Sacramento’s Year : 40% of Bills Made It Into the Lawbooks

Of the 4,061 bills that were introduced in 1985, 1,607 survived the legislative process and were signed into law by Gov. George Deukmejian. Another 224 were vetoed. Here is a summary of the major new laws, most of which take effect Jan. 1:

AUTOS AND ROADS Seat belts--Require motorists to buckle up beginning Jan. 1 and auto makers to install automatic crash devices beginning in 1989.

Potholes--Provide $340 million to repair deteriorated streets and highways.

Radios--Bar bicycle riders from wearing radio headphones on public roads.

Registration--Increase fines for operating unregistered vehicles after a three-month amnesty period that begins Jan. 1.

Insure--Prohibit the state from selling to auto insurance companies information on traffic accidents in which another driver is at fault.

Licenses--Require license plates to be reflectorized after 1987 at an additional cost of $1 each.

Phones--Make it a misdemeanor to eavesdrop on automobile telephone conversations or to sell the eavesdropping equipment.

Smog--Require diesel-powered vehicles to pass smog checks as soon as the technology is available.

Towing--Limit towing fees and allow motorists to collect four times the amount of any overcharge from the towing company.

CHILDREN Care--Provide $30 million for after-school care for so-called latchkey children who have working parents.

Testimony--Allow child abuse victims to testify outside the courtroom via two-way closed-circuit television.

Court--Make it less frightening for child witnesses to testify in court by allowing judges to dress in street clothes and by relaxing other court procedures.

Identify--Require elementary schools to offer voluntary fingerprinting to help parents find lost or stolen children.

Lewd--Bar probation to most offenders convicted of using obscene material while committing lewd acts with children.

Kidnap--Add five years to state prison terms for kidnaping a child under age 14 with the intention of permanently keeping the child.

EDUCATION Morality--Require grade school books to stress the principles of morality, truth, justice and patriotism.

Economics--Require high school students to pass a one-semester course in economics.

Asbestos--Impose limits on asbestos exposure in public schools and set up safety procedures for asbestos removal.

Dropouts--Provide $3.1 million to combat the high school dropout problem through early identification and counseling.

DRUNK DRIVING Sobriety Test--Require a minimum 48-hour jail sentence for convicted drunk drivers who refuse to take a chemical sobriety test.

Jail--Require repeat offenders to serve at least 48 hours in jail or perform 10 days of community service.

Suspension--Increase driver’s license suspension from one year to 18 months for a second drunk driving conviction within five years.

Blood--Require judges to consider the level of alcohol in the blood in determining sentence length and amount of fine.

CONSUMERS Solicitation--Require telephone solicitors working from so-called boiler rooms to register with the state Department of Justice.

Credit--Prohibit retailers from imposing surcharges on consumer credit card purchases.

Water--Bar water companies from charging renters for overdue water bills of former tenants.

Charges--Maintain the maximum interest rate for department store charge cards at 19.2% until Jan. 1, 1988, instead of letting it drop to 18% next year.

Foreclosure--Prevent loss of homes to foreclosure for failure to obtain financing on home improvement projects.

Calls--Allow telephone customers to pay a one-time $5 charge to delete access to 976-prefix services that provide pornographic messages, entertainment, news, astrology and sports information.

CRIME Rape--Prohibit police from disclosing names of rape victims unless authorized by the victims.

Liability--Bar criminals from suing property owners for injuries they sustain while committing crimes.

Confidential--Give rape victims and parents of sexually abused children the right to withhold their identities from crime reports.

Threats--Impose either a felony or misdemeanor penalty on violent offenders who threaten witnesses or victims.

Bail--Make it a felony instead of a misdemeanor to jump bail in federal cases.

Abortion--Make it a felony to bomb or burn abortion clinics or anti-abortion counseling offices.

Prisons--Authorize a $78-million emergency prison construction program to add space for 5,000 new inmates.

Violence--Add two years to the prison sentence of repeat offenders who commit violent crimes against elderly, blind or disabled people.

Guns--Bar minors under 16 from owning stun guns, which use an electrical charge to immobilize a victim. Parental permission is needed for those aged 17 to 20.

Mentally Ill--Allow severely mentally ill prisoners convicted of violent crimes to be held in state hospitals after their release dates with approval of mental health professionals.

Sex--Make it a crime to induce a person, other than a spouse, to have sexual intercourse by means of fraud.

TAXES Solar--Save the state $125 million by reducing tax deductions allowed by the state’s solar and energy conservation program by an average of 50%.

ALCOHOL AND DRUGS Candy--Increase the alcohol content allowed in candy from 0.5% to 5%. Prohibit sales to minors.

Hotels--Allow hotels and motels to sell alcoholic beverages to their guests from room liquor cabinets.

Designer--Make it illegal to manufacture, distribute or use so-called designer drugs that are custom-made by chemists.

Cocaine--Require a mandatory prison sentence for selling two ounces or more of cocaine and increase sentences for dealers based on the weight of the drugs they sell.

Mushrooms--Prohibit the growth or sale of spores of so-called magic mushrooms, which are potent hallucinogens.

Marijuana--Provide $2.9 million to expand marijuana eradication in Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties, where much of the state’s crop is grown.

Rock house--Make it a felony for a landlord to knowingly allow use of his property by drug dealers.

ELDERLY Nursing Homes--Increase penalties for patient abuse in nursing homes while providing more money for staff.

Strokes--Provide Medi-Cal coverage for in-home medical care and rehabilitation from strokes.

Centers--Provide $3.5 million for senior centers from a $50-million voter-approved bond issue.

HEALTH AIDS Test--Set up testing centers to determine exposure to the AIDS virus and require confidentiality for those tested or participating in AIDS research.

AIDS Money--Provide $5 million for AIDS research, education and treatment.

Sulfites--Bar restaurant use of sulfite food fresheners blamed for serious allergic reactions in some people.

Cheese--Require stricter state inspection of soft cheese plants and tougher penalties for contamination in response to the recent listeriosis epidemic traced to Mexican-style cheese.

Kosher--Require sellers of fresh meat and poultry advertised as kosher to keep records for one year and make them available to the state.

Homeless--Direct the spending of $20 million on food, shelter, clothing and income for the state’s estimated 75,000 homeless mentally ill.

Cancer--Expand statewide a cancer registry to pinpoint locations and causes of cancer within the general population.

POVERTY Workfare--Require able-bodied mothers with children over 6 years old to go to school, get job training or perform work as a condition for collecting welfare benefits.

HOUSING Vets--Place on the June 6 ballot an $850-million bond issue for Cal-Vet home and farm loans.

Affordable--Guarantee a minimum of $20 million yearly from tidelands oil revenue for low-income housing.

Condos--Allow homeowner associations to sue their residents to enforce governing rules.

MUSEUMS Tolerance--Provide $5 million for a museum of tolerance in West Los Angeles, under auspices of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

Japanese--Provide $750,000 to help pay for a Japanese American Museum in downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.

Hollywood--Appropriate $785,000 to a nonprofit group to plan a Hollywood exposition and entertainment museum.

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT PACs--Bar political action committees from using euphemistic names such as “good government committee” when soliciting campaign contributions.

Salaries--Increase lawmakers’ salaries from $33,732 to $37,105 in December, 1986.

Marina--Make more difficult a cityhood drive in Marina del Rey by setting up roadblocks to incorporation wherever 50% or more of the land is publicly owned.

TOXICS Cleanup--Allocate $100 million in voter-approved bond money to clean hazardous waste dumps and major spills.

Stringfellow--Provide $22.5 million to halt spread of contamination at the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Riverside County.

Emergency--Levy a daily $25,000 fine against companies that fail to immediately notify emergency crews in the event of a toxic spill.

Spraying--Limit public court challenges to state pest eradication programs that use toxic pesticides.

Shreddings--Reclassify waste from shredded cars as non-hazardous for purposes of allowing its disposal in landfills. Landfill operators, however, can refuse to accept the waste.

MISCELLANEOUS Divorce--Authorize divorce courts to set up trusts to continue support payments to the surviving spouse after the other’s death.

Gem--Designate the rare blue benitoite found only in San Benito County as the official state gemstone.

Earthquakes--Appropriate $1.1 million for development of an earthquake prediction system and response plan.

Homemakers--Provide $1 million to guarantee loans to homemakers who are divorced, widowed or abandoned.

Sabbath--Require time off for employees to observe the Sabbath and other holy days unless it causes undue hardship for employers.

Poaching--Double the penalty to $2,000 and/or one year in jail for illegally poaching game animals and birds.