Legislative Report

July/August 2023

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POLITICAL NEWS & LINKS

1. As California ramps up restrictions on the use of oil & gas (all through fiat and not through the consent of the governed), they ignore the perils and the reality of science. Two excellent articles:  “Electric Cars are a Scam, by David Harsanylhttps://jewishworldreview.com/0723/harsani071423.php3 and “Electric Vehicles for Everyone?  The Impossible Dream,” The Manhattan Institute report by Mark P Mills. This one is long and very detailed, but so worth it when you are in the mood to dig in. https://manhattan.institute/article/electric-vehicles-for-everyone-the-impossible-dream

2. As if you didn’t realize that California priorities are anti-business and anti-liberty, you can get a weekly mini view from Rob Bonta, California Attorney General’s Newsletter (just google to sign up for weekly torture). On July 22, he focused on the bullying, harassment and hate our LGBTQ+youth are forced to endure, “sometimes even in their own homes”? Also, he wants us to know that he and some other states are suing the Trump Administration over the border wall. In his July 29 newsletter he is in support of the Biden Administration’s development of a NATIONAL OCEAN JUSTICE STRATEGY. Yes, it is as absurd as it sounds.

3. Some Good News! Doctors are suing the State of California for shutting down speech with patients. More at https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/we-rise-as-one-to-passionately-denounce

4. Christopher Rufo and Matt Walsh both bring clarity to so many of the social issues that the left promotes. Rufo has written a great article, “DEI and the End of the Constitutional Order” https://americanmind.org/salvo/dei-and-the-end-of-the-constitutional-order/

5. Woke Education:  SEL is worse than I could have imagined. See the attached article for curriculum guidelines for Kindergarten, . .  Also the California Board of Education has a new Social Justice Math for our children.  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2023/07/14/california-state-board-of-education-votes-to-approve-social-justice-approach-to-math-curriculum/

 

CALIFORNIA BUDGET 2023-2024 (Notes from California Women’s Federated):

 

• Just in time for the start of a new fiscal year July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced that they have reached a deal on the state budget — a $310 billion spending plan that they say protects core programs and covers a $30 billion-plus deficit without dipping into key reserves. 

• Included in this budget package is $237.41 million for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to kick start new affordable housing which the State says will be built with new environmental standards.

• Reductions of $ 8 billion which included such proposed items as $550 million to construct facilities for transitional and full day kindergarten and $750 million to pay back the federal government for the covid loan. The Legislature increased the fees employers pay for unemployment insurance by .3% to pay for this debt.

• Low-income families who receive subsidies to pay for childcare will see near elimination of co-payments known as “family fees.”  The fees, which can be hundreds of dollars, were waived during covid and the waiver was set to expire on 9/1. Under the tentative agreement families will not have to pay more than 1% of their incomes toward fees. It also included raises for childcare providers.

• Monies for communities to help recover from this year’s storms and flooding, total $ 20 million. This will help residents recover regardless of citizenship or legal status.

• There is a tentative agreement to include $500 million to make permanent a 10% increase in welfare benefits for recipients of CalWorks, the State’s cash aid program. Five billion was cut from the $54 billion in climate projects. Newsom had originally proposed $6 Billion cut. These budget funds will be used for transit agencies “clean” energy infrastructure and zero emission buses. Also $1.5 billion in port and freight infrastructure for zero emission ports.

• Education Budget, K-12 there was an 8.22% cost of living adjustment with a total budget of $108.3 billion. Cuts ($200 million) in the “Arts, Music, Instructional Materials Block Grant. Districts could use the money on everything from facilities to salaries. The Training Discovery Block Grants were cut by $1.6 billion, however they have included $399 million for “equity multiplier” for schools with the highest concentration of socio-economically disadvantaged students.

• Homeless funding remained the same at $1 billion. It is estimated there are 171,524 homeless in California. Total allocated to housing & homeless since 2018/2019 is $21 Billion. This is from the state budget, but Mike Levin touts securing Federal funding as well, and a promise to continue going after federal funds for the homeless.

• Additional funding of $200 million was added to the “California Dream for All” down payment assistance program. This is Down Payment Assistance for qualifying first time home buyers.

• For Covered California, there will be on-going investment.

• For Cal Fresh: There is $35 million for the California Nutrition Incentive Program to help Cal Fresh participants buy healthy food from farmer’s markets. Also includes $9.9 million in one-time money for a fresh fruit and vegetables pilot program and $3 million for clean drinking water.

• For exhaustive detail:  https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/06/california-budget-deal-what-you-need-to-know/

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

AB 466, Vehicles: violations.

Existing law authorizes a court to permit or order a person who has been convicted of or plead.

This bill would remove provisions making the failure to attend traffic violator school a misdemeanor and would clarify that the failure to attend traffic violator school is not punishable as a new offense. The bill would further clarify that the underlying conviction of a person who fails to attend traffic school shall not be confidential, and the person shall have traffic violation points assessed as applicable.

 

AB1078 Instruction Materials and Curriculum:  Diversity.

Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to assess whether the local educational agency has, among other things, adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on specified protected characteristics. This bill would require that policy to include a statement that the policy applies to all acts of the governing board or body of the local educational agency, the superintendent of the school district, and the county superintendent of schools in enacting policies and procedures that govern the local educational agency.

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The bill would require the department, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to also assess whether the local educational agency has complied with state laws requiring public schools to provide pupils with comprehensive, culturally competent, and accurate instruction about the history, experiences, and viewpoints of people from different communities in California.

 

This bill would authorize a complaint regarding the sufficiency of textbooks or instructional materials to be filed directly with the Superintendent. The bill would authorize the Superintendent to directly intervene without waiting for the principal or the designee of the district superintendent to investigate.

Existing law establishes a public-school financing system that requires state funding for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. This bill would reduce a school district’s local control funding formula allocation by a specified amount if the Superintendent determines the school district has not provided sufficient textbooks or instructional materials pursuant to these provisions.

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Existing law requires instruction in social sciences to include a study of the role and contributions of men and women and culturally and racially diverse groups, including, among others, Mexican Americans and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups. This bill would revise the list of the above-described groups to instead require instruction in social sciences to include a study of the role and contributions of, among others, people of all genders, Latino Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, and members of other ethnic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic status groups.

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Existing law prescribes substantive requirements and particular processes that the State Board of Education, the Instructional Quality Commission, local educational agencies, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction are required to follow when adopting or evaluating instructional materials, as defined.

Existing law requires governing boards of school districts, when adopting instructional materials for use in the schools, to include materials that accurately portray the cultural and racial diversity of our society, including the contributions of both men and women and the role and contributions of culturally and racially diverse groups, including, among others, Mexican Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups.

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This bill would revise the list of the above-described culturally and racially diverse groups to instead include materials that accurately portray the contributions of people of all genders and the role and contributions of Latino Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, and other ethnic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic status groups. 

 

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

To contact your U.S. Representatives, call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121

Legislative Portal links- Express your support or opposition to a bill or directly to the Legislative committee currently reviewing it (as an individual, not as a member of RWF or CFRW)

 

AB 994, as amended, Law enforcement: social media.

Existing law requires law enforcement agencies, departments, or entities to consider specified best practices regarding the downloading and storage of body-worn camera data, including prohibiting agency personnel from uploading recorded data onto public and social media internet websites, when establishing policies and procedures for the implementation and operation of a body-worn camera system.

Existing law prohibits a police department or sheriff’s office from sharing, on social media, booking photos of an individual arrested on suspicion of committing a nonviolent crime, as defined, unless specified circumstances exist. Existing law requires a police department or sheriff’s office that shares, on social media, a booking photo of an individual arrested for the suspected commission of a nonviolent crime to remove the information from its social media page, upon request, unless the same specified circumstances exist.

Existing law also requires a police department or sheriff’s office to remove the booking photo of a person who has committed any other crime from social media if the individual’s record has been sealed, the individual’s conviction has been dismissed, expunged, pardoned, or eradicated, the individual has been issued a certificate of rehabilitation, the individual is found not guilty of committing the crime for which they were arrested, or the individual was ultimately not charged with the crime or the charges were dismissed.

With respect to an individual who has been arrested for any crime, this bill would require a police department or sheriff’s office, upon posting a booking photo on social media, to use the name and pronouns given by the individual arrested. The bill would authorize a police department or sheriff’s office to use other legal names or known aliases of an individual in limited specified circumstances.

This bill would also require that a police department or sheriff’s office remove any booking photo shared on social media after 14 days unless specified circumstances exist.

 

 

AB 230, as amended, Menstrual products: Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021.

Existing law, the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021, requires a public school, as provided, maintaining any combination of classes from grades 6 to 12, inclusive, to stock the school’s restrooms with an adequate supply of free menstrual products, as defined, available and accessible, free of cost, in all women’s restrooms and all-gender restrooms, and in at least one men’s restroom, at all times, and to post a certain notice, on or before the start of the 2022–23 school year, as prescribed.

 

This bill would extend these requirements, commencing on or before the start of the 2024–25 school year, to instead apply to public schools maintaining any combination of classes from grades 3 to 12, inclusive.

 

The budget and related budget-implementing legislation signed by the Governor this summer are below:

• AB 102 by Assemblymember Philip Ting (D-San Francisco) – Budget Act of 2023.

• AB 116 by the Committee on Budget – Early childcare and education.

• AB 118 by the Committee on Budget – Budget Act of 2023: health. (Arbitration Clause)

• AB 120 by the Committee on Budget – Human services. (EBT during Summer for Kids)

• AB 121 by the Committee on Budget – Developmental services. (Education Disabled)

• AB 127 by the Committee on Budget – State government. (Children’s Rights)

• AB 128 by the Committee on Budget – Cannabis: background checks and cannabis event organizer license type. (Fingerprinting)

• AB 129 by the Committee on Budget – Housing. (Looking for state owned property for “affordable housing:))

• AB 130 by the Committee on Budget – Employment. (State Payrolls)

• AB 134 by the Committee on Budget – Public safety trailer bill. (Responses to FOIA Requests)

• SB 114 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Education finance: education omnibus budget trailer bill. (Supt of School District Reports to the State)

• SB 115 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Arts and Music in Schools — Funding Guarantee and Accountability Act: local control and accountability plan electronic template. (Review of Instructional Materials)

• SB 117 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Higher education trailer bill. (Student on campus housing)

• SB 122 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Public resources trailer bill. (Assessing expansion of offshore wind farms)

• SB 123 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Energy. (Payments to Govt appointed panels & board members)

• SB 124 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Energy. (Climate Catalyst Funding & Loans)

• SB 125 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Transportation budget trailer bill. (Another new “Task Force” for Transit Transformation)

• SB 131 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Taxation. (Taxation & Tracking Deductions & Costs to state for deductions)

• SB 132 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review – Income taxes: tax credits: motion pictures: occupational safety: California Film Commission.

• SB 145 by Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) – Environmental mitigation: Department of Transportation. (Fishing Licenses)

• SB 146 by Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) – Public resources: infrastructure: contracting.

• SB 147 by Senator Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento) – Fully protected species: California Endangered Species Act: authorized take.

• SB 149 by Senator Anna Caballero (D-Merced) – California Environmental Quality Act: administrative and judicial procedures: record of proceedings: judicial streamlining. (Environmental Permitting for all Electric California)

• SB 150 by Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) – Construction: workforce development: public contracts.

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SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom has signed the following bills – July 23, 2023:

• AB 72 by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner (D-Encinitas) – Coastal resources: research: landslides and erosion: early warning system.

• AB 87 by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) – Pupils: Section 504 plans: meetings and team meetings.

• AB 307 by Assemblymember Phillip Chen (R-Yorba Linda) – Structural fumigation enforcement program.

• AB 358 by Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) – Community college districts: student housing.

• AB 454 by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) – California Rice Commission: board membership: referendum.

• AB 466 by Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson) – Vehicles: violations.

• AB 479 by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) – Alternative domestic violence program.

• AB 499 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-Sylmar) – Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority: job order contracting: pilot program.

• AB 507 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) – Presidential electors.

• AB 559 by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner (D-Encinitas) – Personal income tax: California Senior Citizen Advocacy Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund.

• AB 562 by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) – Local government finance: the County of Los Angeles.

• AB 705 by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) – Autoettes.

• AB 925 by Assemblymember Tri Ta (R-Westminster) – Vehicle removal: expired registration.

• AB 946 by Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen (D-Elk Grove) – Emergency services: endangered missing advisory.

• AB 956 by Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego) – California State Auditor: background checks.

• AB 968 by Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord) – Single-family residential property: disclosures. (Adds more seller disclosures on contracts when you sell your house)

• AB 1080 by Assemblymember Tri Ta (R-Westminster) – Criminal justice realignment.

• AB 1166 by Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains (D-Bakersfield) – Liability for opioid antagonist administration.

• AB 1226 by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) – Corrections: Placement of incarcerated persons.

• AB 1280 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) – Fire hazard severity zones: disclosures. (Adds more disclosure by seller to buyer when selling a home regarding fire hazard and the potential for not being able to get insurance)

• AB 1312 by the Committee on Banking and Finance – Financial transactions.

• AB 1325 by Assemblymember Marie Waldron (R-Valley Center) – Microenterprise home kitchen operations.

• AB 1342 by Assemblymember Megan Dahle (R-Bieber) – California College Promise: fee waiver eligibility.

• AB 1541 by Assemblymember Mike Fong (D-Alhambra) – Community colleges: governing board membership: student members.

• AB 1740 by Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita) – Human trafficking: notice: pediatric care facilities. (New Requirement for businesses to post regarding human trafficking and to provide employees at least 20 minutes of training on the subject).

• SB 86 by Senator Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta) – Crime victims: resource center.

• SB 250 by Senator Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana) – Controlled substances: punishment.

• SB 304 by Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) – Monterey-Salinas Transit District: public contracting.

• SB 360 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) – California Coastal Commission: member voting.

• SB 376 by Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) – Human trafficking: victim rights.

• SB 462 by Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward) – General assistance.

• SB 566 by Senator Brian W. Jones (R-Santee) – Geodetic datums and spatial reference network.

• SB 698 by Senator Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) – California Council on Science and Technology Policy Fellows: status of services.

• SB 787 by Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) – Number of licensed premises: County of Nevada.

• SB 788 by Senator Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento) – Beer manufacturers: cider and perry.

 

The Governor also announced that he has vetoed the following bill:

• AB 1696 by Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita) – Sober Living Accountability Act. A veto message can be found here.

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For full text of the bills, visit: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

California Providing Free Legal Services for Undocumented Farmworkers

Published: Jul 19, 2023