Tech industry kills California media tax credit bill. Will Journalism Preservation Act be next?
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AS MEDIA TAX CREDIT BILL FIZZLES, THE FIGHT SHIFTS TO AB 886
Well, that’s it for SB 1327.
Sen. Steve Glazer’s bill to tax Big Tech in order to fund a tax credit for media outlets failed to make it to the Senate floor for a vote by the Friday “House of Origin” deadline, meaning the bill is dead for this session.
The tech industry lobbied hard against the bill, with the California Chamber of Commerce giving SB 1327 the dreaded “Job Killer” tag, a designation that has killed many a piece of legislation in Sacramento.
Recall that the bill only narrowly squeaked out of the Senate Appropriations Committee with a very reluctant “aye” vote from Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena. That likely augured poorly for SB 1327’s chances in a floor vote.
Glazer’s office did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment by deadline. However, he told CalMatters reporter Alexei Koseff that the bill, which needed a two-thirds vote to advance, likely couldn’t meet that requirement. That was in part due to the tech industry “using their money and their power to threaten everybody,” Glazer said, according to Koseff’s post on X.
Now that the bill from the Democratic senator from Contra Costa has failed, all eyes are on the bill from the Democratic assemblywoman from Oakland.
AB 886, by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, would require companies like Google and Meta to pay for California news that is linked on their platforms. That money would go into a pot, which would then be divvied out to California news outlets big and small.
You can read more here about what that bill would do.
The bill has faced a long and winding path through the Legislature. Though the bill was introduced last year, and passed out of the Assembly with a bipartisan vote, it stalled in the Senate, with Wicks making it a two-year bill, meaning it could be taken up again this session. Maybe. The bill still sits in the Senate Judiciary Committee with no scheduled hearing.
The tech industry has pushed back hard against AB 886, with Meta threatening to pull news content from its Facebook and Instagram platforms (much as it did when Canada enacted a similar law) and Google experimenting with removing California news from its search platform.
Full disclosure: Sacramento Bee parent company McClatchy, through the California News Publishers Association, is a supporter of AB 886. The CNPA did not take a position on SB 1327.
CALIFORNIANS GET LESS BANG FOR THEIR BUCK
Via David Lightman...
California taxpayers get some of the nation’s worst value for the state and local taxes they pay, a study by WalletHub says.
The financial services firm found California ranks 37th in the quality of state and local services and last in the country in per capita tax burden.
The low services ranking is “largely due to its performance in key areas such as health care, safety, and infrastructure,” said Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub analyst..
“Despite high taxes, California struggles with low rankings,” she said. Happe cited rankings in hospital quality (45th), violent crime rates (45th), property crime rates (42nd), and infrastructure issues such as long commute times (46th).
State rankings were also hurt by having the nation’s highest unemployment rate in recent months.
One bright spot was education. California was 18th in quality of education.
Best return on tax investment was in New Hampshire.
Residents of that state have no state income tax. They pay property, sales and excise taxes.
The study found New Hampshire’s tax resources have had a solid impact on “crime prevention and the environment, as the state has the second-lowest crime rate and the second-lowest air pollution in the country. It has one of the best public school systems as well.”
To get its rankings, WalletHub analyzed each state across five major government-service categories: Education, health, safety, economy and infrastructure & pollution.
Categories were then broken into 29 metrics and weighted.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Now that the defense closing is finished, I give it a B-. There was 25 minutes of great stuff, but it was surrounded by an additional 2 hours of dreck. It was the ‘Purple Rain’ of closings. The final concert scene is compelling, but everything before it was a waste of time. It may be enough.”
- Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Epner, discussing the defense team’s closing argument in the first of several expected criminal trials for former President Donald Trump, via Bluesky.
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California could bar landlords from banning pets at some buildings. Which renters are affected? Via Lindsey Holden.