California passed hundreds of new laws for 2023. Here’s what you need to know
The California Legislature churns out bills like widgets. It sent 1,166 of them to Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022. He signed 997 and vetoed the rest.
Some of the new laws are more consequential (expanded Paid Family Leave) than others (The Mercury Thermostat Collection Act). But the legislature’s work sends ripples through the essentials of our lives: the air we breathe, the medical care we can get, how much a job will pay when we apply for it. The consequences can be immediate, or take years to play out.
Here are some of the laws that take effect in 2023, most of them on Jan. 1, others later in the year. Names of the lawmakers who were the primary authors are in parentheses.
Abortion and Reproductive Rights
California cemented its status as a pro-choice haven with a package of bills Newsom signed in September. They represent a response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and an effort to strengthen access for Californians and those coming here from states with harsh anti-abortion laws.
AB 2223: Prior to this measure, coroners were required to investigate and register fetal deaths after 20 weeks, unless they were the result of a legal abortion. This bill formally bans prosecution for all failed and terminated pregnancies. (Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland)
AB 2626: Under the existing Medical Practice Act, anyone other than a medical doctor who performs an abortion is liable to be disciplined by professional licensing boards. Starting in 2023, nurse practitioners, nurses, and midwives can provide abortions without loss or suspension of a license. The law also prohibits professional boards from suspending or revoking licenses of medical professionals who provide abortion care outside the state. (Assemblywoman Lisa Calderon, D-Whittier)
AB 2091: Several states have not only passed outright bans on abortion, they’ve attempted to restrict out-of-state travel to obtain them. This will prohibit disclosure of private medical records — including records of abortions — via subpoena or request from outside the state. (Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, D-Oakland)
SB 1142: California will put $20 million into the Abortion Practical Support Fund for grants to pro-choice groups that help women with travel expenses when they come to California for an abortion. It also requires the state’s Health and Human Services Agency to create a website detailing all of the state’s reproductive health care services. (Sens. Anna Caballero, D-Merced, and Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley)
AB 2134: This establishes a $40 million grant fund to reimburse providers who treat uninsured patients with household incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level. This was an especially personal bill for the author, a practicing OBGYN. (Assemblywoman Akilah Weber, D-San Diego)
Local Government
This January, the face of local government in California will change in many ways. The legislature produced a series of measures, some intended to empower and protect officials who feel unsafe in the volatile political climate.
SB 1100: California’s existing public meetings law, the Brown Act, already provides county supervisors, school boards and city councils with the power to eject disruptive people. Proponents say the new measure spells out that authority more clearly. (Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose)
SB 1131: Since November 2020, more than 15% of California’s election officials have left their jobs. With election skepticism and denial running high, election workers have faced harassment and threats of violence simply for doing their jobs. The measure expands the “Safe at Home” program — originally designed to protect victims of domestic violence and abortion clinic staff — to cover election staff and other public employees by shielding their home addresses from the public eye. (Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton) SB 1131 passed with an urgency provision, meaning it became law as soon as Newsom signed it on Sept. 26.
SB 1439: Elected and appointed state officials are already barred from accepting or soliciting contributions of more than $250 from anyone with business before them in the previous 12 months or after a final decision in the matter. This will hold local elected officials to the same standard. Violations, as determined by the Fair Political Practices Commission, will be punishable by a fine of up to $5,000. (Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda)
AB 1925: This will lift the restriction on people holding county or district office if they are not a registered voter in that jurisdiction. Proponents said the old law amounted to a de facto citizenship requirement. (Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles)
AB 2449: A pandemic-era law allowing local government bodies to conduct meetings remotely was due to sunset at the end of 2023. This extends the provision to the end of 2025. (Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park)
Energy and Environment
Several of the environmental bills Newsom signed this fall won’t produce immediate changes for Californians. But they have the potential for profound long term effects.
SB 1137: The immediate future is unclear for this one. It requires 3,200-foot buffer zones between new oil and gas wells and homes, hospitals and schools. Petroleum companies are supporting a referendum to overturn it. If the proposition qualifies for the ballot, voters will decide whether the buffers will be enforced. (Sens. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, and Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara)
AB 1279: The California Climate Crisis Act will require the state to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2045 and to sustain that level into the future. It directs the Air Resources Board and the Legislative Analyst’s Office submit reports evaluating the state’s progress toward the goal and identify potential areas for improvement. (Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, and Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens)
SB 905: The Air Resources Board must evaluate efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it. By 2025, the board must establish regulations for building and operating carbon capture and removal projects and create a public database to track their use. It also prohibits injecting captured carbon dioxide into oil wells to try to improve extraction. (Sens Anna Caballero, D-Merced, and Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley)
AB 1757: The Natural Resources Agency, and other state department, must set goals by Jan. 1, 2024 for reducing greenhouse gases using natural resources such as vegetation and soil. (Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, and Assemblyman Robert Rivas, D-Salinas)
SB 1020: This requires that zero-carbon and renewable energy sources comprise 90% of the state’s electricity by 2035 and 95% by 2040. It mandates that state agencies use renewable and zero carbon sources for 100% of their electricity by 2035. (Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz)
Public Health
Several important health-related bills were passed by lawmakers and signed by Newsom in 2022, including a measure legalizing human composting and another that would sanction doctors who spread COVID-19 misinformation.
SB 107: Transgender youth and their families who travel to California seeking gender-affirming care, and the doctors who provide it, would be protected from prosecution. The law prohibits removal of a child from a parent or guardian allowing them to seek that care. (Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco)
AB 351: Individuals and their families can turn their deceased bodies into soil after death through “natural organic reduction,” also known as human composting. Supporters consider it to be an environmentally friendly burial option. California’s public health department will be required to regulate composting facilities. (Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens and Assemblyman Robert Rivas, D-Salinas)
AB 2098: Doctors can be more easily punished by the Medical Board of California for deliberately spreading false information about COVID-19, vaccines and treatment. The law classifies the distribution of disinformation as “unprofessional conduct,” for which the board could respond with public reprimand, probation, suspension, or license revocation. (Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell)
AB 1502: Anyone who wants to run a nursing home will first need a license, effectively closing a loophole that allowed California facilities to stay open for years with pending licenses or even ones that were outright denied. (Assemblymen Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, and Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg)
LABOR AND WORKPLACE
This was a busy sector of policy in 2022. Job hunters will be able to see salary and wage ranges posted before they apply. Public employers found to be interfering with union activity will pay sizable fines. Family leave benefits will improve.
SB 1162: The state’s labor commissioner can fine employers up to $10,000 for failing to comply with the salary and wage range measure. There are also fines for failing to submit demographic pay data to the state. (Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara)
SB 3: Legislation signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016 tied increases beyond $15 an hour to inflation. This January, the minimum wage will rise to $15.50.
AB 2183: Farm workers have the choice of voting at a physical location or mailing a representation ballot card to an Agricultural Labor Relations Board office. (Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Monterey Bay)
SB 931: The Public Employment Relations Board has the power to fine government employers up to $100,000 if it finds that workers were prevented from participating in a union. (Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chinot)
AB 257: This establishes a regulatory council of workers, employers and government appointees would negotiate to set industry standards and pay in the fast food industry. But the measure was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1 . But it now faces a potential referendum challenge backed by corporate restaurant chains. (Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena)
SB 951: Access to paid family leave will increase. It extends, through 2024, temporary increases in benefits from 55% of wages to between 60% and 70% depending on income. Starting in 2025, workers making under $57,000 will be eligible for the benefits between 70-90% of their pay. All other workers are eligible for benefits between 60-70%. (María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles)
Criminal Justice
Prosecutors will no longer be free to use rap lyrics as evidence. Defense attorneys will be barred from disclosing a person’s immigration status in open court, and the crime of loitering for the purpose of prostitution will come off the books.
AB 2799: Prosecutors can no longer use creative expression, such as rap lyrics, as character evidence against a defendant unless they can be tied to a specific crime or provide information otherwise not available to the public. (Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles)
SB 357: This repeals all laws that prohibit loitering for purposes of prostitution, proposed because existing laws were frequently used to target transgender women of color. The measure passed in 2021 but was held for nearly a year so that advocates could persuade Newsom to sign it. Critics have expressed concern that it could hinder efforts to curb sex trafficking. (Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco)
SB 836: This prohibits a person’s immigration status from being disclosed in open court, without a hearing in chambers for a judge to determine that the matter is admissible. It passed with an urgency clause, meaning it became law as soon as Gov. Newsom signed it in August. (Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco)
SB 1008: State prisons, youth detention facilities and city and county jails will be required to offer phone services to inmates free of charge. (Josh Becker, D-San Mateo)
AB 2147: Jaywalking laws are softened – you won’t get stopped if you’re acting safely as a pedestrian. (Phil Ting, D-San Francisco)
Housing
Lawmakers are searching for ways to spur new residential construction in a state where the shortage of housing is at a crisis level.
AB 2011: This is one of two bills that ease the way for housing on land zoned for commercial use. Developers will be able to access land zoned for parking, office and retail use “by right,” meaning they won’t have to go through local government approval processes or the California Environmental Quality Act to build. They must also pay workers prevailing wage and benefits. (Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland)
SB 6: It incentivizes housing construction on commercially zoned land but without requirements for affordable units. Builders will need to go through local regulatory process. (Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced)
This story was originally published December 29, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California passed hundreds of new laws for 2023. Here’s what you need to know."