1.6 million signatures + No taxes on free money + Mayors want gun violence prevention funding
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
RECALL TO BE HELD THIS FALL
Via Lara Korte...
Here we go, folks.
The effort to recall Gavin Newsom officially has enough signatures to trigger an election, Secretary of State Shirley Weber confirmed Monday afternoon. As of April 26, there are 1,626,042 valid recall signatures, well over the 1.5 million needed to trigger an election.
Don’t mark your calendars just yet, though. Next comes a 30 day withdrawal period where anyone can have their signature removed from the recall petition. To do so, voters have to submit the request to the county elections official where the voter lived at the time they signed the petition.
Withdrawal requests must be received by elections officials by June 8. Once that period is over, and Weber can still confirm the recall has 1.5 million signatures, there’s several more steps before a recall election will be scheduled, but we expect it to be sometime in November.
Monday afternoon brought a wave of celebration for Republicans and other recall supporters, and a promise to fight from Democrats.
“This Republican recall threatens our values and seeks to undo the important progress we’ve made — from fighting COVID, to helping struggling families, protecting our environment, and passing common sense gun violence solutions,” Newsom said in a tweet. “There’s too much at stake.”
Recall organizers, in the meantime, say they’re going to continue campaigning for a YES vote on the recall. Organizer Orrin Heatlie told me that they’ll continue to have recall information booths, similar to the signature booths they’ve set up in parking lots and on the corners of busy intersections.
The new goal, Heatlie said, is to make the recall booths double as food drives to help those who have struggled during the pandemic. His goal is to raise 1 million pounds of food in six months.
PPP LOAN BILL PROCEEDS TO GOV’S DESK
Via Sophia Bollag...
Many California businesses won’t have to pay state taxes on their federal pandemic loans under a bill California lawmakers passed Monday
The measure, Assembly Bill 80, aims to help businesses that received loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, which the federal government established to help businesses survive the pandemic shutdown. Under the program, the federal government forgives the loans, meaning the businesses don’t have to pay the money back, if businesses use the money on qualifying expenses like employees wages, rent and utilities.
Under AB 80, businesses whose loans are forgiven won’t have to pay taxes on that money and can deduct qualifying expenses if they can show at least a 25% reduction in profits for at least one quarter as a result of the pandemic. Publicly traded companies are not included in the bill.
“At a time when California businesses are struggling, it is imperative that state leaders do everything within our power to help,” Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, the Marina Del Rey Democrat who authored the bill, said Monday during a committee hearing. “AB 80 provides critical, timely and significant tax relief to those businesses that need it most.”
The measure cleared both chambers of the Legislature unanimously, although some lawmakers and industry groups raised concern that the 25% loss requirement will exclude some businesses still reeling from the pandemic. Anthony Samson, who represents the California New Car Dealers Association, noted that the federal government only introduced the 25% loss rule for its second round of grants, so some recipients of the first round won’t meet that standard.
“For California to apply this 25% reduction standard retroactively to those first-round PPP loans for California tax purposes is concerning and harms the very businesses that used the loans to retain their California workforce during difficult times,” he said during a Monday hearing on the bill.
Burke said lawmakers were constrained by cost from expanding the bill further.
A legislative analysis estimates the measure will cost California between $4.4 billion to $6.8 billion over six years.
Even with the 25% cutoff, Burke said the bill will help an estimated 75-85% of businesses who received Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Lawmakers negotiated the bill with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign it soon.
CALIFORNIA MAYORS CALL FOR MORE GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION FUNDING
Eighteen California mayors have signed on to a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, urging them to significantly increase funding for the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, also known as CalVIP.
The letter was signed by the following mayors: Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, London Breed of San Francisco, Todd Gloria of San Diego, Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, Libby Schaaf of Oakland, Aja Brown of Compton, Jesse Arreguin of Berkeley, Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas, Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft of Alameda, Patrick Furey of Torrance, Sam Liccardo of San Jose, Robert Garcia of Long Beach, Barbara Halliday of Hayward, Tom Butt of Richmond, Bryan Osorio of Delano, Robert McConnell of Vallejo, Lesa Heebner of Solana Beach and Lamar Thorpe of Antioch — all are members of the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Specifically, the mayors are calling for state leaders to fund the CalVIP program to the tune of $114 million, including an ongoing investment of $39 million and an emergency, one-time payment of $75 million “to meet our state’s urgent needs, as well as to increase the maximum award level to $4.5 million,” according to the letter.
“As Californian mayors, we know the tragic effects of gun violence firsthand. This past year our cities have confronted dual public health crises as gun violence surges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year was an especially deadly year for California’s cities. Los Angeles experienced over 300 homicides for the first time in a decade, a 34% increase in 2020 compared to 2019; Sacramento saw a 26% increase in homicides in 2020 and the highest number of homicides since 2015; and Fresno’s 2020 homicides reached a level notexperienced in almost 25 years,” the letter reads in part.
You can read the letter for yourself by visiting here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Folks, California lost a seat, but it gained 2.2 million people since 2010, the third largest population gain after Texas (4.0 million) and Florida (2.7 million) So your hot take California lost population is wrong. It’s a large state that didn’t grow as fast as the others”
- Michael McDonald, University of Florida professor specializing in American elections, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
Problems persist at California’s unemployment call center. Here’s what’s happening, via David Lightman
California will lose one congressional seat next year because its population growth has been slower than other states, marking the first time in California’s 170-year history that its political power will shrink in Congress, via David Lightman and Kim Bojórquez.
California prison warden faces $5 million lawsuit from family of slain inmate, via Sam Stanton.
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 4:55 AM.