Capitol News & Notes
For Clients & Friends of The Gualco Group, Inc.
IN THIS ISSUE – “Do we need to reflect? Absolutely. But the numbers don’t lie, the Senate Republican Caucus still fits into a minivan”
State Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire on California voters’ baby step to the right
- Legislature Opens for Business to Fiscal Challenges, Voter Cost-of-Living Woes & Limit on New Bills
- State Dem Leaders Assess “Painful” Election Impact
- Historic Milestone: 59 of 120 State Lawmakers are Women
- Legislative Magic! Nearly Half of All Bills Just Disappear Without Public Debate
- US EPA Voices Rare Support for Tribes in Delta Water Management
- Newsom’s Central Valley Jobs Plan Gets Mixed Reviews
- Color of the Year for 2025 is…
The Gualco Group’s Capitol News & Notes (CN&N) curates California policy, legislative and regulatory insights from dozens of media and official sources for the past week. Please feel free to forward this unique client service.
FOR THE WEEK ENDING DEC. 6, 2024
Opens for Business to Fiscal Challenges, Voter Cost-of-Living Woes & Limit on New Bills
CalMatters, Sacramento Bee
The Assembly and Senate gaveled in the special session — then quickly adjourned until Jan. 6 — without taking any action. Budget writers did file initial bills, including the Senate version that includes $25 million for deportation legal services and $10 million for cities and counties, on top of the $25 million sought by Newsom for the state Department of Justice.
In a brief chat with reporters afterwards, Newsom tried to cast the session as a sensible effort to prepare for a potential onslaught from Trump. The governor acknowledged that the courts have shifted to the right since the first Trump administration, which could challenge California’s litigation strategy, but suggested there was no alternative.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas warned lawmakers that “Californians are deeply anxious” and “don’t feel that the state of California is working for them.”
said he heard two distinct messages from California voters in the last election.
“First, they continue to believe deeply in the California values of tolerance, equality, and human rights,” he said, referring to voters’ passage of a constitutional amendment enshrining marriage freedom.
But Californians are also “deeply anxious” about the cost of living and doing business in the state. The speaker said it’s a feeling he remembers “in the pit of my stomach from my own childhood” growing up in a tiny farming community.
“Our task this session is clear,” he told members of the Assembly. “We must chart a new path forward and renew the California Dream by focusing on affordability.”
Rivas also said he would be directing leaders of relevant legislative committees to investigate rising energy costs and review every state agency that oversees housing supply.
The remarks by Rivas, one of the most powerful elected officials in California, serve as an acknowledgment of Democrats’ struggle to win voters over on the economy.
Post-election, Gov. Gavin Newsom has also visited areas of the state that are struggling economically.
Senate President pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, echoed Rivas’ concern, saying state leaders “must double down on our efforts to make life more affordable and livable. Make our economy work for all, not just a privileged few.”
Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher, R-Nicolaus, said he hoped the sentiment from the leaders was genuine. “Talk is cheap,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that the only way we can do that is to course correct the policies that have been championed by Democrats in the last 10 years.”
Gallagher pointed to a recent vote by air regulators to tighten the state’s fuel standard, which could make gasoline even more expensive in California.
New bills: Among the first to be introduced addresses the awkward timing of lawmakers taking the oath of office Monday before their election victories have been officially certified. Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Palo Alto Democrat, wants to provide more resources and guidance to county election offices to speed up California’s notoriously slow count.
All 10 Republican senators backed a bill to repeal the low-carbon fuel standard adopted last month by the California Air Resources Board that could increase prices at the pump. Meanwhile, the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus announced a proposal to lower gas prices by requiring the air board to approve a fuel blend with more ethanol.
Also, reparations backers aren’t giving up after a mixed record for bills last sessionand the defeat of Proposition 6 to ban forced labor in prisons. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Culver City Democrat, is introducing a bill to allow California State University and University of California campuses to give admissions preferences to descendants of slaves.
Bill limit: Legislators will have to pick their bills more carefully. After years of complaints that there are just too many to fully vet and debate, legislative leaders proposed — and the rank and file approved — a limit of 35 each for the two-year session. That’s down from 50 in the Assembly and 40 in the Senate.
And the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal adviser released its annual outlook, projecting a small deficit that could soon grow into much larger deficits and warning that the state has no capacity for new spending commitments. Legislative leaders endorsed that message, urging restraint and a focus on protecting existing services.
But Newsom still has big, expensive ideas — especially as California gears up for another Trump administration in which the governor is positioning to “lead the resistance.”
He already said that if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on plans to eliminate a federal tax credit for electric vehicles, Newsom will propose reviving an expired state rebate program.
The governor previously floated creating a reserve for catastrophes in case Trump denies emergency aid to California and, unrelated to the president, doubling the state’s film and television production tax credit.
That’s potentially billions of dollars in additional spending — before we even get Newsom’s full budget pitch in January.
Funding for the electric vehicles rebate, at least, would come from California’s cap-and-trade program for large greenhouse gas emitters, a different pot of money than the general tax revenue stream that fiscal officials say is currently tapped out.
But any new programs, at a time when California is facing looming deficits, would likely have to be offset by cuts elsewhere to keep the state’s nearly $300 billion budget balanced.
While Newsom’s Department of Finance says he’s got a plan to keep everything in check — which he must share publicly by Jan. 10 — his solutions could come into conflict with the Legislature. Lawmakers, who must send Newsom a budget by June 15, will have their own priorities on which state programs to protect and, taking the governor’s lead, perhaps their own ideas for new spending.
Governor’s special session announcement:
LAO fiscal 2025 assessment:
https://www.lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4907
State Dem Leaders Assess “Painful” Election Impact
CalMatters
The leaders of the state Legislature have a message for voters: We know you’re frustrated with how expensive California is — and we’re going to fix it.
After a painful election that sparked recriminations and soul-searching among Democrats across the country, state Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas are returning to Sacramento recommitted to addressing the affordability issues that appear to have pushed more voters toward the Republican Party in November.
McGuire and Rivas told CalMatters in separate interviews that the priority will be advancing policies that lower the cost of living for working Californians, including by building more housing, making energy cheaper and improving public infrastructure.
The Assembly Democrat caucus defended all of its incumbents but picked up none of the Republican districts it targeted and lost two open seats that had previously been held by Democrats.
The Senate majority caucus also failed to flip its target districts, and members are fuming after a union ally helped the GOP take out one of their own, the first sitting Senate Democrat to lose in a presidential election in more than four decades.
It was the best showing in a decade for legislative Republicans — all the more remarkable because Trump, who California Democrats have successfully used as a foil for years, was on the ballot.
The party has celebrated it as proof that voters are fed up with how the Democrats in charge have handled affordability, homelessness and crime.
“As Californians grow increasingly frustrated with the failures of Democrat leadership, they are shifting toward Republican solutions,” Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones of San Diego said in a statement last week.
Democrats nevertheless maintain total control in Sacramento, including 60 out of 80 seats in the Assembly and 30 out of 40 seats in the Senate. McGuire and Rivas insist those results refute the notion that they have fallen out of step with what Californians want.
Rivas called it a “clear mandate” for Democrats — to focus on the issues that matter to voters, prove they are serious about governing and follow through with better outcomes.
“No, I don’t think we are out of touch,” he said. “It’s not about changing who we are, but it’s about changing our approach to addressing these many challenges.”
McGuire was even more resolute that legislative Democrats had won in a landslide.
“Do we need to reflect? Absolutely. But the numbers don’t lie,” he said. “The Senate Republican Caucus still fits into a minivan.”
Meanwhile, the Republican caucus in California’s Legislature is growing more diverse as Latino and Asian American candidates apparently flipped three Democrat-held seats, including unseating an incumbent Democrat senator for the first time in a presidential election since 1980.
“As Californians grow increasingly frustrated with the failures of Democrat leadership, they are shifting toward Republican solutions,” Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones said in a statement. “Senate Republicans are not only growing in numbers but also diversity.”
The Republican caucus is on pace to have at least 50% nonwhite members for the first time, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database. As it stands, based on unofficial results, 13 of the 27 legislative Republicans are not white. The caucus could become more than half nonwhite, depending on the outcome of two pending special elections in solidly Republican districts. Two Asian American Republicans, Sen. Janet Nguyen and Assemblymember Vince Fong, won election for other offices earlier this month, leaving their seats vacant.
Jones’ statement noted that six of the Senate’s 10 Republicans are women and three of the women are Latino.
There are other signs that a shift may be occurring.
Christian Grose, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said surveys of nonwhite voters in urban areas of California still show they are solidly Democratic.
But in rural or suburban areas, he said there’s been a shift toward the Republican Party from nonwhite voters, particularly men and people without college degrees, that could have a noticeable impact on future elections.
“In California, the winning strategy for a Republican in these districts would be to run candidates who are ethnically diverse and represent their communities,” he said. “But the coalition for the Republicans is actually probably a white-voter majority in many of these districts like the Central Valley, plus some Latino voters.”
Mike Madrid, a longtime Republican consultant with expertise in Latino politics, took it further. He has called the election a “five-alarm fire” for Democrats. He sees the election as a sign that the racial-identity politics that defined the previous generation’s political affiliations are fading away.
“The idea that race and ethnicity are cornerstones of our political beliefs will become an outmoded concept,” Madrid said. “It was definitive for the past generation, and now it will be a relic of the past. … The bigger issue here that the Democratic Party has to understand is there’s a class problem, and that … a multiracial, (multi)ethnic working class is emerging in the country.”
Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, a Republican from Rancho Santa Margarita, said the election proved that Latinos like her “feel unseen and unheard by the current majority in the state.”
She said it’s no coincidence that Gov. Newsom has been touring majority Latino counties since the election, touting his economic policies.
“I think he sees the writing on the wall and he realizes, ‘California, this is a new dawn,’ ” she said. “This is a new chapter in California history and California politics, and he’s wanting to get in good graces. However, we’ve all had to deal with the fallout of his administration and the extreme policies, and so I don’t think people are buying it.”
And:
https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/11/california-republicans-legislative-diversity/
Historic Milestone: 59 of 120 State Lawmakers are Women
San Jose Mercury
When new state lawmakers were sworn in on Monday, California’s legislature hit a historic milestone: 59 of its 120 members are women.
That means women comprise 49% of the state’s legislature, or exactly one seat shy of gender parity. More than half (34) of the female legislators represent parts of Southern California, and nearly a quarter come from Orange County.
Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, first elected in 2012, said her experience living as a woman has guided her at the decision-making table.
“I’ve always looked through the lens of how things are going to impact women,” she said. “And I think I’ve always been looking through the lens of average working families, what are the impacts for them … child care, and of course, cost of groceries and gas.”
The longtime Orange County lawmaker said she was often the only woman in the room, starting when she served on the Fullerton City Council.
“And then, when I headed to the state, at that point, I believe there were 20 women (in the legislature), but only about five Latino women. So it was predominantly very male-dominated,” said Quirk-Silva. “Over the last 12 years, we’ve definitely seen that change.”
Quirk-Silva said issues that affect women on a larger scale, such as reproductive rights and childcare, need women’s voices at the table.
“I think the biggest issue we’re going to hear a lot about, and we have heard previously, but have not seen the impact we need, is on childcare,” she said. “I’m a first-time grandma. And I’m seeing the choices (women) have, and how they have to juggle … when a child gets sick and having to stay home.
“I think with the amount of women (legislators) we have, we’re going to see more work in that space.”
Assemblymember Laurie Davies also stressed the importance of ensuring women’s voices are heard at the legislative level.
Davies, a Laguna Niguel Republican who first was elected in 2020, has introduced legislation aimed primarily at women, including protecting victims of domestic violence and ensuring coverage for medical treatment connected to perimenopause and menopause. She’s also backed efforts to expand eligibility for subsidized childcare.
“This election, California voters sent a clear message that more balance and bipartisanship is needed from their legislators,” Davies said.
“Women from diverse backgrounds were elected because of their qualifications and commitment to ensure that our lived experiences will shape how our state creates a path forward on issues like healthcare access, equal pay for equal work, and creating safe vibrant communities.”
Legislative Magic! Nearly Half of All Bills Just Disappear Without Public Debate
CalMatters
Of the 2,403 bills that died in the recent two-year session, CalMatters’ Digital Democracy data found just 25 failed because a majority of lawmakers voted “no.”
Most of the remaining bills disappeared through procedural tactics that leave little trace of responsibility for the policy decisions. Rather than vote no, lawmakers typically find ways to sideline bills they don’t want, causing them to fail when they don’t meet procedural deadlines.
“Allowing bills to die behind closed doors for reasons that are never made known publicly runs contrary to the purposes of having an open, transparent and accountable government,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause.
Lawmakers introduce nearly 5,000 bills each two-year session and nearly all that proceed to a public hearing or floor vote will pass. As Digital Democracy reported earlier, Democratic legislators voted no less than 0.5% of the time in 2024. They sent 2,252 bills to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who vetoed 189 of them, more than seven times as many as the Legislature voted down.
Bills can disappear in various ways:
- The number of bills that died through the notorious “suspense file” was 1,045. That’s where the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees send bills that the ruling party would like to avoid, either for cost or for political reasons.
- The number of bills that disappeared because a committee chair never brought them up for a hearing totaled 668, while another 274 had at least one hearing, but were not taken up by a second committee or by the floor.
- Twenty-seven bills died because a majority of legislators did not vote, which counts the same as a vote against the bill.
- There were 364 bills withdrawn by authors.
MORE:
https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/12/failed-bills-california/
US EPA Voices Rare Support for Tribes in Delta Water Management
Sacramento Bee
The US Environmental Protection Agency urged California water regulators to protect tribal cultural practices in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta, the troubled heart of the state’s water supply.
Comments to the State Water Resources Control Board by EPA Regional Administrator Martha Guzman at a hearing Tuesday marked rare federal intervention into state water politics as regulators weigh options to regulate how much water stays in the estuary. “The EPA strongly supports the proposal in the draft plan to designate tribal cultural uses throughout the Bay Delta watershed,” Guzman said, referring to subsistence fishing. “This proposal recognizes the centrality of vital fish populations to many California tribes.”
Guzman also challenged a proposal spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom to let water users voluntarily cut back on their use with limited oversight.
The Bay-Delta watershed is crucial to California’s water supply, which supports agricultural, urban, and ecological needs. But it is facing an ecological crisis as water quality and river flows drop and some species dwindle.
A century of dams and water diversions has led native fish in California to experience sharp and prolonged declines, according to regulators. Among the threatened and endangered fish are the winter-run Chinook salmon and tiny Delta smelt.
A coalition of environmental groups and tribes filed a civil rights complaint with the EPA. Inadequate water quality standards have allowed the region to deteriorate, they allege, primarily burdening Native Californians who depend on fish for food and cultural preservation.
California water regulators are weighing several controversial options for the Delta’s future. The water board is undergoing a contentious process to update a regulatory framework intended to protect water quality and ecosystem health in the region.
Several options of a draft Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan would require minimum amounts of water to remain in rivers and streams, forcing water suppliers and other users to cut back on how much they divert from the Delta for people and farms.
Another option is a controversial pact that Newsom reached last year with major water suppliers, called ‘Voluntary Agreements,’ who volunteered to surrender some water and help restore habitat in the watershed.
A coalition of water suppliers, mainly public water agencies distributing water to farms and cities, support the voluntary cutbacks.
They say the proposal strikes a balance between offering environmental protections and providing certainty to businesses. Guzman’s comments also challenged a proposal spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom that would allow water users to voluntarily cut back with limited oversight.
If regulators move forward with Newsom’s plan, Guzman called for additional accountability and oversight. The water board “must develop robust and transparent accounting and monitoring program, one that is overseen by the board and not water users,” she said.
Environmentalists have been concerned the option does not provide enough water for fish and wildlife.
Paywall:
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article296512939.html#storylink=cpy
Newsom’s Central Valley Jobs Plan Gets Mixed Reviews
Sacramento Bee
Experts were mixed on the potential effectiveness of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new plan to promote higher-paying jobs in the Central Valley, where the economy hasn’t seen the sort of growth other parts of California have enjoyed.
Newsom on Monday made the second of three planned appearances in the Central Valley to tout his “California Jobs First” plan, which his office expects to publish in the new year.
He announced the initiative last week as part of an effort to bolster higher-paying jobs in areas like the Sierra-San Joaquin area where he appeared last week that have not reaped the benefits of California’s overall booming economy.
Appearing from the National Cement Plan in Kern County, the governor pledged $120 million in competitive state grants to bolster job-creating projects but offered few other specifics beyond previously available regional reports.
His office said in a statement it would publish its larger economic blueprint “early next year” as part of the statewide effort to bolster “clean economy” jobs in the wind, solar, and carbon management sectors.
But Mark Baldassare, survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California, said the impact of economic policies such as the blueprint initiative often take years to transpire. He compared Newsom’s plan to the Inflation Reduction Act, a Democratic-authored congressional effort that President Joe Biden signed in 2022. It aimed to stabilize soaring food and gas costs, which have since eased.
“Unless we go into some kind of economic boom in the next 12 months, when we’re talking about doing things that will create change, from a policy perspective, it can take a year or longer,” Baldassare said.
“He’s got a couple more years left as governor. (There) could be a difference by the time his tenure ends.” Newsom’s term ends in 2026 and he can’t run for governor that year.
He is taking steps that suggest he’s considering a run for higher office. Sen. Roger Niello, a Fair Oaks Republican and frequent Newsom critic, derided the recent economic initiative announcement as political course-correction in the wake of Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump and Newsom’s low approval ratings.
“Clearly the governor is concerned that 10 counties in California that previously voted blue, voted red this time,” Niello said, referring to the gains that Trump made in the Nov. 6 election.
Newsom appeared last week in Fresno alongside former mayor and Central Valley Community Foundation president Ashley Swearengin to announce the Sierra San Joaquin Jobs Initiative. The initiative, a draft of which was published in August, calls for the state to invest $58 billion in the area over the next 20 years.
Paywall:
https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article296196454.html#storylink=cpy
“Knock Off the Fighting, Kids” – Commentator’s Advice to Legislative Leaders
San Francisco Chronicle commentary
Since California leaders are behaving like children, I’m going to address them the way I talk to my three sons on long car trips:
Knock off the stupid fighting, kids. This is going to be a very hard journey, so we must stick together.
The problem starts at the Capitol with top Democrats: Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas of Hollister, Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire of Healdsburg and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
This election year, with California in the spotlight as Kamala Harris struggled to surmount our state’s reputation for dysfunction during her campaign for president, you three wasted time battling with your caucuses and each other. Things got so bad that Pulitzer-winning Sacramento Bee columnist Tom Philp called the three of you “independent autocrats as opposed to a functioning team of Democrats.”
You couldn’t get on the same page on crises, from home insurance denials to soaring electricity costs. You failed to compromise meaningfully with cities and law enforcement on retail crime, allowing a retrograde ballot initiative, Proposition 36, to sail to victory. You played stupid political games that delayed the governor’s special session on gas price spikes.
This can’t go on.
Mike, I understand that you are new to your role and that you can score points with your diverse caucus by taking shots at the governor. But, as the state defends itself against Washington, your new rule should be that you won’t speak ill of anyone who does not work for Donald Trump.
Robert, everyone knows that your caucus is still divided from your long campaign to become speaker. You need to befriend more of your critics and send your brother-adviser Rick, a bully who hurts your relationships, on a four-year vacation.
As for you, Gavin, while I really appreciate the work you’ve done since the election — calling a special session to boost the anti-Trump fight, traveling to D.C., reaching out to other states to build a coalition to protect vulnerable policies — it’s not enough.
Because right now, lawmakers (and even some of your own staff) see you as this guy who runs around talking to VIPs before swooping in with some grand plan at the last second. You need to work constantly with legislators, building the real relationships necessary to turn the Capitol into one cohesive team. If Capitol Democrats can get along fabulously, it’d set an example for Democratic interest groups, who are engaged in their own circular firing squad.
And since California will need tight collaboration between state and local governments to protect vulnerable people, especially migrants, state officials should dial down attacks on locals over homelessness and housing. Governor, you might start with a statewide local peace summit in San Jose and end your feuds with former Mayor Sam Liccardo and new Mayor Matt Mahan.
Let me be clear: Peacemaking doesn’t mean staying silent when you disagree or see wrongdoing. Quite the opposite. California’s state and local leaders should be meeting constantly — I’d suggest a daily “war Zoom” and weekly in-person barbecues at one of the governor’s big houses — to discuss every concern and grievance in this terrible moment. But please keep those disagreements private, and leave the conflict-stoking to media provocateurs like this columnist.
One last suggestion. As you come together, please remember that you’re going to have to do more than parry federal attacks or fight a common enemy in Trump. You’re almost certainly going to have to remake our state and build new structures.
Why? Because, as Trump’s cabinet of conspiracists and Fox News personalities suggests, the new federal administration is going to dismantle agencies that do vital governance.
California, as the richest state, is going to have to replace that governance to save lives. And that may require extraordinary actions. Like using local police to stop rights-violating federal law enforcement.
Or hiring the thousands of scientists and doctors Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chases out of the National Institutes of Health or Food and Drug Administration.
Or building a “United States Within the United States” with friendly state governments, from Oregon to New Jersey, to stand up shadow federal agencies.
Paywall:
Color of the Year for 2025 is…
Pantone selects a color each year that captures the global zeitgeist—the Color of the Year express a global mood and an attitude, reflecting collective desire in the form of a single, distinct hue.