2003 Whatever Happened To...

Prior Session Bill Status

This is a summary of significant bills that FCL is following in the current legislative session. The full list of bills, text and history of each bill may be found by consulting the FCL website or by contacting the author’s staff. To express your views on legislation, please write to the governor, your state senator, and your assembly member, with a copy to the bill’s author at “State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814.” You may find out who your legislators are by consulting the State Government pages of your local telephone directory.

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Bills are displayed in numeric order by the catagories below:

Budget and Revenue
Capital Punishment
Children and Youth
Criminal Justice and Imprisonment
Equality and Nondiscrimination
Health Care
Housing

Budget and Revenue

AB 122 (Ronald Calderon, D., Montebello) extends the Manufacturers Investment Tax Credit to January, 2009. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Appropriations Committee.

ACA 1 (John Longville, D., San Bernardino) amends the state constitution to require a simple majority vote of both houses to approve the state budget. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Budget Committee.

AB 1815 (Wilma Chan, D., Oakland) restores the top personal income tax rates for incomes over $130,000 ($260,000 for joint returns). FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Rules Committee.

ACA 14 (Darrell Steinberg, D., Sacramento) authorizes local governments to impose special taxes for infrastructure, including affordable housing, with approval of 55 percent of voters. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Inactive File.

ACA 16 (Loni Hancock, D., Berkeley) and SB 17 (Martha Escutia, D., Norwalk) close loopholes that allow commercial property owners to structure change-of-ownership transactions to avoid property reassessment. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee and Assembly Inactivev File, respectively.

SCA 11 (Alarcón, D., Sun Valley) authorizes local governments to issue general obligation bonds and impose special taxes for infrastructure, including affordable housing, with the approval of a majority of voters. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Constitutional Amendments Committee.

Capital Punishment

AB 874 (Mark Wyland, R., Del Mar) adds to the list of death eligible “special circumstances” murders where the victim was protected under a restraining order. FCL OPPOSES. Failed passage in Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 1440 (Guy Houston, R., Livermore) and SB 880 (Roy Ashburn, R., Bakersfield) create a new, death-eligible special circumstance when the defendant intentionally kills a victim who was under age 14. FCL OPPOSES. Failed passage in Assembly Public Safety and Senate Public Safety Committees, respectively.

SB 3 (John Burton, D., San Francisco) conforms California law to the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that executing persons who are mentally retarded is unconstitutional and requires the prosecution to prove that a defendant is not mentally retarded. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

Children and Youth

AB 490 (Darrell Steinberg, D., Sacramento) declares the Legislature's intent to ensure that pupils in foster care and those who are homeless have a meaningful opportunity to meet state academic achievement standards and requires school districts to accept for credit full or partial coursework satisfactorily completed. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 993 (Mark Ridley-Thomas, D., Los Angeles) establishes the Youth Gang Violence Task Force to study gang-related homicides in California. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 1792 (Leland Yee, D., San Francisco) expands the definition of “harmful matter to children” to include electronic video games that enables the player to virtually inflict serious injury upon human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Rules Committee.

AB 1793 (Leland Yee, D., San Francisco) requires electronic video game retailers to display video games rated with mature or adults-only content in separate areas and at a height of not less than five feet. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Rules Committee.

AB 1796 (Mark Leno, D., San Francisco) provides that persons convicted of a drug felony will be eligible to receive food stamps. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Rules Committee.

Criminal Justice and Imprisonment

AB 112 (Jackie Goldberg, D., Los Angeles) would limit “three strikes” sentencing enhancements to serious and violent felonies and provides a procedure for those persons sentenced to indeterminate sentences to be re-sentenced. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Inactive File.

AB 168 (Bill Maze, R., Visalia) establishes a pilot program for Tulare County to utilize its jail facilities to detain prisoners sentenced from other states. FCL OPPOSES. Failed passage in Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 230 (Mark Leno, D., San Francisco) as amended, provides that contracts to provide telephone services to prisoners and wards of the Youth Authority shall be awarded on the basis of the lowest costs to prisoners, wards and their families. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Assembly Appropriations Safety Committee.

AB 280 (Abel Maldonado, R., Santa Maria) provides that prisoners who do not receive a parole date after their initial parole hearing would not be eligible for another parole review for five years. FCL OPPOSES. FCL OPPOSES. Failed passage in Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 289 (George Plescia, R., San Diego) and SB 38 (Jeff Denham, R., Salinas)would allow organ donors, when applying for a drivers license, to designate that their organs may not be donated to people who are incarcerated. FCL OPPOSES. Held in Assembly Health Committee and Senate Health and failed passage in Human Services Committee, respectively.

AB 384 (Tim Leslie, R., Tahoe City) directs the Department of Corrections and the Youth Authority to adopt regulations prohibiting tobacco in correctional facilities. FCL OPPOSES. Failed passage in Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 854 (Paul Koretz, D., West Hollywood) as amended, adds rehabilitation to the purpose of imprisonment in the Penal Code. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Floor.

AB 912 (Sarah Reyes, D., Fresno) limits deductions to 20 percent of the balance from prisoners’ trust accounts for transfer to the Victim Compensation Restitution Fund. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 1219 (Cindy Montanez, D., San Fernando) creates a statewide correctional education system and governing board to provide every inmate to provide every prisoner with access to educational and vocational programs. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

AB 1308 (Jackie Goldberg, D., Los Angeles) requires all local correctional facilities to develop plans to provide substance abuse and alcohol treatment for prisoners by January 1, 2007. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

AB 1580 (Dave Cogdill, R., Modesto) and SB 731 (James Brulte, R., Rancho Cucamonga) prohibits prisoners incarcerated in local correctional facilities from receiving workers' compensation benefits upon release for injuries incurred in work assignments while incarcerated. FCL OPPOSES. Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee and fSenate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, respectively.

AB 1760 (Committee on Budget) reduces deductions from prisoners’ trust accounts from 50 percent to 30 percent of the balance for transfer to the Victims’ Compensation Restitution Fund. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Concurrence. SB 4X 3 (Charles Poochigian, R., Fresno) prevents prisoners incarcerated at state and local correctional facilities from receiving workers’ compensation benefits. FCL OPPOSES, unless amended to allow prisoners to receive benefits for injuries that extend beyond the duration of a prison sentence or jail term. Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.

SB 206 (James Brulte, R., Rancho Cucamonga) establishes a pilot program at Pelican Bay State Prison to replace quarterly packages with an expanded canteen. FCL OPPOSES. Failed passage in Senate Public Safety Committee.

SB 299 (Pete Knight, R., Palmdale) would prohibit prisoners condemned to death from receiving donated organs. FCL OPPOSES. Failed passage in Senate Public Safety Committee.

SB 549 (John Vasconcellos, D., Santa Clara) requires the Department of Corrections to establish a skilled nursing community correctional facility for prisoners requiring skilled nursing services.FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

SB 587 (Roy Ashburn, R., Bakersfield) makes satisfactory participation in work release programs applicable to sentence reductions for prisoners in county correctional facilities. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Public Safety Committee.

SB 599 (Don Perata, D., Oakland) allows a judge to seal the arrest record of a defendant upon successful completion of a drug treatment program. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

SCA 8 (John Vasconcellos, D., Santa Clara) requires the Director of Corrections to evaluate each person incarcerated in the state prison, within 90 days of entry, with respect to his or her educational, vocational, and psychosocial development and requires programs that address each prisoner’s deficiencies. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Appropriations Committee.

Equality and Nondiscrimination

AB 196 (Mark Leno, D., San Francisco) expands the definition of sex discrimination in the Fair Employment and Housing Act to include discrimination based on gender. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 205 (Jackie Goldberg, D., Los Angeles) grants registered domestic partners same privileges and responsibilities as married couples. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 522 (Manny Diaz, D., San Jose) requires city and county officers and employees to accept identification cards issued by the Mexican Consulate for personal identification. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

AB 1383 (Herb Wesson, D., Culver City) requires the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training to provide law enforcement agencies with training materials regarding racial and cultural trends and requires law enforcement personnel to complete a refresher course every three years instead of every five years. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Inactive File.

SB 60 (Gil Cedillo, D., Los Angeles) allows applicants for a California Drivers License to provide either a federal taxpayer identification number or other acceptable form of identification in lieu of a social security number and repeals requirements that applicants must provide proof of citizenship or legal residency. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered but repealed by SBX3 1. SBX3 1 (Rico Oller, R., San Andreas) repeals SB 60 that allowed applicants for a California Driver’s License to provide either a federal taxpayer identification number or other acceptable form of identification in lieu of a social security number. FCL OPPOSES. Chaptered.

Health Care

AB 30 AB 30 (Keith Richman, R., Northridge) expands Healthy Families program by taxing HMO premiums and by obtaining federal matching funds. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB 101 (Wesley Chesbro, D., Arcata) requires health care service plans to provide substance abuse treatment when medically necessary. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Senate Insurance Committee.

SB 420 (John Vasconcellos, D., Santa Clara) establishes a voluntary identification card for each person in legitimate need of medical marijuana and their primary caregivers. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

SB 921 (Sheila Kuehl, D., Santa Monica) establishes the California Health Care System, a single payer, universal health care system that would negotiate and pay fees to health care providers. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Health Committee.

Housing

AB 994 (Dave Cox, R., Fair Oaks) requires that local jurisdictions count prison beds as affordable housing units to fulfill their affordable housing requirements. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Local Government Committee.

AB 1217 (Mark Leno, D., San Francisco) prohibits owners of single-room occupancy hotels from using the Ellis Act to evict all tenants and take the building off the market. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 1221 (Darrell Steinberg, D., Sacramento and John Campbell, R., Irvine) implements a formula for local governments to exchange a portion of their sales tax revenue for an equal amount of property tax revenue in order to encourage more housing construction. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Inactive File.

AB 1426 (Darrell Steinberg, D., Sacramento) establishes a pilot program in the Sacramento region to encourage local governments to enter into a joint powers agreement to increase the supply of low income housing. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Inactive FIle.

SB 744 (Joseph Dunn, D., Santa Ana) allows developers of affordable housing to appeal denials of construction permits to the Department of Housing and Community Development. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Floor.