• Noreen's View: 2007 Legislative Roundup
• Your Legislator at Work: Ten of Noreen's Bills Await Governor's Signature
• Inside the Special Session
• State Funds Directed to Our Community
• An Eye on the Governor

NOREEN'S VIEW: 2007 LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP

The State Assembly sent nearly 600 bills to the Governor who has until October 14th to sign them into law or veto them. I encourage you to contact the Governor with your views so that he can take them into account when he acts on this legislation in the coming weeks.

The Assembly bills now pending before the Governor address a wide range of subjects. I would like to highlight a brief sample of the bills that I proudly supported to help families and children, improve education and public safety, save our environment, advance civil rights, and protect consumers. If you would like to contact the Governor to urge his support of this or any legislation, you may email him through his website at http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email or call (916) 445-2841.

Reuniting Foster Youth with Family - AB 149 will expand our efforts to help foster youth safely contact and be cared for by extended family relatives with whom they are no longer in contact. Children in foster care, who are placed with relatives experience fewer placements, fare better emotionally, perform better in school, and maintain a higher level connection to their culture.

Requirements for Graduating High School - AB 1379 requires the state to consider additional measures of competence by which high school students may qualify for graduation besides the exit exam. This will enable the state to more fairly evaluate the achievement of students with learning disabilities, the developmentally disabled and English learners.

Gun Control - AB 1471 requires all new semi-automatic handguns to be equipped with microscopic identifying markings that are imprinted on each cartridge case when the gun is fired. This would help law enforcement investigate, arrest, and convict more people who use semiautomatic handguns in crimes. No arrest is made in approximately 45% of all homicides due to a lack of evidence and approximately 70% of new handguns sold are semiautomatics.

Confronting Climate Change - AB 118 would enact the California Alternative and Renewable Fuel, Vehicle Technology, Clean Air, and Carbon Reduction Act. It will reduce the impact our transportation system has on climate change through encouraging the development and use of alternative transportation fuels. With 40% of climate changing emissions coming from cars and trucks, this will really jump start our state's efforts to confront climate change.

Gender Neutral Marriage - AB 43 would enact the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would end the current discrimination in law prohibiting same sex couples from getting married and benefiting from the stability and legal benefits available to married couples. We passed a similar bill last year but the Governor vetoed it. I hope for a different outcome this year.

Preventing Identify Theft - AB 779 will protect consumers by strengthening laws that keep credit card information private. It will also improve industry notification practices for consumers when the security of their personal information is breached.

Further information about this and other legislation is available at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov.

YOUR LEGISLATOR AT WORK: TEN OF NOREEN'S BILLS AWAIT GOVERNOR'S SIGNATURE

Ten bills that I authored await the Governor's signature or veto. They reflect my commitment to fighting for families and children, the environment, legal reform, and the needs of our community. Below are summaries of each bill now on the Governor's desk. If you would like to contact the Governor to urge his signature, you may email him through his website at http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email or call (916) 445-2841. Thank you for your support.

Families and Children:

AB 1192 - Establishes a registry of abusive caregivers to prevent them from moving around the state, from job to job, to continue abusing the developmentally disabled.

AB 1331 - Requires county child welfare agencies to screen foster youth for disabilities and help them apply for a federal income supplement program. Without it, they face homelessness, chronic health problems, and unemployment.

AB 1402 - Helps protect the rights of the developmentally disabled and their families by allowing audio recording of the Individual Program Plan process where care decisions are made. It also requires Department of Social Services, regional centers, and vendors who provide this care to post appeal procedure information on their web sites.

AB 1429 - Requires that health plans and insurers cover the costs of cervical cancer vaccination if they are currently providing coverage for the treatment or surgery of cervical cancer or annual cervical cancer screening tests.

AB 1542 - Preserves local rent control for mobile homes after conversion of a mobile home park from rental to condominium ownership.

AB 1663 - Protects California's eligibility for $1.13 billion in federal funding for the provision of special education services to disabled students with special needs.

The Environment:

AB 1063 - Enables the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to issue bonds to protect agricultural land and open space and, in so doing, exercise the full authority granted by Measure F.

Legal Reform:

AB 1248 - Implements various changes in court administration and civil procedure. For instance, it permits plaintiffs who initially fail to pay the full required filing fee to fund the difference via personal check. It also reforms our discovery statutes.

Bills of Local Interest:

AB 765 - Enacts numerous reforms in California's horse racing industry that will help keep jobs in our community. It will finance facility improvements to the fairs at Santa Rosa and Vallejo and reauthorize horse racing fans' ability to wager on races across the country.

AB 958 - Enables Napa County to appoint, rather than elect, a registrar of voters. It also requires tax clearance certificates on all mobile home transfers in order to improve the tax collection method.

Furthermore, as I reported in my newsletter earlier this year, the Governor has already signed into law AB 323, which will allow more vintners to donate and pour their wines at non-profit fundraisers. Stay tuned for updates about which of the above mentioned bills are signed by the Governor in the coming weeks.

INSIDE THE SPECIAL SESSION

On September 11th, the Governor called two special sessions of the legislature to continue negotiations on health care reform and a bond to increase drinking water supply storage. This is the seventh time that the Governor has called a special session of the Legislature.

The Legislature has been working hard to reform health care. With 6.5 million Californians uninsured, health-care reform is long overdue. It is priority number one for Assembly Democrats. We passed our plan in Assembly Bill 8, which emphasizes disease prevention, minimizing bureaucratic obstacles, and providing incentives for small businesses to provide health insurance to employees. However, the Governor has signaled that he will veto this legislation. He wants to require that everyone carry a minimum level of healthcare insurance with a $5,000 deductible with out-of-pocket expenses of $7,500 per person and $10,000 per family.

The Legislature has also been debating water supply issues and the relationship to the Sacramento Delta. During the infrastructure bond negotiations of last year, Republicans pushed for the inclusion of funds to build dams but these funds were not included. As a result of recent court rulings that shut off Delta pumps that deliver water throughout the state, the Governor crafted a $9 billion plan to divert water from the Delta through constructing a peripheral canal and building three dams to store more water. This is at odds with less expensive Democratic proposals which would increase water supplies through recharging underground aquifers.

The goal of both special sessions is to put legislative packages together that will go before the voters during the February 2008 election. If we are to have reform proposals on this ballot, the Legislature and the Governor must come to an agreement by October 16th. Stay tuned for further updates.

STATE FUNDS DIRECTED TO OUR COMMUNITY

The Integrated Waste Management Board approved a grant of $147,060 to Sonoma County to encourage rubberized asphalt concrete. The grant was provided through the Targeted Rubberized Asphalt Concrete Incentive Grant program, which is intended to promote new markets for recycled-content products derived from California's waste tires while reducing the environmental impacts of illegally dumping waste tires. For further information, please visit http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/tires/Grants/TargetedRAC/default.htm.

The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development approved a grant of $68,820 to expand the family practice residency training programs at Sutter Medical Center, in Santa Rosa. A key goal of these grants is to encourage residency program graduates to practice medicine in underserved areas. For further information, please visit http://www.oshpd.state.ca.us/HWCDD/manpower/songbrown.htm.

AN EYE ON THE GOVERNOR

Activities:

On September 24th, the Governor addressed the United Nations about California's leadership to address global warming.

On September 13th, the Governor signed Senate Bill 33, by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), to ban teenagers from using electronic devices - such as cell phones, lap top computers, or pagers - while driving a car. This legislation takes effect on July 1, 2008 - the same day that other legislation signed by the Governor last year will require the use of hands-free cell phones while driving.

On September 11th, the Governor vetoed Senate Bill 924, which would have placed on the February 2008 ballot a measure calling for the immediate, complete, safe and orderly withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

On September 4th, the Governor appointed former U.S. Attorney Paul Seave as state director of gang and youth violence policy along with ten advisory team members to help build comprehensive, long-term strategies to fight gang violence. The Governor also released $2.8 million in discretionary Workforce Investment Act funds for local government to expand job training for at-risk and gang-involved youth.

For further information about the Governor, please visit www.governor.ca.gov.