Capitol Briefs: Offshore drilling, LA sexual abuse and tax revenues

The Capitol kicked back into gear this week with the ceremonial swearing in of new Senate pro Tem Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) and a smattering of bill introductions and information hearings. But of course, all eyes on focused on Thursday and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State address and Friday’s budget reveal. But that is hardly all that has been happening this week.

Lawmakers condemn Trump oil drilling plan: Harkening back to disastrous oil spills in 1969 and 2015, Members of the California Legislature, environmental advocates and key members of the Newsom administration rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday to condemn a proposal by the Trump administration to renew oil drilling off the California coastline.

Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) called Trump’s proposal “egregious,” and “a threat to the industries that sustain us while providing minimal economic benefit” to Californians and potentially incurring “disastrous consequences for public health and vulnerable marine habitats.”

Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot called oceans “an anchor of our statewide economy,” saying the state develops $50 billion in gross domestic product from ocean-based businesses, from fishing to tourism.

The Trump administration has proposed opening up a half dozen oil drilling leases in federal waters off the California coast.

Addis urged Californians who oppose the plan to take advantage of the public comment period by contacting the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The comment period last through January.

Lara, Padilla intro insurance reform bill: Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and Senate Insurance Committee Chair Stephen Padilla (D- San Diego) introduced SB 876, billed as “a comprehensive legislative reform to speed up disaster recovery for homeowners and renters through improved insurance coverage and expanded consumer protections.”

The proposal’s major tenets include:

• Requiring a “disaster recovery plan” from insurersfor handling claims and meeting timelines – reviewed by the Department in advance and put into effect in an emergency situation.
• Doubling penalties during a declared emergency for violations of insurance fair claims practices and settlement law.
• Requiring insurance companies pay restitutiondirectly to policyholders when they violate the law.
• Addressing delays resulting from the assigning of multiple adjusters by requiring insurance company status reports to policyholders within 5 days anytime a new adjuster is assigned.
• Improving recovery by expanding policy limits for Additional Living Expenses by 100% in a declared disaster.
• Expanding up-front payments by requiring Actual Cash Value and structure replacement cost be paid quickly following a total loss, with interest payable if late.
• Providing adequate recovery funds by requiring a mandatory offer of extended and guaranteed replacement cost coverage when writing a policy, and regular updated replacement cost estimates for new business and renewals.
• Safer rebuilding by applying mandatory building code upgrade coverage at the time of rebuild – not at the time of loss – to account for updated rules.

Sex abuse survivors again demand accountability in LA County: Survivors of sexual abuse held two protests in Southern California Tuesday as they launched a campaign urging Los Angeles County to “release the files” documenting the long history of sexual abuse at its three juvenile detention centers.

The protests, held at the Board of Supervisors meeting and outside of Assemblymember Christopher Ward’s San Diego district office, sought to draw a parallel between sexual abuse at the detention centers and ongoing pressure nationwide to release files in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

One of the protestors speaking at the supervisors meeting was Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips.

“All of us survivors demand that this board release the files that relate to the years of child sex abuse in LA County’s three juvenile detention facilities,” Phillips said.

Editor’s note: Capitol Weekly reporter Brian Joseph appeared on Lisa Phillips’ podcast last year to promote his book on domestic sex trafficking.

Phillips and the other protestors spoke after the supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to proclaim January 2026 “Human Trafficking Prevention Month.”

“You’ve agreed to pay $5 billion in settlements to survivors but you have not to this day exposed the breadth of this crime to the general public by releasing the files,” said Nomi Abadi, the founder of the Female Composers Safety League, in public comments before the board.

Survivors also brought their message to Ward’s district office, where they protested last month, alleging that the assemblymember is working in secret on legislation to protect counties from the financial strain of paying sexual abuse claims.

“(W)e’re back protesting your district office to remind your constituents of your continued behind the scenes [sic] efforts in Sacramento to roll back survivor rights,” wrote Caroline Heldman, professor of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at Occidental College and the president and CEO of Stand With Survivors, in a letter delivered to Ward’s office Tuesday.

The dual protests stem from survivor anger over LA County’s behavior in the wake of its agreement to pay billions of dollars to settle thousands of sex abuse claims. Those claims were filed under 2019’s AB 218 by then-Assemblymember Lorenza Gonzalez, now the head of the California Federation of Labor Unions, which allowed victims to file sex abuse claims on events that occurred decades in the past, opening numerous institutions to potentially catastrophic liability.

LA County was hit especially hard due to what has been described as hellish conditions at its juvenile facilities dating back to 1959. Immediately upon announcing the settlement, the largest in U.S. history, county officials warned it could affect public services.

Survivors allege that the county has since engaged in a campaign of blaming victims for the financial crunch it now finds itself in, citing recent Los Angeles Times reporting into a law firm that allegedly paid people to sue the county.

In the letter delivered to the supervisors, Heldman on behalf of her organization and four others expressed their “strong opposition” to what they described as “taxpayer-funded legislative and public relations efforts to roll back sexual abuse survivor rights in response to the $5 billion settlement you agreed to pay.”

“We understand your PR team began communicating with various press outlets regarding this strategy as early as fall, 2024,” Heldman wrote.

Indeed, in September 2024, months before the settlement was announced, seven representatives from LA County, including employees of the Office of County Counsel, the county’s contract lobbying firm Actum and the county’s COO, met with this Capitol Weekly reporter on a video call to explain how child sexual abuse claims threaten county services not only in LA but across the state.

“This Board, along with some state legislators, is engaging in a ‘blame the victims’ strategy aimed at making it more difficult for CSA [childhood sexual abuse] survivors to get justice instead of effectively addressing the large number of child sex predators in county facilities,” Heldman wrote in the letter to the supervisors. “(C)utting off survivor rights doesn’t solve the problem,” she added. “If the goal is to save taxpayer dollars, don’t employ child sex predators in LA county.”

December income tax revenues above projections: California Assembly budget adviser Jason Sisney reported in his latest Substack newsletter that the state’s income tax revenues for December came in almost $3 billion above last June’s projections. The revenues were from both corporate and individual tax payments.

Sisney notes that December is the biggest month of the year for corporate tax payments. Preliminary data – which is still subject to revision – shows those payments came in about $300 million over initial expectations, approximately a 2.5 percent increase. Personal income tax collections came in at around $27 billion over projections.

There was more positive budget news as well – Sisney reported that “General Fund revenue collections from all sources for 2024-25 and 2025-26 were more than $9 billion above June 2025 estimates as of the end of November 2025.”

Now all eyes will turn to the governor’s proposed budget, which will be rolled out on Friday. Sisney says we should expect the governor’s proposed deficit to look “perhaps significantly different” than the $18 billion shortfall the Legislative Analyst’s Office projected last November.