June 13, 2024
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Valerie Evans, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
SB 828 BILL PASSES WITH URGENCY WHEN BUDGET DEFICIT IS AN ISSUE
SB 828 Minimum wages Health care workers: delay – Existing law requires, for any covered health care employer, with 10,000 or more full time equivalent employees (FTEE), any covered health care facility employer that is a part of an integrated health care delivery system or a health care system with 10,000 or more FTEEs, a covered health care facility employer that is a dialysis clinic or is a person that owns, controls, or operates a dialysis clinic, or a covered health facility, affiliated or operated by a county with a population of more than 5,000,000 as of January 1,2023, the minimum wage for covered health care employees to be $23 per hour from June 1,2024 to May 31, 2025 inclusive, $24 per hour from June 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026, inclusive and $25 per hour from June 1, 2026, an until as adjusted.
Existing law requires, for any hospital that is a hospital with a high governmental payor mix, an independent hospital with an elevated government payor mix, a rural independent covered health care facility, or a covered health care facility that is owned, affiliated, or operated by a county with a population of less then 250,000 as of 1/1/23, the minimum wage for covered health care employees to be $18 per hour from 1/1/24 to 5/31,2023, inclusive, and $25 per hour from 6/1/33 and until adjusted.
So why is this bill necessary? It is part of the budget game. State health care workers wage increases would be pushed out to the next state budget year, reducing the impact on the 2024-25 state budget required to be in place by the end of June.
Passed Senate 05/11/2024, Passed Assembly with amendments 05/23/2024, Passed Senate with amendments 05/30/2024, Signed by the Governor 05/31/2024 (Just in time!)
AB 1955 – THIS IS A GUT AND AMEND BILL!
TRYING TO PULL THE WOOL OVER OUR EYES AGAIN!!!
IT WILL MAKE IT ILLEGAL FOR SCHOOLS TO NOTIFY PARENTS IF THEIR CHILD IS SOCIALLY TRANSITIONING AT SCHOOL
The lined-out red is the original bill and the blue is the new bill
AB 1955, as amended, Ward. Pupil health: school-based health services and school-based mental health services. Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act.
(1) Existing law requires the State Department of Education to develop resources or, as appropriate, update existing resources for in-service training on schoolsite and community resources for the support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) pupils, and strategies to increase support for LGBTQ pupils, as specified.
This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop resources or, as appropriate, update existing resources, for supports and community resources for the support of parents, guardians, and families of LGBTQ pupils and strategies to increase support for LGBTQ pupils, as specified.
(2) Existing law prohibits discrimination on the basis of, among other characteristics, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation in any program or activity conducted by an educational institution that receives, or benefits from, state financial assistance, or enrolls pupils who receive state student financial aid. Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt regulations to implement these provisions.
This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided.
The bill would prohibit employees or contractors of those educational entities from being required to make such a disclosure unless otherwise required by law, as provided. The bill would prohibit employees or contractors of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or the state special schools, or members of the governing boards or bodies of those educational entities, from retaliating or taking adverse action against an employee on the basis that the employee supported a pupil in the exercise of specified rights, work activities, or providing certain instruction, as provided.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Education in state government, and vests the department with specified powers and duties relating to the state’s public school system, including encouraging and assisting school districts to improve and monitor the health of their pupils. Existing law requires the department, as part of that assistance, to provide information and guidance to schools that request the information and guidance to establish “Health Days” to provide screenings for common health problems among pupils.
This bill would require the department to include county offices of education and charter schools in the above-described provisions. The bill would require the department to encourage school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to participate in programs that offer reimbursement for school-based health services and school-based mental health services, as provided.
A hearing was planned for 06/10/2024. We will keep our eyes on this!
MAJOR AMENDMENT TO SB 1446
SB 1446, as amended, Smallwood-Cuevas. Grocery establishment and retail drug establishment employees: self-service checkout and consequential workplace technology.
Existing law imposes certain requirements on grocery employers, as defined, upon the purchase or change in control of a grocery establishment, including requiring a successor grocery employer to retain eligible grocery workers for a specified period after transfer of the grocery establishment.
This bill would prohibit a grocery establishment or a retail drug establishment, as those terms are defined, from providing a self-service checkout option for customers unless specified conditions are satisfied, including having no more than 2 self-service checkout stations monitored by any one employee and requiring the employee to be relieved of all other duties.
The bill would require a grocery establishment or retail drug establishment that offers self-service checkout to include self-service checkout in the employer’s illness and prevention program, as required by Division of Occupational Safety and Health regulations.
The bill would require a grocery establishment or retail drug establishment that uses or procures a intends to implement consequential workplace technology, as defined, to complete a worker and customer impact assessment before using or procuring the consequential workplace technology. The bill would require the assessment to include, among other things, the salaries, benefits, jobs, and work hours that would be eliminated by the consequential workplace technology. The bill would require the grocery establishment or retail drug establishment to notify specified workers and their collective bargaining representative at least 60 days before conducting the assessment, to provide the assessment to specified employees or their collective bargaining representatives at least 60 days before implementation of the consequential workplace technology, and to post a copy of the assessment in a location accessible to its employees and customers before, and for at least 90 days following, implementation of the consequential workplace technology. to notify workers, their collective bargaining representatives, and the public 60 days in advance with a general description of the technology and the intended purpose for the technology.
Passed the Senate on 05/21/2024, major amendment in Assembly on 06/06/2024
Hearing: Jun 19 @ 1:30 pm in State Capitol, Room 447
AB 2236, as amended, Bauer-Kahan. Solid waste: reusable grocery bags: standards: plastic film prohibition.
Existing law prohibits a store, as defined, from providing a single-use carryout bag, as defined, to a customer, with specified exceptions, including an exemption for bags used to contain unwrapped food. Existing law requires a reusable grocery bag sold by a store to a customer at the point of sale to be made by a certified reusable grocery bag producer and to meet specified requirements with regard to the bag’s durability, material, labeling, heavy metal content, and, with regard to reusable grocery bags made from plastic film, recycled material content.
Existing law prohibits a producer of reusable grocery bags made from plastic film from selling or distributing those bags unless the producer is certified by a third-party certification entity, and provides proof of that certification and a certification fee to the department, as specified. Existing law also prohibits a store from selling or distributing a recycled paper bag at the point of sale unless the store makes that bag available for purchase for not less than $0.10.
Existing law defines “recycled paper bag,” in part, as a paper carryout bag that contains a minimum of 40% postconsumer recycled materials, except as provided, and meets other requirements. Existing law allows a retail establishment to voluntarily comply with these requirements, if the retail establishment provides the department with irrevocable notice.
This bill would, commencing January 1, 2026, revise and recast those provisions to, among other things, revise the single-use carryout bag exception to include a bag provided to a customer before the customer reaches the point of sale, that is designed to protect a purchased item from damaging or contaminating other purchased items in a checkout bag, or to contain an unwrapped food item, as specified.
The bill would revise the definition of “recycled paper bag” to require it be made from a minimum of 50% postconsumer recycled materials on and after January 1, 2028, without exception. The bill would also require a reusable grocery bag sold by a store to a customer at the point of sale to meet different requirements, including that it not be made from plastic film material. The bill would also repeal the provisions relating to certification of reusable grocery bags, and would repeal a provision relating to certain obsolete at-store recycling program requirements. The bill would make related conforming changes.
Passed the Assembly on 05/21/2024, Senate hearing postponed on 06/06/2024
AB 2208, as amended, Zbur. Offshore wind energy projects: bond act. California Ports Development and Offshore Wind Infrastructure Bond Act of 2024.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to evaluate and quantify the maximum feasible capacity of offshore wind generation to achieve reliability, ratepayer, employment, and decarbonization benefits and to develop a strategic plan for offshore wind energy developments installed off the California coast in federal waters, as specified.
Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 2/3 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters.
This bill would enact the California Ports Development and Offshore Wind Infrastructure Bond Act of 2024, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $ 1,000,000,000, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to support activities related to the development of offshore wind energy generation, as provided.
This bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the next statewide election.
SB 1169, as amended, Stern (D). Los Angeles County Flood Control District: finances.
Introduced February 14, 2024, Engrossed on May 9, 2024 (50% progression)
Existing law, the Los Angeles County Flood Control Act, establishes the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and authorizes the district to control and conserve the flood, storm, and other wastewaters of the district. Existing law authorizes the district to borrow money from certain entities for any flood control work authorized under the act and to repay the same, in annual installments, over a period not to exceed 20 years with an interest at a rate not to exceed 4.25% per annum.
Existing law requires the district to annually levy a tax upon the taxable real property of the district clearly sufficient to pay the interest and installments of principal for those loans. Existing law limits the total amount the district may borrow not to exceed in the aggregate the sum of $4,500,000. Existing law also limits the total amount of bonds or other evidence of indebtedness in the aggregate that the district may issue and sell to not exceed $4,500,000.
This bill would instead authorize the district to borrow money or obtain loan guarantees from those entities and to repay the same over a period not to exceed 35 years with interest at a rate not to exceed 5.5% annually. The bill would instead authorize the district to levy a tax, in compliance with the applicable provisions of Article XIII C of the California Constitution, clearly sufficient to pay the interest and installments of principal for those loans. The bill would also delete the limits on the amount the district may borrow and the total amount of bonds or other evidence of indebtedness that the district may issue and sell.
Passed the Senate on 05/09/2024, in Assembly Committee 06/03/2024
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