Crime, labor and reparations: What to know about the state bills awaiting their fate

Good morning. It’s Friday, Sept. 6. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

What to know about the California bills awaiting their fate

Summer’s waning means the end of another legislative session in California’s Capitol. Hundreds of bills now await their fate: whether Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign them into law.

The fate of many are uncertain for the moment — especially given the state’s belt-tightening in face of a massive budget deficit. But the act of getting bills to the governor’s desk reveals a lot about our leaders’ priorities and how they’re responding to the public’s concerns — or not.

Here are a few notable legislative movements out of this session that The Times newsroom has been keeping an eye on.

Lawmakers pivoted to be tougher on crime

California Democrats, especially more progressive lawmakers and district attorneys, are frequently targeted by the right as being soft on crime.

Data in the state are nuanced; certain violent and property crimes are down, others have increased.

But many voters react more strongly to vibes than statistics. With media focus and public anxiety over rising crime, some Democrats in the Legislature altered course on some long-sought reform efforts.

“Lawmakers voted in favor of stiffer penalties for sex offenders, repeat shoplifters and car burglars, and rejected bills to limit solitary confinement in prisons and expand eligibility for parole,” Times Sacramento reporter Anabel Sosa writes. “The change marks a complex and controversial moment in the state’s debate over balancing public safety with progressive criminal justice goals.”

Now those bills head to Newsom, who recently signed a slate of crime bills aimed at cracking down on car theft and organized retail theft.

But it’s not just Newsom who’ll decide whether to get tougher on crime in the state. Proposition 36, which would impose stricter sentences for repetitive theft and offenses involving fentanyl, goes before California voters in November.

A recent poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, shows a majority of voters in favor of those stronger punishments.

A cool-down on labor bills

You may remember last year’s “hot labor summer” and the swell of political action that accompanied it in California and beyond.

The resulting bills passed and signed at the end of last year’s legislative session were a mixed bag. Wage increases were approved for the state’s healthcare and fast-food workers. Workers are now guaranteed at least five paid sick days, up from three. Newsom vetoed bills that would have allowed workers on strike to receive unemployment benefits and included housekeepers, nannies and other household staff in health and safety protection laws.

So how are labor groups feeling about this year’s legislative efforts? A bit chilly, The Times’ Mackenzie Mays reported from Sacramento.

“A bill seeking to give striking workers unemployment benefits fizzled before it ever made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk,” she noted. “Legislation supported by journalist unions to require Google to pay news outlets for content was shelved in lieu of a watered-down deal. Labor-backed proposals to support grocery jobs over self-check-out machines, expand protections for workers who join picket lines and limit government agencies’ use of temporary contracts to replace union jobs also failed.”

Democrats pin some blame on spending cuts enacted to address the state’s budget deficit, which affects priorities. But for Republicans, for whom labor unions are a political powerhouse that frequently fund their Democratic opponents, the cool-down was welcome.

“They got a lot of things last year, and some of the things they asked for this year were pretty aggressive. I’m glad that we took some pause,” Assemblymember Heath Flora (R-Ripon) told Mackenzie. “We should definitely pump the brakes.”

Despite the pullback some labor advocates felt, California remains notably strong on worker protections.

“We’re going to take some losses, and in a bad budget year we expect a little bit more than normal,” Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Labor Federation, told Mackenzie. “We are always going to have one of the most aggressive agendas in the United States.”

A slow start on reparations action

Back in 2020, in response to national protests against racial injustice, lawmakers approved and Newsom signed a bill that created a state task force to study reparations for slavery in the Golden State and develop a plan to enact them.

The task force released its final report in June 2023 as lawmakers made plans to address its recommendations in 2024. The result so far “is more incremental than record-breaking,” my colleagues Taryn Luna and Laurel Rosenhall reported.

“Hamstrung by a state budget deficit and the challenges of supporting a politically volatile issue in an election year, the California Legislature passed a limited slate of reparations bills,” they wrote this week. “The meager progress, though hailed by some lawmakers and advocates, in a state as liberal as California could serve as a warning on the issue to the rest of the nation.”

Among the bills that did pass was AB 3089, which mandates a formal apology from the state for “perpetuating the harms African Americans faced by having imbued racial prejudice through segregation, public and private discrimination, and unequal disbursal of state and federal funding and [declaring] that such actions shall not be repeated.”

Other approved bills would amend policies in education, healthcare and criminal justice. None of the bills that were proposed earlier this year or passed in recent weeks includes cash payments.

Critics accused some Democratic lawmakers of taking an easier, symbolic approach rather than committing to more substantive policies.

Laurel and Taryn noted that direct financial compensation for African American Californians whose descendants were enslaved lacks broad public support, making it politically risky for Democrats.

A 2023 poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies (co-sponsored by The Times) found that 59% of state voters oppose cash payments compared with 28% who voiced support for the idea.

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And finally … a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! We’re running low on submissions. Send us photos that scream California and we may feature them in an edition of Essential California.

Today’s great photo is from Jimmy Ramirez of Marina del Rey: the Santa Monica Pier, which is “a beautiful Southern California beacon.”

Jimmy writes: “It provides a sense of life at its most enjoyable, away from all the combustion and lows that normal life offers. The roller coaster and the Ferris wheel are a metaphor of life. With its ups and downs, the pier gives you the strength that for every low turn, we have the strength and the courage to get up.”

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew J. Campa, Sunday reporter
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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