The California legislative cycle ends every year on September 30th, the deadline for the Governor to sign or veto the bills the state legislature sends to his desk. This year, six of the bills the club endorsed landed on the Governor’s desk. Newsom signed five and vetoed one. An additional bill did not pass, but the aim of the bill was accomplished through acts of Congress. Two important bills failed to make it out of the legislature.
Here’s the rundown on the bills our club endorsed.
Signed into law:
SB 747The No Kings Act (Wiener, Wahab) allows Californians to sue the Federal Government for violations of constitutional rights, giving Californians a robust new path to gain relief and hold government actors accountable for lawless behavior. The bill would apply retroactively to March 1, 2025. Press release
SB 895 California Science & Health Research Bond Act (Wiener, Perez, Wahab) will place a measure on the March 2028 state ballot authorizing a $23 billion bond to fund scientific research in California. More info UNIVERSITIES ALLIED FOR ESSENTIAL MEDICINES LAIST
AB 2157 Workforce development: Displaced Oil and Gas Worker Pilot Program: extension and assessment (Connolly, Bryan) will make the California Displaced Oil and Gas Workers Fund (DOGWF) permanent. DOGWF is the only program in California that helps workers in the oil and gas industry who are displaced by refinery closures, or want to transition into different jobs. Established as a pilot program, DOGWF had been set to expire in 2027. PRESS RELEASE
AB 1655 CalWORKs: temporary absence: immigration detention (Bryan) protects CalWorks benefits if a child is detained by ICE. Culver City Crossroads
SB 868, The Plug And Play Solar Act (Wiener) will streamline approvals for plug-in solar systems, a new form of small-scale, mobile solar, often called “Balcony Solar,” that has the potential to lower energy costs for millions of California renters, apartment dwellers, and homeowners. This bill is intended to prevent energy companies from imposing red tape and fees that would make adopting these systems costly and complicated. Los Angeles Times
Not passed, but funded through the budget process:
AB 1540 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: LGBTA+ Youth (Gonzalez) reestablishes the 988 LGBTQ+ Youth Suicide Crisis Line nationally and allows the Trevor Project to participate backfilling a program axed by the Trump Administration. THE TREVOR PROJECT
Vetoed:
SB 1537 Peace Officers: Secondary Employment (Bryan) would have prohibited a peace officer from being employed by, or being an independent contractor of or volunteer for, the United States Department of Homeland Security or its contractors or any other entity that assists with or engages in immigration enforcement. Los Angeles Times
Newsom says in his veto message that:
Establishing a default prohibition regarding the secondary employment law enforcement officers choose to do in their free time is a step too far. State and local police officers must abide by specific standards and rules, including ones that apply to their personal conduct. Any officers who violate those strands are held accountable in investigations that may culminate in their police officers status being suspended or revoked entirely.
Died in the Legislature:
AB 1790 Corporations Tax Law: water’s-edge election: global intangible low-taxed income (Connolly, Elwahary, Lee) would have eliminated the “Water’s edge election,” a “massive corporate tax avoidance policy” pushed through largely by global oil and gas interests in the 1970s and 1980s which is a major cause of California’s chronic budget shortfall. “Water’s Edge” enables multinational corporations to choose (or “elect”) to avoid taxes from earnings they designate as beyond the “water’s edge” of the borders of a state in which they operate. The taxation avoidance maneuver replaced “worldwide combined reporting,” resulting in creative accounting and offshore tax havens that have cost California more than $4.3 billion in corporate tax revenue.
AB 1900 Guaranteed Health Care for All (Kalra) would have created the California Guaranteed Health Care for All program, or CalCare, to provide comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage and a health care cost control system for the benefit of all residents of the state. PRESS RELEASE