No love for AB 5 + Thurmond endorses ‘split roll’ + Newsom fights ‘public charge’

It’s Tuesday. We’re already two days into the week. We’ve got this. Let’s get into the news.

REPEAL AB 5?

Hundreds of people could attend Tuesday morning’s “Rally to Repeal AB 5,” a rally co-hosted by Assembly Republicans Kevin Kiley of Rocklin and Melissa Melendez of Lake Elsinore.

By Monday afternoon, a Facebook page for the event listed 225 people as “going” and another 1,200 as “interested.”

Kiley called the occasion “a great opportunity to show how much opposition there is and how many people are suffering” as a result of AB 5, which re-classifies many California independent contractors as regular employees.

Kiley said that more than 150 professions have been affected by the law, and he’s spent the last few weeks compiling a book telling the stories of people “who have completely lost all opportunity to earn a paycheck.”

The book is up to 1,500 submissions, he said.

Speakers at Tuesday’s rally will include author Walter Kirn, producer and film composer Brian Ralston, Broadway performer Peter Kalivas, musician Tom Wiggins and freelance writer Erica Sandberg.

There will also be a performance from an “ad hoc group of brass musicians” all affected by AB 5, Kiley said.

The rally takes place at 10 a.m. Tuesday, on the west steps of the Capitol. Afterward, Kiley said attendees will be encouraged to enter the Capitol and seek out their lawmakers to address their grievances with AB 5. Later in the day, Kiley said some attendees will have a meeting at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

Kiley said that’s a chance for Newsom “to do the right thing here.”

“It would be a great display of humility and leadership to say (AB 5) has not worked out and we need to change it,” Kiley said.

THURMOND INITIATIVE ENDORSEMENT

The Capitol steps are going to be a busy place on Tuesday.

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond is scheduled to appear on the south steps at 11 a.m. to endorse the “Schools and Communities First” initiative, AKA the “split roll” initiative.

That initiative would generate up to $12 billion annually for California schools and local governments by taxing commercial property worth more than $3 million.

The measure has previously gained the endorsement of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Thurmond is expected to appear along with members of the California Federation of Teachers, the California Teachers Association and the California Parent Teacher Association.

NEWSOM, BECERRA TO FIGHT PUBLIC CHARGE RULE

California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra have vowed to keep fighting the President Donald Trump administration’s “public charge” rule despite a major setback from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation’s highest court narrowly voted to let the Trump administration continue its policy of denying a green card to low-income immigrants who would qualify for government services such as food stamps or Medicaid.

Newsom called the Monday decision “devastating.”

“Because of the ‘public charge’ rule, families are already going hungry and people are avoiding needed medical care,” Newsom said in a statement.

Both Newsom and Becerra vowed to keep fighting the rule as the matter is litigated in the courts.

“We are a nation of immigrants, so we will lean forward in the face of heartless attacks on working families. Together, we’ll continue our fight to stand up for the rights of each and every person who calls the United States their home,” Becerra said in a statement.

The California Latino Legislative Caucus, chaired by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, also weighed in on the SCOTUS decision.

“We are disappointed that this administration continues to try to re-write the rules of the American Dream, allowing access only to the rich and powerful. This policy is short-sighted and un-American,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

AN ENVIRONMENTAL SCORECARD

Finally, several lawmakers are set to be on hand when the California League of Conservation Voters its “revamped” 2019 California Environmental Scorecard.

Lawmakers scheduled to be in attendance include Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, Assemblywoman Luz Marie Rivas, D-Los Angeles and Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Rolling Hills Estates.

The 2019 scorecard will include a California score includes a list of lawmakers “who are bringing forth bold policy solutions to tackle our climate crisis” as well as five legislators “who have stalled or halted our progress to protect the environment,” according to a statement from the league.

The report card also will score the Senate and Assembly’s overall performance on climate issues.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, we recommit. Recommit to speaking out in the face of evil. Denying bigotry. Resisting injustice. Rejecting hate. We cannot forget the horrors of our past. We must never be silent.”

- Gov. Gavin Newsom, via Twitter. Newsom was one of several California politicians, Republican and Democrat, to observe the solemn occasion, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp Auschwitz.

Best of the Bee:

• Lowering health costs emerged as a major part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2020 agenda earlier this month when he unveiled plans to get state government in the business of selling prescription drugs. California would be the first state to create its own drug label, which would contract with existing manufacturers to produce lower-cost drugs. Newsom said he’s already in negotiations related to the plan, via Sophia Bollag.

• In California’s never-ending water and fish wars, the striped bass doesn’t get nearly the publicity as its celebrity counterparts, the endangered Chinook salmon and Delta smelt. Yet the striped bass is at the heart of a protracted fight over California’s water supply, 140 years after the hard-fighting fish, beloved by anglers, was introduced here from the East Coast, via Ryan Sabalow.