California Politics: Hot labor summer hits the California Capitol

Good morning! I’m in your inbox a day late because we wanted to bring you the freshest news about all the action in Sacramento yesterday. It was the last day of the legislative session for the year and lawmakers worked late into the night.

The ball now moves to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s court. He has until Oct. 14 to sign or veto hundreds of bills lawmakers sent him in the final weeks of session. They include measures that would decriminalize magic mushrooms, ban the use of some chemicals used in snacks like Skittles, require condoms in every high school, force companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and make many other changes, big and small, to life in California. (You can read more about the most interesting bills lawmakers sent Newsom in this collection of articles by Times journalists.)

In the end, some key themes emerged, which I’ll break down in today’s newsletter. I’m Laurel Rosenhall, the Times’ Sacramento bureau chief.

Hot Labor Summer

The union energy that has fueled strikes by actors, writers and hotel workers this summer clearly hit the state Capitol as well. Even in a Legislature where unions have long-held clout, the run of wins for organized labor this year was remarkable. Lawmakers passed labor-backed bills that, if signed into law, will:

• Allow workers on strike to receive unemployment benefits — a proposal that failed just a few years ago.
• Give all workers in California a minimum of five paid sick days — up from the current requirement of three.
• Gradually raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour for people who work in healthcare settings — including nursing assistants, launderers and hospital gift shop workers.
• Raise wages for fast food workers to $20 and avert an expensive ballot measure fight with the restaurant industry.
• Make California the first in the nation to include housekeepers, nannies and other household staff in laws requiring health and safety protections.
• Require driverless trucks to have a human safety driver on board.
• Allow staffers who work in the Legislature to organize unions — a proposal that has failed several times even as lawmakers expanded labor rights for other categories of workers.

And even though it won’t get any votes in the Legislature until next year, a new bill introduced in the final days of session shows lawmakers’ willingness to go to bat for striking workers in the entertainment industry. The legislation seeks to protect workers from being replaced by their digital clones. It would give actors and artists a way to nullify provisions in vague contracts that allow studios and other companies to use artificial intelligence to digitally clone their voices, faces and bodies.

The tug of war between labor and business is a constant in the California Capitol. What was different this year: several new lawmakers with a progressive streak, a new Assembly Speaker who put his muscle behind some of labor’s priorities and ongoing strikes in Southern California that have pushed many politicians to publicly side with workers.

But Newsom has been cautious about taking sides in the Hollywood strikes. He’s also warned repeatedly that he won’t sign bills that impose costs for the state that are not accounted for in the budget, and he said this week that he’s concerned about the unemployment insurance fund’s debt. And ultimately, he has the last word — unless Democrats take the extremely rare, practically nuclear option and override his veto.

The first big test for Speaker Rivas

Speaker Robert Rivas, right, embraces Assemblymember Ash Kalra.

(Max Whittaker / For The Times)

It was the first end-of-session for new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), who claimed the influential post this summer after a yearlong power struggle that divided Democrats, and Rivas displayed political acuity.

He appeased moderates in his caucus — and quelled a firestorm of public outrage — when he insisted on reviving and passing a Republican bill to stiffen penalties for child sex trafficking that some progressives wanted to quash. He showed allegiance to progressives by putting his name on measures asking voters to change how taxes are passed. (See more on those below.) And he displayed his skill for bringing different factions together by helping to negotiate an agreement between labor unions and healthcare companies on the contentious proposal to raise wages to $25 an hour.

Also worth noting: Under Rivas’ leadership, the Assembly passed measures that were fiercely opposed by a group with close ties to Rivas’ family. His brother and his cousin both work with Govern for California, a donor network largely made up of Bay Area venture capitalists, which lobbied against the bills to give unemployment benefits to striking workers and to allow legislative staff to unionize.

After the bills passed, the group’s president wrote a lamenting email to its supporters, saying, “It was a terrible year for [Govern for California].”

Your turn, voters

Some of the most consequential proposals lawmakers passed this year are not actually up to them. Instead they will wind up on the ballot next year for voters to have the final say.

Mental healthcare overhaul: With rare bipartisan support, Newsom successfully pushed through a plan to transform the state’s mental health system that’s part of his broader effort to reduce homelessness in California. The measure will appear as Proposition 1 on the March 2024 ballot. If approved by voters, it would create a bond to generate at least $6.4 billion to build mental health facilities including 10,000 new treatment beds. It also would expand substance abuse treatment and reconfigure existing mental health funding to set aside $1 billion a year for supportive housing.

Making it easier to build housing and infrastructure: A measure lawmakers are sending to the November ballot will ask voters to make it easier to pass bonds to build affordable housing and public infrastructure. If passed, it would lower the bar for voter approval from two-thirds to 55%.

A fight over how to approve tax increases: A measure lawmakers placed on the March ballot is the latest example of political gamesmanship in the battle between progressive unions and conservative business interests at the state Capitol. Business interests had already qualified a measure for the November ballot that would, if approved, make it harder for voters to increase taxes. Labor unions want to thwart that effort, so they convinced the Legislature to pass a measure asking voters to raise the bar for passing the business-backed measure. Yes, it’s confusing. We have a simple explainer for you here.

Keeping up with California politics

California lawmakers pass Newsom’s call for U.S. constitutional convention on gun control
The Legislature approved Gov. Gavin Newsom’s resolution calling for a constitutional convention of the states to consider a new amendment on gun control, a politically astute yet seemingly unattainable proposal from the Democratic leader.

Bill to restrict solitary confinement in California stalls out in Sacramento
In a blow to criminal justice reform advocates and a win for corrections officials, California lawmakers delayed legislation to restrict the use of solitary confinement in prisons, jails and immigration detention centers, to buy time to negotiate with Newsom over safety concerns.

Skelton: Don’t listen to the chatter about Newsom running for president
It’s past time for us — especially in the news media — to accept what Newsom says about his presidential aspiration, writes Times columnist George Skelton. Stop fantasizing about a potential Newsom race for the White House.

New poll finds California voters resoundingly oppose cash reparations for slavery
California voters oppose the idea of the state offering cash payments to the descendants of enslaved African Americans by a 2-to-1 margin, according to the results of a new poll that foreshadows the political difficulty ahead next year when state lawmakers begin to consider reparations for slavery.

Lawsuit argues Trump disqualified from appearing on California ballot
A Venice attorney filed a federal lawsuit to bar Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary election ballot, arguing that the former president is constitutionally disqualified because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Barbara Lee to Newsom: Choosing a Black woman for short-term appointment is ‘insulting’
Should he be faced with the need to appoint a replacement, Newsom said in an interview airing Sunday that he would pick a short-term caretaker, not one of the candidates running for Feinstein’s seat next year.

Barabak: Newsom takes heat for pledging a caretaker in U.S. Senate. But it’s the right thing to do
Two and a half years ago, Gavin Newsom put his foot in his mouth, writes Times columnist Mark Z. Barabak. On Sunday, California’s governor extricated it, saying anyone chosen to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat would be a placeholder until voters have their say in 2024.

The scramble to fix California’s home insurance mess failed. Here’s what will happen next
State lawmakers spent recent weeks trying to piece together a deal that would make it easier for companies to charge higher prices, in the hopes of enticing carriers to reopen for new business. But as the session wound down, a deal had failed to materialize.

McCarthy’s vow to open Biden impeachment probe puts vulnerable California Republicans in a tough spot
Impeachment is unpopular in the 18 districts that Biden won in 2020 that are held by House Republicans, according to an August poll commissioned by the Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic-aligned nonprofit. Five of those districts are in California.