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After Anaheim City Council terminated the sale of Angel Stadium amid an ongoing FBI investigation, state Sen. Tom Umberg is looking to strengthen the Surplus Land Act.
With Congress poised to expand red flag laws nationally in response to outrage over deadly mass shootings, a new study reveals how California’s six-year-old law is making an impact: It disarmed 58 people who were threatening a gun massacre.
The study by the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California-Davis is the first detailed description of California’s gun violence restraining order cases in the state since the law was enacted in 2016.
California lawmakers Monday sent the governor the legislature’s version of the state’s $300 billion budget, two days ahead of their constitutional deadline of June 15.
“This again is a historic budget,” Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco said.
SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, released the following statement on the Legislature sending SB 154 to the Governor:
“Once again, we had a tremendous opportunity with a robust surplus to address the critical needs of California’s most vulnerable by providing more funding for families, small businesses, CalWORKS and SSI recipients, students, and child care. This spending plan prioritizes necessary infrastructure improvements for affordable housing, transportation and transit, school facilities, student housing projects. I’m proud of the budget that we put together, which focuses on lifting up individuals who have been left behind from the last two years of economic growth and provides smart investments that will benefit Californians for years to come.”
SAN FRANCISCO – Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) released the following statement regarding the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) Oversight Committee’s vote to penalize drivers who weren’t able to pay their toll fees:
“The Bay Area Toll Authority should have identified these drivers sooner to provide earlier notice and create payment plan options. Bay Area drivers should not be penalized because BATA chose to remove their operators. The switch to using technology to pay tolls has disproportionately impacted drivers who don’t have debit or credit cards. Now many drivers who rely on their vehicles for work or to bring their kids to school may face not being able to renew their DMV registrations.
The Bay Area Toll Authority will try to collect more than $180 million in unpaid bridge tolls, about $50 million comes from unpaid tolls and $130 million in late fees, after its Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to crack down on more than 400,000 drivers.
Today, Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego), Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), and Senate and Assembly Budget Committee Chairs, Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), announced a Legislative budget agreement that will deliver prosperity and strengthen the future by putting California’s wealth to work.
The joint legislative plan, which contains the budget priorities laid out by both houses and includes elements the Governor included in his proposals, strikes the balance of providing real relief to families and small businesses—including $8 billion to help Californians withstand the rising cost of gas and consumer goods—while investing in programs that will bolster Californians and our economy. For more than a decade, responsible budgeting has been the cornerstone of Legislative Democrats’ approach, and this budget further builds upon that record by investing an unprecedented $37.5 billion in reserves.
In the aftermath of a massacre at a Texas elementary school earlier this week, California lawmakers have advanced several pieces of legislation in an effort to address and prevent gun violence.
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Among those measures was a bill that would allow California’s attorney general and victims of gun violence to sue gun makers and distributors who are “irresponsible, reckless, and negligent in the sale or marketing of their products in California.”
... More than 2,000 proposed laws have been introduced by legislators this year, as well as a few dozen ceremonial resolutions and a few constitutional amendments. Most have already failed to advance and even many of the bills that will now swap places in the Senate and Assembly won’t make it to Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s desk.
At the halfway point, it’s worth a quick glance at some of the year’s more notable bills:
On the heels of the Texas mass shooting in which 19 elementary children died, the California State Assembly today passed AB 1594 by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) to hold the gun industry more accountable. It empowers California citizens, the state Attorney General and local governments to sue manufacturers and sellers of firearms for the harm caused by their products when the state’s strict gun laws aren’t followed. The possibility of civil litigation aims to push the gun industry to be more responsible and improve their practices, as the number of mass shootings in the United States surpasses 200 this year.