Allison Olson, CFRW Advocate
Capitol Update
Saturday, September 14, 2019
California Federation of Republican Women
Sue Blair, President
About Last Night…
The Legislature was in session until almost 3 am this morning, debating the merits of the last, remaining bills and either passing them on to the Governor or “saving” them until next session. Many bills that did not make the cut last night will be brought back next legislative session as “2-year bills”, so just because they weren’t passed yesterday (or this morning, as the case may be), doesn’t mean they won’t be resurrected next year. Here are some of the bills we’ve been tracking and where they are now. To contact Governor Newsom, please call (916) 445-2841 or CLICK HERE.
AB 5 (Gonzalez, D)- PASSED. Call Governor Newsom and ask him to VETO AB 5! This bill would make hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of workers in California “employees” instead of independent contractors, thereby limiting the flexibilty of their jobs and forcing their employers to reclassify them. This will severly undermine innovation and technology, and hinders the gig economy’s growth in our state.
AB 161 (Ting, D)- 2 YEAR. The paper receipt ban! This bill will undoubtedly be back next session.
AB 142 (Garcia, D)- PASSED. Call Governor Newsom and ask him to VETO AB 142. Do we really need ANOTHER tax increase on car parts? This increases taxes on car batteries for manufacturers, which will ultimately be passed onto consumers. Another regressive tax that will hurt the poor and working class who ultimately need to buy new car batteries more frequently since they have older car models and drive farther to work, using their cars more often than the wealthy.
AB 362 (Eggman, D)- 2 YEAR. This bill would establish a “safe injection site” pilot program in San Francisco to allow drug addicts to engage in their illegal activity under the protection of a government nurse in a government building.
AB 891 (Burke, D)- PASSED. Call Governor Newsom and ask him to VETO AB 891! This bill mandates that cities with populations greater than 330,000 establish a “safe parking program” which allows people to live in their cars in a designated area of the city. Think tent cities, but with cars. This sounds like a public safety nightmare.
AB 1066 (Gonzalez, D)- FAILED! Luckily someone over in the Capitol saw the unintended (or intended…) consequences with this bill. AB 1066 would have allowed union members to collect unemployment checks if a trade dispute continued longer than 4 weeks.
AB 1482 (Chui, D)- PASSED. Call Governor Newsom and ask him to VETO AB 1482! Despite the will of the voters, who voted down the Rent Control Proposition just this last election, the legislative Democrats think they know better, so they passed this statewide rent cap. It’ll place a limit of 5% rent increases, plus inflation, and mandates that landlords provide “just cause” before evicting a tenent after a year. The bills only redeeming quality is that it has a 10 year sunset.
AB 1505 (O’Donnell, D)- PASSED. Call Governor Newsom and ask him to VETO AB 1505! This is a systematic chipping away of our charter school rights. AB 1505 makes it more difficult for charter schools to extend their charters or appeal decisions made on their charter status by school districts to the county boards of education.
ACA 1 (Aguia-Curry, D)- 2 YEAR. This would dimish Prop 13 protections by making it easier to increase residential and commercial property taxes by placing additional bonds and special taxes on local ballots. Would also lower the vote threshold from 2/3rds to 55% for local bonds and parcel taxes. SCA 5 is it’s companion bill. This chips away at our Prop 13 rights and if the Split Roll Ballot Measure passes, you better believe this bill is next.
SB 1 (Atkins, D)- PASSED. Call Governor Newsom and ask him to VETO SB 1! This is a direct attack on President Trump’s EPA regulation rollbacks and a huge state water grab. Basically if state water agencies feel that local businesses, agriculture, or other water agencies do not have high enough “environmental standards”, then the state can step in and take control. This is a dangerous precedent to set, and water policy should not be set by making a political statement toward the Trump Administration. SB 1 potentially threatens the water supply for millions of Californias and could disrupt agriculture production for the rest of the nation.
SB 145 (Wiener, D)- 2 YEAR. We cannot even believe this bill was introduced, but it made it halfway through the legislative process before it was stalled. SB 145 allows convicted sex offenders to avoid registering as such if they are 10 years older or less than the victim. The victim must be a minor and the crime must be the only offense to qualify for the sex offender registration.
SB 246 (Wieckowski, D)- 2 YEAR. This 10% oil and gas severance tax was put on the back burner this year. Rest assured, the legislative Democrats will try again next session.
SCA 5 (Hill, D)- 2 YEAR. This state constitutional amendment would lower the vote threshold for new tax increases from 2/3rds to 55% for school and community college districts to enact a parcel tax on disfavored industries and commercial property owners.
CFRW 41st Biennial Convention
Join us in Bakersfield for our 41st Biennial Convention! We have very important Federation matters to attend to, like election our new slate of officers and completing our transition into our regions. Our speakers include Former Solictor General Ken Starr and his wife, Alice, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Milan-Patterson, Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove, and so much more! Click HERE for more information!
