After a restful vacation break I’m returning to your inboxes — and state lawmakers are additionally returning to Sacramento at the moment to start the brand new legislative session in earnest. CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff dives into a few of the most outstanding points on their to-do recordequivalent to:
State finances: Gov. Gavin Newsom has till the tip of the week to submit his state finances proposal to the Legislature. The estimated $2 billion shortfall for 2025-26 means the finances could possibly be “roughly balanced” with minor spending-related options, based on the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Workplace. However with greater deficits projected within the years to come back; warnings in opposition to main new spending from the analyst’s workplace; and an incoming president who repeatedly threatens to withhold federal assistthe Legislature will have to be shrewd about what packages to prioritize or minimize because it negotiates a last finances by the tip of June.
Newsom plans to preview key takeaways from his finances proposal at the moment throughout an occasion in Northern San Joaquin Valley targeted on financial improvement.
Affordability: One of many prime considerations for Democratic legislative leaders is addressing the state’s excessive value of dwelling — an issue they imagine helped carry concerning the occasion’s underwhelming November election outcomes. To this point, their colleagues have launched payments that purpose to spur extra housing improvement and decrease the worth of fuel. However Republicans, who argue that the supermajority’s method is not working, have proposed ending fuel and electrical energy taxes plus different sweeping measures.
Trump 2.0: Amid the finances crunch, legislators plan to fast-track Newsom’s proposal to allocate $25 million for potential authorized battles in opposition to President-elect Donald Trump earlier than his return to the White Home in two weeks. California is anticipated to come back to blows with the administration over mass deportationsabortion entry and different points.
Learn extra about what lawmakers are anticipated to sort out in Alexei’s story.
Digital Democracy: Because the Legislature returns, CalMatters is updating and bettering Digital Democracywhich makes use of the newest applied sciences to assist Californians perceive state authorities and maintain their representatives accountable.
Different Tales You Ought to Know
Companies push again in opposition to CA regulation
It’s been six days since a spate of recent state legal guidelines went into impact Jan. 1, and California enterprise teams are already attempting to dam one from being enforced.
As CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang explains, employers are actually banned from requiring employees to attend anti-union conferences and could possibly be fined $500 a day for violations. Labor teams say these “captive audience” conferences are sometimes used to intimidate staff.
However the California Chamber of Commerce and California Restaurant Affiliation filed a federal lawsuit final week claiming the laws violates employers’ proper to free speech. In addition they argue it prevents employers from “sharing true facts” about unions with employees.
Be taught extra concerning the labor lawsuit in Jeanne’s story.
In the meantime, try CalMatters’ rundown on different new legal guidelines that might affect your life, which embody:
Development in CA homelessness slows
The state’s homelessness inhabitants continues to be the most important within the nation, however new federal knowledge reveals the variety of unhoused folks grew extra slowly in California final 12 months than the remainder of the nation, stories CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall.
With greater than 187,000 folks in California experiencing homelessness as of January 2024, homelessness in California rose by 3.1% in comparison with 2023, based on the federal division of housing. This is without doubt one of the smallest will increase of any state; nationwide, homelessness climbed by 18%.
This knowledge is compiled by way of the newest point-in-time dependwhich was carried out in early 2024 and is federally mandated. The depend is considerably inexact, nevertheless it does information homelessness coverage and helps decide federal and state funding for the problem.
California is residence to just about 1 / 4 of all unhoused folks within the nation.
Learn extra concerning the newest homelessness knowledge in Marisa’s story.
New Senate committee leaders
The state Senate has new leaders who maintain enormous sway over whether or not payments move or are even heard — with some who’re serving within the Legislature for the primary time.
On Friday Senate President Professional Tem Mike McGuire of Santa Rosa introduced committee chair appointments for the newest legislative session. (FYI: The Meeting finalized its reorganized committee management in December.)
One notable takeaway: Main the training committee is freshman Sen. Sasha Renée Péreza Glendale Democrat and at present California’s youngest state senator. Pérez, who held a senior place at an influential state advocacy group on school points, succeeds Josh Newman of Fullerton. He misplaced his Senate seat after a usually Democratic-friendly union of college employees focused him for opposing a invoice it sponsored.
Different appointments stay unchanged, together with the chairpersons of the highly effective appropriations and finances committees, led by Democratic Sens. Anna Caballero of Merced and Scott Wiener of San Francisco, respectively.
California Voices
Amazon, Google and Microsoft dominate the computing infrastructure driving synthetic intelligence improvement — however this expertise needs to be a public useful resource, writes Natalie Fosterpresident and co-founder of the Financial Safety Venture.
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