SACRAMENTO >> As California settles into the new year, new laws take effect that mandate vaccinations for most schoolchildren, force police officers to get a warrant before searching your cellphone and boost the minimum wage a dollar an hour.
State lawmakers passed the minimum wage hike in 2013, raising it to $9 in July 2014 and $10 — a measure that began on Friday. Proponents say the hike will help move hourly pay toward a more liveable wage. But many small-business owners cannot afford to pay the increase. Independent restaurant owners will be among the hardest hit.
The other changes are required under more than 700 bills signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown on everything from gun control to mattress recycling to sex education.
Most of the legislation took effect Friday, but this year there are some notable exceptions.
A controversial law giving terminally ill Californians the right to end their lives with help from a doctor won’t take effect for several months because lawmakers approved the measure during a special session on health care funding that hasn’t ended yet — and the law can’t take effect until 90 days after it does.
The Legislature in August passed landmark legislation that aims to slow global warming by dramatically boosting the state’s use of renewable energy. But the legislation won’t be fully implemented until 2030.
“California is a very progressive, very blue state, and the legislation passed this year shows where the state is headed,” said Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution research fellow and longtime GOP consultant. “Some of these bills will have a significant impact for some time to come.”
Implementation of Senate Bill 277, the new state law requiring that almost all schoolchildren be fully vaccinated to attend public or private school, regardless of their parents’ personal or religious beliefs, has sparked some confusion in recent weeks.
Parents will no longer be able to request “personal belief exemptions” from immunization beginning Friday. Despite predictions that there would be a last-minute, mad dash of parents seeking waivers, the deadline affected only a relatively small number of children.
Here’s why: Proof of vaccination is required at what the state calls “checkpoints” — when a child enters preschool, transitional kindergarten, egular kindergarten or seventh grade. So unvaccinated children whose parents have obtained a personal belief exemption won’t be subject to the new law’s requirements until they reach the next checkpoint, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health explained.
For instance, an unvaccinated second-grader — with or without an exemption — won’t have to comply with vaccination requirements until seventh grade.
The implementation strategy means that all children who attend public and private schools will eventually be vaccinated, greatly limiting the chance of another infectious disease outbreak like the one a year ago that began at Disneyland and sickened 147 people, said Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, the bill’s main author.
“Over time, the law will reduce the number of unvaccinated people in our state and restore the community immunity we enjoyed for many decades that has eroded in recent years because of misinformation about vaccination,” said Pan, a pediatrician.
That’s not to say that some parents aren’t still steaming about the law.
“We still have a lot of questions, and we’re not sure what to do,” said Jamie Phillips, a Fremont resident who opposes the law and is seeking medical exemptions for her sons, ages 7 and 10. “If my kids can’t attend public school, I’ll have to forfeit my career to home school them. This law is forcing us to rethink everything.”
Another major piece of legislation now taking effect will lift state law “out of the digital dark ages,” said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who authored SB178 with Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine.
Under the new privacy law, police must obtain a warrant before searching a suspect’s private digital communications, such as email and text messages.
“Just as a valentine in your mail box should be protected from warrantless government search, so should your most personal, intimate details of health, finance, romance and employment be protected from warrantless government search,” Leno said.
While several states offer some of the law’s protections, only Maine and Utah have similarly comprehensive statutes. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, hope it becomes a model for the nation.
NEW YEAR, MORE NEW LAWS
Along with new laws raising the minimum wage, protecting electronic privacy and requiring schoolchildren to get vaccinations, hundreds of other bills are taking effect Friday. Here are some of them:
EQUAL PAY
Female workers in California get new tools to challenge gender-based wage gaps under a law supporters say offers the strongest equal-pay protection in the nation. The legislation places the burden of proof on an employer to show a man’s higher pay for similar work is based on factors other than gender.
SEIZURE OF WEAPONS
AB 1014 will allow for the temporary removal of firearms from people who are at risk of committing acts of violence. The measure was passed last year in the wake of the Isla Vista shooting, where teenager Elliot Rodger went on a rampage near the campus of UC Santa Barbara, killing six people and himself.
Under the law, police will be allowed to seize private, legally owned weapons for up to three weeks without charges or allowing the owner of the weapons to contest the seizure.
Another law extends a ban on concealed weapons at K-12 schools and community colleges, removing an exemption that previously allowed people with concealed weapons permits to carry firearms on school grounds.
EARBUDS AND DRIVING
The approval of Senate Bill 491 will prevent drivers from wearing headsets, earbuds or headphones in or over both ears while driving a vehicle or riding a bicycle. The law won’t apply to workers who operate emergency vehicles, construction equipment or waste collection vehicles while wearing a headset or safety earplugs.
“I can see why that law is needed,” said Edgar Figueroa, a spokesman for the Southern Division of the California Highway Patrol. “What if an ambulance is coming up behind you or the police are chasing someone while you’re driving? You need to have your ears open. It creates a distraction, and that’s not what we want.”
Earbuds are also popular with cyclists.
Sergio Hernandez, who works at Incycle Bicycles in Pasadena, said he often rides while wearing earbuds — in both ears.
“I’ve been a professional rider for 11 years, so my senses are a lot more in tune than most cyclists,” he said. “But I’ve been caught by surprise, especially by hybrids because they’re so quiet. I think once someone gets a ticket, they will think twice about it. But it’s a hard habit to break.”
IGNITION INTERLOCK
Another vehicle-related measure will crack down on motorists who are cited for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
SB 61 by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, grants a one-year extension to a pilot project for the Ignition Interlock Device in Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Tulare counties.
Under the current law, a person convicted of driving under the influence may be required to install an IID in their vehicle. If it registers alcohol on the driver’s breath, the vehicle won’t start. The length of time the device is required in the vehicle is based on how many DUI convictions the driver has had.
“This is important because DUI’s kill or injure people every single year,” the CHP’s Figueroa said. “It also causes major chaos on the highways. These kinds of laws will encourage people to make responsible choices.”
The numbers are sobering.
Department of Motor Vehicles statistics show that during the past 30 years, more than 50,000 people died in California because of drunken drivers, and more than 1 million have been injured. Each year in this state an estimated 1,000 people die and more than 20,000 are injured from drunk drivers. Repeat offenders account for roughly a third of annual DUI convictions, figures show.
DROUGHT-TOLERANT YARDS
Another new law will prohibit local governments from banning water-conscious landscaping at private homes, although the landscaping will still be subject to city standards and guidelines.
AB 1164, also authored by Assemblyman Gatto, was fueled by residents who heeded Gov. Jerry Brown’s call to reduce their watering amid California’s drought, only to be threatened by their respective communities for having brown lawns.
Glendora resident Laura Whitney-Korte was among them. She received a threatening letter from the city’s code enforcement team in July of 2014 saying her brown lawn could be “a potential public nuisance problem” that could cost her $100 to $500 in fines and possible criminal action.
Ironically, that same day the State Water Resources Control Board gave local agencies the power to hand out $500 fines for overwatering lawns.
“I think it is an unfortunate and morally wrong position for cities to take because these are homeowners who are trying to do the right thing,” Gatto said.
SCHOOL EXIT EXAM
High school seniors in California will no longer have to take a long-standing exit exam to graduate, thanks to Senate Bill 172 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland. The bill lifts the requirement through the 2017-2018 school year and also applies retroactively to 2004, meaning students who have completed all the other graduation requirements since then can apply for diplomas.
The measure was prompted by an incident in which 5,000 California students were denied the opportunity to retake the test in July. The state Department of Education canceled the exam because its contract with the testing company was expiring and education officials wanted to avoid spending millions of dollars to renew the contract for a test that some believed was outdated, since it was not aligned with the new Common Core standards.
Gov. Brown’s office said he signed the bill because he didn’t want those students’ future plans to be jeopardized.
STUDENT PRIVACY
California enacts what supporters say is the nation’s toughest law for protecting student privacy rights by barring companies from using their personal information for profit. Companies are responsible for protecting any personal information that they gather from elementary and high school students and the data can only be used for school purposes.
ABORTION
Crisis pregnancy centers that discourage women from getting abortions will be required to provide information about the procedure, affordable contraception and prenatal care. Clinics operated by abortion opponents sued to block imposition of the new law, arguing that it is forced speech, but a federal judge rejected the claim.
BALLOT INITIATIVES
The fee to file a California ballot initiative proposal increases from $200 to $2,000, an effort to limit frivolous proposals and recoup administrative costs.
MATTRESS RECYCLING
California is set to become the second state in the nation with a statewide recycling program for used mattresses and box springs. Residents can find their nearest participating collection site or recycling facility by visiting www.byebyemattress.com
A BRIEF OVERVIEW
• AB 1116 — This bill requires manufacturers of smart TVs to inform users that their voices may be recorded and transmitted back to the manufacturers. It also prohibits manufacturers from using or selling for advertising purposes any voice recordings collected for the purposes of refining the voice recognition feature of a television.
• AB 199 — Provides tax exemptions for businesses that buy recycling and composting equipment. It also expands eligibility for the tax exclusion to equipment that uses recycled feedstock to make new products.
• SB 697 — This bill will increase accountability and transparency in the state’s Public Utilities Commission.
• SB 272 — Local governments will be required to create an inventory of their key data-keeping systems. They will make that catalog publicly available online and list the types of data collected by those systems. Cybersecurity systems and infrastructure-control systems are exempted.
• SB 664 — Regional water-management officials will be required to assess the vulnerability of their water systems to an earthquake and publicly report that assessment as well as any mitigation plans.
Josh Richman contributed to this report. Kevin Smith writes for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune
