Legislators Rush to File Final Bills

With only one day left to propose new legislation, California lawmakers are preparing to launch debates over several highly charged social issues and renew confrontations with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over bills he vetoed last year.

Some Democrats want to permit doctor-assisted suicide and sanction gay marriage. And they plan to try again to get driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, to help Californians buy prescription drugs from Canada and to raise the minimum wage.

Republicans, meanwhile, want to stiffen criminal penalties, create tax breaks and end conjugal visits for imprisoned felons.

One of the most ambitious packages is from the bipartisan team of Assembly members Keith Richman (R-Northridge) and Joe Nation (D-San Rafael). It promises to spur debate on how to extend health insurance to 6 million Californians who do not have it. Their plan would require Californians to buy health insurance, much as they are now required to buy auto insurance. Big questions loom about how to help poor people pay for it, and Democrats say such a mandate would prompt employers to drop coverage for their workers.

But few of the hundreds of bills introduced by Democrats as of Monday tackle the subjects that Schwarzenegger has said should dominate political debate in 2005. The Republican governor has vowed to change how political boundaries are drawn in hopes of making the Legislature less partisan. He also wants to install automatic restrictions on state spending, pay public school teachers based on merit -- not seniority -- and put new state workers and teachers into 401(k) retirement plans that would reduce what the state must annually pay into employee pension accounts.

Although Democrats vowed in January to champion what they saw as middle-class issues -- housing costs, transportation, education and healthcare -- few details are apparent from the bills filed so far. Many are brief “placeholder” bills that could be amended dramatically in the months to come. Schwarzenegger and the Democrats who dominate the Legislature instead are behaving as if the governor’s agenda will be decided elsewhere.

Schwarzenegger has said that if legislators don’t pass his proposals, he would take his agenda to voters in a special election. The governor is expected to call the election for Nov. 8. In anticipation, interest groups including drug makers and anti-tax groups have filed an unprecedented 81 proposed initiatives, many to either back or oppose the governor.

Given that distraction, Democrats face the question: “Is it our agenda or is it his agenda and how do we maintain our agenda in light of Arnold?” said Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Cal State Sacramento.

Democrats answered the question, O’Connor said, by choosing bills true to their constituents, ideology and party.

Bills vetoed last year by Schwarzenegger that have been resurrected include SB 60 by Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), which would let an estimated 2 million drivers with undocumented immigration status get licenses after they submit fingerprints for a background check.

Few bills have such a tortuous history. Versions by Cedillo have been vetoed by Schwarzenegger and former Gov. Gray Davis. A bill finally signed by Davis was repealed by the Legislature before it could take effect, giving Schwarzenegger his first legislative victory.

Cedillo said he would persist this year because “the political winds have shifted in our favor.” Cedillo noted that a signature drive recently failed in California that would have qualified a ballot measure to deny driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

When Schwarzenegger vetoed Cedillo’s last version of the bill in September 2004, he expressed concern that terrorists could use the licenses to infiltrate the country. But the governor didn’t elaborate on how to address that concern.

“Just saying no is inadequate,” Cedillo said. “It doesn’t address the fact that 10% of the motorists [on state highways] are still going to be unlicensed and untested and uninsured.”

An official with the governor’s office said the administration believes California is preempted because President Bush has asked the Department of Homeland Security to develop guidelines on driver’s licenses.

Cedillo said he nonetheless feels confident of success.

“It will either be resolved in our control in the state of California,” he said, “or somebody at the federal level will solve it for us.”

Last year, the governor also vetoed a bill that would have required the state to set up a website to link California consumers to Canadian pharmacies, which sell many prescription drugs more cheaply than in the U.S.

The governor argued that the bill would violate a federal law that bans individuals from importing prescription drugs. Schwarzenegger launched his own proposal, SB 19 by Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento), to use voluntary discounts from drug companies to cut prescription drug costs as much as 40% for low-income Californians.

Democratic legislators say the governor’s plan is too weak. They have introduced and reintroduced a raft of prescription drug measures, including AB 73 by Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Glendale). The bill would link Californians to pharmacies in Canada, England and Ireland through a state-run website.

Frommer called the bill a route to immediate relief from spiraling drug costs. “We are not going to support something that is an empty gesture,” he said last month.

But administration officials say the governor has been adamant about following federal law, and they defend his plan as workable.

Another vetoed measure to resurface this year would raise the $6.75-an-hour minimum wage in California by an undetermined amount. When he vetoed a similar bill by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) last year, Schwarzenegger said, “Now is not the time to create barriers to our economic recovery.”

Schwarzenegger may escape what promises to be time-consuming, heartfelt and emotional debate in the Legislature about gay marriage and doctor-assisted suicide. Last year, a bill to legalize marriage for same-sex couples died after passing one Assembly committee. Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who wrote the bill, vowed to return to the issue in 2005.

Leno’s bill, AB 19, would redefine state law to make marriage a civil contract between two people, not just a man and a woman. But many lawmakers are troubled by the legislation, and leaders have not made it a top priority.

California would become the second state after Oregon to allow people to get a prescription to end their lives under AB 654 by Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Eureka) and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys).

The bill is modeled after a 1997 Oregon law under that so far has helped roughly 200 people commit suicide.

In an omen of powerful debates to come, Berg and Levine convened a Sacramento hearing last month. Witnesses included 65-year-old Vietnam veteran and lung cancer patient Steven Mason of Ashland, Ore. He said he was told nine months ago that he had three weeks to six months to live. Mason told legislators that he did not want his daughters to see him “wither to 80 pounds.”

“I am so liberated knowing that when my time is up,” he said, “I get to choose.”

Other witnesses said they were sickened that legislators would even discuss the issue.

“When one person intentionally ends the life of another,” 70-year-old Bill Young of Sacramento told them, “that’s murder.”

Times staff writer Jordan Rau contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Guns, Ferrets and Sexual Slavery: Legislative Issues Take Shape

Lawmakers will consider hundreds of issues this year, including those listed below. Today is the deadline for bill introduction. To become law, bills must pass the Assembly and Senate and be signed by the governor. To read the legislation, go to www.leginfo.ca.gov.

* Guns: Would require semiautomatic handguns to include a technology that stamps the gun’s serial number on the cartridge to help police identify weapons used in crimes. AB 352 by Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood).

* Political districts: Would transfer responsibility for designing voting districts from lawmakers to an independent commission: ACAX1 3 by Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), SCA 3 by Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), ACA 8 by Assemblyman Bill Maze (R-Visalia) and ACAX1 5 by Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg).

* Income tax: Would raise the personal income tax on top earners from 9.3% to 11%, as it was between 1991 and 1996. AB 6 by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan (D-Alameda).

* Property Tax: Would increase homeowners’ property tax exemption from $7,000 to $25,000. AB 62 by Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks).

* Illegal immigrants: One bill would overturn local government policies that stop police from enforcing immigration laws. AB 332 by Assemblyman Russ Bogh (R-Cherry Valley).

Another would grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. SB 60 by Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles).

Another would ban the state from granting driver’s licenses, in-state college tuition and health or social benefits to illegal immigrants. ACA 6 by Assemblyman Mark Wyland (R-Escondido).

* Secretary of state: Would make the office of the state’s election chief nonpartisan. AB 5 by Canciamilla.

* Cigarettes: Would require that all cigarettes sold in California be self-extinguishing and would ban smoking on coastal beaches. AB 178 and AB 17 by Koretz.

* Sexual slavery: Would make human trafficking a felony. AB 22 by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View), AB 41 by Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), SB 180 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica).

* Write-in candidates: Would make a vote for a write-in candidate valid even if a voter does not also fill in the oval next to the candidate’s name. In the San Diego mayoral race last year, more than 5,500 write-in votes were disqualified because voters did not fill in the oval next to candidate Donna Frye’s name. AB 43 by Assemblyman Juan Vargas (D-San Diego).

* Drunk drivers: Would permanently revoke a driver’s license upon the third or subsequent conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol. AB 4 by Bogh.

* Driver’s school: Would cut minimum instruction for traffic school students from 400 minutes to 240 minutes. AB 107 by Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Palm Desert).

* Local government: Would cap payments to city council members at $150 per month per commission or committee on which they serve as part of their official duties. AB 11 by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate).

* Cocaine: Would reduce penalties for crack cocaine possession. AB 125 by Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton).

* Children and drugs: Would punish with 16 months in prison people convicted of knowingly and unlawfully consuming controlled substances in the presence of children under their care. AB 253 by Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton).

* Campaign donations: Would ban the governor and lawmakers from accepting campaign donations during budget negotiations, generally May through July. AB 16 by Assemblyman Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar).

* Gay marriage: One bill would legalize marriage for homosexual couples. AB 19 by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco).

Others would ban it. ACA 3 by Assemblyman Ray Haynes (R-Murrieta) and SCA 1 by Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside).

* Prisoners: Would end conjugal visits for violent felons. AB 212 by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine).

* Violent video games: Would restrict sale or rental to children of video games that depict “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel” violence. AB 450 by Yee.

* Prescription drugs: Would require pharmacists to list on drug containers the intended purpose of the drug or the malady for which it is prescribed. AB 657 by Assemblywoman Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), AB 288 by Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia).

* Pornography: Would impose fines of up to $500 for displaying sexually explicit material in a vehicle in public. AB 282 by Benoit.

* Lieutenant governor: Would require the lieutenant governor to act as governor only in case of impeachment or temporary disability, no longer when the governor is out of state. SCA 6 by Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks).

* Los Angeles public health: Would create a Los Angeles County health or hospital authority. AB 201 by Dymally, AB 166 by Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles).

* Mascots: Would ban the use of “Redskins” as a nickname or mascot name for public school sports teams. AB 13 by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles).

* Spam: Would allow recipients of unsolicited commercial e-mail to sue for up to $1,000 per violation of the state’s anti-spam law. SB 92 by Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City).

* Homeowner associations: Would require secret ballots for certain homeowner association matters. SB 61 by Sen. Jim Battin (R-La Quinta).

* Ferrets: Would legalize ferrets as pets, as long as they were vaccinated against rabies and neutered or spayed. AB 647 by Koretz.

Source: California Legislature

Los Angeles Times