Guest Columnist

What does it take to be a hero? Every day, people make our town a better place to live.

By Zach Friend, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Here are some updates on local road repairs and proposed projects for bike and pedestrian safety this year. Funding for these projects comes from Measure D (which brings in about $900,000/year to our district for local roads), SB...

The Board of Supervisors recently completed our budget hearings and as part of the hearings we received reports from departments about their goals for the coming year based on Board priorities.

It’s that time of year again for our annual article on end of year financial tasks to complete. It’s hard to believe that 2018 is already drawing to a close as it just seems like yesterday we were celebrating New Years! In between festivities, take a few minutes to knock off a couple financial “to-do’s.”

Most people probably have a sense of what their credit score is and if their score is considered a “poor” score all the way to “exceptional.” Banks and credit cards will show you your credit score often updated on a monthly basis.

Aptos Village once had a Town Hall on the corner of Valencia Street and Trout Gulch Road, but it had been torn down.

Over the last four years the Board of Supervisors has been working on policies around the dispensing and cultivation of medical cannabis. While work around cannabis in general will be evolving for quite some time, the Board is poised to adopt a commercial cultivation ordinance in early May. Creating a framework for medicinal sales (through local dispensaries) was the first thing addressed by the ordinance a few years ago. While there have been updates to that ordinance, overall the framework for medicinal sales has been established. Creating a framework for commercial cultivation — both on the medicinal side and now, through state law change, the recreational side, has proved more difficult.

A Review of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 — At the end of 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Under that piece of legislation, Congress slashed the top corporate tax rate for businesses from 35 percent down to 21 percent.

While the county works to reduce emissions and keep climate change from getting worse, the Climate Action Strategy presents a set of strategies to address the county’s vulnerabilities to climate change that will occur. The strategies include a broad range

In December 2019, Congress passed the SECURE Act which is the first major change to retirement legislation since 2006 with the passage of the Pension Protection Act. The passage of the SECURE Act will affect retirement savers in a number of ways from changes...