"I'm just a bill, on Sacramento Hill"- "There Ought to be a Law"

January 10, 2022 6:12 PM

Are you a Californian with an idea for legislation? The California Democrats want to hear your ideas The legislative calendar for the 2022 season is rapidly filling up, and members of the Assembly would like to hear suggestions from their constituents. For California residents, the deadline is Friday January 14th. If you're a student in New York, there's asimilar competition going on (Middle School only). Students in Pennyslvania also have an opportunity.
posted by LeRoienJaune (12 comments total)

Establish a separate penalty schedule for crimes by fictitious persons as a sliding scale based on yearly revenue.

Establish a crime like "statistically aggregated homicide" for corporate decisions that are likely to cause a number of deaths from environmental or other causes. Make a safe harbor provision if the company discloses risks in quarterly reports.
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:36 PM on January 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

How about another go at the Idaho Stop and Jaywalking decriminalization laws that that Gavin Newsom vetoed last session? (because cops told him they were unsafe, despite wide evidence from other states to the contrary) grr grr
posted by 3j0hn at 8:11 PM on January 10, 2022 [7 favorites]

Part time minimum wage should be 1.5x full time minimum wage.
posted by fings at 8:46 PM on January 10, 2022 [10 favorites]

I love the Schoolhouse Rock reference, though Sacramento is infamously flood-prone and lacking in hills. In 1862, Governor Leland Stanford had to row a boat to a flooded State Capitol to his own inauguration.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 10:31 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

I was under the impression that constituents are always telling legislators what oughta be a law. Seems unnecessary to invite them. Plus, cynical me says pretty much all of what does get suggested won't go anywhere; it'll just create lots of extra work for staff.
posted by JanetLand at 6:00 AM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I dunno...I kind of just want them to enact all the stuff that was previously promised for years: universal healthcare, funding to house people without homes, public banks, funding for school upgrades, etc. Where are we on all that? AB1400 CalCare has been proposed and is being worked on...how likely is that to pass now? Is it as uphill a battle as it has been in years past?
posted by toastyk at 7:49 AM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Part time minimum wage should be 1.5x full time minimum wage.

Now might be the only time such a law could pass. As soon as you pass such a law, every part time employer pulls every part time employee into an allhands, does the old 'look to your left, look to your right, one of the three of you gets to keep your job' speech.

And every part time employee who actually wanted part time work gets to quit school, become a full time mom, or whatever their second best choice is. AFAICT, the only reason to give two shits about 40 hours a week is health care, and I vastly prefer the set of policies that separate health care insurance from employment. You should be entitled to life saving treatment regardless of life circumstance or worker classification.
posted by pwnguin at 12:27 PM on January 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'll be more impressed if they repeal one bad law, Prop 13, than passing a hundred more laws.
posted by meowzilla at 1:36 PM on January 11, 2022 [7 favorites]

I was going to write something about how much I liked this idea, but then I went to submit my idea and was a bit disappointed.

IMO this is best if it brings in new voices. The form is not encouraging that though! For example:

Be as detailed as possible. Attach extra sheets if necessary.

Please include any studies, reports, specific code sections

Who do you think would oppose this proposal?

I've got a two-sentence suggestion about solar panel incentives--which are opaque and changing and I'm paying attention to because I'm trying to get some installed--and I don't know code numbers or have studies to back me up or how to word specific legislative language! I'm not going to attach "extra sheets"! The implicit message is I lack the knowledge or dedication to make a good submission; this is really more a thing for lobbyists and advocacy groups.

Lobbyists know how to get stuff in front of aides anyway. You don't need to reach out to do that. I don't see any reason to do this unless you're going be trying to draw in people you don't hear from typically.

I'm not actually that annoyed on my own behalf, I'm wealthy-enough white guy in the Bay Area. My interests aren't ignored. And I'll send something in anyway. But I just from thinking this was a great way to maybe find some issues that matter to people who are foreign to the process to scratching my head about what they are trying to accomplish.
posted by mark k at 9:13 PM on January 11, 2022

OK, finished my submission and two more complaints:

They miscalculated who my assemblyperson is somehow. I submitted and it looks like they pegged me to District 30, which is about an hours south of me.

The "Who would support this?" and "Who would oppose this?" fields are required. Why? If someone can tell you about an issue that affects their life, isn't that valuable feedback you want to hear even if they don't feel like playing armchair pundit?
posted by mark k at 9:31 PM on January 11, 2022

Sorry for the triple post, but now I'm embarrassed. The link in the OP goes specifically to the 30th district's entry for the program, not a site run by "Democrats" per se. There are other members with their own submission forms but AFAICT my assemblyman isn't participating and doesn't have a website.
posted by mark k at 9:36 PM on January 11, 2022

institute a legal presumption against any local zoning, unless local nimby-ers can rebut the presumption in court.
posted by wibari at 10:16 PM on January 11, 2022 [2 favorites]