5 issues to look at as California’s Legislature returns to the Capitol in 2025

With the election and the vacations behind them, the California Legislature returns to Sacramento at this time to kick off a brand new session in earnest. It will likely be a number of extra months earlier than the political wrangling over the state funds and 1000’s of proposed payments really ramps up, however priorities are rising as lawmakers attempt to stake their declare on the most well liked problems with the day. Listed below are some tales to look at on the Capitol in 2025:

Tackling affordability

After a disappointing election for Democrats, legislative leaders reemerged with a message geared toward easing voters’ anxieties about how costly California is. Senate President Professional Tem Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, and Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, each advised CalMatters final month that their focus this session will probably be advancing insurance policies that decrease the price of dwelling for working Californianstogether with by constructing extra housing, making vitality cheaper and enhancing public infrastructure.

“Our only way forward is to acknowledge that we have to do better,” Rivas mentioned. “It’s clear — we haven’t done enough.”

Their colleagues have responded to date with payments that will ease building requirements for small condominium buildings and enhance the quantity of ethanol that may be blended with gasoline, an effort to cut back costs on the pump. Count on many extra proposals as legislators finalize their agendas within the weeks forward.

However Democrats, who maintain a three-quarters supermajority in each homes, face an arduous messaging conflict with the emboldened Republican minority, which flipped three seats in November. GOP lawmakers shortly launched far-reaching measures — ending fuel and electrical energy taxes, voiding low-carbon gas requirements, exempting tipped wages from taxation — that may virtually definitely go nowhere however stand to make Democrats’ efforts look much less consequential by comparability.

“I would call it an invitation to the Democrats,” Meeting Republican Chief James Gallagher of Yuba Metropolis mentioned in an interview. “In order to actually do something about affordability, they have to back away from the policies they’ve championed.”

Resistance 2.0

Whereas the response from California politicians to Donald Trump’s victory within the November presidential election has been way more subdued than it was eight years in the past, they’re nonetheless gearing up for a combat.

Days after Trump’s win, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom known as for a particular session to put aside funding for the state to take his Republican administration to court docket. Democratic lawmakers plan to hurry within the coming weeks to applicable $25 million for authorized sources earlier than Trump takes workplace on Jan. 20.

Although some have warned in opposition to getting sidetracked by one other showdown with the president, legislators are additionally already placing ahead proposals to safeguard Californians in opposition to actions they anticipate Trump will take. These embrace payments to guarantee entry to treatment abortionmake contraceptives extra available over-the-counterand shield the privateness of sufferers getting abortions in California, in addition to to additional restrict collaboration by state prisons and college districts with federal immigrant enforcement.

“The United States of America is in the calm before the storm. The hurricane is about to hit,” McGuire advised CalMatters final month. “And shame on us if we’re not battening down the hatches.”

However even California shifted towards Trump in November: He gained vote share in all however one county, albeit by solely sufficient for him to succeed in 38% of the statewide vote. Newly elected Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican, mentioned in an interview that the GOP has a chance to capitalize on an amazing “appetite for change” amongst Californians.

Whereas Democrats are “dividing and distracting” the general public with their combat in opposition to Trump as a substitute of “getting things done,” DeMaio mentioned, he plans to make use of his widespread conservative podcast as a each day platform to ramp up public stress on the Legislature to shift course. He has launched a 10-bill package deal difficult liberal orthodoxy on border safety, voter identification necessities, tax will increase and early jail releases.

“The political system is untethered from where the public is,” DeMaio mentioned. “The only way politicians see the light is when they feel the heat.”

Finances woes

Fiscal advisers to the Legislature warned in November that California’s funds are precarious: roughly balanced for now, however barreling towards growing deficits within the years forward. Worry of shedding federal funding underneath Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to withhold catastrophe help from the state, is including one other layer of uncertainty.

But at the same time as legislative leaders endorsed a cautious method to the upcoming state funds, Newsom has floated a number of new applications with hefty value tags — from increasing the movie and tv manufacturing tax credit score to reviving a rebate for electrical autos. His full funds proposal is due by the tip of this week.

Lawmakers have but to fulfill to debate their priorities, so it’s unclear how a lot they are going to be at odds with the governor as they work to cross a spending plan by the tip of June.

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, an Encino Democrat who leads the Meeting funds committee, mentioned the Legislature will rigorously vet Newsom’s proposals, however any new applications it approves will seemingly require spending cuts elsewhere.

“We’re very clear-eyed about the fact that there’s potentially a lot of tough choices ahead,” Gabriel mentioned in an interview.

So he expects the Legislature will lean extra into its oversight function by way of the funds course of this 12 months to find out which applications are literally transferring the needle and delivering outcomes. “If they’re not working as intended, then they don’t deserve continued funding,” he mentioned.

Tilting at tech giants

California stays on the heart of tech innovation — and is more and more on the forefront of regulating it, too. That stress over methods to rein in potential abuses of Silicon Valley with out kneecapping an trade important to the state’s economic system has turn into inescapable on the Capitol, particularly with the rise of synthetic intelligence.

“We still want to be a leader in AI. We don’t want China to surpass us,” Gallagher mentioned. “The trick is really finding the right balance. I think there’s going to be a lot of discussion on this front.”

Lawmakers launched a gusher of AI laws final 12 months, although main tech corporations managed to beat again essentially the most bold proposalwhich might have required them to check their fashions for potential harms to society, by profitable Newsom over to their facet.

Count on the clashes to accentuate this session as legislators search to weigh in on every part from autonomous autos to false impersonation assisted by AI.

Social media use amongst younger individuals is one other charged debate. A invoice to carry platforms liable for inflicting hurt to kids is again after dying final 12 months amid fierce trade opposition. With the backing of Lawyer Basic Rob Bonta, lawmakers might also contemplate creating psychological well being warning labels for social media.

Return of reparations

The earlier legislative session exploded into surprising rancor simply earlier than its conclusion final summer time when key Black legislators tabled a pair of payments that will have established a brand new state company to work on reparations for descendants of slaves, bitterly disappointing activists.

Although a dozen different reparations-related measures had been signed into legislation, the disagreement about how far and how briskly to push for a coverage that doesn’t get pleasure from broad public approval opened a schism within the motion that would undermine its political momentum.

Lawmakers have launched a handful of follow-up payments this session, together with to set up admissions preferences at California universities and put aside cash in a house buy help program for descendants of slaves.

Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, a Los Angeles Democrat, revived a proposal to supply compensation to individuals whose property was taken by the federal government by way of racially motivated use of eminent areaa invoice Newsom vetoed final 12 months. She mentioned reparations proponents should proceed to take child steps to construct assist for his or her final aim of money funds to descendants of slaves, which she anticipated would take 5 to 10 years.

“As leaders, we have to do things sometimes that are unpopular,” McKinnor mentioned in an interview. “I know last year, it ended in a bang. That’s not going to stop the Black Caucus from our plans.”