Capitol Briefs: Weed, wildfires, classic cars and Hollywood

This was crossover week, and both chambers considered hundreds of bills that only a few days before had cleared their respective suspense hearings. Here is a smattering of some of the significant action under the dome this week. We will also update this story as more information comes in. 

Aid for cannabis businesses: The Assembly approved AB 564, a bill from Assemblymember Matt Haney intended to take some financial pressure off of California’s legal cannabis operators.

“California’s plans to raise the cannabis excise tax rate to 19% will only increase the number of failed legal cannabis businesses,” the United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council said in a statement about the bill’s passage. “As the leading cannabis union, UFCW sees how difficult it is for businesses that play by the rules. AB 564 freezes the cannabis excise tax at 15 percent and gives legal cannabis businesses a fighting chance to stay afloat in an industry that is contracting every day. Without this bill, the illicit cannabis industry will only flourish more and keep putting untested, untaxed and unregulated cannabis products into the hands of consumers.”

As we previously reported,  illicit cannabis sales account for an estimated 60 percent of the state’s overall marijuana market, putting legal operators at a distinct advantage and giving other states, like Michigan, an opportunity take the lead in a market that’s expected reach $76 billion nationwide by 2030.

Haney (D-San Francisco) is trying to help legal operators with AB 564, which seeks to suspend an increase of the excise tax on cannabis, from 15 to 19 percent, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1.

“If we continue to pile on more taxes and fees onto our struggling small cannabis businesses, California’s cannabis culture is under serious threat of extinction,” he said in a press release. “Instead, we should be looking at how we can support this industry which has barely been given a chance to survive after legalization. If we want to support our cannabis industry that drives millions of visitors to California every year, adding more costs makes absolutely no sense.”

And speaking of weed legislation: The Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed AB 8, a bill authored by Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) that, among several things, imposes “stronger bans on synthetic cannabinoids—such as Delta-8 and Delta-10—to restrict hemp products with natural THC for sale by licensed cannabis retailers. It grants state and local public health officials greater enforcement authority to seize and destroy illegal hemp products.” The measure moves to the Senate. On the way it will pass SB 378, a bill authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) that would allow consumers to seek civil penalties against online marketplaces that advertise illicit cannabis and hemp. That measure is on its way to the Assembly.

Time out on wage theft: Speaking of Sen. Scott Wiener, he announced he’s hitting the pause button on SB 310, his proposal that would allow workers to more quickly recover penalties for late or stolen wages, with an eye towards bringing it back in January 2026.

“SB 310 is a commonsense measure that simply allows workers to recover both their back wages and statutory penalties for late or stolen wages,” Wiener said in a press release. “Opponents of the bill — in particular, the California Chamber of Commerce — engaged in what can only be described as a misinformation campaign against the bill, falsely claiming it somehow ran afoul of the negotiated changes last year to the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). That claim is baseless — Labor Code violations and enforcement exist separate from PAGA — but the scale and endless repetition of this misinformation undermined the bill’s passage.”

Wiener said he would continue to work with Senate Judiciary Chair Tom Umberg to refine SB 310 “with the goal of passing it through the Senate in January.”

In a statement, the Fix PAGA Coalition — represented by the California Chamber of Commerce, California New Car Dealers Association, California Restaurant Association, Western Growers Association and California Retailers Association — hailed the decision to pull the bill, saying “On Thursday, the state Senate confirmed the agreement remains strong by choosing to not take action on Senate Bill 310.”

Wildfire response: The Senate approved a package of wildfire bills known as “the Golden State Commitment,” developed in response to the Eaton and Palisades fires to speed-up residential rebuilds, provide post-disaster tax relief and protect consumers from price gouging among many other things.

“The devastating LA fires were a stark reminder of the harsh new reality we are living in here in the Golden State. With an unrelenting year-round fire season, we must do more to make our communities safe from wildfires, and this comprehensive package of 13 pieces of legislation does just that,” Senate pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Geyserville) said in a press release. “This package of bills, with bipartisan support, will help California prepare for and prevent the next wildfire and help stabilize communities in the aftermath of a disaster. This hardworking group of Senators came together in our state’s time of need and moved with speed to advance this bold legislative package that will make California more fire safe and resilient for years to come.”

The package consists of

• SB 36 on price gouging;
• SB 326 to require the state fire marshal to prepare a Wildfire Risk Mitigation Planning Framework every three years;
• SB 547 to expand an existing insurance non-renewal moratorium;
• SB 571 to strengthen penalties against bad actors who prey on people during states of emergency;
• SB 581 to transition CAL FIRE firefighters to full-time status;
• SB 582 to rebuild healthcare facilities;
• SB 610 to expand protections to homeowners;
• SB 616 to establish an Insurance Community Hardening Commission;
• SB 625 to speed up residential rebuilds;
• SB 629 to require local governments to establish Very High Fire Zones;
• SB 641 to establish timelines for debris removal;
• SB 663 to provide property tax relief in the wake of the fires; and
• SB 676 to streamline CEQA for the LA fires and other disasters.

The bills are authored by McGuire and Sens. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica); Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera); Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley); Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento); Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park); Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas); Dave Cortese (D-San Jose); Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles); John Laird (D-Santa Cruz); Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara); Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton); Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena); Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro); Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park); Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles); Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles); Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana); and Aisha Wahab (D-Silicon Valley).

“Our commitment to help our communities recover and rebuild from the January fires is unwavering,” Pérez said in a statement. “I have no greater duty than to be there for my constituents as our communities recover from the Eaton Fire. I am moving with great urgency and a spirit of strong bipartisanship to ease the pain and rebuild this special place we love and call home.”

Hospitality zone bill moves to the Senate: The Assembly endorsed another Matt Haney bill, AB 342, which would allow local municipalities to create “Hospitality Zones” where specific, permitted venues may extend their “last-call” time to 4 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and official state holidays. The bill, which gives local governments full control over who within the zones would be granted extended closing times and on what days, moves to the Senate.

Keeping entertainment jobs in California: With TV and film productions leaving the Golden State, lawmakers in both houses have approved a proposal to strengthen and modernize the state’s tax credit program to try to ensure that the home of Hollywood remains Hollywood executives’ preferred place to shoot.

AB 1138 has passed out of the Assembly while its companion measure SB 630 has passed out of the Senate. The bills, by Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood); Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles); Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton); and Sens. Allen; Perez; Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley); and Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles); are identical. (Companion measures – that is, identical bills introduced in both houses of a legislature, are common in some states, but rarer in California’s legislature.)

“I’m deeply grateful for the overwhelming bipartisan support my colleagues have shown for the California Film & TV Jobs Act,” Chavez Zbur said in a statement. “At a time when our film and television workforce is facing depression-era levels of unemployment, AB 1138 and SB 630 are about jobs—good union jobs, jobs for small businesses, and jobs for the next generation of Californians entering apprenticeship programs.”

Said Allen in the same press release: “These bills, at their core, are focused on incentivizing job creation for a critical industry that has been at the heart of the California dream. This industry is in danger, as so many other jurisdictions have put increasingly generous incentives forward to lure productions.  We have crafted a response that is meaningful and focused on job retention and growth.”

‘Leno’s Law’ motors on: The Senate endorsed SB 712, a bill by Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) that “would fully exempt a collector motor vehicle from the smog check requirement, both biennially and at transfer, if the vehicle is at least 35 model years old and proof is submitted that the motor vehicle is insured as a collector motor vehicle.” The measure, dubbed “Leno’s Law” for comedian Jay Leno’s high-profile support, moves to the Assembly.