CAPITOL UPDATE #18 – April 22, 2021

GOOD NEWS!  SB 663, the bill to allow the personal information of anyone who signs a recall petition to be made available to others including the recall targethas been withdrawn. It may come back next year, but for now, it’s DEAD!!!

EMERGENCY POWERS
SB 397– Essential services: religious services – This bill, the Religion is Essential Act, would, during a state of emergency or local emergency, require the Governor or the local government to deem religious services to be an essential service and to be necessary and vital to the health and welfare of the public. The bill would prohibit the state and local government from taking discriminatory action against a religious organization, as those terms are defined, and would require the state and local government to permit a religious organization to continue operating and engaging in religious services during a state of emergency to the same or greater extent than other organizations or businesses permitted to operate. STATUS 4/14/21: Failed passage in committee, but granted reconsideration!

CIVIL RIGHTS
SB 238 – Discrimination: Political Affiliation, Political Relief–This bill broadens the Unruh Civil Rights Act to extend the protections to persons regardless of political belief or affiliation.  The bill specifies that these provisions are declarative of existing law.  Would add political affiliation as a protected characteristic in connection with employment and housing.  This bill is in response to persons being stigmatized or terminated because of their political beliefs.

TAXES
AB 1223, Firearms and ammunition: excise tax. This bill would, until January 1, 2028, impose an excise tax on a retailer in the amount of $25 per firearm on the sale in this state of a handgun or semiautomatic rifle or shotgun sold as new, as provided, and an excise tax on a retailer in the amount of ___% of the gross receipts from any sale of ammunition. The tax would be collected by the state pursuant to the Fee Collection Procedures Law. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII   A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of ²/₃ of the membership of each house of the Legislature. Status: Hearing April 26^th.

INFRASTRUCTURE
SB 32–Energy: general plan: building decarbonization requirements –  Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to assess the potential for the state to reduce greenhouse gases from the state’s residential and commercial building stock by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by January 1, 2030.  Because municipalities and counties do not have a role in regulating utility resource plans, SB 32 would require local government to mandate policies in their general plans, climate action, or a greenhouse gas emission plan, that would prevent or reduced natural gas in new homes and commercial buildings beginning January 1, 2023.  This policy would be another case of Sacramento further eroding local control. On an energy-equivalent basis, natural gas rates are 67% less than electricity. Forced building requiring electrification would have grave effects on California’s overall economics.  As the state continues to face a housing affordability crisis, lawmakers should be embracing natural gas, not creating policies that would curtail or eliminate its use.The state wants to eliminate natural gas because it can’t be 100 percent carbon emission-free, however, generating electricity requires natural gas generation plants.