Assembly panel puts hold on condom, bullet tax bills

SACRAMENTO -- A state Assembly panel on Friday shelved 144 bills that would have cost the state $2.8 billion, including measures to require condoms for adult film actors and to put a 10% tax on bullet sales.

However, bill authors said they would try to revive some of the legislation.

The measures were held for the year by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The panel’s chairman, Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), said the decisions reflect “our state’s continuing fiscal constraints.”

But Assemblyman Isadore Hall III said his AB 332, which would have required condoms in adult films to prevent the spread of disease, met the cost threshold set by the committee for bills to be passed on to the Assembly floor.

“It’s a matter of Gatto putting porn profits above worker safety,” Hall said.

He said the lack of a statewide law means Los Angeles County, which has a condom law, will lose business from adult film productions to other counties.

Gatto defended the committee’s action. “Passing a bill, of questionable First Amendment validity, that would certainly subject the state to expensive lawsuits, would simply cost too much for California right now,” he said in a statement.

Gatto did not comment specifically during the committee meeting about why he was holding back AB 187, which would have put a 10% tax on ammunition sales to raise $92 million annually for crime-fighting in cities and for mental health programs aimed at reducing gun violence.

Assemblymen Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) and Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) plan to continue to pursue the bill, even if it means taking it back up in January, aides said.

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patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com