AG candidate calls for fentanyl crackdown + CalSavers goes after employers + Child payments end

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert! Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

REPUBLICAN AG CANDIDATE TALKS FENTANYL

Via Lara Korte...

If Nathan Hochman wins the race for California Attorney General in the fall, he’ll be a Republican prosecutor working to reduce crime in a state with a Democratic supermajority that isn’t keen on stricter sentencing or tighter laws for criminals.

That doesn’t bother him, he says.

Last year, when Democrats shot down a bill that would hold drug dealers responsible for fatalities, Hochman, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney General, went door to door asking county District Attorneys to implement the policy in their own practices.

“As a private citizen, I can encourage 10 of them to do this,” he said. “You could get 55 of them to do it if you’re attorney general, through a mix of please and thank yous and what not.”

Hochman is among many California Republicans who want to take swift action against a growing fentanyl problem. Increasingly, the deadly substance is appearing in illicit drugs and killing unsuspecting users.

But before Hochman can take on fentanyl, he’ll have to take on Sacramento DA Anne Marie Schubert, a former Republican who is running as no-party-preference.

With progressive Democrat Rob Bonta running on the left, Schubert and Hochman will have to compete for the majority of right-leaning voters. Both are running on a platform of being tough on crime, hammering on the rise in homicides, thefts and drugs that have occurred under Democratic rule.

Schubert has a strong name ID thanks to her work catching the Golden State Killer. But Hochman said he has an advantage over Schubert in that he’s worked on both sides of the issue, as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney. Working in the Criminal Division as an Assistant US Attorney, he prosecuted over 100 cases, including narcotics traffickers and violent gang members. As general counsel in private practice, however, he says he’s gained a reputation as a “leading criminal justice defense” lawyer.

He’ll also have the advantage of the “R” next to his name on the primary ballot. Is it enough to sway conservative voters his way? We’ll see in about six months time.

CALSAVERS TO BEGIN IMPOSING PENALTIES ON EMPLOYERS

CalSavers will soon begin fining large employers that fail to offer their employees a private retirement plan.

Employers with more than 100 employees will be subject to a penalty of $250 per employee for a first notice of failure to provide, $500 per employee if the employer persists.

“We strongly urge employers to come into compliance now before we mail penalties this month,” said executive director Katie Selenski in a statement. “Our service representatives are standing by to assist you and the vast majority of employers find it easy to comply.”

More than 24,000 employers have already registered with the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program.

“We’re doing everything we can to level the playing field for workers in the state who’ve never had a retirement plan, and employers have a simple, but important, role to play in making the program available to their employees,” Selenski said.

The deadline for employers with more than 100 employees to sign up was Sept. 30, 2020.

NO MORE FEDERAL CHILD TAX CREDIT PAYMENTS

Via David Lightman...

Monthly child tax credit payments, which helped an estimated 4.3 million California families with benefits of up to $300 per child since July, have ended.

The payment have been sent to parents in the middle of each month since July.

But Congress has been unable to reach any agreement to extend the child tax credit provisions that created the payments, so December’s amounts were the last.

The expanded child tax credit was increased in 2021 for one year only. Qualifying families with children 6 to 17 can receive a credit of $3,000 per child a year. Families with children under 6 can receive $3,600.

They could take the benefit as a monthly payment, and claim the rest of the break on their tax return this year.

Maximum amounts were available to parents with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000 for single filers, up to $112,500 for heads of households and up to $150,000 or less for married couples filing jointly. The amount of the credit becomes less at higher incomes.

There will still be a child tax credit available this year, but at a lesser amount and obtainable when people file their 2022 tax return next year.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“This MLK Day let’s not forget the FBI files kept on Dr. King- the 29 arrests and his letter from a Birmingham jail. Let’s also not forget that with staggering income, criminal legal, and health inequities- his dream has yet to be fully realized.We still have work to do.”

- Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• California forcibly sterilized people for 70 years. Survivors can now get compensation, via Nadia Lopez

• The California Legislature’s temporary move to a state office building last month created a new security problem in downtown Sacramento: How to keep lawmakers and their staff safe as they walk back and forth between the Capitol and their offices on O Street, via Rosalio Ahumada and Lara Korte.

• A longstanding project to modernize California state government’s decades-old payroll system has a new timeline and cost estimate in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal, via Wes Venteicher.