Calif. Senate, Assembly Consider Over 100 Bills

Notable bills that passed Tuesday include one that prevents counties from charging fees to families with children in the juvenile justice system.

“The collection of fees provides negligible revenue returns, while generating harmful unintended consequences,” Democratic Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer told his colleagues.

Juvenile court judges contend the fees generally fall on lower-income families and overly punish them. The exact amount counties collect is unknown, according to an analysis by legislative staff, but likely runs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

Santa Barbara County was the most vocal opponent of the measure, arguing the ability to charge administrative fees should be left to local discretion.

That measure passed the state Assembly and heads to the Senate.

Another bill passed by the Assembly and headed to the Senate seeks to protect federal climate change data. It directs the state Secretary for Environmental Protection to identify and collect federal data “that, in the secretary’s opinion, are at risk of censorship or destruction by the federal government.”

Gun Shops 

Meanwhile, Senators passed new security requirements at gun shops. Democratic Senator Jerry Hill authored the measure.

“SB 464 updates the security standards for gun stores, to address the problem of smash-and-grab burglaries," Hill said. 

The bill would require gun store owners to choose between several options to lock up firearms, depending on a store’s layout.

Gun rights and sport shooting groups opposed the bill.

“It adds to the ever-increasing number of unnecessary laws and regulations that restrict how and where firearms retailers are able to engage in business,” Craig DeLuz of the Firearm Policy Coalition said in a statement. 

The measure passed along party lines and heads to the governor’s desk.