Houser Hour Recap: Featuring State Treasurer Fiona Ma, CPA

On Tuesday, April 27th, SCANPH convened for our first Houser Hour session, a recurring series where webinar attendees engage directly with elected officials and public agency leaders to get pressing questions answered. In our first session, April's featured speaker was State Treasurer Fiona Ma, CPA, who shared top goals and priorities in the Treasurer's Office, as well as issues concerning the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC), as well as potential regulatory changes and thoughts on the state budget.

Throughout the Q&A portion of the webinar, Ma discussed topics such as mandating multifamily housing programs and HCD requirements. Ma expressed a strong interest in building housing that is affordable to students on community college land. Most recently, Ma was involved in the development of Santa Rosa Community College student housing, where she identified significant housing need among community college students and teachers.

Later in the discussion, Ma touched on an update for the Mortgage Credit Certificate Program. Touching on questions about the state reaching its limit in bonding capacity financing, Ma noted that backlogged affordable housing deals can expect extensive regulation changes for TCAC and CLAC, specifically under TCAC regulations and congressional allocation of more tax credits to counties devastated by the fires of 2020.

Addressing President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, Ma pointed to her partnership with Tim Schaefer, Deputy Treasurer for Public Finance. Schaefer plans to develop a sophisticated infrastructure plan that includes a brownfield remediation and the financing of new, single-family homes.

If you want to follow up on additional questions, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma can be reached via email at: AskFiona@treasurer.ca.gov