CA legislators decide fate of dozens of bills

With the Friday deadline for bills to pass their first house, state lawmakers are busy deciding the fate of dozens of measures that would change California policy on a wide range of issues.

On Tuesday, the Assembly and Senate passed about 330 bills combined, leaving about 530 left to go. Some key developments:

• Abortion protections: The Senate sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom a fast-tracked bill that would enable Arizona doctors to temporarily provide abortion services for their patients traveling to California through Nov. 30. The proposal was promoted by Newsom and introduced only a month ago, in response to the Arizona Supreme upholding an 1864 abortion ban. The Assembly passed a bill to streamline the approval process for abortion clinics. In recent years, some clinics have been unable to open in California due to local opposition.
• Reparations: The Senate passed three bills authored by Democrat Sen. Steven Bradford of Inglewood. Senate Bill 1050 seeks to compensate residents whose land was taken by “raced-based” eminent domain and is in the California Legislative Black Caucus’ 14-bill package. The two other bills are not: SB 1331 would establish a reparations fund and SB 1403 would form a state agency to manage reparations.

• Traffic safety: The Assembly passed a measure to further regulate autonomous vehicles. Among other mandates, the bill would allow driverless car companies to be cited for traffic violations, and require they notify the state within five days of a crash. Meanwhile, the Senate advanced a proposal to outfit all new cars by 2032 with devices that warn drivers when they exceed the speed limit.

• Food additives: The Assembly approved a bill to ban six food dyes and the additive titanium dioxide from food in California public schools, following a law last year prohibiting four other food additives. When last year’s proposal was first drafted, it originally included titanium dioxide, which can be found in Skittles candy.

• Media funding: Google is telling nonprofit newsrooms across the country that its U.S. news funding is in jeopardy due to California’s proposed digital ad tax to help pay for journalists, Axios reported. SB 1327, introduced this month by Sen. Steve Glazer, an Orinda Democrat, would require Google, Amazon, Meta and others to pay a 7.25% tax on their digital ad revenues in California of more than $2.5 billion, generating an estimated $500 million a year. Google also opposes another bill to help the ailing news industry.  

In other legislative news: A bill to require pornography websites to verify the ages of its users is in the Senate after passing the Assembly last week, writes CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow. If the proposal becomes law, California would join a handful of conservative states that have adopted laws to ensure visitors of pornography sites are adults. Legislators of both parties are divided on the bill. Read more in Ryan’s story. 

Budget update: Once legislators get through this week, they’ll be focused on the state budget to beat a June 15 deadline, though they won’t have all the data they need to make smart decisions. But how did the state go from a record surplus to a deficit in two years anyway? Find out in our updated “budget whiplash” explainer.

Before getting into politics, all Sen. Catherine Blakespear wanted to do was bike and walk safely in her hometown. But after moving back to her hometown of Encinitas, she joined the city’s mobility and traffic safety commission. She then won a seat on the city council and became a three-term mayor.

In 2022, she decided to run for state Senate. This year, she was picked to lead the Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments. She says she wants to ensure “free, fair and accessible” elections. 

I sat down with her to discuss her leadership role. The interview has been shortened for clarity and length.

What are your concerns if SB 1243 passes? (On Monday, Blakespear cast one of only two “no” votes on the floor against the bill to weaken “pay to play” local campaign finance limits.)

Having a bill that is related to campaign contributions that has a carve-out essentially for any organization that pays membership dues — that is an unworkable standard for a local elected official. Expecting a candidate to look at every contribution and determine if membership dues are part of that organization sets up the likelihood of certain elections ending up in a “gotcha” for the candidate and the elected official. 

Are you concerned about artificial intelligence increasing disinformation?

I am worried about disinformation, particularly around the image and voice of elected officials and what positions they take or what they’re saying about certain issues. Making sure that we have safeguards, consequences and a rapid response — these are all parts of making sure that the information that people are receiving is accurate.

Do you support an Assembly bill now awaiting the Senate elections committee that would make it easier for candidates to use campaign funds for personal security?  

I do support that. The reality of our increasing polarization can skew toward violence is very scary, and it’s particularly scary for women. We want our elected officials to be representative of the people of the state. (But) anybody who is in a non-privileged group is potentially open to additional abuse.

What are your thoughts on the Assembly’s election committee blocking a bill to prevent lobbyists and certain public officials from signing NDAs?

There’s a lot of nuance to it. We should know who is negotiating bills, we should know what types of negotiation are happening. We need to have sunlight on the process of the creation of legislation. Having a nondisclosure agreement in negotiation around bills does seem a little bit crazy.

Meet more key lawmakers: Read my interviews with new Senate appropriations committee chairperson Anna Caballero of Merced and labor committee chairperson Lola Smallwood-Cuevas of Los Angeles, as well as Assembly committee chairpersons: Democrats Alex Lee of Milpitas who leads human services; Kevin McCarty of Sacramento who heads public safety; and Chris Ward of San Diego who leads the housing committee.

The final lineup of ballot measures for California voters in November won’t be set until late June. Still at their conventions over the weekend, the Democratic and Republican parties put out their recommendations for measures that are, or could be, on the Nov. 5 ballot.

So far, the two parties agree on two: They both support an initiative to require high schoolers to take a financial literacy course to graduate, and another to create permanent funding for Medi-Cal. 

But otherwise, Democrats and Republicans disagree.   

The Democratic Party endorses — and the GOP opposes — measures to raise the statewide minimum wage to $18 an hour, to allow local governments to impose rent control and to pass taxes to build affordable housing, as well as two constitutional amendments on voter approval thresholds for taxes.    

The Republican Party recommends — and Democrats are against — a measure to roll back Proposition 47, the 2014 initiative that reduced some crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. 

Democrats support a constitutional amendment to remove anti-LGBTQ language. The GOP is neutral on that one. 

Also, many Republicans support a business-backed initiative that would make it more difficult to raise local or state taxes — and that Democratic and labor leaders are urging the state Supreme Court to kick off the ballot.

Tuesday, the Secretary of State announced that another contentious initiative has qualified for November. Sponsored by the California Apartment Association, it aims to stop Michael Weinstein from using his AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s money to finance ballot measures (including a rent control one on the ballot) by requiring it to spend 98% of revenues from a prescription drug program on patient care. 

Congressional race: Assemblymember Vince Fong of Bakersfield defeated Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux in Tuesday’s special election runoff in the 20th Congressional District to decide which Republican will serve out former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s term.

AP called the race for Fong within 20 minutes of the polls closing Tuesday night, and soon after the state GOP chairperson added her congratulations for his “resounding victory.” In November, voters in the Central Valley district will also choose between Fong and Boudreaux as their representative for the full two-year term that starts in January.

A long-running legal battle for gig workers made it to the state’s highest court Tuesday. What were the key issues for state Supreme Court justices? Find out from CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay.