This post originally appeared in the Feb. 14 Sacramento Report. Get the Sacramento Report delivered to your inbox.
Assemblyman Todd Gloria and Sens. Brian Jones and Ben Hueso are all running for separate offices while holding down their posts in Sacramento, which can be tricky considering politicians can’t campaign while on the people’s time.
With just a few months left in Sacramento, Gloria, a candidate for San Diego mayor, said he hopes to revisit a bill that would target billions of unused funds generated by the Mental Health Services Act, a tax on personal income in excess of $1 million.
He’s reintroduced the bill twice since 2018.
“I’m going to make another run at it again this year because I think in the midst of this crisis we’re dealing with, we should use every resource we have to help these folks,” he said.
In 2018, Gloria proposed directing those funds toward homeless services, a population disproportionately affected by mental illness.
Even with the increased workload of running a campaign while legislating, Gloria said its nothing he isn’t used to.
So far Gloria has also announced a bill to ban retail sales of pets, and plans to re-introduce a bill clarifying how long government agencies must retain emails in accordance with the Public Records Act.
“It’s a lot less sleep and a lot more work, but that’s OK,” Gloria said.
Jones, a candidate for the 50th Congressional District, has focused much of his Sacramento attention on efforts to repeal AB 5, including a proposal to exempt music industry professionals.
“Musicians and music industry professionals are clearly freelance occupations, yet under AB 5 for each ‘gig’ a musician or producer books, the hirer must add them to their payroll as an employee and start paying fees such as unemployment insurance,” Jones said in a press release.
Jones also announced a bill this week that would crack down harder on people who steal packages from porches of homes.
He said balancing his job as a legislator with his campaign will become a lot harder come summer.
“We’re starting to do committees and stuff right now in Sacramento, but really the intense part of the Sacramento schedule is March through June, and then August,” Jones said.
A campaign spokesperson for Hueso, who is running for the County Board of Supervisor’s District 1, said he was not available for interviews this week, but Hueso recently told KUSI that he’s been busy with a bill that would give tax exemptions to veterans.