SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) is pleased to announce that five more of his bills have passed the Legislature and been sent to the Governor’s desk.

Two other Assembly Joint Resolutions authored by Assemblyman Solorio cleared the Legislature this week as well. 

“As a freshman legislator, my goal was to be effective from day one because that’s what the people of Orange County elected me to do.  I hit the ground running with a full legislative package that prioritized education, public safety, and transportation.  The Governor has already signed three of my bills and now has another five to consider,” said Assemblyman Solorio.  Bills not signed into law or vetoed by October 14, 2007, automatically become law.

The Governor has already signed the following bills authored by Assemblyman Solorio: AB 900, which implements historic prison construction and reform legislation to reduce prison overcrowding, AB 104 to make it easier for city attorneys to obtain gang injunctions and drug abatement orders, and AB 369 to protect foster youth.   

Below is a summary of the five additional bills that have been sent to the Governor:

Mandating College Textbook Transparency:  AB 1548 (Solorio) would require publishers, college bookstores, public postsecondary institutions, and faculty to comply with specific disclosure requirements that will ultimately result in decreasing the price of textbooks, while protecting the academic freedom of colleges and universities.  According to a 2005 report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), college textbook prices increased by 186% between 1986 and 2004 - nearly triple the rate of inflation over the same period.  Assemblyman Solorio would like to slow down the year-to-year-increases in the price of books.  It is part of his commitment to keep college affordable.

Helping Troubled Youth Re-enter Society:  AB 1049 (Solorio) seeks to provide young offenders, ages 16-23, with the skills necessary to become productive members of society upon their release from the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). The program is based upon YouthBuild USA, a nationally and internationally recognized organization that has had great success with reducing recidivism rates among youth (rates of youth going back to jail).

The bill establishes a 2-year pilot project to enlist 200 youth offenders, upon their release from the DJJ, to enter a YouthBuild program that provides classroom instruction geared towards the attainment of the GED, counseling services, classes on personal responsibility and construction training skills. Participants would receive a stipend and join work crews to build affordable housing in their communities.

Educating Children With Special Needs:  AB 485 (Solorio) would close a loophole in the state’s certification process of nonpublic, nonsectarian schools and agencies (NPS/As).  Specifically, AB 485 would prohibit a NPS/A, whose certification has been revoked, from being eligible to apply for recertification for two years from the date of revocation. 

The Michelle Morris Family Home Nonpublic School, in Orange County, serves as a case in point on the need for this bill.  On May 2, 2006, the California Department of Education (CDE) revoked this school’s certification, and following a hearing, the revocation was upheld by the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH).

In the meantime, the school had already reapplied for new certification as a nonpublic school because current law allows NPS/As, whose certifications have been revoked, to immediately resubmit a new application.  Current law required CDE staff to conditionally recertify the school solely on the basis of its application.  However, the certification was subsequently denied after the CDE conducted an onsite review.

The Michelle Morris Family Home Nonpublic School had neglected to address or correct the factors that lead to its certification revocation and has repeatedly submitted new requests for certification, changed its name and location several times, and altered descriptions of the disabling conditions of its students.

Preventing Voter Intimidation:  AB 122 (Solorio) requires election officials to give potential candidates for elected office a copy of the provisions of law that prohibit voter intimidation and the penalties for violating those provisions of law.  The bill was introduced in response to an October 2006 letter that was mailed out by the campaign of a U.S. Congressional candidate to some 14,000 Latino voters in Orange County in an attempt deter them from voting in the November election.  In fact, Assemblyman Solorio received one of those letters himself.  

Disclosing Health Care Subsidies: AB 343 (Solorio) requires the Department of Health Care Services to annually transmit a report to the Legislature identifying all employers (with 25 or more employees, who have employees in government-funded health care programs) who shift the overhead costs of providing quality healthcare for employees to the state, and ultimately California taxpayers. An estimated 85 percent of uncompensated health care gets paid by the government, which displaces other important services such as education and public safety.  

In addition, two of Assemblyman Solorio’s Assembly Joint Resolutions (AJR) also passed Legislature:

Opposing Federal Government’s Increase In Citizenship Fees:  AJR 18 (Solorio), which calls on President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress to oppose the 69% fee increase in the cost that legal immigrants must pay to undergo the naturalization process to become U.S. citizens.  The fee increase, which took effect on July 30th, raised fees for beginning the naturalization process from $400 to $675.
 
Urging U.S. Postal Service To Discontinue the Practice of Contracting Out Mail Delivery Services:  AJR 27 urges the U.S. Postal Service to discontinue their recent practice of contracting out mail delivery services because it threatens not only the jobs and incomes of America’s 325,000 city and rural letter carriers, but also the long term viability of the Postal Service.  By contracting out letter carrier positions, the U.S. Postal Service bypasses a hiring process that ensures that only qualified people handle America’s mail.  The contracting out of mail delivery services also limits the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to prevent, investigate, and prosecute mail theft, mail fraud, and other illegal issues of mail.

Assemblyman Jose Solorio represents the Sixty-Ninth Assembly District, which includes the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, and Santa Ana.  He is also the Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.  For more information about Assemblyman Solorio, you can visit www.assembly.ca.gov/solorio.