CAPITOL UPDATE February 4, 2021

 February 4, 2020

California Federation of Republican Women
Sue Blair, President

From the CFRW Legislative Analyst’s Desk

• Natural Resources.  Of the $7.4 billion allocated, $60 million is for sustainable groundwater management.  This is up from $30 million in 20/21. $365.2 million (up from $1.83 million in 20/21) is to be used to help leverage $1.8 billion in federal funds for maintenance and strengthening levees.  An additional $75 million is a one-time amount for critical levee repair. Delta resilience is another item in this category.  $69.6 million ($43.7 million in 20/21) is to be used to support ecosystems, restoration and watershed resilience work in the San Joaquin River and for projects to improve water quality or Delta ecological conditions.

• SCA 3 – Elections: recalls. The California Constitution provides that voters may recall a state officer and, in the same election, elect a successor. The Constitution prohibits an officer who is the subject of a recall election from being a candidate for successor. This measure would instead require that the name of the officer be placed on the ballot as a successor candidate if the officer does not resign within 10 days after the date of certification of sufficient signatures. If the officer does resign, the office would be deemed vacant and no recall election would be held. In a recall election, if a candidate other than the officer receives a plurality, that candidate would be elected as the successor to serve the remainder of the officer’s term. If the subject officer receives a plurality, however, the recall would fail and the officer would remain in office. Currently Pending referral.

• AB 230, Employment: flexible work schedules.  This bill would enact the Workplace Flexibility Act of 2021. The bill would permit an individual nonexempt employee to request an employee-selected flexible work schedule providing for workdays up to 10 hours per day within a 40-hour workweek, and would allow an employer to implement this schedule without the obligation to pay overtime compensation for those additional hours in a workday, except as specified.

• ACA 2-Repeal of the Death Penalty in Ca. – This measure would amend the California Constitution to prohibit the death penalty from being imposed as a punishment for any violations of law.
• AB 292- Corrections: Increase prison “Good Time” credits for some violent felons. This bill would direct the State Corrections department to increase specified credits to inmates incarcerated for a violent felony or for a non-violent second- or third-strike felony, with certain conditions, a one-day reduction in the term of confinement for every day of incarceration served (increasing from 1/5^th of a day). The bill would require the department to award credits and conduct rehabilitative programming in a manner that meets specified requirements.

• AB 96- California Clean Truck, Bus and Off-Road Vehicle and Equipment Technology Program. This bill would create a separate definition for “near-zero-emission” and revise the definition for “zero-emission”.  The bill would extend the requirement that 20% of funding be made available to support early commercial deployment of existing zero and near-zero-emission heavy-duty truck technology until December 31, 2026.

• SB 29- Vote by mail elections extension until Jan. 2022 –This passed the Senate on 1/28/21. It’s now before the Assembly.
• Thank you to one of our members for pointing out an error in the budget article from 1/28/21. Budget Resiliency was listed as $34 million and later in the article as $34 billion. $34 billion is the correct number.