August 31, 2023
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Karen Contreras, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
GUT AND AMEND BILL!
Gut and Amend. When amendments to a bill remove the current contents in their entirety and replace the contents with different provisions. Does not happen often, but here it is!
A prison inmate visitation bill amended to Unemployment insurance for Strikers!
SB 799, as amended, Portantino. Prisons: inmate visitation. Unemployment insurance: trade disputes: eligibility for benefits.
Existing law provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits and extended benefits to eligible individuals who meet specified requirements.
Under existing law, unemployment benefits are paid from the Unemployment Fund, which is continuously appropriated for these purposes.
Existing law makes an employee ineligible for benefits if the employee left work because of a trade dispute and specifies that the employee remains ineligible for the duration of the trade dispute. Existing case law holds that employees who left work due to a lockout by the employer, even if it was in anticipation of a trade dispute, are eligible for benefits.
This bill would restore eligibility after the first 2 weeks for an employee who left work because of a trade dispute. The bill would codify specified case law that holds that employees who left work due to a lockout by the employer, even if it was in anticipation of a trade dispute, are eligible for benefits. The bill would specify that the bill’s provisions do not diminish eligibility for benefits of individuals deprived of work due to an employer lockout or similar action, as specified.
Because this bill would expand the categories of people eligible to receive benefits from a continuously appropriated fund, it would make an appropriation.
Existing law authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to prescribe and amend rules and regulations for the administration of prisons, and requires regulations, which are adopted by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, that may impact the visitation of inmates to recognize and consider the value of inmate visitation as a means of increasing safety in prisons, maintaining family and community connections, and preparing inmates for successful release and rehabilitation. Existing regulations establish the framework for establishing a visiting process in prisons that is conducted in as accommodating a manner as possible, subject to the need to maintain order, the safety of persons, the security of institutions and facilities, and required prison activities and operations.
This bill would require the department to, upon request by a visitor, scan certain documents into the Strategic Offender Management Systems (SOMS), including, among other documents, a birth certificate for a visiting minor, as specified. The bill would require the department to allow a visitor for an in-person visit or an approved family visit to bring certain items for the visit, including, among other things, items for infants and toddlers, as specified.
Employers in California pay those taxes on the first $7,000 of each worker’s annual pay to fund the program.
Republican State Senator Roger Niello noted the state’s unemployment insurance fund already has major debt and said the proposal could make the issue worse.
“It means employers who have nothing to do with the strike are going to have to pay more because of the strike, that seems a little fundamentally unfair,” Niello said.
Hearing: Aug 31 @ 2:00 pm in State Capitol, Room 437
AB 1314 (Essaytl and Gallagher) Gender identity: parental notification.
Existing law provides that parents and guardians of children enrolled in public schools have the right, and should have the opportunity as mutually supportive and respectful partners in the education of their children within the public schools, to be informed by the school and to participate in the education of their children as specified to include, among other things, having access to school records of their child.
Existing law authorizes a minor who is 12 years of age or older to consent to mental health treatment or counseling services notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, if, in the opinion of the attending professional person, the minor is mature enough to participate intelligently in those services, or to outpatient mental health treatment or counseling services if the foregoing is true and the minor would present a danger of serious physical or mental harm to self or to others without the mental health treatment or counseling or residential shelter services, or is the alleged victim of incent or child abuse.
Existing law requires the mental health treatment or counseling of a minor authorized by these provisions to include involvement of the minor’s parent or guardian unless, in the opinion of the professional person who is treating or counseling the minor, the involvement would be in appropriate.
This bill would, notwithstanding the consent provisions described above, provide that a parent or guardian has the right to be notified in writing within 3 days from the date any teacher, counselor, or employee of the school becomes aware that a pupil is identifying at school as a gender that does not align with the child’s sex or their birth certificate, other official records, or sex assigned at birth, using sex segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, or using facilities that do not align with the child’s sex or their birth certificate, other official records, or sex assigned at birth. This bill would state legislative intent related to these provisions.
Re-referred to Committee on 08/24/23.
ACA 1, as amended, Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval.
This measure is a reintroduction of the same bill from the 2019/2020 AND 2021/2022 SESSIONS. It provides for a new 55% voter threshold for local agencies to pass special taxes for certain infrastructure and housing projects. It also provides the same threshold for local governments to pass general obligation bonds for the same infrastructure and housing projects. There are strict accountability measures attached to these new mechanisms.
Currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
This is a constitutional amendment and will require a 2/3 vote in each house of the legislature, as well as a vote of the people.
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