Californians Wake Up to Hundreds of New Laws for 2002

The energy crisis caused chaos in the state Capitol last year, and legislators labored so long to make sure the lights stayed on in California that there was little time for much else in the way of lawmaking.

Nonetheless, Democrats and Republicans in the Assembly and Senate still managed to send more than 1,100 bills to Gov. Gray Davis during the year, and 948 were signed into law, only slightly fewer than the year before. Most of those new laws take effect today.

Some, such as bans on junk-food sales at elementary and middle schools, increased unemployment benefits, and expanded rights for gay and lesbian couples who register as domestic partners, will affect hundreds of thousands of Californians.

Others, such as permission to register Harley-Davidson motorcycles with replacement engine cases, are somewhat more esoteric, but no less meaningful to those they will affect.

One change many Californians will quickly notice in the new year--a quarter-cent increase in sales taxes--was not the result of a new law at all, but an old law coming home to roost.

Thanks to a formula fashioned in 1991 under former Gov. Pete Wilson, the tax was supposed to go down if the state amassed a certain level of surplus revenue. That happened a few years ago, and the tax was automatically lowered. But the formula also called for the tax to go back up when the surplus levels no longer existed. That happened last year, when the state economy started to soften, thus triggering the tax hike.

Republicans, now a political minority in Sacramento, made great noise about the silent tax increase, accusing Davis of spending too much. But the majority Democrats approved a state budget that took the additional tax money--estimated at more than $1 billion a year--into account.

Another change that will be immediately apparent is an increase in the state’s minimum wage, which goes up 50 cents today to $6.75 an hour. The state’s Industrial Welfare Commission, which sets the wage, agreed in 2000 to raise it $1, spreading the boost over two years.

Education is always a hot issue in Sacramento, and 2001 was no exception. Among the numerous bills on school testing and finance, however, it was the junk-food bill by state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) that generated some of the most spirited debate. The measure, SB 19, mandates that foods sold at elementary and middle schools must meet certain nutritional requirements. It also boosts the state reimbursement for school lunch programs.

Escutia met with strong opposition from soft-drink companies and other junk-food makers when she argued that California schoolchildren were bombarded with unhealthful food, and some Republicans openly called the legislation hypocritical, noting that lawmakers commonly eat junk food on the floor of the Legislature. But the measure passed in a compromise vote after Escutia watered down its scope to exclude the ultimate junk-food consumers, high schoolers.

The domestic partner law, by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, significantly expands a landmark law the San Francisco Democrat sponsored in 1999 that allows gays and lesbians to register as partners with the state.

The new law, AB 25, gives gays and lesbians who register as partners expanded rights, including being able to adopt a partner’s child, receiving the same status as a spouse in a statutory will, and using employee sick leave to take care of a partner or partner’s child. The rights will benefit not only gays and lesbians, but also unmarried seniors, many of whom have registered as partners.

Many Republicans vehemently opposed expanding domestic partner rights, arguing that it ran counter to the successful 2000 ballot measure establishing that marriage in California is between a man and a woman. But Democrats called that argument misleading, noting that domestic partnerships are not marriage unions, and approved the measure on a party-line vote.

The unemployment benefits bill takes effect at a time when a greater number of Californians are without jobs because of the weakened economy and the fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It increases weekly unemployment payments from $230 to $450 over the next four years. The measure, SB 40 by Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), provides the first increase in unemployment benefits in a decade.

There are other important laws that take effect today. And, as always, there are some quirky changes to the statutes that initially may leave many scratching their heads.

The Harley-Davidson bill, for example--SB 1173, by state Sen. Maurice Johannessen (R-Redding)--was sponsored by the California Motorcycle Dealers Assn. It requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to register Harleys with replacement engine cases. An old law barred the DMV from doing so because Harley-Davidsons formerly had their identification numbers on the engine cases instead of the frames, and registering bikes with replacement engines made it hard for authorities to track ones that were stolen. Harley-Davidson has fixed the problem.

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