RIP for some noteworthy 2023 California bills

For the record: We have updated the headline of a Dec. 12, 2023 article and newsletter on a Los Angeles homeless housing program to better reflect what happened to displaced participants in the HOPICS rapid rehousing program. We use the terms “eviction” and “evicted” in the article and newsletter based on the common understanding of the word. However, HOPICS’ middlemen were those legally evicted. The clients were displaced from their homes as a result of the evictions. We regret if that was not clear to readers. 

HOPICS used middlemen to help facilitate the program. The middlemen rented from property owners, becoming the property owners’ tenants. The middlemen then subleased to HOPICS participants. HOPICS subsidized participants’ rent through payment to the middlemen, who were then to pay property owners. As the article describes, when rent was not paid on a timely basis, property owners began eviction proceedings against middlemen. Participants then faced imminent displacement, which we refer to as “eviction.” Legal eviction proceedings were against the middlemen, not the HOPICS clients. As the article also describes, HOPICS arranged for new permanent housing or shelters for most of the tenants facing imminent displacement, however HOPICS could not account for dozens more. 

It’s week three of the 2024 legislative session, but lawmakers spent some time Thursday dispensing with bills that carried over from 2023.

The Senate and Assembly appropriations committees, in the somewhat secretive suspense file process, held a combined 24 bills after their hearings — essentially killing the measures for now. The panels will do this exercise again in mid-May and mid-August for bills introduced this year.

A few key bills that didn’t make it out of the suspense file:

Criminal justice and courts

• Senate Bill 838 would have expanded eligibility for victims compensation to include injuries or deaths caused by police officers after Jan. 1, 2024
• SB 850 would have required the Judicial Council to develop a system for county courts to notify defendants of court appearances by text.
• Assembly Bill 428 would establish the California Department of Reentry to develop reentry plans for individuals released from prison.
• AB 797 would mandate that cities and counties create by Jan. 1, 2026 independent commissions to investigate complaints against police officers for injuries and deaths.
• AB 1047 would require the state to develop an online system where Californians could voluntarily register to notify their mental health clinician if they tried to buy a gun.

Education

• SB 767 to require public school students to finish one year of kindergarten before entering first grade.
• AB 1408 to make it easier for academically struggling students to transfer within a school district, or to another district if no school is available.

Environment

• SB 559 would have ended leases for three offshore oil operations in Southern California by Dec. 31, 2026.
• SB 709 would have required more transparency on dairy digesters that produce fuel from cow manure.

Health

• SB 625 would have allowed parents to opt out of the use of their newborn’s blood sample for medical research.

State workers

• AB 1693 would ease requirements for college degrees for most state government jobs.

Taxes and the state budget

• SB 533 to create a tax credit of as much as $30,000 for the start-up costs of childcare programs or centers primarily for the taxpayer’s employees.
• AB 1044 would have allocated $100 million from the general fund for drought relief for small businesses.

Though winter isn’t over, California so far has avoided the “tripledemic” of overwhelmingly high rates of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and COVID-19. And, as CalMatters’ health reporter Kristen Hwang and K-12 education reporter Carolyn Jones explain, the California Department of Public Health last week quietly loosened its guidelines for people with COVID-19 returning to work or school.

Instead of isolating for five days, those who test positive can head back to work or school if their symptoms are improving and they can remain fever-free for 24 hours without medication. People who are asymptomatic but COVID positive do not need to self-isolate. One important note, however: The new guidelines do not apply to employees at high-risk health care settings, such as hospitals and nursing homes.

Some experts say the new rules signal a shift in the state’s approach to the disease, treating COVID-19 similar to other endemic respiratory infections. The guidelines also attempt to keep school disruptions to a minimum. (Despite best efforts from school districts, standardized test scores in most public schools remain lower than pre-pandemic levels.) Some school districts, however, such as California’s largest school district Los Angeles Unified, will wait for further direction from its local public health agency.

One thing that hasn’t changed? Masking requirements. According to the health department, people with COVID-19 should still wear masks for 10 days whether or not they have symptoms. 

For more on the state’s updated COVID-19 guidelines, read Kristen and Carolyn’s story.

From CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn: 

The University of California now enrolls more undergraduates from California than ever before, seeking to make good on huge infusions of cash from lawmakers so that the vaunted system can educate more students from households that pay state taxes.

Data debuting at 9 a.m. today from the university show that it’s home to more than 195,000 California undergraduates among its 301,000 students. That’s up 4,000 in-state students since last fall and by 15,000 since 2017.

That jump in students also occurred at the system’s most sought-after campuses: UC Berkeley and UCLA both saw increases of about 900 undergraduate Californians, and UC San Diego’s enrollment rose by 1,100 in-state students between fall 2022 and fall 2023. 

• Pamela Brown, the UC’s data chief, in a video press conference: “If we’re looking at providing access to students, we are as large as we’ve ever been.” 

UC has made enrollment growth a central focus of its goals this decade. Aiding that aspiration is recent state money approved by lawmakers who share the system’s vision.

Most recently, the state is providing the UC about $107 million to grow its enrollment by the equivalent of 7,800 California full-time undergraduates between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

It costs the state about $11,600 in ongoing funding to add space for a new student. But that basic math has a California-sized quirk.

The state is increasing UC’s budget by $30 million annually to enroll more in-state students at the expense of non-resident students. As a way to compensate for collapsing state support after the 2008-09 recession, the UC more than tripled its share of students from abroad or out-of-state. It was a budgetary move: Non-resident students pay more than three times more in tuition. The spike was most pronounced at UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. To reverse the trend, lawmakers agreed in 2021 to pay those popular campuses to enroll 900 fewer non-resident students annually in exchange for an equal number of Californians over a five-year period.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed for 5% growth in state support to the UC the past two years, pumping more than $400 million into the system — and some of that money will go toward adding about 2,000 more Californians annually through 2026-27.

Eleven days after applications for the state’s Dream for All program opened last year, applicants claimed nearly all of the available $300 million in initial funding. But as Felicia Mello of CalMatters’ California Divide team reports, the state plans to distribute another $250 million this spring for its first-time homebuyers loan program, and is expected to make changes to reach more diverse borrowers.

The program was partly established to address the ethnic and racial disparities in homeownership in California. But some real estate agents and lenders reported that clients who received the funds were already far along in the purchase process — raising concerns that the loans were going to people who could already afford to buy homes.

For the program’s next round, which launched Thursday, the state is doing away with its previous first-come, first-serve approach to a lottery. Instead, all interested homebuyers will have until April to submit applications, which will then go into a lottery. Two thousand lucky homebuyers will receive vouchers that they’ll then have 60 days to spend.

The new rules also require at least one homebuyer in each transaction be a first-generation homebuyer, and the state has lowered the income eligibility threshold from 150% of the area median income to 120%.

The state plans an outreach campaign beginning in February. For more on the Dream for All program, including where to apply, read Felicia’s story.

Former President Donald Trump dominated the Iowa caucuses this week and is trying to knock out former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and clear the Republican presidential field as quickly as possible.

But if there’s still an actual race by the time Super Tuesday rolls around on March 5, he’s in a very good position to sweep all 169 California delegates to help secure the nomination. Trump just needs 50% plus one of votes statewide, thanks to changes in rules by the state GOP. 

And in the latest poll out this week, he’s well clear of that mark with 66% — 9 percentage points higher than his support in a late October survey by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. Haley came in at 11% among likely Republican voters polled last week, while DeSantis was at 8%, though he led Trump last February.

Trump, however, would still lose handily to President Biden in deep-blue California in November, according to the poll: 56% to 37% in a head-to-head race and 47% to 31% among registered voters if three other candidates were on the ballot. Warning sign for Democrats: Biden defeated Trump by 30 percentage points in 2022 to snag California’s 54 electoral votes, and voters are evenly divided on Biden’s approval rating. 

But if one state lawmaker gets his way, Trump wouldn’t appear on the ballot at all. 

State Sen. Dave Min, an Irvine Democrat who is running for Congress this year, followed through on his vow to introduce a bill that could bar Trump because of his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Min cites the 14th Amendment — a legal interpretation headed to the U.S Supreme Court.

• Min, in a statement: “While I recognize that many are uncomfortable with the proposition of actually applying this provision of the Constitution, I believe strongly that we are a nation of laws, and that the rule of law must apply to everyone equally, no matter how controversial that may be.” 

Secretary of State Shirley Weber included Trump in the certified list of candidates for the March primary. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis had urged that Trump be disqualified, but Gov. Newsom disagreed and said “we defeat candidates at the polls.”