Bill Granting Some Benefits to Unwed Couples Reintroduced

A bill allowing gay and other unwed couples to register with the state as domestic partners and obtain limited benefits now reserved for married couples has been reintroduced in the Assembly.

The new version, AB 627, introduced by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), is similar to last year’s legislation that passed the Assembly and Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

“We need to strengthen, not weaken, the institution of marriage,” the governor had said. “Government policy ought not to discount marriage by offering a substitute that demands much less.”

Katz accused Wilson of caving in to election-year pressure exerted by members of the religious right. “It was unconscionable for the governor to ignore the needs of a million Californians, many of them low- and middle-income seniors, just to win an election,” Katz said.

The bill would establish a new legal framework for registered domestic partnerships, requiring hospitals to grant partner visitation rights and changing state law relating to wills and conservatorships.

ASSEMBLY

Bill Introductions

* Campaign Finance Reform: AB 1045 by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame) requires gubernatorial candidates to debate, licenses political campaign consultants and bans contributions of more than $10,000 to candidates during the final 13 days of a campaign.

* Fluoride: AB 733, also by Speier, requires the state to adopt regulations by 1997 ensuring that 75% of all Californians have fluoridated drinking water by the year 2000.

* Contracting Out: ACA 11 by Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) would prohibit the Legislature from passing a law preventing the state from contracting state work to the private sector.

* Part-Time Legislature: AB 673 by Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena) would switch the Legislature from full-time to part-time, with sessions lasting three months instead of nine. Sessions could be extended by a two-thirds vote.

* Auto Accidents: AB 498 by Assemblyman Paul Horcher (I-Diamond Bar) would make it a misdemeanor for a motorist to slow down to view a freeway automobile accident, if a police officer decides it has caused increased traffic congestion.

* No-Fault Insurance: AB 607 by Assemblyman Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) would create a no-fault automobile insurance program in which drivers involved in an accident pay their own repair expenses, regardless of who caused the mishap.

* Domestic Violence: AB 508 by Assemblywoman Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) would require public school students in grades 7-12 to receive at least four hours of instruction on domestic violence prevention.

SENATE

Bill Introductions

* Campaign Finance Reform: SB 752-55 by Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) provides, among other things, public financing for legislative campaigns, accompanied by strict contribution and expenditure limits. Other bills in the package would restrict last-minute special interest contributions and impose limits on candidates’ loans to themselves.

* Lieutenant Governor: SCA 12 by Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael) requires the joint election of the governor and the lieutenant governor, starting in 1998.

* Weapons Searches: SB 554 by Sen. Tom Campbell (R-Stanford) appropriates an unspecified amount of state money to an unspecified county to set up a pilot program permitting police to stop and search occupants of motor vehicles for weapons at randomly established sobriety checkpoints.

* Prisoner Rights: SB 470 by Sen. Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino) would prohibit state prison inmates from conjugal visits, lifting weights, contact sports, tobacco products and viewing television programs containing sex or violence.

* Affirmative Action: SCA 10 by Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) would prohibit the state or any of its political subdivisions from using race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin as a criterion for either discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any person or group in public employment, public education and public contracting.

* Minimum Wage: SB 500 by Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte) would increase the state minimum wage of $4.25 per hour to not less than $5 per hour on June 1, 1996, and to not less than $5.75 per hour a year later.

* School Superintendent: SCA 8 by Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael) would eliminate the elected office of state superintendent of public instruction.

* Office of Education: SB 459, also by Greene, would abolish the state Department of Education and replaces it with an Office of Education under the control of a director appointed by the governor.