California OKs accent marks on birth certificates, but funding is missing
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
EVERYTHING BUT THE CASH
Several bills signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom this year are missing one crucial component: the money needed to implement them.
For example: Assembly Bill 64 will require the California Department of Public Health to add diacritical marks like accents, tildes and umlauts to birth certificates and other official documents. It’s the latest iteration of a bill that was first proposed in 2014. However, it goes into place “beginning no earlier than two years after an appropriation of funds by the Legislature.” The Legislature has not appropriated the funds.
Another: Senate Bill 520 will get the ball rolling on master’s level, nurse-midwifery education programs at selected California public colleges. An accompanying measure, Assembly Bill 836, would fund a study into the state of midwifery education in California. The two are dependent on millions of dollars that have not been allocated by the state.
Lobbyist and political science professor Chris Micheli said the trend of passing laws without funding has been increasing in frequency.
“More and more bills over the last few Sessions have included contingent operative language, meaning that these bills, although enacted and effective (i.e., they are “on the books”), can only be operative if funding is made in a future bill or the state budget,” Micheli wrote in a September blog post.
Micheli estimated about 70 bills had some form of this language, about 3% of the almost 2,400 bills introduced. He said it has become a way to get through appropriations committees, which often kill bills due to high costs.
“It’s not a guarantee that you’ll make it, but it is one option that some authors every year do find success with.”
Even without the money attached, some advocates are pleased to see their bills make progress.
“We’re thrilled,” said Liz Donnelly with the California Nurse-Midwives Association, which sponsored SB 520 and AB 836. “Even if the state is unable to find a way to fund it this year, that creates the opportunity for the state to fund these two very important projects in a future year.”
Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco, D-Downey, who authored AB 64, said her bill “represents the culmination of a multiyear struggle to ensure that our state recognizes the dignity and cultural identity of every Californian,” and added she was confident it would be funded next year.
CEQA CHANGES ON THE BALLOT?
The California Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday said it wants to put a ballot measure in front of voters to “modernize” the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as CEQA.
“California’s outdated system for approving essential projects is too slow, too bureaucratic, and too costly,” the proposed initiative says.
Legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom have pushed through changes to the major environmental law in recent years to try and speed up home building. But the business trade group’s CEO, Jennifer Barrera, said in a post on the organization’s website that more changes are needed.
“For decades, oversight has too often been co-opted by obstruction, threatening the common good,” Barrera said.
The initiative seeks to place timelines on local and state agencies to make decisions while reviewing affordable housing and infrastructure projects.
The California Attorney General’s Office needs to review the proposal before proponents can begin collecting signatures to try and place it on the ballot.
— Stephen Hobbs
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I think there’s a California derangement syndrome.... It’s extraordinary, the bull.... that I hear about this state.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom to Bloomberg on GOP attacks against the Golden State
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