CITY COUNCIL
Amy Thomas Howorth
Mayor
David Lesser
Mayor Pro Tem
Joe Franklin
Councilmember
Nina Trieu Tarnay
Councilmember
Steve S. Charelian
Councilmember
MANHATTAN BEACH CITY HALL
1400 Highland Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
www.manhattanbeach.gov • (310) 802-5000
August 5, 2025
The Honorable Maria Elena Durazo
Senator, California State Senate
1021 O Street, Suite 7530
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 346 (Durazo) Local agencies: transient occupancy taxes: short - term rental facilitator.
Notice of SUPPORT (As Amended on July 7, 2025)
Dear Senator Durazo,
The City of Manhattan Beach supports SB 346, which would better equip cities to enforce local ordinances related to short-term rentals, including the collection and remittance of transient occupancy taxes (TOT).
Short-term rentals are regulated exclusively at the local level via the adoption of an ordinance that often includes regulations on permitting, tax compliance, noise, parking, occupancy, as well as other responsibilities for hosts and short-term rental facilitators. In some instances, ordinances limit the number of short-term rentals allowed to operate lawfully, other ordinances ban short-term rentals entirely.
Short-term rentals can present numerous challenges to neighborhoods and adjacent property owners. They may create additional noise, traffic, parking, and public safety issues, decrease available housing stock, and in some cases turn residential neighborhoods into de-facto hotel rows, collectively creating additional demands on local public service providers.
Unfortunately, the enforcement of TOT ordinances and the collection and remittance of these taxes from short-term rentals can be inconsistent, even when voluntary collection agreements are in place with a short-term rental facilitator. Cities lack access to property addresses or other property-related information, even under these agreements, resulting in a difficult choice to either accept tax payments without any way to verify their accuracy and legality or attempt to collect taxes directly from property owners—a costly and time-consuming process. Meanwhile, short-term rental facilitators have full knowledge of these properties’ locations and resist disclosing this SB 346
August 5, 2025
information. Cities can only compel short-term rental facilitators to disclose this critical information through certain legal action, such as subpoenas. This is not how oversight of public dollars should work.
SB 346 would address the above issues by providing cities with the physical address of each short- term rental listed on the facilitator’s website and full audit authority of TOT dollars. These changes would ensure the correct amount of TOT is being collected and remitted and would allow for more efficient enforcement against unlicensed units.
For these reasons, the City of Manhattan Beach supports SB 346.
Sincerely,
Amy Thomas Howorth
Mayor
City of Manhattan Beach
Cc: City of Manhattan Beach City Council
The Honorable State Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi
The Honorable State Senator Ben Allen
South Bay Cities Council of Governments
Jeff Kiernan, League of California Cities Public Affairs Manager League of California Cities, [email protected]
California Contract Cities Association