Bradford Bill to Help Carson Residents

June 12, 2017

Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) has introduced Senate Bill 343, to provide an exclusion from state income tax for residents of a housing development known as the Carousel Tract in Carson, California.

In the 1960’s, an industrial property was sold by the Shell Corporation to the Barclay Hollander Curci Corporation to create a housing development of 285 homes in the city of Carson.  In 2016 workers began to remove contaminated soil left buried under residential property in the Carousel neighborhood.

The soil and remediation began after the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board ordered a clean-up of the properties in 2015.  The work underway to remove contaminated soil involves relocating the affected residents, removing 10 to 15 feet of soil and replacing it with new soil and landscaping.  The clean-up process will be done in clusters of 8-10 homes at a time.

Shell has maintained consistent communication about the remediation project by holding individual, regular monthly and quarterly group meetings with residents to explain the activities that will be conducted and the temporary housing arrangements.

Recently, some of the affected residents learned that relocation payments are considered taxable income by both the Franchise Tax Board and Internal Revenue Service.  This process seems to be at odds with the purpose of the payments.

“I would first like to commend the Shell Corporation for their approach to remedying a problem that can affect the health and well-being for residents of the Carousel Tract for generations to come.  We need to fix the tax code to make sure these residents don’t have to pay taxes on their relocation expenses.”
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Senator Bradford represents the Los Angeles County communities of Carson, Compton, West Compton, Gardena, Harbor City, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lennox, West Carson, Watts, Willowbrook, and Wilmington