Suspending Gas Tax, Reducing Refinery Regulations | Airbnb Warns LA of ‘Doomsday’

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You're listening to Bill Handel, on demand from KFI AM640.

Bill Handel here, it is a Tuesday morning March 17, St. Patrick's Day.

Some of the stories we are following, Israel says it has killed Iran's top security official,

and one of the most powerful decision makers.

Ali, a lot of Johnny and the other guy, whatever his name is, also a head honcho, a grand

Puba within his own Pubosity, and we have a lot going on today.

Now the gas tax.

As Amy reported this morning, we are now paying $1 more for a gallon of gas than the rest

of the country, where gas has exploded and cost anyway.

So here is the fight between affordability and environmental protection goals.

And the fight is not only among those people, but among those running for governor.

So you have two democratic gubernatorial candidates are calling for suspending California's

field tax, fuel tax, and or easing the regulations.

Why?

Because gas prices have hit $5.52 per gallon statewide isn't that special.

Amy, in Southern California, I know L.A. and Orange County, you reported on those prices

and what are they?

L.A. County is 5.63 a gallon.

Orange County is 5.60 and it's 553 in the IE.

Yeah, isn't that no, that's fantastic, isn't it?

And so democratic lawmakers have rejected the fuel tax suspension.

Why?

Because we need road funding.

And therein is the fight between affordability and the environment.

So San Jose mayor Matt Mahan or Mayhan, as if we know him, he's running for governor.

He has a press conference in front of a gas pump.

And there he is and what a photo op, right?

And he says the costs of gas becoming an emergency for working families.

And I think we ought to act like it.

And he said he called on state lawmakers to suspend the gas tax, which is 61 cents per

gallon.

And what a shocker.

It is also the highest in the nation.

Who is running for governor, former L.A. mayor, Antonio Villagosa.

And he had his press conference.

He was in a pothole at the time.

And he called for an immediate moratorium on regulations that he blamed for overburdening

California refineries and working families.

By the way, that was not too obscure.

Remember when he ran for mayor, he was going to fix every pothole in the city, a million

potholes, which he didn't quite make.

And so at the cost of living in California, it's still astronomical.

The cost of gas has become astronomical.

And people just have a hard time affording it.

Cono, you drive in an hour each way, 61 or 70 miles.

How badly did it is this hitting you?

Let's see.

Before when it was in the mid fours, it was like $45 a gallon and now it's 65.

So 20 bucks each time I fill up more.

Like $20 more every time you fill up and you fill up how often once a week.

This car is twice a week just to come to work.

So between the two cars three times a week, oh my God.

So what are you spending on gas?

Just my drive to work or like, yeah, no in general across the board, across the board.

When it's this high, again, it's back up to around 700 a month between both cars and

family and now $700 a month for now.

I know that Cono drives more than most, but the cost of gasoline, when people are living

paycheck to paycheck and it's going up, it's not $700 a month.

It's called $300, $400 a month, which is not unusual.

That can break you.

And so what can be done?

Well before we have in fact, I think suspended the gas tax and what ends up happening is

there is so much money that the state receives from gas tax that it makes a huge, a huge

in road in terms of what the budget is.

I mean, we do a lot of driving.

We pay a lot of taxes and to remove those taxes is a real hit.

Also the environmental aspects of this because we have that summer blend.

Our restrictions in terms of the emissions of fossil fuel, what do they call it?

Emissions.

Yeah.

Do I have that right?

I'm mixing the two up.

In any case, the amount of gunk that comes out of the exhaust pipe, how's that for?

This is why I'm so damn good at this stuff because I do such a phenomenal job of explaining.

The gunk that comes out of the tail pipes is so environmentally unfriendly that it's

a big deal.

Well, eating is probably more of a big deal, you think?

Oh no, California is known for trying to save the world by trying to ruin California.

Yeah.

Pretty much.

Good point.

I think you've done just done a very, very good job of describing it.

Now the democratic super legislature, you know, there's a super majority, of course,

the Democrats who don't like this idea and have shut down the idea of lowering the gas

tax and lowering the requirements of that super blend of gasoline that reduces the emissions.

I think I got that right?

Not omissions, but emissions.

Yeah.

All mission would be how they don't tell us what they're doing with that.

Pretty much.

The mission would be not having this show anymore, which would do everybody a lot better.

Matter of fact, there's a move in the California legislature to remove this show.

And it's a jurisdictional issue.

In any case, what is going to happen?

Well, they've got to do something.

And the way I see it, they probably have to do both because the difference in the cost

of gas as oil goes up, up, up, up, which it is going to do as long as this war continues,

then the disparity between the cost of gasoline here and the rest of the country is also exploding.

And it's I think a dollar per gallon more, well, it was, yeah, it's almost a dollar per

gallon more nationally too.

So we are now at two dollars a gallon more than it was than the national average was before

the war started.

Wow.

Okay.

Do I have a story for you that I really enjoy doing is how we've changed society and where

we're going.

And this one has to do, I'm going to give you a stat.

Service-oriented tenants have at least over 50% of total retail square footage in 2025.

And that is surpassing goods-based retail for the first time.

And there's two reasons for it.

Reason number one is brick and mortar stores, which are renters, are really reducing their

footprint because of online shopping for the most part.

And at the same time, the number of the wellness stores, and there's no way you can shop online

for a massage, for example.

I mean, you got to go in there and they have to have a physical, a physical space.

So Americans are out shopping these days.

Here's another reason.

Far more likely to be buying Botox or boxing lessons than shoes or shampoo.

Consumer dollars remain firmly pointed at services.

National director of you say of US retail analytics for a group called co-star.

And changes at the property level.

And it tells us that e-commerce is growing like crazy.

And the thinking of Americans are very different.

And what I didn't know this, wellness is expanding as a market, $2.1 trillion in 2024 in

the US.

Now, businesses are growing the demand.

I mean, like crazy.

There are now shops for laser facials, IV hydrations, vitamin infusions, Botox, red light therapy,

cryotherapy, blasting the body with sub zero temperatures, reducing inflammation, etc.

Waxing centers, you know, those waxing stores where women get their Brazilian, which

everybody knows what that is.

And there's also the Guyana, where it's a little bit different women who remove their

panties look like a rabbi.

It's just a different way for people to look and they care about how they look.

And they care about their bodies and they care about how they feel and their health.

And that is way more important now for people to, that Americans experience, planet fitness.

You've heard of planet fitness, of course, one of the big gyms out there.

They've added more than a million members last year and they're going to open up 200 new

locations in 2026.

You talk about a business that's crazy.

Fail is shrinking.

How many stores, major brands, retail stores, have you heard about closing down?

That story after story after story.

Now when you're talking about Botox centers, those are exploding.

And it's, see, I don't care how I look and, but I, but I go to a gym and I have my

choice of gyms or plenty of gyms around me, far more than retail stores, for example,

and that's where we're going.

Interesting.

As I talk about, this is one of those.

This is how America is dealing with itself and dealing with its future.

Things are changing and more rapidly than you could ever imagine.

And of course, AI is the fourth front of all this and we're going to be doing AI stories

like crazy because there are areas that AI is

now involved in that you can't even imagine how much AI is going to influence our lives.

I think AI may actually be more important and have a bigger impact than the computer.

And it was in my lifetime, which is when computer, I remember the first computer that came

out and I'm not that old.

Yes, you are, Bill.

No, I'm not.

And I remember the first Steve Jobs computer and I remember popular mechanics, I think,

where the first actual computer you could have, you had to make it yourself and it just

gave you the plans, et cetera, it's a very different world.

Okay.

World Cup is coming to LA this year and then the Olympics are coming to Los Angeles.

And a lot of hotels and rooms are going to be, well, the place is going to be full.

I mean, I don't think there's going to be a hotel room that exists anywhere near Los

Angeles because of the number of people that are coming in.

I mean, those are two big, big, big venues.

So the people at Airbnb, this is what's called a doomsday letter to LA ahead of the

2026 FIFA World Cup, demanding the city and the rules banning second homeowners from

letting out their properties as vacation rentals during the tournament.

Right now, if you have a second home, you cannot be an Airbnb person.

And the company, Airbnb said that if they keep on doing this during these two events,

the explosion of properties, those that are, that will be available that are now not

available.

If they do that, then you're going to see an average of taxes increasing 80%.

And there were only talking about a week or two weeks during these events, Deloitte, a

Deloitte study found an Airbnb host in LA can make up to $5,000 for the week during

the event.

And what Airbnb is saying, you know what, just during this time, you know, get rid of

those roles.

It's going to be a hundred million dollars just in taxes to the city.

You're going to make a bucket of money.

And the problem is you've got the people who are the homeless, the homeless housing people.

And this is the reason that we have that law in place is because those second homes

were taken off the market or no longer long-term rentals.

And they just keep the place for Airbnb users or the very tribago and the other platforms.

And it makes sense, I guess, in one way in that you take those off those properties

off the market, they're no, they're, they are not long-term rentals anymore.

And if you do that with enough people, you've got a housing shortage added to the housing

shortage and we just don't have enough units available.

And then the whole issue is low, long-term versus the Airbnb, very short-term.

And then you have the prices of housing and Neil, you are one of those bastards that

have an Airbnb.

Don't you?

Not in LA.

But it's going to be close enough.

If you open it up, you don't think big bear, you don't think an hour, you don't think

an hour and a half coming into LA.

Look what happened in Japan, okay, where people were two, three hours coming into the city.

There is no one that I see on a daily basis talking to themselves and swinging sticks at

trees that is going, if I only had a house, we do not have a housing problem.

We have too many people problem.

Oh, okay, I'm sorry, you're right.

It's another way of looking at it.

Well, don't have, I can't get it, I can't afford Beverly Hills.

You know what?

I don't live in Beverly Hills.

I understand, but you're going to be able to, there's a room on this in the United States

for people.

And the homeless issue is not because people don't have housing.

Well, okay, it depends on how you look at it.

For example, we don't have, we don't have people who are food insecure.

We don't have people that don't have enough to eat.

We have to, what we do is we have too many people for the food that we have.

That's the problem.

No, it's those damn people out there for Ford food.

We have plenty of food.

I told you, we just said this is the day, but we waste the food.

Oh, here's the analogy, we throw away the food and the Airbnb, I understand, but we

throw away the food.

You're right.

But that's exactly what the Airbnb folks are saying is that you give us a week, you give

us two weeks and we're going to pay a lot of taxes.

Every time there is somebody who is poor or broke that people who make a living and work

for it are the ones that are punished.

You are such an elitist.

You can't make money using your house because such an elitist says the guy who lives behind

a gate with a code, I live with the people, baby, I'm a man of the people that don't have

a house.

They live on the sidewalk and they don't eat because they're eating canned, they're

eating cat food because that's all like an afford.

Have you seen the fat homeless people here in LA?

Actually, I don't see homeless people because I don't know in the circles starving homeless

people in Los Angeles, sir, they're very well fed.

This is not about starving homeless people, starving, well fed homeless people.

Let me think that went through during the break, okay, because I have to wrap my head around

that one, starving, fat homeless people, homeless people, issues and drug problems that's

not about a house.

Now, I want to move over to robotics and just a clever idea, having been in the construction

business, as you know, I've told you many times, I worked my way through law school in

construction.

I had a business that went, that was spectacularly failure that I lost my shirt on and law

school saved my ass.

In any case, parts of the world, particularly United States and UK are experiencing a housing

crisis, demand for housing, outpacing supply, and this is a story mainly out of England,

but it's quickly coming United States, no matter if fact, it has already reached here.

And it is a hell of a story, okay, it's a company called Automated Architecture and it makes

portable micro factories that produce the wooden framing of a house, walls, floors, roofs.

These micro factories produce the panels quicker, cheaper, more precisely than a framing

crew.

And what it does is free up carpenters to focus on the construction, after we're taking

these panels and just putting them together, and it's all about automation.

So here's what happens, home builders send the company building plans and the software,

the AI that it has calculates how many panels are needed, exactly how much wood the developer

has to buy.

And the whole thing is shipped in a shipping container to the job site, an operator is there.

And inside the factory, a robotic arm measures, cuts nails, the timber into panels, and this

is all done with AI, including windows and door gaps drilling holes for wiring and plumbing.

And then it's all put together, I mean, what a clever idea.

Now there are factory built homes that do it at the factory and then deliver the homes,

or deliver the kits, right, the walls, etc.

This happens at the job site and it is made precisely there and is put up, well, it's

put up in a matter of days as opposed to weeks.

It takes a normal timber framing crew four weeks to put this up.

This happens in one day, actually, the service 30% cheaper than framing crew, 15% cheaper

than buying panels from large factories pre-built and shipping them to a site.

More environmentally friendly, how is that?

Well, wood bends, twists, has bits taken out, it has knots, the micro factory, it's AI,

response to the flaws in the wood and then calculates how to best work with the wood,

the available material.

Also, the panels fit together more tightly, so heat loss of the final home is reduced.

I mean, how clever is this?

I mean, this is brilliant.

They currently have three micro factories in the US and the UK five more set to be delivered

here.

This is something that, well, the argument is that we're taking away construction workers

are losing jobs.

Well, you do have framers that are losing jobs because now they work one day instead

of four weeks, but there aren't enough framers out there to begin with.

The industry is desperate for framers.

This is a terrific idea and having been in the construction business and had framers,

building homes, framers built my house and it took weeks and weeks where I would do

this in a heartbeat, in a heartbeat.

All right, coming up, Rich Tomorrow, it is our tech segment with Rich.

This is KFI AM640.

You've been listening to the Bill Handler Show catch my show Monday through Friday 6am to

9am and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

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That's public.com slash podcast, paid for by public investing, brokerage services by

open to the public investing ink, member finraw and SIPC, advisory services by public

advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor.

Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or

advice.

Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures.

No one knows what the future holds, but you deserve a weather app that can help.

Weatherbug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need.

From storm warnings to pollen levels, write at your fingertips.

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working together to make life easier.

Well, Xfinity makes that dream a reality.

Device is so insane you'd think they're telepathic.

Wi-Fi that knows when your device needs a boost,

the best equipment to stream, or games at once with multi-view,

or stream your favorite podcast on iHeartRadio.

That's the magic of Xfinity.

It's seamlessly in tune with you.

Xfinity.

Imagine that.

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Run a business and not thinking about radio?

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Because more people are listening to the radio and iHeart today

than they were 20 years ago.

And only iHeart broadcast radio connects with more Americans

than TV, digital, social, any other media.

Even twice as many teens than TikTok.

And that reach means everything.

Just think about the universal marketing formula.

The number of consumers who hear your message

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Now let's get those results growing for your business.

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And get radio working for you.

Support for the show comes from public.

The investing platform for those who take it seriously.

On public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stock,

bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets

which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI.

It all starts with your prompt.

From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow

to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue

over 20% year over year,

you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work.

It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index,

and lets you back-test it against the S&P 500.

Then you can invest in a few clicks.

Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities,

completely customizable and based on your thesis,

not someone else's.

Go to public.com slash podcast

and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio.

That's public.com slash podcast.

Paid for by Public Investing,

brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc,

member Finra and SIPC,

advisory services by Public Advisors LLC,

SEC Registered Advisor.

Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

Output is for informational purposes only,

and is not an investment recommendation or advice,

complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures.

No one knows what the future holds,

but you deserve a weather app that can help.

Weather bug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need.

From storm warnings to pollen levels,

write at your fingertips,

get the fastest local alerts

and comprehensive 10-day forecasts wherever you are.

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the best equipment to stream,

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