‘What more can California do’ on abortion access? + Who’s opposed to SB 50 + The ‘pink tax’

Happy Thursday to you, readers. Sometimes I sit in committee hearings for hours, other times I watch Jeff Goldblum showcase reusable straws in support of stronger plastic regulations.

ICYMI — Gov. Gavin Newsom indicated on Wednesday that he was displeased with PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy-financing plan, and renewed his warnings that that the state might take over the company.

Newsom said the plan is too heavily weighted with debt, hurting PG&E’s ability to strengthen its electrical grid and reduce wildfire risks.

In a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, lawyers for the governor complained that the PG&E plan would leave the utility with “insufficient financial flexibility to make billions of dollars in critically needed safety investments.”

PINK POWER

While southern states are working to dismantle Roe v. Wade in their own capitols, California lawmakers revealed on Wednesday their plan to expand abortion care and access in the Golden State.

A crew of about a dozen Democrats and advocates, donned in pink clothing, joined Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California for a press conference announcing a 2020 reproductive healthcare package.

The four proposals include:

• Expanding Medi-Cal’s family planning services to include the HPV vaccine
• Eliminating co-pays and deductibles for abortion services
• Advancing security around abortion clinics
• Strengthening privacy rights for patients

“People accessing abortion and the full scope of sexual reproductive health care should be able to access that care and feel safe while doing so, and have their privacy protected,” said Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda. “Being harassed, both in a parking lot of an abortion clinic and online, shamed, bullied and intimidated, flies in the face of these constitutional rights and the values California espouses.”

The statewide Planned Parenthood group launched its expansion campaign on the 47th anniversary of the landmark abortion rights law that determined access to abortion was a constitutional right.

“The Future of Abortion Access in California,” said Jodi Hicks, the organization’s CEO and president, “is Planned Parenthood’s campaign that seeks to answer the question, ‘what more can California do?’”

SB 50 DRAMA

It’s been a couple of weeks since state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, unveiled amendments to his proposal that would require cities to plan for denser housing around transit and job corridors.

He still has a lot of winning over to do.

Tenant and housing organizations sent a letter to members of the Legislature and Newsom yesterday, calling on them to reject Wiener’s Senate Bill 50 and tackle the crisis through renter protections and public housing investments.

Back it up — Wiener’s signature bill was blocked last year in its chamber’s Appropriations committee, amid criticism from local governments that the measure took away their zoning authority and handed it to the Legislature. Hoping to appease their concerns, Wiener revised SB 50 to grant cities more power over where they’ll build multifamily homes.

Affordable housing advocates also said the measure would spark additional gentrification and displacement in low-income neighborhoods of color. Wiener amended the bill to include a five-year implementation delay for these “sensitive communities.”

Despite the effort, SB 50’s revisions have failed to garner support from certain housing activists who’ve argued the legislation would do nothing for poorer Californians on the brink, or already facing, homelessness.

“The lack of truly affordable homes or substantive, enforceable tenant protections in SB 50 leaves too many vulnerable to the whims of the real estate market, which has undermined community stability for generations,” dozens of social justice groups wrote in the letter.

“Our objections are rooted in SB 50’s impact on communities of color and low/moderate income neighborhoods near transit, which will face higher rates of gentrification, displacement, and rising income inequality as a result of the bill.”

Meanwhile — Another coalition of nonprofits and equity organizations announced support for SB 50, according to bill sponsor California YIMBY.

“California needs SB 50,” Habitat for Humanity California Executive Director Debbie Arakel said in a press release. “Vulnerable and low-income populations have been displaced for too long, and homelessness has skyrocketed because there is not enough affordable housing. SB 50 will aggressively counter this trend while protecting renters in the process. It deserves support from the California Senate.”

Oh boy.

We’ll see what happens in the next week or so. Wiener’s bill faces a Jan. 31 deadline to pass the Senate.

A TAX...CUT?

It’s not everyday you hear about California lawmakers wanting to end taxes.

Well, specifically cutting the so-called “pink tax.”

State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, introduced Senate Bill 873 on Wednesday to make products marketed for women more equitably priced. Right now, companies can charge female customers more for similar products based on gender targets, i.e. razors, bike helmets and underwear.

“Women not only earn less on average than their male peers, they also pay more for similar products,” Jackson said via press release. “This ‘pink tax’ is unfair, unethical, and harms women and families everywhere. When women are held back financially, we all suffer.”

Specific products like toys, clothing and personal care products cost on average about 7 percent more for women than men, according to the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. The 2015 report found that women are “paying thousands of dollars more” for products that men also purchase.

Jackson also wrote a law signed in 2001 that required businesses to disclose how much they charge customers for certain products and Newsom included a two-year tax ban on diapers and feminine hygiene products in his 2019 budget.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“There’s a lot of women who are elected officials across this country. We might be able to put our heads together and we might come up with legislation to tell you what you can do with your penis. How would you like that?”

- State Sen. Connie Leyva during a press conference announcing a 2020 reproductive rights package.

Best of The Bee:

• Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top strategist retiring after decades shaping California policy by Sophia Bollag

• Jeff Goldblum visited the California Capitol on Wednesday to advocate for a pair of bills that would more aggressively push the state toward ending single-use packaging by 75 percent in the next decade, by Hannah Wiley

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants nearly half a million dollars per year to fund the Native American council he created in June, according to public documents detailing the governor’s state budget plans, by Sophia Bollag

• Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $50 million in his budget to become a “no-kill state,” ending the euthanasia of adoptable and treatable animals for good in shelters, by Andrew Sheeler