January 5, 2023

Staff Update

We would like to introduce and welcome Kalyn Dean as the new Government Finance and Administration Legislative Representative. Kalyn brings a wealth of experience in lobbying, having built critical coalitions to lead and support programs in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors. We are very excited to have Kalyn on our team and look forward to leveraging her expertise in developing and advocating for policy initiatives and budget proposals to support California’s 58 counties! She succeeds her predecessor, Geoff Neill.

Legislative Update

The California State Legislature convened on December 5. Members were sworn into their roles, with nearly one-third being new to Sacramento. As we welcome 2023, the legislative session began in earnest on January 4 with the Legislature reconvening after the winter break. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon recently announced the Assembly policy committee chairs and vice chairs. While there is quite a bit of continuity, one important development is the new appointment of Assemblymember Tina McKinnor as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement. Assemblymember McKinnor succeeds former Assemblymember Jim Cooper.

Over 170 new measures have been introduced since the start of the legislative session, and we expect this number to increase exponentially as we reach the February 17 filing deadline for introducing new legislation. The following measures are on our radar, given their reintroduction from last year. Still in the early stages of the legislative process, we do not have active positions on these measures, but want to bring them to your attention:

Sales and Use Tax Law: AB 52 (Grayson). Assemblymember Grayson introduced similarly titled legislation in 2022, which would have substantially reduced county and city revenue by over $2 billion over five years. CSAC and a broad coalition of local government organizations opposed the previous measure, AB 1951 (Grayson) (2022), which was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who articulated that we cannot ask our local governments to bear this loss in revenue. AB 52 is currently a placeholder bill expressing the intent of the Legislature to expand the sales and use tax exemption for manufacturing and research and development equipment.

Grand Juries: AB 78 (Ward). This measure would increase the compensation for individuals selected to serve as grand jurors and require demographic data to be collected during the jury selection process. Existing law requires the fees for grand jurors to be $15 for each day’s attendance as a grand juror. AB 78 would require the fee to be equal to 70 percent of the county median daily income for each day’s attendance. CSAC opposed a similar measure, AB 1972 (Ward), in 2022, unless it was amended to specify that the increased compensation would only apply in years that the state budget has provided a sufficient appropriation to cover the increased fees paid to grand jurors.

We invite you to view the entire list of bills that we are tracking by accessing the following link: https://www.counties.org/legislative-tracking.