Down to the wire at Capitol
Sacramento legislators have already tackled some of the biggest issues for this year’s session, including an extension of the state’s landmark climate change program, “sanctuary state” legislation to protect undocumented immigrants and a $4 billion bond for affordable housing programs. But even as the Legislature closes in on the final few days of its session, a long to-do list remains.
At the top of the list is the housing legislation package. The sticking point seems to be SB2, from state Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. The bill is a fee on real estate transactions that would raise billions of dollars for affordable housing, and it requires the approval of twothirds of the Assembly. The negotiations have been agonizing, but the bill must pass. With California in a historic housing crisis, the Legislature needs to understand what’s at stake.
Another of this session’s most closely watched bills, SB17, awaits a final vote in the state Senate. Authored by state Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa (Los Angeles County), the bill attempts to bring a much-needed measure of transparency to the prescription drug industry by requiring companies to notify the state and private insurers before making big changes to the price of a drug.
SB17 makes perfectly reasonable requirements of drug companies. All it asks them to do is tell the public what they’re doing.
Still, SB17 has been the target of intense lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry. It claims SB17’s transparency requirements would stifle innovation and potentially affect competition because they’d have to report drug development costs.
If the drug companies had better explanations for the skyrocketing cost of prescriptions, we might be more inclined to give them a sympathetic ear. For now, it seems like SB17 is the Legislature’s best chance to shine some badly needed light on this issue. It needs to pass.
Another important bill is SB568, from state Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County). SB568 would move California’s primary date from June to March, potentially giving the nation’s most populous state a greater role in the presidential nomination process in 2020.
State politicians have tried holding earlier primaries before, with mixed results. (There was low state turnout in a March 1996 primary, and voters complained about not seeing much of the candidates in 2008 despite a February primary.)
Critics also rightly note the prohibitive cost of campaigning in a massive state like California — it will be hard for any candidate without deep pockets.
But California is long overdue for an expanded role in the national selection process. We encourage Sacramento to try again.
Still hanging in the balance is SB100, from state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, which would commit California to 100 percent energy generation from clean sources by 2045. The bill sounds like a heavy lift, but it’s the next logical step in the state’s climate change fight. As the rest of the world commits to the Paris climate accords — and to the technology needed to fulfill those commitments — what seems like a heavy lift now will surely get easier. The Legislature should commit to the future and pass the bill.