Democratic leaders in the California State Capitol killed nearly 300 bills Thursday in the ritualistic rapid culling of legislation in the mysterious “suspense dossier.”

Officially, the tension file is a tool for legislative leaders to evaluate costly bills by weighing them

each other

and decide what to vote for

the Senate and the Assembly.

Unofficially, it’s being used as a way for Democrats who control the legislature to knock out controversial bills with few fingerprints.

Sometimes the underlying costs are to blame. Other times, die on the tension file because Democratic leaders want to protect ordinary members from taking a stand publicly. Charge them often

in

the voltage file without explanation.

Bills that quietly failed included proposals that would have benefited low-income children, further reduced gun ownership, and helped some tenants afford the rising cost of living.

Why is this happening?

California lawmakers typically introduce about 2,000 bills a year, so the tension file is one way to thin the pile. The Senate puts bills on the tension file if they would cost the state at least $50,000 and the Assembly puts them there if they cost at least $150,000. After that, twice a year, the credit committees decide which ones will live another day.

“The role of the Appropriations Committee is to take the bills, consider the costs and benefits, and weigh that against our overall fiscal health,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, who led the Assembly Appropriations Committee from 2016 to 2021.

But there is also a political component: Killing a bill by leaving it on file means that most lawmakers don’t have to vote on it, so they don’t have to make a difficult decision.

What’s different this year?

After several budget years, California faces a deficit that Gov. Gavin Newsom has estimated $31.5 billion. With money scarce, lawmakers are under pressure to shelve bills with hefty price tags.

“It’s a different time to operate in,” Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, said of the fiscal deficit after

as a sequel to

Thursday hearing.

One bill that died would have cost between $10 million and $15 million a year to allow more people wrongly convicted of crimes to seek reparations from the state after they are acquitted. Another bill would have banned the state from collecting interest on child support

T

hat is in arrears of at least $18 million, depending on how much is collected from the parents.

Have anti-poverty programs taken a hit?

Yes While Democratic leaders protected much of the state’s social safety net, they scrapped proposals to expand tax credits for low-income Californians.

That includes bills that would have brought extra money to renters and families with children.

The California Young Child Tax Credit allows eligible families with children under age 6

years old

to get up to $1,000. AB 1128, by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), would have removed that age limit, allowing more than 1 million eligible children of any age to benefit.

Santiago said in a statement he will push for $700 million in the state budget to make this happen, as families across California earn relief from inflation so they can afford necessities such as food and rent.

Other anti-poverty measures that failed included a bill that would have increased minimum payments to families under the California Earned Income Tax Credit and a Republican bill to increase tax credits intended for tenant legislation that has repeatedly failed in the past despite a subsidy. it has stood still for decades.

Disappointed advocates had urged the state to fill the gaps left by federal programs launched during the pandemic that have since expired.

Of course, we are all aware of the budget forecast. Yet these dollars are investments not only in families, but also in communities and local economies, said Teri Olle, campaign manager for California’s Economic Security Action Project.

What about gun control?

After a mass shooting in Monterey Park in January that killed 11 people, lawmakers responded with a wave of new gun control legislation.

Most of those bills are advanced, minus two proposals from Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), who leads

helmets

the Legislatures Gun Violence Prevention Working Group.

The first would have allowed people suffering from mental health crises and at risk of suicide to voluntarily add their names to a do-not-sell list. The other would have prohibited someone with a domestic violence protection order filed against them from buying or possessing weapons for an additional charge

another

three years after the order has expired.

I was a bit taken aback, Gabriel said, adding that the two bills were important pieces of the overall puzzle of solving gun violence because they focused on addressing the impact of suicide and domestic violence on gun deaths.

A pause in police reform

In 2020, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) won a victory for the movement to curb police shootings when he passed a law requiring the Justice Department to investigate fatal shootings of unarmed civilians.

McCarty this year sought to expand that law to include all fatal police incidents, including incidents that resulted in the death of someone armed and cases where officers used deadly force other than a firearm, such as excessive tasing or a chokehold.

But the state agency has lagged behind in going through its workload. Since the law went into effect in 2021, investigators have closed just two cases, with dozens more pending.

The Justice Department estimated that the additional investigations proposed in McCarty’s bill would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and require an additional investigation.

another

632 workers.

McCarty said the bill would have closed a glaring hole in the effort to investigate fatal incidents.

It’s still something I’m committed to, McCarty said. I think ultimately we should have all officer-involved shootings independently investigated outside of local jurisdiction, preferably by the Attorney General.

A win for fossil fuels

Oil and gas companies won when the Senate Appropriations Committee overturned a bill that would have made them liable for health problems of people living near wells and drilling projects.

Environmentalists supported the measure,

but a fiscal analysis estimated it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to decommission oil and gas wells.

Today we missed an important opportunity to pass legislation that would hold polluters accountable and prevent further harm to families just trying to stay healthy and have a better quality of life, said Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) in a statements.