The Peace and Freedom Party has taken positions for or against a number of bills in the 2017-2018 session of the California legislature. This article lists our current positions with links to relevant documents.
AB 14 (Gomez and Levine)- California Disclose Act - Support
AB 14 would help voters by requiring that the top three contributors of $50,000 or more must clearly identify themselves in their print and visual advertisements and the top two advertisers in audio ads. These ads must show true funders rather than misleading names.
Documents
Status as of July 6: in theAssembly Elections and Redistricting Committee.
AB 20 (Kalra) - CalPERS and Cal STIRS divestment from Dakota Access Pipeline - Support
AB 20 would require the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTIRS) to take tribal sovereignty and indigenous tribal rights into account when choosing investments. The context is the Dakota Access Pipeline and investments in businesses involved in constructing and operating it.
Documents
Status as of June 14: passed the Assembly, in Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee.
AB 469 (Cooper) - Reduces time to collect signatures in lieu of filing fees - No position
AB 469 reduces the number of days to collect the huge number of signatures in lieu of filing fees required to run for office, and it eliminates supplemental signatures in lieu of filing fees.It also reduces the total number of signatures needed, but not by enough to compensate for the reduced time available. This makes it more difficult for candidates, especially poor and working class candidates, to participate in the electoral process.
On September 1, this bill was amended to partially restore the number of days available for signature collection, making that process slightly more feasible than under current law. As a result, PFP withdrew its original opposition to the bill. But even with this bill, the number of signatures is still to high.
Documents
- PFP position letter in opposition (April 10, 2017)
- PFP assembly floor letter (May 19, 2017)
- PFP position letter withdrawing opposition (September 6, 2017)
Status as of September 18: passed both houses and sent to the Governor.
AB 1506 (Bloom, Chiu and Bonta) - Repeal Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act - Support
The 1995 Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Costa-Hawkins required (1) that any local rent control ordinance include "vacancy decontrol", so that rent increases during a tenancy could be regulated, but once a unit became vacant, there could be no limit on what rent a landlord could charge new tenants; (2) that all local rent control ordinances exempt single-family homes and all condominium units from their provisions; (3) that all local rent control ordinances permanently exempt all new construction. AB 1506 would repeal this legislation. See also SB 277 below.
Documents
Status as of March 16: in the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development.
AB 1632 (Dababneh) - Write-in candidates - Oppose
AB 1632 would require write-in candidates in Top Two elections for so-called "voter nominated" offices who advance to the November election to pay the filing fee for the office, or collect signatures in lieu of the filing fee.
Documents
Status as of March 29: in the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee.
SB 54 (De Leon) - California Values Act - Support
SB 54 would help protect the safety of all Californians by ensuring that state and local resources are not used to fuel mass deportations, separate families, or divide Californians on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, immigration status, or national or ethnic origins. Specifically, it would (1) ensure that California schools, hospitals and courthouses remain safe and accessible to all California residents regardless of immigration status; (2) ban state and local resources from being used to facilitate the creation of a national registry based on religion; (3) prevent state agencies from collecting or sharing immigration information from individuals unless necessary to perform agency duties.
Documents
Status as of July 6: passed the Senate, passed the Assembly Public Safety and Judiciary Committees, in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 180 (Mitchell and Lara) - Repeal Ineffective Sentencing Enhancements (RISE) Act - Support
SB 180 would repeal the three-year sentence enhancement for prior drug convictions, with an exception for convictions involving the participation of a minor. By repealing this expensive and ineffective punishment, funds will be freed to reinvest in community programs that actually improve the quality of life and reduce crime.
Documents
Status as of June 28: passed the Senate, pass the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, on the Assembly floor.
SB 277 (Bradford) - Palmer Decision - Support
SB 277 would reverse a mistaken court ruling that purported to extend the reach of the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act to prevent local inclusionary zoning measures from requiring developers to provide affordable rental units. Inclusionary zoing is one measure in fairly wide use to address the affordable housing crisis. Developers of market-rate housing were required to include in their projects a specified percentage of permanently or long-term affordable units. The Palmer decision of 2009 ruled that the Costa-Hawkins Act’s bans on vacancy controls and exemptions of new construction preempted such measures when applied to rental housing. See also AB 1506 above.
Documents
Status as of June 29: passed the Senate, passed the Assembly Local Government Committee, in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.
SB 562 (Lara and Adkins) - Healthy California Act - Support
SB 562 would establish a single-payer health plan covering every resident of California.
Documents
Status as of June 1: Passed the Senate, sent to the Assembly but put on indefinite hold by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.
SB 568 (Lara) - Primary election date - Oppose
SB 568 would move the the June primary to early March in presidential election years.
Documents
Status as of September 18: passed both houses and sent to the Governor.
Posted on July 8, 2017 by the Legislative Committee. The information in this piece was last updated on September 18, 2017.
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