Bee: Moderate Democrats Hold the Balance in CA

Some Democrats in the California Assembly are bucking the leftist tide of their party by voting down or stopping bills cherished by those wishing to spend more and more money.

Realizing that many of the proposals offered by their compatriots in the state legislature would cripple businesses, some Assembly members have tacked against the leftist gale from their party. According to the Sacramento Bee, some examples include:

1. SB 350, pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. President Pro Tem Kevin de León, which originally wanted a 50% reduction in petroleum use in motor vehicles by 2030, but elided that language before it was considered by the Assembly;
2. SB 32, from Se. Fran Pavley, which wanted the state’s greenhouse gas emissions limit to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 but stalled in the Assembly;
3. SB 3, which wanted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $11 an hour in 2016 and $13 in 2017, then index it to inflation in 2019. It stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
4. SB 548, championed by de León, who capitulated by taking out language authorizing state-funded child care workers to engage in collective bargaining;
5. SB 23, which wanted to reverse a law barring welfare families that bear more children from getting more funds. The bill was left for next year;
6. Bills pushing the legal smoking age to 21 and to regulate e-cigarettes; both stalled in the Assembly;
7. SB 788, which wanted a moratorium on offshore drilling in protected coastal lands, stalled in the Assembly.

In addition, SB 406, which proposed expanding the state’s unpaid family leave policy, barely passed; the Bee reported that there was “stiff resistance from business-friendly moderates in their party.”

De León defiantly insisted that the stalled bills will eventually pass.