Foes of elevating CA minimal wage declare victory

Two weeks after Election Day, the outcomes on two of the 10 statewide propositions stay undecided. However opponents and supporters aren’t ready round.

Prop. 32 opponents declare victory: Regardless of no official name by the Related Press, opponents stated voters delivered a “historic” rejection of the statewide poll measure to increase the hourly minimal wage from $16 to $18.

The No on Prop. 32 marketing campaign, which is made up of a coalition of enterprise teams, famous how earlier efforts to increase the minimal wage on the state and native degree succeeded. (In 2023, lawmakers handed two legal guidelines to boost the hourly wages of quick meals and well being care staff.) The marketing campaign additionally stated that Prop. 32 “barely passed” in coastal communities, which generally have larger native minimal wage ordinances on account of their larger price of residing.

• Jot Condiepresident and CEO of the California Restaurant Affiliation, in a press release: “It is important that policymakers hear the message being sent by the voters — stop using California consumers as guinea pigs for public policy experiments that make life more expensive for everyone.”

As of late Monday, the measure was trailing 50.8% to 49.2%, and opponents stated there aren’t sufficient votes left to flip the consequence. However Prop. 32 supporters are saying it ain’t over ’til it’s over. As of late Monday, there have been about 695,000 ballots left to depend statewide.

• Angelo Grecospokesperson for the Sure on Prop. 32 marketing campaign, in a press release: “As the last 25 years have taught us, it’s unwise to declare victory prematurely. When the Associated Press, which we all can regard as independent minded, declares an outcome of Prop. 32, then we will assess.”

Prop. 34 goal concedes defeat: Prop. 34 was profitable 50.8% to 49.2% as of late Monday, but in addition hadn’t been known as by the AP. The measure, which might require sure well being care suppliers to spend most of their income from a federal prescription drug low cost program on affected person care, targets the AIDS Healthcare Basis for pushing native lease management. It sponsored Prop. 33, which additionally failedand the inspiration’s president conceded defeat Friday, reviews The Sacramento Bee.

In additional election information:

• Voter ID: Huntington Seashore notched a win in its combat towards the state to implement its native voter identification requirement: An Orange County decide dominated final week that the constitution change authorised by voters in March can go into impact in 2026. The state sued town in April, arguing that the regulation disenfranchised voters and violated California election code. Lawmakers additionally handed laws in September banning native voter ID necessities. The state has till Dec. 5 to file an amended petition.

• Vince Fong: U.S. Rep. Vince Fong resigned from the state Legislature after his profitable bid for Congress — however not earlier than submitting for reelection as an Assemblymember. Regardless of publicly endorsing his “opponent,” the Bakersfield Republican “won.” So taxpayers must pay a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} for a particular election to fill a seat Fong not needs (and might’t legally occupy). Learn extra about the political pickle from CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow.

The quantity spent on lobbying state legislators might be on observe to hit a document this 12 months, with tech and oil corporations main the best waywrites CalMatters knowledge reporter Jeremia Kimelman.

A CalMatters evaluation of state knowledge discovered that in simply the primary 9 months of 2024, labor unions, companies and nonprofits spent $420 million to affect lawmakers — in comparison with $484 million in all of 2023 and $443 million in all of 2022.

Within the third quarter of 2024 alone, lobbying cash reached a document of practically $168 million, exceeding the earlier quarter of $131 million. Between July 1 and Sept. 30, Google poured in essentially the most, spending $10.7 million — together with about $9.75 million to 2 trade teams to efficiently oppose two payments that sought to fund native journalism.

The second greatest spender through the third quarter: The Western States Petroleum Affiliation, at $10.1 million. It lobbied on 25 payments through the common session and the particular session known as by Gov. Gavin Newsom this fall to curb fuel worth spikes. The session resulted in laws requiring oil refineries to keep up a minimal quantity of gas inventory.

Learn extra about lobbyist spending this 12 months in Jeremia’s story.

California is considered one of 24 states that permit transgender college students to play on sports activities groups that match their gender identification. However as members of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood put together for the incoming Donald Trump presidency’s influence on well being take care of transgender residentsathletes in California are being swept into the rising nationwide motion to ban transgender gamers from ladies’s faculty sports activities.

As Desmond Meagley and Amy Moore of CalMatters’ Faculty Journalism Community clarify, 4 groups within the Mountain West Convention this fall forfeited video games towards San Jose State College’s volleyball group after Brooke Slusser, a San Jose State participant from Texas, publicly recognized a teammate as transgender.

Slusser joined different feminine athletes in a lawsuit towards the NCAA to oppose its coverage permitting transgender ladies to compete towards them. And final week, gamers from the forfeited universities filed a separate lawsuit towards California State College officers, the NCAA and the convention commissioner for a similar motive.

For LGBTQ+ advocates, the problem is about extra than simply entry to group sports activities: Transgender youth have worse psychological well being outcomes in states with anti-trans legal guidelines, and states that ban trangender college students from enjoying with their friends have fewer ladies enjoying college sports activities total.

• Bonnie Sugiyamadirector of San Jose State’s PRIDE Heart: “To restrict people based on their identity … just because you don’t know where to put them? That’s not really an acceptable response.”

Be taught extra about California’s transgender athletes in Desmond and Amy’s story.