To most of you, welcome back to work on this post-holiday Monday!
We hope you had a wonderful break, spent time with family, and (almost more importantly) ate loads of food.
Now it’s time we take an inventory of the nearly thousand new state laws that’ll ring in the New Year. Melody Gutierrez has the story in the SF Chronicle on California’s 930 new laws for 2015…
“Here’s a look at some of the new laws:
“Driver’s licenses: More than a million driver’s license applications from people living in the U.S. without documentation are expected under a law that passed in 2013, but goes into effect Jan. 1.”
“Sexual assault: Colleges and universities in California will be required to adopt policies against sexual assault that radically rewrite what constitutes consent as a condition of receiving state financial aid.”
“Birth to death: Birth certificates will receive a makeover in California to accommodate same-sex couples. Instead of being able to select only mother or father when identifying a parent, birth certificates will include “parent” as an option.”
A new state mandate, which has been hyped up as a “gas tax,” will also go into effect in the New Year. California’s green house gas emissions law will soon include transportation fuels, which Josh Richman at the San Jose Mercury News notes could make consumers see a ten-cent jump in gas prices:
“Opposition groups backed by the oil industry have claimed prices will rise 16 to 76 cents per gallon, although that's admittedly based on an underlying price of about $4 per gallon -- far higher than recent prices. A UC-Berkeley energy and economics expert says it'll be more like nine or ten cents per gallon, which supporters say isn't so high a price to pay for the environmental good it will do.”
“Some Democrats want to delay the program; most Republicans want to stop it entirely. But at present, there is little prospect of either happening, given the Brown administration's strong support of the program, which is enshrined in an eight-year-old law.”
Both parties want to alter the way new laws are crafted via the ballot initiative process. In the SF Chronicle, John Wildermuth reports:
“After more than a century in California’s political spotlight, the state’s initiative process will be getting a major revise next year. Even more surprising, both Democrats and Republicans in the famously partisan Legislature are happy to see it happen.”
“While Republicans made up most of the limited opposition when SB1253 made its way through the Legislature, the two GOP leaders, state Sen. Bob Huff of Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County) and Assembly member Kristin Olsen of Modesto, both voted “aye.””
Once a consumer advocate, the LA Times’ Melanie Mason reports that in 2015 Lenny Goldbgerg will set his sights on revamping California’s infamous Proposition 13 taxation rules…
“(Prop. 13) created a system in which taxes on land remain low while the tax on purchases of business equipment remains at market value. It should be the opposite, he said.”
“He churns out research reports to make his case. In the industrial parks of Silicon Valley, for example, the tax on recently purchased land can be $54,000 per acre, while nearby landowners pay $985 per acre.”
“"It's an irrational crazy-quilt pattern, wherever you look," he said.”
“Goldberg wants commercial property reassessed periodically to capture rising land value. To spur investment, he proposes eliminating taxes on business equipment. But commercial interests vehemently oppose treating their property differently from residential property — a "split roll."”
And here’s some happy holiday news:
Capitol shoe-shiner Eddie Wright says he’ll return to his post despite no longer receiving compensation from the state Senate, after new Pro tem Kevin de Leon laid him off earlier this month. Laurel Rosenhall has the story in the Sacramento Bee:
“Wright said Friday he’s decided he will still operate the shoeshine stand, and doesn’t plan to change his rates to offset the loss of the Senate paycheck. A shine will still cost $8.”
“But what will he do when visitors ask him where Capitol tours begin, or where to find their meeting room?”
“”I’m going to answer them,” Wright said. “The same way I always have.””