Lawmakers end session — hundreds of bills OKd
By Melody Gutierrez
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers wrapped up their work for the regular session Friday, sending a torrent of bills to Gov. Jerry Brown and leaving a lengthy to-do list for when they return in January.
“This has been a great session,” said state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles. “We didn’t achieve everything we wanted, but that’s OK. That’s what’s so great about a two-year session. This is only halftime.”
Brown now has more than 225 bills on his desk. He has until Oct. 11 to sign or veto the bills.
The Assembly finished just after midnight
Saturday morning following a late-night Democratic caucus meeting to gauge whether the lower house could scrounge together 41 votes to pass tobacco control legislation, such as a bill to raise the tobacco tax by $2 and another that would raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 years old.
The Senate, which finished around 11 p.m. Friday, had previously passed the antitobacco bills, but the proposals never came up for a vote in the more moderate Assembly.
“If legislators refuse to stand up to the tobacco industry, we know the voters will, and we’ll head straight to the ballot if that’s what it takes to save lives,” said Mike Roth, spokesman for the Save Lives California coalition.
Energy efficiency
Among the bills the Legislature sent Brown was an ambitious — albeit scaled-back — climate-change bill and a historic package of bills to regulate the multibillion-dollar medical marijuana industry. The governor is expected to sign those bills after being involved in the negotiations for the proposals.
SB350 by de León calls for the state to boost energy efficiency in buildings by 50 percent and requires California to get half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The bill passed after de León and the governor agreed to remove a requirement that the state cut petroleum use in half over the next 15 years after fierce lobbying by the oil industry.
Brown said the setback on gas-reducing legislation won’t stop him from looking at state regulatory rules to accomplish the same cutbacks. Putting the reduction target in state law is important to ensure the mission continues after his final four-year term ends in 2018, he added.
“Taking carbon out of the modern economy requires heroic efforts and tireless struggle,” Brown said in a statement. “SB 350, in both efficiency and renewable energy, ratchets up the California commitment.”
While many items moved forward, lawmakers were unable to close deals on some of the biggest issues facing the state — growing maintenance and repair debt from crumbling roads, highways and bridges and a $1 billion hole facing the state’s Medi-Cal program.
Brown called two special sessions in June to address the funding shortfalls, but Democratic proposals focused on tax increases Republicans would not support. Democrats have strong majorities in both houses, but taxes require a two-thirds threshold that put Republicans in control. While the regular session ended Friday, both special sessions will remain open this fall, leaving the possibility that lawmakers could be called back to Sacramento if a deal is reached on transportation or health care.
Off until January
Otherwise, the special sessions resume in January when lawmakers return to the Capitol for the second year of their two-year session.
California has until July to restructure how it funds Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for the poor, so it doesn’t lose $1 billion in federal matching funds. The Obama administration warned California that its current system, which only taxes the plans that accept MediCal patients, doesn’t comply with federal law.
Democratic proposals called for an expanded tax on health insurers and a new tobacco tax to help restore lost services and improve care. Both stalled Friday amid pushback from the health plans and Republicans.
“We put a good plan on the table,” said Diana Dooley, the state’s Health and Human Services secretary, in a statement. “With the special session still open, it is now up to the plans which refused to endorse this proposal, and the Republicans who refused to consider it, to stop drawing lines and start putting solutions on the table.”
Brown’s proposal to increase car registration fees by $65 and up the gas tax by 6 cents to pay for transportation infrastructure also fell apart this week.
Over the next few weeks, Brown will weed through the wide-ranging bills that made it to his desk, including the controversial aid-indying bill lawmakers passed Friday that would allow doctors in the state to prescribe lethal medicine to terminal patients wanting to end their lives. Brown has not said publicly whether he will sign or veto that bill, ABX2-15.
Brown has indicated he will sign the California Fair Pay Act, which would require public and private businesses to pay women equally for work that is substantially similar to that of their male colleagues. SB358 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, also creates protections for women against retaliation if they discuss or ask how much men in their office earn.
“For all of the equal pay laws on the books in this state and country, we continue to see this wage gap,” said Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco, which co-sponsored the bill. “We are excited about this becoming law because it will be the strongest in the country.”
Awaiting signatures
Other bills on Brown’s desk include:
SB792, by Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia (Los Angeles County), would require day care workers and volunteers to be vaccinated against measles, pertussis and influenza. Currently, there are no immunization requirements for those who work or volunteer at day care centers and family day care homes. The vaccination bill follows a controversial measure signed by Brown in June that requires children be immunized in order to attend public or private schools or day care.
SB168 by Sen. Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado, would allow authorities to damage or destroy drones that get in the way of pilots battling wildfires. The bill also increases the maximum punishment when a drone is found to interfere with firefighting efforts to six months in county jail and a fine of $5,000. Recreational drones have grounded pilots fighting wildfires in recent months.
SB406 by Jackson extends job protections to those who use the state’s Paid Family Leave benefits to care for seriously ill grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, in-laws or children, regardless of age. Current law limits the job protections to those taking care of a parent, spouse, domestic partner or dependent child.
AB339 by Assemblyman Rich Gordon, DLos Altos, would require insurance to cap the amount a patient pays for specialty drugs and other needed medications to $250 a month per prescriptions. The bill covers high-cost prescriptions such as those for hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis that can otherwise cost thousands a month.