Wilk bills focus on film, sex offenders
State senator reflects on recent session
Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, said he’s proud of his two major legislative accomplishments this session, which helped bring tax relief for film studios and took sex offenders out of specifically rural areas.
One of the two bills, Senate Bill 951, authored by Wilk and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, gave the California Film and Television Tax Credit Program an extra five additional fiscal years. The other, SB 1199, looks to stem the disproportionate
release of sex offenders to rural areas.
“Getting an extension of the film tax credit is a big win for Santa Clarita,” he said. “We are known as ‘Hollywood North,’ and we were able to do it through the budget process and this bill ultimately has a positive impact on Santa Clarita.”
SB 1199 was originally authored in response to the way Jessica’s Law — which requires convicted sex offenders to live at least 2,000 feet from churches and schools — distributed the offenders due to building density, he said.
“(The law) requires sex offenders go back to their community where they have family and support,” Wilk said, “What they have been doing is dump them in our Senate district, so we’ve had an unfair share.”
Meanwhile, the senator is still looking at two more bills awaiting their fate in the governor’s hands. Both SB 1409 and SB 1036, he said, matter directly to the citizens of his district.
SB 1036 would prohibit releasing the personal contact information of a student or parent in the meeting minutes of a governing body.
The issues stemmed from a Saugus Union School District board meeting,
when a student’s grandmother who spoke during the public comment portion of a meeting learned that her residential address had been published as part of the official record of the meeting’s minutes, he said.
SB 1409 helps the California economy through streamlining hemp production statewide, allowing California farmers to grow and produce it, which would particularly benefit the Antelope Valley. The bill has until Sept. 30 to be signed by Brown.
“There are (farming) manufacturers who told me they’d relocate to the district if this bill passes,” he said.
Wilk said he plans to reintroduce his domestic violence-animal abuse bill next year.
The Animal Cruelty & Violence Intervention Act of 2018 would require offenders convicted of animal abuse crimes to undergo mandatory mental health assessments and, if deemed beneficial by the assessing mental health professional, to seek ongoing counseling. It failed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Wilk had previously cited statistics that show in some cases, 71 percent of domestic violence offenders also abused animals at some point, and that 70 percent of the most violent prisoners in a study of federal prisons had serious animal abuse in their histories.