The shot clock has begun.
Bills that were introduced last year are running up against a deadline next week, which has resulted in a committee-meeting frenzy this week.
That includes Assemblymember David Alvarez’s proposal, Assembly Bill 35, to help climate projects funded by a voter-approved $10 billion climate bond to be disbursed more quickly, including for projects in the Tijuana River Valley.
It cleared a key legislative hurdle on Thursday and is expected to go up for a floor vote in the Assembly next week, as I reported in my latest story for CalMatters.
Most of the 10-member San Diego delegation are listed as co-authors, including Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones of San Diego who was a critic of the bond when it was a ballot measure under Proposition 4 in 2024. Democratic Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson and assemblymembers Carl DeMaio, a Republican, and LaShae Sharp-Collins, a Democrat, are not listed as co-authors.
Opponents at the time scrutinized the bond for the $6 billion in taxpayer debt it is expected to cost and the lack of oversight about where dollars would be spent. About $250 million was taken from the $10 billion bond for special projects in some lawmakers’ districts during last year’s budget negotiation, which Jones had publicly criticized.
“I’ve been very clear from the very beginning I was not in support of the prop money,” Jones told Voice of San Diego. “The approval and disbursal of these funds lack oversight, generally.”
As for why he’s supporting it now? “It’s my job to make sure San Diego participates in any of this type of funding,” Jones said, and that AB 35 is an example of “good government.”
For decades, California voters have approved multibillion-dollar bonds to go toward major infrastructure projects. Most notably, in 2008, voters approved a bond that would fund a third of a high-speed rail project that would stretch from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Due to regulatory obstacles and changing federal politics, its costs have continued to balloon and construction has been limited to the Central Valley.
By removing one regulatory hurdle, Alvarez’s bill can help avoid delays in the Tijuana River projects and others in San Diego that Proposition 4 dollars are funding, Jones said.
A Not Very Suspenseful Suspense Day
It was Suspense Day in the Legislature on Thursday. Oh, what’s that? No worries, I just learned what it was 72 hours ago.
Long story short: Bills expected to cost taxpayers at least $50,000 in the Senate and $150,000 in the Assembly are placed on what’s called the “suspense file” where, in private, lawmakers decide if they should pass. This happens in the appropriations committees of the Assembly and Senate, depending on which chamber the bill was first introduced in.
Lawmakers this week were determining which remaining bills from last year would advance.
Most bills did (and historically do). So, not the most suspenseful legislative theater.
But in the Senate, Weber Pierson’s proposal, Senate Bill 277, to restrict police from asking if they can do a voluntary search to only those suspected of a crime was held in the suspense file. It was one of three bills to not advance, out of a total of 33.
However, the senator’s other bill on the file, Senate Bill 849, did pass. The proposal would prevent physicians from petitioning the state medical board to have their license reinstated after being found guilty of sexual misconduct.
Senate Bill 58, Sen. Steve Padilla’s proposal to change the review standards for one of the Tijuana River’s worst pollutants, also succeeded.
Meanwhile in the Assembly, Alvarez’ bill to allow a Chula Vista community college to start offering bachelor’s degree courses passed. That measure, AB 664, is part of his larger push to establish a university in the South Bay region.
Todd Gloria Back in Sactown, Blakespear to Push Again On Homelessness
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria was in Sacramento again this week lobbying for more homelessness funding and housing legislation. Among the lawmakers he met with were Democratic assemblymembers Chris Ward and Tasha Boerner, and Senate President Pro Tem Monique Límon.
Related: Democratic Sen. Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas plans to reintroduce a revised version of her controversial homelessness bill from last year, SB 16, that would have forced counties to pay cities half the cost of shelters, she told Voice earlier this week.
The previous bill had received significant pushback from the California State Association of Counties and San Diego County, but was supported by the mayor’s office.
What I’m Reading Now
Build baby, build: San Diego continues to outshine Los Angeles when it comes to developing more homes, fast, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Concern continues to grow among Imperial County residents over the development of a data center in the vast, energy-rich lands of the Imperial Valley, writes KPBS.
The Balboa Park fury rages on. A new poll shows 80 percent of residents oppose the new parking fees amid a drop in park and museum attendance, The San Diego Union-Tribune writes.
Thanks for reading the Sacramento Report! Please reach me at nadia@voiceofsandiego.org for any story ideas or fun tidbits.