CAPITOL UPDATE #1 January 20, 2022

January 20 , 2022

California Federation of Republican Women
Janet Price, President

        Submitted by the CFRW Legislative Analyst Committee        
  Karen Contreras, Gretchen Cox, Elaine Freeman, 
 Theresa Speake, and Cheryl Sullivan

Thank you to Gretchen Cox, Val Emick, Lou Ann Flaherty, Elaine Freeman and Theresa Speake for all of their hard work over the past two years.  Thank you to Gretchen, Elaine and Theresa for staying on the committee.  We welcome two new members, Karen Contreras and Cheryl Sullivan.

Please share the following information with your club newsletters/websites!  Comments/Questions? E-mail:  legislativeanalysts@cfrw.org

SB 1383 – Short-lived climate pollutants:  methane emissions:  dairy and livestock: organic waste:  landfills

SB 1383 was signed by the Governor back in 2016 but went into effect 1/1/2022.  It aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions coming from our trash, including methane from organic waste.  SB 1383 sets goals for California businesses and citizens to reduce disposal of organic waste in the landfill, including recovering the maximum amount of surplus edible food for human consumption.  Each county will develop their own program.  WATCH WHAT YOUR COUNTY DOES BECAUSE THIS IS A MAJOR CHANGE ON HOW WE DISPOSE OF FOOD WASTE.

SB 830 – Education finance:  supplemental education funding
Existing law establishes a public-school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to average daily attendance.  In other words, “when kids actually attend school.”  This bill would require a local educational agency to receive supplemental education funding for the difference between average daily attendance and average daily membership (not attendance). 

The bill would require local educational agencies to use at least 50% of the supplemental education funding to supplement existing local educational agency expenditures to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, as provided.  The bill would condition implementation of these provisions upon the appropriation of funds for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or other statute.  This bill is co-sponsored by the California School Association.

ACA 11 – Taxes to fund health care coverage and cost control
This is a state constitutional amendment requiring voter approval and is a funding support bill for AB 1400 which more will be written about next week. Existing law imposes various taxes, including personal income and excise taxes.  The California Constitution requires a 2/3 vote of both houses of the legislature for the passage of any change in statute that results in any taxpayer paying a higher tax. 

The California Constitution generally prohibits the total annual appropriations subject to limitation of the state and each local government from exceeding the appropriations limit of the entity of government for the prior fiscal year, adjusted for the change in the cost of living and the change in population, and prescribes procedures for making adjustments to the appropriation limit.  This measure would impose an excise tax, payroll taxes and a State Personal Income CalCare Tax at specified rates to fund comprehensive UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE coverage and a health care cost control system for the benefit of every resident of the state, as well as reserves deemed necessary to ensure payment, to be established in statute. 

The measure would authorize the Legislature, upon an economic analysis determining insufficient amounts to fund these purposes, to increase any or all of these tax rates by a statute passed by a majority vote of both houses of the Legislature.  (Note: this says a “majority”, not 2/3 vote to raise taxes).  This measure would establish the CalCare Trust Fund in the State Treasury and would deposit these tax revenues in the fund for the purpose of funding this health care coverage, cost control system and reserves and would authorize the Legislature to appropriate these funds by a statute passed by a MAJORITY vote of the membership of both houses. 

This measure would exclude appropriations of revenues from the CalCare Trust Fund from the limitation on appropriations and from consideration for purposes of educational funding mandated by the California Constitution.