Capitol Briefs: Weed taxes, algorithm collusion and the fate of Democracy

Haney weed tax bill moves on: The Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee endorsed AB 564, a bill authored by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) that would delay a newly-implemented spike in the state excise tax on legal marijuana sales for five years. The hike, which raised the excise tax from 15 percent to 19 percent, took effect on July 1^st. The measure moves now to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

Resisting ‘algorithmic collusion’: The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed AB 325, a bill authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) that would amend the California Cartwright Act, the state’s primary antitrust law, to make it illegal to use or distribute third party pricing tools that coerce a business to use a pricing algorithm in setting the pricing structure of their products. It moves on to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

Californians think Democracy is in big trouble: A new UC Berkeley/IGS poll says that 90 percent of California residents believe Democracy is in trouble, either directly “under attack” (64 percent) or at the least “being tested” (26 percent). The feeling was not surprisingly strongest among Democrats (81 percent), but was at least 60 percent in all tested age groups (18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-64 and 65 and older. The full survey can be found here.

Meanwhile, nobody trusts the feds: A new Public Policy Institute of California poll shows that only 29 percent of all Californians and 34 percent of likely voters approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing. They feel even worse about Congress, which tallied only 20 percent approval in the PPIC survey. But surely folks must be okay with the Supreme Court, right? Nope. The SCOTUS fares only slightly better than the president, coming in at 31 percent approval. The full poll can be found here.

State tax collections good for June: Tax revenues looked good for California in June, as reported by Assembly budget guru Jason Sisney in his #CABudgetinfo Substack newsletter.

“Net collections of June 2025 personal and corporate income taxes exceeded budget act projections for that month by a combined $1.4 billion (5.7%),” Sisney noted. “Withholding and quarterly estimated taxes both exceeded projections, and refunds tracked less than projected.”

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