ASSEMBLYMEMBER NICOLE M. PARRA
30TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT

For Immediate Release: June 1, 2007
Contact: Derek Chernow
Phone: (916) 319-2030

Parra Bills Pass Key Assembly Committee

SACRAMENTO –Assemblymember Nicole Parra (D-Hanford) announced the passage of several important pieces of legislation out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee this week.  The bills were some of the more than 600 the committee considered from its Suspense File yesterday.  The bills now go to the Assembly Floor for a vote next week.

“These bills represent a number of critical issues to the people of the 30th Assembly District.  I am pleased to say that we have cleared another legislative hurdle in improving public safety, providing clean drinking water, and building better schools in our rural communities,” said Assemblymember Parra.  “I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Assembly next week in passing these bills and sending them to the Senate.”

AB 442 updates and conforms sections of the Penal Code to keep current with Proposition 83, commonly known as “Jessica’s Law,” which voters approved last fall.  This bill would ensure that the penalty increases for child pornographers included in Proposition 83 go into effect.

AB 808 would require people applying for a driver’s license, or renewal of a license, to acknowledge that drinking and driving can result in death.  Assemblymember Parra introduced AB 808 as part of a bi-partisan package of bills designed to reduce drunk driving.

AB 831 would help the state avoid wasting money, improve the integrity of the budget process, shine a light on long-hidden spending, and put budgeted spending and tax-code spending on more of a level playing field, by requiring that all tax expenditures contain a “sunset clause.”

AB 877 seeks to obtain a quantification of the resulting economic impacts associated with water supply reduction in the eight-county region comprising the San Joaquin Valley.  These economic figures are a critical component for the development a San Joaquin Valley Regional Water Plan.

AB 1545 eases the process for rural schools attempting to apply for hardship funding from the state.  The bill is a follow up to legislation introduced last session by Assemblymember Parra that aids low-wealth school districts in completing the construction of school facilities.  AB 1545 requires the State Office of Public School Construction to assess the current hardship funding scheme and recommend changes, including those to specifically help low-wealth school districts.

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