Yesterday was the final day for Govenor Newsom to act on legislation for the 2019 year.  In his final action, the Governor vetoed many bills he noted that may have high cost pressures.  Unfortunatley, many of his final actions will put more burdens on working families and those struggling with homelessness and poverty.  Below are the final outcomes since last Monday of some high profile bills.

•  AB 197 (Weber) - Full-day kindergarten.  VETO MESSAGE
• AB 734 (Maienschein) - Resource families: supportive servies pilot program. VETO MESSAGE
• AB 751 (O'Donnell) - Pathways to College Act.  VETO MESSAGE
• AB 842 (Limon) - Child nutrition: school, childcare, and preschool meals. VETO MESSAGE
• AB 865 (Reyes) - Resource families: training.  CHAPTERED.
• SB 24 (Leyva) - Public health: public university student health centers: abortion by medication techniques. CHAPTERED
• SB 328 (Portantino) -  Later school start times.  CHAPTERED.
• SB 365 (Durazo) CalWORKs: immediate needs assistance.  VETO MESSAGE

Building on the state's historic actions and investments this year to tackle the housing affordability crisis, Governor Gavin Newsom today signed 18 bills designed to help jumpstart housing production. Included was SB 330, major legislation aimed at removing local barriers to housing construction and speeding up new development.

"Since taking office in January, my Administration has been urgently focused on California's housing affordability crisis," said Governor Newsom. "The high cost of housing and rent is putting the squeeze on family budgets, and our housing shortage threatens our economic growth and long-term prosperity."

"In 2019, California has taken urgent action to address this challenge. We've invested more in new housing than at any point in our history, and we have created powerful new tools to incentivize housing production. Now, we are removing some key local barriers to housing production. This crisis has been more than a half century in the making, and this Administration is just getting started on solutions," added Governor Newsom.

October 9, at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, the Governor signed SB 113 by the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, which will enable the transfer of $331 million in state funds to the National Mortgage Special Deposit Fund, and establishes the Legislature's intent to create a trust to manage these funds to provide an ongoing source of funding for borrower relief and legal aid to vulnerable homeowners and renters. This follows the Governor's proposal  in August to provide a new, sustainable, ongoing source of funding for legal aid for renters and homeowners through local nonprofits, and builds on the state budget's additional $20 million in legal assistance to help California renters fight unjust evictions.

November 2020 Eligible Statewide Ballot Measures 

1840. (17-0044, Amdt.#1)
Restricts Parole for Non-Violent Offenders. Authorizes Felony Sentences for Certain Offenses Currently Treated Only as Misdemeanors. Initiative Statute. )

1851. (17-0055, Amdt.#1)
Requires Certain Commercial and Industrial Real Property to be Taxed Based on Fair-Market Value. Dedicates Portion of Any Increased Revenue to Education and Local Services. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

Link to initiative page.

Attorney General Information: Initiative and Referendum Proposals Pending Review By Attorney General

The following are initiative that are active measures:

Upcoming Senate, Assembly, and Presidential Elections:

 

Register to Vote here!

California's March 2020 primary ballot will ask voters whether to approve the largest school bond in the state's history.

If approved, the $15 billion bond Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Monday would fund construction and modernization projects at all levels: preschools, K-12, community colleges and the UC and CSU systems.

It's the largest school construction bond in the state's history. And it's a sharp shift from former Gov. Jerry Brown, who sought to pay down bond debt and oppose or reduce new bonds for school, housing and water projects.

Brown declined to address this specific bond when asked about it  in a recent CapRadio interview. But he did point out that bond and pension debts must be paid before regular state spending - "come hell or high water."

Link to full article.

Click here to see the 2019-20 Budget materials, details and reference documents.

The House and Senate have proposed investing dramatically different amounts into the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). The House has proposed investing an additional $2.4 billion in the program while the Senate has proposed a $25 million increase. The House's proposal would provide an additional 301,000 children with child care assistance while the Senate's proposal would cause 40,500 children to lost child care subsidies because the $25 million increase is lower than inflation. This factsheet is our state-by-state analysis of the number of children served by these starkly different CCDBG investments.

Link to article.

Link to fact sheet.

Related:  Which Federal Programs Will Be Funded? Tracking the FY20 Congressional Budget

The Senate Appropriations Committee proposes to cut  2020 funding for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education by  $2.7 billion below the 2019 level in inflation-adjusted terms, even though the President and Congress agreed this summer to increase overall non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding for 2020.

Moreover, the bill increases funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), so other priorities that the bill funds - including helping families afford child care and improve their children's opportunities, strengthening workers' skills, improving health and education, and administering Social Security - face a cut of nearly $4.3 billion after adjusting for inflation, which would worsen shortfalls in some areas that already face serious funding gaps. The House, which provided a larger share of its overall increased funding for NDD for 2020 to Labor-HHS-Education programs, offers a far better approach.

This cut, along with the bill's increase for NIH, means that it underfunds a wide range of programs that improve the quality of life for millions:

• Child care and Head Start. The bill ignores the need for substantial additional investments in early learning, reducing the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Head Start by nearly 2 percent ($104 million for CCDBG and $196 million for Head Start) relative to the 2019 level in inflation-adjusted terms. Child care should be an investment priority, especially because current funding falls  well short of need. Only about 1 in 6 children who qualified for child care assistance under federal eligibility rules in 2015 received it due to funding shortfalls, and in 2017 the program assisted 450,000 fewer children than in 2006.
  
  
• Family planning. The bill would cut funding for Title X family planning by over 2 percent, after adjusting for inflation. Coming on top of many previous years of cuts, it would leave Title X funding 25 percent below the 2010 level, after adjusting for inflation. Also, whereas the House-passed Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill would block the Trump Administration from implementing its February 2019 regulations excluding many qualified safety net family planning clinics from Title X, the Senate bill doesn't address the issue. These regulations likely would significantly reduce access to essential family planning and other health care services for low-income women and men.

• K-12 education. The bill would cut funding for one of the largest federal sources of K-12 funding - Title I for disadvantaged students - by $388 million or more than 2 percent after adjusting for inflation. Education funding for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act would also face a cut in inflation-adjusted terms.

• Job training. The bill would continue the trend of underinvesting in job training by reducing funding for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act job training grants for states and localities by over 2 percent, after adjusting for inflation. The total cut since 2010 would grow to 22 percent in inflation-adjusted terms.

• Social Security Administration (SSA). The bill would cut SSA's operating budget by $270 million or more than 2 percent, after adjusting for inflation. SSA's operating budget fell by nearly 11 percent between 2010 and 2019 in inflation-adjusted terms, even as the number of beneficiaries grew by 17 percent. This disinvestment has forced the agency to close field offices, shorten office hours, and shrink its staff, undermining customer service as costs and workloads grow.

Link to full article.