State bills to address racial equality move forward
SACRAMENTO — A panel of California legislators voted Wednesday to advance a pair of bills designed to combat racial inequities, following days of protests over the killing of George Floyd and police brutality.
One proposal would ask voters whether they want to reinstate affirmative action in colleges and state agencies. Another would create a task force to recommend plans to grant reparations to African Americans to counteract enduring inequities stemming from slavery.
Members of the California Legislative Black Caucus urged their colleagues to support both bills during an emotional news conference Tuesday. They said the events of recent days illustrate the state’s failure to address fundamental issues of racism, and how its responses to crises are often shortlived.
“Every incident brings me back to the same
spot,” said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, the San Diego Democrat who chairs the black caucus and is carrying both measures. “This country has taught itself to hate African Americans and to deny the history that has brought us here.”
Weber, who led passage of a landmark bill last year to redefine when police can use deadly force, said Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police shows that African Americans still face “a pandemic of hate.”
The Assembly Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday to advance the bills, along with dozens of others, through a procedural bottleneck for legislation with significant fiscal impacts. They now go to the full Assembly for consideration, and if approved there would move on to the Senate.
Among the bills that moved forward:
ACA5, by Weber, would put a measure on the November ballot asking voters whether to repeal Proposition 209, the 1996 state constitutional amendment that banned affirmative action in public education and government. It would strip language prohibiting universities, schools and government agencies from using race or sex in their admissions criteria, hiring and contract decisions.
Opponents of Prop. 209 said it has harmed women and people of color, particularly in college admissions.
But past efforts to repeal the amendment have proved divisive. Lawmakers shelved a 2014 proposal after some Asian Americans said it could harm their children’s ability to get into universities or could hold them to higher academic standards.
The Assembly and the Senate must pass the measure with a twothirds vote by the end of June for it to qualify for the ballot. Voters could then repeal Prop. 209 by a simple majority.
AB3121, by Weber, would create a state task force to create proposals to provide African Americans with reparations for slavery. The task force would study the legacy of slavery and recommend who might be eligible for reparations and the form of compensation.
Any recommendations by the task force would return to the Legislature for consideration. The eightmember committee would also be charged with educating Californians about the legacy of slavery and how the state enabled it.
AB1950, by Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager, DLos Angeles, would limit the duration of probation to no longer than two years for a felony offense and one year for a misdemeanor.
Supporters say the bill would reduce excessive sentences that cause many rehabilitated offenders to return to prison for minor violations.
About 20% of people jailed in California prisons are there for probation violations, according to the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments. People typically serve three years of probation for misdemeanors and five years for felonies.
The bill is opposed by the California District
Attorneys Association, which says efforts to collect restitution for victims could be harmed if exoffenders aren’t under supervision.
On another front, the committee killed two highprofile bills intended to streamline construction of new housing:
AB3155, by Assemblyman Robert Rivas, DHollister, would have eased local building approval requirements for mediumdensity housing projects with 10 or fewer units. Some labor unions and environmentalists opposed the bill over concerns about weakening permit reviews.
AB2580, by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, DStockton, would have required cities to create a faster process to convert vacant hotels and motels into permanent housing, eliminating a permit hurdle. It was opposed by some advocates of lowincome housing who said it could displace families that use hotels as housing.