Now it’s Newsom’s turn
No one can say the California Legislature’s legislative session lacked for drama: It began with a housing crisis and ended with an antivaccine activist throwing what appeared to be blood at state senators. “That’s for the dead babies!” the activist shouted as she tossed the liquid from the gallery of the Capitol on Friday night. The bill for which she was willing to be arrested on six charges was SB276, which will crack down on medical exemptions for vaccinations. Her shocking action marked the end of SB276 ’s wild ride, which Gov. Gavin Newsom ended with his signature.
But the bill’s long, strange journey — Newsom outraged physicians, public health experts and reasonable Californians by demanding amendments that gave more oxygen to the scientifically unsound and increasingly aggressive antivaccination movement — is a fine example of the difficulty Sacramento faced in trying to tackle the state’s big issues this year.
Here are the most important bills they did pass.
⏩ Housing and homelessness: With California housing costs and homelessness rates at an alltime high, there was no bigger issue for the state Legislature to consider this year.
Unfortunately, suburban legislators killed state Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB50, the housingdensityincreasing measure that was the most aggressive attempt to make a dent in the state’s housing crisis. That fight’s not over, although it won’t be an easy one to conduct in an election year.
The two big changes that did make it out of the legislative process this year were SB330 from state Sen. Nancy Skinner, DBerkeley, which will prohibit cities and counties from creating new rules that have been documented to prevent housing production (such as downzoning and housing development moratoriums), and AB1482 from Assemblyman David Chiu, DSan Francisco.
Chiu’s bill sets limits on annual rental increases for some apartments — landlords won’t be able to raise rent more than 5% plus the regional cost of living increase, or a maximum of 10% — and extends justcause eviction protections statewide.
Newsom should sign both bills.
⏩ Environment: Newsom has signaled that he’ll veto state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins’ SB1, a hardwon bill that would protect the SacramentoSan Joaquin River Delta when and if President Trump guts the Endangered Species Act. Agricultural interests and oil companies lobbied hard against this bill; it’s a shame Newsom is siding with them.
⏩ Criminal justice: Oakland Democratic Assemblyman Rob Bonta’s AB32 would end the state’s use of private, forprofit prisons and detention centers for criminal inmates and immigrants.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation maintains contracts with several private prisons. Meanwhile, immigration detention is a growing market for these facilities as a result of the Trump administration’s contentious immigration policies.
Private, forprofit detention is an industry that’s rife with problems, and Newsom should sign this bill.
⏩ Guns: AB61, from San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting, would strengthen California’s existing “red flag” law by giving coworkers, teachers and school staff the right to ask a judge to remove firearms from someone deemed a threat to themselves or others. (Currently, only police and immediate family members are able to do so.) Following a string of mass shootings, there’s no reason for Newsom to veto this bill.
⏩ Labor: SB206 would allow college athletes to sign sponsorship deals and hire agents. The students deserve to profit from their labor. He should sign it.
Meanwhile, Newsom has indicated that he’ll sign AB5, which often has been called the “gig worker bill” for its attempt to force companies such as Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as employees — with all attendant benefits — instead of independent contractors. But the bill’s reach extends to a wide range of vocations, and some of the more influential of them (doctors, real estate agents, lawyers, hairdressers) were granted exemptions in a bizarre bazaar of legislative wheelinganddealing orchestrated by author Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, DSan Diego, working in concert with organized labor.
A lastminute move by a group of senators pushed AB170 to prevent what would have been a devastating blow to the newspaper industry by granting a oneyear reprieve on the reclassification of newspaper carriers. Newsom should sign AB170, and a top priority for the Legislature next year should be to identify and address concerns by myriad other elements of the California economy that could be seriously undermined by AB5’s rigid onesizefitsall approach to the modern workplace.