Hundreds of Bills Head to Jerry Brown's Desk

Friday was the end of this year's legislative session, and lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown hundreds of bills this week covering issues as wide-ranging as immigration, public safety, health care and housing.

Here's a roundup of some of the bills now sitting on Brown's desk.

(Skip to bills on housing, health care and transportation.)

Immigration

• Senate Bill 54 was the most closely watched immigration bill of the session. If signed, it will tighten limitations on law enforcement's ability to work with and communicate with federal immigration officials.
• SB 29 would bar local governments from entering into new contracts to detain immigrants facing deportation for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Eleven municipalities already have such contracts and would be prohibited from expanding their existing contracts as they come up for renewal. It would not prevent private companies from having their own contracts with ICE, such as the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, owned and operated by CoreCivic (formerly CCA). If the bill is signed, it would also empower the state attorney general to inspect conditions for immigrant detainees in jails and private prisons in California.
• SB 257 would allow the U.S. citizen children of deported parents to continue to attend local schools.
• Assembly Bill 21 is a response to the elimination of DACA. If signed, the bill would require that California State University and community colleges have policies to ensure that undocumented students have access to financial aid, legal representation and their right to due process. It also would create a framework for how institutions of higher learning interact with ICE, such as prohibiting the disclosure of the immigration status of undocumented students, faculty and staff.
• AB 291 would prohibit landlords or property managers from disclosing, or threatening to disclose, a tenant's immigration status to any immigration authority.
• AB 450 would require employers to ask ICE for a warrant before a workplace raid, and it would require employers to give employees advance notice of ICE actions.

Housing

On Friday, the Senate gave final passage to a trio of high-profile housing bills that aim to increase California's housing supply and help more Californians afford a home. A dozen more are headed to the governor's desk in response to the state's housing crisis.

• SB 3 is a $4 billion bond measure aimed to go before voters in November 2018
• SB 2 would provide hundreds of millions of dollars for affordable housing construction through a $75 fee on real estate transactions.
• SB 35 aims to kick start hosing development in communities that are not keeping up with their own housing consruction promises. It would bypass some local reviews for developments in communities that have fallen behind on regional housing goals.

Health Care 

• SB 17 aims to shed more life on one year after its authored abandoned the bill because it had been so dramatically changed by other Democrats

Transportation 

• SB 595 provides for a Bay Area-wide vote on a toll increase of up to $3 on the region's seven state-owned toll bridges. The vote, to be held sometime in 2018, would raise funds to support $4.45 billion in transit and highway projects.
• AB 544 extends a state program that allows solo drivers in electric cars to use high-occupany vehicles (a.k.a. carpool) lanes on the state's freeways.
• SB 65 outlaws smoking pot while driving or riding in cars. The bill, signed by Gov. Brown earlier this week, adds marijuana consumption to the law prohibiting alcohol consumption, which is an infraction currently punishable with a base fine of $70.
• AB 1393 requires that a vehicle be impounded for 30 days if the vehicle's registered owner is convicted of second or subsequent offense for reckless driving or engaging in a speed contest while operating the vehicle.
• SB 182 bars cities and counties from requiring ride-service drivers, like those working for Lyft and Uber, to obtain more than one business license regardless of how many jurisdiction they operate in. A local government could require business license only for drivers who live in its jurisdiction.

Criminal Justice 

• SB 190 Like the next two below, this measure is part of a criminal justice reform package from Sens. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) and Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens). The measure ends the assessment of fees on parents with kids in the juvenile justice system. In the last year, five Bay Area counties (including Alameda and Santa Clara) chose to stop collecting the fees on their own.
• SB 393 Californians who were arrested but not convicted of a crime would be allowed to petition the court to seal their records, and avoid having a past arrest hurt their chances of getting employment or housing.
• SB 395 The bill would require that juveniles consult with an attorney before waiving their Miranda rights and talking with law enforcement.

Workplace

• SB 63 A similar effort to expand parental leave requirements to California small businesses was vetoed by the governor last year. This year’s version, which would require companies with between 20 and 49 workers to provide three months of job-protected leave, is expected to be signed. The creation of a mediation board to hear disputes between workers and employers was added to the bill to address concerns of excessive litigation against small businesses.
• AB 168 This bill bans employers from requesting the pay history of a job applicant, in an effort to stop companies from basing compensation on past pay, a factor that has been cited in the gender pay gap between men and women. The bill also gives workers the right to see the pay scale for a position.
• AB 1008 Statewide ‘ban-the-box’ legislation would ban most companies from asking about a prospective employee’s criminal history on their initial application. The measure has an exemption for small businesses.

Elections

• SB 149 In response to the campaign of President Donald Trump, this bill would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns in order to appear on the ballot in California.
• SB 568 The latest effort to change the date of California’s presidential primary, is the latest effort to make the state more relevant in primary campaigns. Prior attempts to make California a player in primary politics ran into issues of cost, and didn’t always result in meaningful votes.

Dan Brekke and Lisa Pickoff-White contributed to this report.