By Shane LaVigne, Capitol Advocacy

Last week, Governor Newsom released his May Revision of the 2024-25 State Budget. The May Revision is an update to the budget proposal that was released in January. These updates are based on and reflect current economic forecasts. Governor Newsom announced that the state is facing a $26.7 billion budget deficit, not including the approximately $17.3 billion worth of early action items that have already been agreed upon. The next step in the budget process requires that the Legislature pass a Budget Bill and present its contents to the Governor for his signature by June 15.

With that said, the Legislature has a busy month ahead, as they not only must pass a Budget Bill, but on Thursday, the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committee will be acting on bills placed on the “Suspense File.” Each committee sends any bill that would have a specified fiscal impact on the state’s General Fund ($150,000 for the Assembly, and $50,000 for the Senate) to the Suspense File. The chairs of the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committee and Senate and Assembly leadership have unilateral authority to decide the fates of all bills that are placed on the Suspense File. These bills are then heard prior to the deadlines for fiscal committees to hear and report bills to the floor. Additionally, May 24 marks the deadline for all bills introduced in each house to pass out of their house of origin – if any bills do not meet this deadline, they are considered dead, and do not move forward in the legislative process.

Legislative Update

AB 1839 (Alanis) Peace officers: education and hiring grants – Support

This bill would establish the Law Enforcement Officer Grant Program to provide grants for individuals enrolled in a modern policing degree program at a California community college who commit to work as peace officers at a law enforcement agency for four years. The bill would also award grants to significantly understaffed local law enforcement agencies to provide hiring bonuses to newly employed peace officers. The bill is currently on the Assembly Suspense File, and is set to be heard in Committee on May 16.

AB 1941 (Quirk-Silva) Local public employee organizations – Support

This bill would authorize a recognized employee organization to charge an employee covered by the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act for the reasonable cost of representation when the employee holds a conscientious objection or declines membership in the organization and requests individual representation in a discipline, grievance, arbitration, or hearing from the organization. The bill has passed out of the Assembly, and has been referred to the Senate Labor, Public Employment & Retirement Committee.

AB 2042 (Jackson) Police canines: standards and training – Oppose Unless Amended

This bill is a reintroduction of AB 742 (Jackson) from 2023’s legislative session that aims to address the use of canines in policing. The bill would require the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to develop standards and training guidelines for the use of canines by law enforcement. This bill, along with Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco’s AB 3241 will ultimately both move through the process and pass this session. We continue to work with the Speaker of the Assembly and both authors to make any standards and training for police canines workable for peace officers in the state. This bill is currently in the Appropriations Committee on the Suspense File.

AB 2421 (Low) Employer-employee relations: confidential communications – Support

This bill would prohibit a local public agency employer, a state employer, a public-school employer, a higher education employer, or the district from questioning any employee or employee representative regarding communications made in confidence between an employee and an employee representative in connection with representation relating to any matters within the scope of the recognized employee organization’s representation. This bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the Suspense File.

AB 2872 (Calderon) Department of Insurance: sworn members: compensation – Support if Amended

This bill would require that sworn members of the Department of Insurance who are rank-and-file members of State Bargaining Unit 7 be paid the same compensation as the corresponding rank-and-file sworn peace officer employees of the Department of Justice. While we are always supportive of efforts to enhance the pay and benefits of Unit 7 classifications, we are not supportive of the bill’s efforts to tie compensation between classifications via a parity requirement. We would be supportive of this bill if the following language was amended into it: “Notwithstanding any other law, in order to recruit and retain the highest qualified employees, the state shall pay sworn peace officer employees of the Department of Insurance who are rank-and-file members of State Bargaining Unit 7 the one time current equivalency of total compensation paid to the corresponding rank-and-file sworn peace officer employees of the Department of Justice.” This bill is currently on the Suspense File in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 3241 (Pacheco) Law enforcement: police canines – Support

This bill would require the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to adopt minimum standards and to certify courses of training for all law enforcement canine handlers, and those law enforcement supervisors directly overseeing canine programs. The bill would require each law enforcement agency, by or before July 1, 2025, to maintain a policy for the use of canines by the agency that, at a minimum, complies with the guidelines adopted by POST, and would require law enforcement agencies to establish a training regimen that includes POST-certified course. This bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the Suspense File.

SB 905 (Wiener) Unlawful entry of a vehicle – Support

This bill would make forcibly entering a vehicle with the intent to commit a theft or a felony therein a crime punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of up to three years. This bill is currently on the Suspense File in the Senate Appropriations Committee.