Western Center had an outstanding end to the 2022 legislative session, with 13 of co-sponsored bills signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. Among the highlights were (SB 972) modernizing street vending licensing and (SB 923), a first in nation bill on gender affirming health care. We also passed bills to repeal failure to appear (FTA) license suspensions and to repeal the use of license suspension for low-income parents in arrears on child support. Other wins included mandating counties waive work requirements for domestic violence survivors and expanded protections for low-income debtors from wage garnishments. Below is a list that includes WCLP sponsored bills and other bills of note that WCLP played a role in, such as AB 2594 and AB 2746.

PASSED BILLS

HEALTH

SB 923 (Wiener) – SB 923 WCLP co-sponsored this historic bill that creates a workgroup to establish first-in-the nation quality standards for transgender, gender diverse, and intersex (TGI) patient experience and recommends related training curriculum, mandates health plans to require TGI cultural competency training for their staff, and requires plan provider directories to identify providers who offer gender affirming services.

SB 644 (Leyva) – WCLP co-sponsored SB 644 which requires EDD to share with Covered California contact and income information about those who have recently applied for or lost income-replacing benefits to allow Covered California to reach out and help enroll these individuals in Medi-Cal or Covered California.

FINANCIAL SECURITY/FOOD ACCESS

SB 972 (L Gonzales) –SB 972WCLP co-sponsored this bill that modernizes vending policies and fully legalizes food street vending, providing pathways for vendors to obtain health permits and build their small businesses. You can learn more about the community organizing history and vendor led process to achieve this historic victory by watching our Meet the Advocates webinar on vendor justice as a food justice issue.

SB 1008 (Becker) – SB 1008 makes phone calls from prison and juvenile facilities free, keeping families connected. In partnership with co-sponsors and community groups, WCLP amplified the call to support this bill across our social media channels.

AB 2277 (Reyes)  –WCLP co-sponsored AB 2277 requiring counties to provide good cause to CalWORKs program requirements, including work participation, when a recipient identifies themselves as a survivor of domestic violence.

AB 2004 (C. Garcia) – WCLP co-sponsored AB 2004 which strengthens the California Dream Loan Program and establishes a loan forgiveness program for program borrowers.

SB 1200 (Skinner) – SB 1200 WCLP co-sponsored this bill to reduce the interest rate applied to unpaid government and private debt. The bill will reduce the interest from 10 percent annually to 5 percent. It also limits creditors to one renewal of a judgment against a debtor. There is currently no limit on how long creditors can try and collect old debt.

AB 2300 (Kalra) – AB 2300 – WCLP co-sponsored this bill that allows CalWORKs recipients to have good cause from not meeting work requirements if their employer violates state labor laws including the Crown Act, sexual harassment, and many other labor provisions.

AB 1686 (Bryan) –  AB 1686 establishes a presumption that, when a child is in foster care, requiring the parent or guardian to pay child support for the child is likely to impose a barrier to the family’s efforts to reunify.

SB 1055 (Kamlager) – SB 1055 WCLP co-sponsored this first of its kind in the nation bill to eliminate the use of license suspension when a low-income non-custodial parent is in arrears on making child support payments. The bill repeals license suspension for people with incomes at or below 70 percent of the area median income.

SB 1447 (Wieckowski) – WCLP co-sponsored SB 1447 which increases protections to income from wage garnishments to 48 hours times the minimum wage or 20 percent of disposable income.

AB 207 (Ting) – The Governor signed this budget trailer bill that included language approving full pass through of child support payments to CalWORKs children and mandates that CDSS form a stakeholder work group to evaluate whether there are any possible negative consequences from providing full pass through. The bill also requires CDSS to form a stakeholder work group to look at options for ending the TANF work participation pass-on penalty to counties that WCLP and CWDA have been urging repeal of the past two budgets. Lastly, the bill also mandates a stakeholder work group to come up with a proposal for implementing the child support Final Rule on determining how to establish child support orders. WCLP will be a participant in all three work groups.

HOUSING/HOMELESSNESS

SB 1017 (Eggman) – WCLP co-sponsored SB 1017 which expands the rights and protections of survivors of domestic violence in landlord/tenant proceedings, including clarifying when landlords can evict tenants if the perpetrator returns to the property.

AB 2339 (Bloom) –WCLP co-sponsored AB 2339 which strengthens housing element law to ensure zoning encourages and facilitates the production of emergency shelters and transitional and supportive housing.

SB 1083 (Skinner)  –WCLP co-sponsored SB 1083 which makes numerous changes to the CalWORKs Homeless Assistance Program including expanding the definition of homelessness to include an eviction notice and to reduce verification requirements for pregnant persons.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE/FINES AND FEES

AB 1355 (Levine)  – WCLP co-sponsored AB 1355, a bill that expands applicant protections related to alternating decisions in state fair hearings including requiring transcripts to be read before directors alternate and allowing additional evidence be entered after an alternated decision was returned to the ALJ.

AB 2746 (Friedman) – AB 2745 repeals the ability of traffic courts to suspend a driver’s license for failure to appear. 

AB 2147 (Ting) – AB 2147 reduces the use of jaywalking tickets by only allowing tickets when there is an imminent danger.

AB 2594 (Ting) – AB 2594 WCLP supported and negotiated this bill that makes numerous changes to toll agencies’ collection practices. It waives penalties on old violations, eliminates the requirement that a person must deposit all tolls and penalties in order to get an administrative review of a violation, and requires toll agencies to have payment plans for drivers with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and caps payments for these plans at $25 a month and caps the maximum civil penalty for a violation at $100.

OPPOSED BILLS:

SB 1338 (Umberg and Eggman) – WCLP joined the opposition to this legislation, widely known as “Care Court,” sponsored by Governor Newsom. You can learn more about why WCLP opposed this bill by watching our Meet the Advocates webinar on this topic. The passed bill will only funds six counties (SD, SF, Riverside, Orange, Tuolumne and Stanislaus). It delays implementation of a second cohort of unnamed counties until December, 2024. The earliest Care Court can go live in the first six counties would be October 1, 2023. The bill includes language allowing courts to appoint counsel for the respondent from either a willing LSC program or a public defender.

SB 1133 (Archuleta) – WCLP opposed this bill that would remove price gouging protections during states of emergency – including rental caps. The successful defeat of this bill ensured that thousands of vulnerable Californians will continue to be protected against unjust housing price gouging during the declaration of an emergency – including wildfires, pandemics, and natural disasters.

DEFEATED BILLS TO BRING BACK NEXT SESSION:

AB 1685 (Bryan)- AB 1685 would have required local governments using DMV holds to collect parking tickets to forgive up to $1,500 in parking debt if they were homeless. 

AB 2775 (Quirk-Silva) – AB 2775, co-sponsored by WCLP would have allowed an unhoused person to not pay a registration fee on their vehicle.

SB 1140 (Umberg) – SB 1140, co-sponsored by WCLP would have codified the decision in Ortega vs Johnson that CalFresh benefits stolen electronically would have to be restored promptly.

BUDGET RE-CAP:

The governor and legislature reached an agreement on the 2022-23 state budget, which includes a historic $100 billion budget surplus. Amid substantial inflation and continued economic fallout from the pandemic, the reason for the massive surplus must be named. California has 189 billionaires and counting, and substantially more extremely high-income households that do not have the same economic burdens as the 1 in 3 Californians living near or below the poverty line. Only fundamental reforms, including for seemingly untouchable issues like discriminatory tax laws, can address the significant disparities in our state. One-time investments targeting people with low incomes during flush budget years are good, but ongoing, dedicated investments are the only way to make the state better.

Despite concerns that surplus revenue would make it difficult to fund General Fund programs, the budget deal includes substantial General Fund investments. The budget also provides tax rebates to millions of Californians, with the majority going to Californians with incomes below $75,000. Even with that spending and many other investments, the state will have a $37 billion reserve.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE/ FINES & FEES

Civil Assessments – The budget substantially reforms court practices that result in tens of millions of dollars in penalties imposed on people who fail to pay traffic and criminal court fines on time or who fail to appear in court. The current $300 civil assessment is being reduced to $100. The budget agreement also discharges civil assessment debt that accrued prior to the change in law. This means tens of thousands of people will no longer have to make payments on that debt or be harassed by bill collectors. The budget also shifts all future civil assessment revenue to the state General Fund rather than to the courts. The past practice led to lawsuits alleging that judges are incentivized to impose the maximum assessment to increase court revenue. The civil assessment language will be subject to completion in August via budget trailer bill.

Tax Intercepts – The budget includes a change to the longstanding practice by the state of intercepting Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) and Young Child Tax Credits (YCTC) for unpaid debts. Going forward, the state’s Franchise Tax Board will no longer intercept such payments except in cases of child support or restitution.

FINANCIAL SECURITY/ FOOD ACCESS

CalWORKs – The CalWORKs budget provides a 21 percent increase in CalWORKs grants, the largest since the program began in 1998. It eliminates deep poverty for CalWORKs households of families of four or more. Deep poverty includes households with incomes below 50 percent of the Federal Poverty Level by family size. For smaller families that get tax rebates, their income will also be above the deep poverty threshold. The increase will begin on October 1, 2022 for the next two budgets, but must be renewed in 2024 when an additional grant increase will also be under consideration. Below is an estimated chart of the grants starting in October.

Child Support Pass Through – The budget includes a major change in child support policy by allowing families that receive a child support payment to receive all of it and not have it re-directed to the state and federal government to reimburse the cost for public benefits. This will begin in 2025. Currently, a CalWORKs family only gets child support for the first $100 for one child and $200 for two or more children. The governor proposed to pass through all child support to former CalWORKs households in the January budget proposal, and the legislature succeeded in expanding that into a full pass through of all child support, making California the second state in the country to do so. It is estimated that this will result in $430 million in payments going directly to families.

Food for All – The budget includes an additional $35.2 million, increasing the total to $113.4 million to expand the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to all Californians 55 years of age or older, regardless of immigration status. California will become the first state to provide food assistance to ensure all residents 55+ can access food. We will continue to work with our partners, the governor, and the legislature in future budgets to ensure all Californians have access to food.

SSI/SSP – The budget includes another increase for the state SSP grant of approximately $37/month. This will begin in January 2023. When combined with the anticipated 8.6 percent increase in the federal grant, the total grant comes to approximately $1,149, an increase of $107/month. While this grant increase is substantial, the grant is still below the federal poverty level for one person at approximately 98 percent.

Tax Rebates – The budget provides $9.5 billion in tax rebates. For families with incomes below $75,000 and who file taxes, a single person will get $350, a two-person household will get $700, and households of three or more will receive $1,050. People using ITIN tax filer status will be eligible but people receiving SSI will not be eligible. Unlike the proposal by the governor to distribute tax rebates to registered car owners via the DMV, the agreement instead utilizes the Franchise Tax Board to distribute payments. Currently, it is projected payments should arrive by October. These funds will benefit families on CalWORKs, CalFresh, and Medi-Cal if they filed tax returns.

Universal School Meals – Building upon the state’s historic investment in providing school meals for all students in California, this year’s budget provides 700 million in additional dollars to support school meals for all, with a focus on best practices and kitchen infrastructure. This funding will contribute to California students getting access to healthier options for school meals.

HEALTH CARE

Medi-Cal Expansion – The budget agreement includes notable health care investments including expansion of Medi-Cal to all adults regardless of immigration status (Health4All), with an implementation date ‘no later’ than January 1, 2024. It’s estimated that the expansion will result in roughly 700,000+ people becoming newly eligible for full-scope Medi-Cal at ongoing cost of $2.3 billion.

Medi-Cal Reform – The budget also reforms Medi-Cal share-of-cost so elders and people with disabilities can afford necessary Medi-Cal services and provides continuous Medi-Cal coverage for children up to age five. Both reforms have a delayed implementation date of January 1, 2025 and are subject to a budget appropriation at that time. The budget also zeroes out Medi-Cal premiums, expands Medi-Cal coverage of custom crowns for back teeth, and increases the Medi-Cal doula reimbursement.

Additionally, the budget provides navigator funding, Covered CA state premium subsidy funding, and establishes the Office of Health Care Affordability. More details of this budget’s health care investments can be found at Western Center’s updated 2022 Health Budget Scorecard.

HOUSING

As California faces dwindling affordable housing stock, skyrocketing rent increases, and as thousands of Californians wait for promised rent relief via the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), state leaders mostly funded existing programs in this budget and failed to make housing investments at the scale needed to tackle the housing crisis.

Eviction Prevention – Billions of dollars in emergency rental assistance have been requested, but the legislature capped assistance previously promised in SB 115 at $1.95 billion, while increasing application denials for unclear reasons. As such, this budget provides $30 million in increased funding for legal aid eviction defense to represent the thousands of tenants who will likely face eviction due to the state’s inability to properly manage ERAP.

Homelessness – This budget will result in more displacement of people experiencing homelessness with increased funding for encampment sweeps: $300 million for 2022-2023 and $400 million for 2023-24. There are no meaningful investments in permanent housing for our unhoused neighbors. This budget also does not include investments for AB 1816 (Bryan) to go toward workforce development and permanent supportive housing for people who were recently incarcerated and experiencing or at risk of homelessness; rather, this budget funds temporary programs that often contribute to a revolving door of recidivism. However, this budget does finally invest in a program created nearly eight years ago for veterans and their families experiencing homelessness by allocating $50 million to Proposition 41 (2014).

Affordable Housing – This budget makes a $2 billion multiyear investment in affordable housing. The budget allocates $150 million over two years to preserve California’s existing highly prized and disappearing affordable housing stock. Since many Californians rely on mobile and manufactured homes for affordable housing, the budget invests $100 million over two years for mobile and manufactured homes. In an attempt to add to California’s affordable housing stock, the budget allocates $250 million for the Housing Accelerator Program to build affordable housing where builders can’t access tax credits, as well as $325 million over two years for the Multifamily Housing Program, two critical programs that deserve a larger investment. The budget allocates $425 million over two years for the Infill infrastructure grant program for capital improvement projects and $410 million over two years for Adaptive Reuse to convert buildings into housing, including a $10 million appropriation of existing funding. There is also an additional investment of $50 million for ADU financing on existing lots. While greatly needed, this funding should come with more requirements for the creation of affordable units for households with low and extremely low incomes.

Homeownership – Since homeownership is nearly impossible for many first-time homebuyers in California, particularly for non-white people whose generational wealth was stripped due to intentionally racist housing policies, this budgets makes a commitment to assist first-time homebuyers by establishing the California Dream for All program, providing $500 million to assist first-time homebuyers with lower down payments, more than 1/3 reduction in monthly mortgage payments, and $350 million over two years for the CalHome program.

Housing for Farmworkers – This budget invests in farmworkers, whose hard labor keeps many of us fed, by appropriating $50 million for the Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Housing Program. The program is intended to construct and rehabilitate housing for farm workers who often live in hazardous and uninhabitable housing conditions.

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For a PDF of this analysis, click here. For questions contact:

Access to Justice & Financial Security

• Michael Herald, Director of Policy Advocacy – [email protected]
• Christopher Sanchez, Policy Advocate – [email protected]

Health Care

• Linda Nguy, Policy Advocate – [email protected]

Housing & Homelessness

• Cynthia Castillo, Policy Advocate – [email protected]
• Tina Rosales, Policy Advocate – [email protected]