To quote Mel Brooks from his comedic movie, “History of the World, Part I,” it’s “good to be king.” Indeed, Gavin Newsom gets to enjoy the perks of serving as the state’s top official as he mulls signings or vetoes of hundreds of bills on his desk.
We’ve seen several high-profile actions so far, including Newsom’s signing of Senate Bill 627. That legislation largely prohibits law-enforcement officials, including federal ones such as ICE, from wearing face coverings during official operations. U.S. attorney Bill Essayli has instructed the feds to ignore the law, which will set up another major legal battle.
Newsom already has signed an encouraging package of laws designed to tamp down energy prices by allowing new wells in Kern County and encouraging the state to participate in a Western energy market. He signed a bill rolling back the state’s punitive cannabis excise tax. The governor has yet to sign a not-so-great law that allows ridesharing drivers to unionize, but it’s a measure he helped negotiate.
Arguably the most significant (and controversial) pending bill, Senate Bill 79 provides “by right” approvals for the construction of high-density housing within a half-mile of transit stations. Although we urge the state to deregulate market-rate, single-family housing developments also, we see this as a sensible measure to jumpstart construction in a logical place. We urge his signature.
The nation’s tech industry is eagerly watching the fate of a series of bills related to the burgeoning Artificial Intelligence industry. During a recent interview with former President Bill Clinton, Newsom said, “We have a bill that’s on my desk that we think strikes the right balance.” Most observers believe that refers to Senate Bill 53, which requires some AI developers to publicize their safety protocols, per Politico.
Meanwhile, a series of other bills presume to increase the safety of chatbots. One of them, Assembly Bill 1064, “imposes vague and unworkable restrictions that create sweeping legal risks, while cutting students off from valuable AI learning tools,” according to the tech trade group TechNet. We’re leery of all these bills and fear that they will reduce innovation and result in new regulatory hurdles. They will created unintended consequences.
In other areas, Assembly Bill 246 would halt eviction proceedings if a tenant’s Social Security payments are terminated or delayed. We agree with apartment association groups, which argue this is an “unjust and unfair bill which aims to penalize residential rental property owners due to the operation of the federal government and any Social Security beneficiary.” It’s an attempt to push back at Trump administration actions – and do so on the backs of landlords. We strongly urge a veto.
Assembly Bill 325 is economically illiterate nonsense that attempts to ban the use of pricing algorithms that help businesses determine prices. The market always sets the real prices via supply and demand, whereas these AI-based tools simply help businesses come up with a reasonable starting point. We also urge a veto on this one.
Lawmakers reportedly introduced 2,400 bills this year, with a third making it to Newsom’s desk. Around 750 await his decision by the October 13 deadline. Governors are not actually kings, but this is as close as it gets as we await his thumbs up or thumbs down.