California Democrats could make last-minute gamble on retail theft, Prop. 47 changes

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

LEGISLATURE RACES TO RECESS

California lawmakers are facing a busy, tense three days before they leave Sacramento for a month-long summer recess.

By the end of Wednesday, they will need to meet a deadline to move bills out of policy committees. They’ll also likely advance two multibillion-dollar bonds to the November ballot and rally around some kind of strategy on tackling retail theft.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, said last week the Legislature was extending its June 27 deadline to add bonds to the ballot to July 3. The Secretary of State’s Office confirmed lawmakers could waive a portion of the California Elections Code to add measures after the statutory June 27 date.

McGuire on Sunday announced the Legislature had come to an agreement on two $10 billion bond measures. A climate change bond will ask voters for money to address safe drinking water and drought, flooding, wildfires and forest resilience, sea level rise, extreme heat and more.

A schools bond will seek funding for “education facilities modernization, repair and safety” at K-12 and community college campuses. Lawmakers will still need to approve the measures to send them to the ballot.

Perhaps the biggest question mark remains whether Democrats can come together on retail theft. An initiative from the California District Attorneys Association to change elements of Proposition 47 has officially qualified for the November ballot.

The 2014 voter-approved measure made certain drug and theft crimes misdemeanors and set a $950 felony threshold for shoplifting. McGuire, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, and Gov. Gavin Newsom have all said they’re against the 2024 effort to change Proposition 47.

The Legislature’s alternative to the district attorneys’ measure — a package of bills that would increase penalties for some theft-related offenses — has stalled. Rivas and McGuire have pushed changes that would void some of the legislation if the initiative passes in November.

The issue has divided Democrats and riled Republicans. The fact that the package has not come up for final consideration in the Senate and Assembly indicates leaders may not have the votes they need.

Now it seems Newsom and legislative leaders will turn the car around and add a last-minute ballot measure to compete with the one the district attorneys are pushing. Politico and KCRA have reported the governor and lawmakers are working out a deal around an initiative that would be less stringent than the existing one.

On Sunday night, lawmakers’ agreement made it into legislation in the form of Senate Bill 1381, authored by Democratic senators Aisha Wahab of Haywar, Angelique Ashby of Sacramento and Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur of West Hollywood.

SB 1381 would tighten penalties on a handful of drug and theft-related crimes. It includes more stringent sentences for those who sell fentanyl that kills someone and those charged with shoplifting after previously being convicted of two or more theft-related offenses within three years.

The bill sets up a direct competition with the district attorneys’ ballot measure. It says a competing measure that conflicts with its provisions would be “null and void” if it gets more votes.

Lawmakers likely won’t be able to act on the measure until later on Wednesday, meaning they will have a long day at the Capitol right before departing for the holiday and recess.

RELIGIOUS, ANTI-LGBTQ HATE CRIMES UP

California in 2023 saw a decline in hate crime events, as whole, but an uptick in offenses targeting Jewish, Muslim and LGBTQ residents.

The California Department of Justice on Friday released its latest Hate Crime in California report, which showed reported hate crime events decreased about 7% from 2,120 in 2022 to 1,970 in 2023.

However, anti-Jewish bias events increased by almost 53%, from 189 in 2022 to 289 in 2023. Anti-Muslim bias events were up by 60%, from 25 in 2022 to 40 in 2023.

Anti-LGBTQ bias events went up from 81 in 2022 to 151 in 2023.

A hate crime event involves one or more criminal offenses, victims and suspects or perpetrators.

“While it is heartening to see an overall decrease in hate crimes in 2023, some of our communities, including our LGBTQ+, Jewish and Muslim communities, continue to be targeted and endangered by hate at alarming rates,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement. “An attack against one of us is an attack against all of us — there is no place for hate in California.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It’s a bad night for America when the candidate who said, ‘I didn’t have sex with a porn star’ gave the better showing.”

- San Francisco Chronicle political writer Joe Garofoli on the debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

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