income families are disproportionately affected, as are students of color. Legislation to help equalize funding is pending in the Illinois State Assembly. House Bill 1581 and Senate Bill 13 (Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act) call for establishing a funding structure like the Evidence-Based Funding formula for K-12 education. The legislation supported by nine of the 12 public universities, but not the three University of Illinois schools. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Vancouver Sun
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Opinion: Opaque Bill 15 steps on B.C.'s local governments
We're worried about B.C.'s new Bill 15 — and you should be too. Like British Columbians, B.C.'s Urban Mayor's Caucus was surprised to see the fast-tracked Bill 15 hit the legislature docket with only three weeks for debate. But we were even more surprised when we cracked its surface. What the province calls 'speeding up approvals' and 'alternative permit authorizations,' looks more like 'overriding' and 'dismissing.' This legislation provides cabinet with the power to overstep local jurisdiction, including municipal bylaws and permitting, for the purpose of moving forward provincial priority projects hand-picked by the premier and cabinet. Almost no local governments or First Nations were consulted in the creation of this legislation. The Union of B.C. Municipalities, the B.C. Urban Mayors' Caucus, and countless local government partners were caught off guard when this wide-reaching legislation was tabled. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Local governments have a sea of knowledge when it comes to infrastructure needs and processes. Our staff are working on the ground every day in communities across B.C. Mayors' offices and our senior city staff would have been able to provide key insights — like problem areas, existing challenges or missed opportunities — but weren't allowed to contribute and make this legislation better. Bill 15 has big gaps, especially in chances to make meaningful improvements to existing infrastructure backlogs, or to expedite necessary supportive housing. The province had the opportunity to do something important with this legislation. They could have focused on expediting provincial processes and establishing new partnerships and direct relationships with local governments. Instead, they chose opaque legislation that steps on the local governments that B.C. residents elected. When Premier David Eby created a ministry of state for local government, we thought we would get improved communication and engagement from the government. Seven months in, we have yet to see real results. This legislation is just the latest in a dangerous trend where the province is tossing aside key partners, institutions and policies designed to protect democracy and due process. Bill 13, as another example, makes changes to local government authority without adequate consultation or consideration. As mayors, we want to support this approach — we agree there is much-needed building work to be done. But we can't support Bill 15 as it stands. Local governments are keenly interested in fast tracking infrastructure projects, especially schools, health-care facilities and housing, and we want to help the province do this work. The province says we can trust them. But we know that we can't give them a blank cheque. Had the minister provided more time, proactive communication, and better engagement, we might have been able to get onside. But right now, this legislation erodes some of the most basic processes that protect our communities. Our message to the premier and the cabinet: Local governments want to be partners. We have continued to show our willingness to collaborate and solve problems while rising to the occasion. We want to work alongside you to make life better for British Columbians. But you cannot sweep us aside. Bill 15 is not well thought through and needs more time. Let's identify issues, revisit this legislation, and cooperate like real partners. Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove and Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto are co-chairs of the B.C. Urban Mayors' Caucus, which includes mayors from the province's 16 largest municipalities representing over 55 per cent of B.C.'s population.
Vancouver Sun
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Opinion: When local planning becomes provincial command
In British Columbia, democracy is being redefined — not through elections or referendums, but through legislation with quiet names and sweeping consequences. Bill 13 and Bill 15 are not household names. But together, they represent a fundamental reordering of power between the province and its municipalities. Framed as tools to accelerate housing and infrastructure, these bills do far more than expedite permits. They hand the province unprecedented authority to override local planning, ignore zoning bylaws, and silence public consultation. Bill 13, deceptively named the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, amends the Housing Supply Act, Local Government Act, and Vancouver Charter to give the provincial government the power to nullify any municipal bylaw that conflicts with provincial housing mandates. Zoning, subdivision controls, building permits, affordable housing provisions — all are now subordinate. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, allows the province to take over permitting for any infrastructure project deemed of 'provincial significance' — including schools, hospitals, and transit-oriented developments. In Vancouver, where much of the land already falls within designated transit areas, this amounts to near-total provincial planning authority. Certified professionals, appointed by the province, can now stand in for municipal staff. Let's not forget that the 'external experts' appointed for previous housing legislation were closely aligned with the development industry. The problem is compounded by how these bills are drafted: dense, technical and opaque. Few outside of legal or planning circles fully understand their implications — which, perhaps, is part of the point. If the public knew what was at stake, the response might look very different. Together, Bills 13 and 15 mark a profound departure from the planning principles that have governed B.C.'s cities for decades. Where previous legislation set targets and guidelines, these bills enforce compliance. If municipalities don't act fast enough, the province now has the legal tools to act for them. Some opposition voices, including the Union of B.C. Municipalities, are beginning to sense that something isn't right. But much of the concern has focused narrowly on Bill 15's environmental review process, overlooking the deeper implications for local land use authority. Bill 13, which arguably has greater consequences for zoning power, has flown almost entirely under the radar. The justification rests on a now familiar claim: that municipalities are the bottleneck preventing housing from getting built. But as of 2025, the Vancouver region is facing a glut of approved but unbuilt condos and rentals. Developers are delaying projects — not because cities are slow, but because the numbers don't pencil out. High interest rates, soaring construction costs, and unaffordable unit prices have created a logjam. The problem is not process. It is profit. There is also a deeper fallacy in the supply-first narrative: the idea that simply adding housing makes cities more affordable. Vancouver added twice as much housing as Montreal, yet remains far less affordable. If supply alone lowers prices, this shouldn't be possible. But housing is shaped by more than zoning. Urban systems are complex. Correlation is not causation. A 2024 analysis by Patrick Condon and Thomas Kroeker drives this home. Since the 1960s, Vancouver has added more housing per capita than any other major North American city. Yet it is also one of the most unaffordable. Over that same period, prices rose by 600 per cent relative to incomes. The driver wasn't a lack of supply, but runaway land value. The 'land price residual' — the value of land after subtracting construction costs — has exploded. And without mechanisms to capture that value for the public good, affordability remains out of reach. Other forces — low interest rates, global capital, the financialization of housing — matter more than zoning. Unless we tackle land value directly, more supply alone will only enrich landowners. Condon and Kroeker point to better models: Vienna, Singapore, and Cambridge, Massachussetts. Vancouver once had its own: in the 1980s and '90s, the city captured up to 80 per cent of land value gains from rezonings and reinvested them in public benefits, including affordable housing. So why the rush now? The answer may lie in political convenience. These bills give the province the tools it has long sought: faster approvals, fewer checks, and less local resistance. The Urban Development Institute, a key industry lobby, has been pushing for exactly this shift. What results is a planning system governed by exception. Provincial mandates become de facto zoning. Public hearings become optional. Municipalities are left to rubber-stamp decisions they didn't make. If a provincially fast-tracked project fails, who is accountable? If a bylaw is overridden, who pays the political price? Vancouver, unsurprisingly, is ground zero. Its charter has been amended so that even if a neighbourhood plan allows six storeys, a developer can apply for 20 — and the city must process it. This isn't just a change in scale. It's a change in who gets to decide what cities look like. And often, those making the decisions don't live in the communities they're reshaping. They are detached from the everyday realities of the places their policies transform — from the parks, shops, and transit stops that give neighbourhoods their shape. Urban planning has always involved a tension between expertise, politics, and public voice. These bills resolve that tension by cutting out two of the three. What remains is a top-down exercise in implementation, stripped of dialogue or dissent. When local planning becomes provincial command, cities stop being communities shaped by their residents. They become construction sites governed by spreadsheet. Erick Villagomez teaches at the school of community and regional planning at the University of British Columbia. He is also a founding editor at Spacing Vancouver.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas will share equipment database with local fire departments to help beat wildfires
LUBBOCK — A bill that establishes a statewide inventory of firefighting equipment won final approval Wednesday. The bill, a response to the historic wildfires that engulfed the Texas Panhandle last year, now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. Senate Bill 767, filed by state Sen. Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, creates a database of statewide firefighting equipment that is available during a wildfire. The inventory will include descriptions of the equipment, allow for searches by location and equipment types, and have contact information for fire departments. The database will be operated by Texas A&M Forest Service, a state agency that manages Texas' forests and natural resources. Sparks previously told a Senate committee that the agency already tracks emergency response equipment at fire stations. The bill makes that information widely accessible to fire departments statewide, including volunteer fire departments, which often operate on shoestring budgets and old equipment in rural areas. The agency would also be required to update the database annually. 'This would allow fire departments to share and locate equipment more effectively during emergencies, improve coordination and planning,' Sparks previously told a Senate committee on the bill. The bill received unanimous approval in both the Texas House and Senate. The bill also had the support of firefighters and people in emergency services, who testified to lawmakers that fire departments need this service. Texas lawmakers filed a bevy of bills to address the devastating wildfires that killed three people last year and burned millions of acres in the rural Panhandle. Sparks, along with state Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, and freshman state Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo, all filed legislation suggested in a report by a House committee that investigated the fire. The bills include proposals such as creating a statewide network that would connect all first responders and state agencies, boosting funds to rural volunteer fire departments, and putting oversight on unregulated power lines. [A year after Texas' largest wildfire, Panhandle residents tugged between hope and anxiety] Two priority pieces of legislation — House Bill 13, which creates the Interoperability Council, and Senate Bill 34, a comprehensive bill on wildfire preparation and response — were approved by their originating chambers and are now in committee discussions. The House investigative committee concluded that unmaintained electrical lines for oilfield equipment started at least two of the blazes. The Smokehouse Creek Fire, which grew to be the largest fire in Texas history, was ignited after a decayed power pole snapped and landed in dry grass, the committee found. The committee also concluded that there are voluntary aid agreements between fire departments near each other, but volunteer fire departments can't easily find and request the equipment they may need. During the wildfires, there was an uncoordinated response between responding agencies and uncertainty about what equipment was available and needed to stop the blaze from spreading. Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get tickets before May 1 and save big! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
