CAPITOL UPDATE January 7, 2021

Issue #2 – January 7, 2021

Wasting no time getting to the mindful and the mindless, here are some of the bills our California legislators have already introduced for the 2021-2022 legislative session:
 

• The California Legislative Calendar calls for Governor Newsom to have his draft budget to the Legislature by January 10 followed by a budget bill from the Legislature by June 15.  The State has received over $27 billion in revenue more than anticipated.  The Legislative Analyst office is urging no new spending but there is still talk of new programs. 

•  SB-6- Local planning: housing: commercial zones would allow as a permitted use, housing developments in commercial zones. The process for development may be streamlined if, among other things, 50% or more of the site has been vacant for at least three years. 
•  SB-9- Housing development; approvals would allow duplexes and lot split in single-family residential zones to be allowed by right, meaning without a case-by-case review and approval. 

•  AB 2088 – Wealth/Exit Tax (from 2019-2020-still being considered)- The August 2020 amended bill to impose a wealth tax on the worldwide net worth of any person who spends more than 60 days inside the state’s borders in a single year and stay in effect for the future 10 years.  This bill did not make it out of the place of origin, but could be resurrected by February 2021. 
• ACA 1 – Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval. This bill reduces the voter-approval threshold from two-thirds to 55 percent for cities and counties to fund public infrastructure and affordable housing by making exceptions to the California Constitution. 

• SB 29 – Elections: vote by mail ballots.  Extends the requirement to mail and track said ballot to every registered voter to January 1, 2022. 

• AB 101– Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements: ethnic studies.  Commencing with pupils graduating in the 2029-30 school year, including for pupils enrolled in a charter school, a one-semester course in ethnic studies.  Commencing with the 2025-26 school year, a local educational agency, including a charter school, with pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, shall offer at least one-semester course in ethnic studies. MAY BE HEARD IN COMMITTEE JANUARY 11. (Newsom signed AB-1460 in Aug. of 2020 which requires an ethnic studies course for all graduates from CSU campuses, as well).

• AB 4 – Medi-Cal: eligibility.  This bill would extend eligibility for full scope Medi-Cal benefits to anyone regardless of age, and who is otherwise eligible for those benefits but for their immigration status, pursuant to an eligibility and enrollment plan. The bill would delete provisions regarding individuals who are under 25 years of age or 65 years of age or older. In short, anyone of any age regardless of immigration status would be eligible for full-scope Medi-Cal. 
• SB 17 – Public health crisis: racism. It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to require the State Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the Health in All Policies Program, the Office of Health Equity, and other relevant departments, agencies, and stakeholders, to address racism as a public health crisis. 

•  AJR-1– Abolition of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement – This measure would urge the federal government to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Department of Homeland Security. 
• AB-47– Human Services: Coordination Immigration Support Services – This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to establish a grant program in coordination with one or more qualified nonprofit social service agencies, as defined, to provide multi-tiered and coordinated immigration support services in California to undocumented and mixed-status families who reside in the state and were separated by the federal government. The bill would require those support services to meet specified criteria. 

• SB 73– Probation: Eligibility: Crimes Relating to Controlled Substances-This bill would delete various crimes relating to controlled substances, including opioids, from those prohibitions against granting probation or a suspended sentence. The bill would authorize the remaining prohibitions on probation to be waived by a court in the interests of justice. By making additional persons eligible for probation, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
• AB 124–Sentencing-This bill would, until January 1, 2022, require the court to consider if the inmate experienced intimate partner violence, commercial sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, or human trafficking and if the trauma of those experiences was a contributing factor to the defendant’s criminal behavior that would make a sentence other than the lowest possible sentence unduly harsh.