Daily Business Report: Wednesday, April 16, 2025
California lawmakers quietly sideline bills in secretive suspense process
By Ryan Sabalow | CalMatters
In just 24 minutes and without any debate, the most powerful committee in the state Senate last week moved 33 bills from public view into a secretive process that will decide whether the measures live or die.
Two days later, its sister committee in the Assembly moved 82 of its bills in under two minutesto the same secretive, uncertain future.
If history is any guide, between a quarter to a third of those bills will be killed next month. For most of the bills, no one but lobbyists, a handful of capital staffers, lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policy team will know exactly why.
Gov. Newsom Signs Bill Closing Remainder Of The $6.2 Billion Medi-Cal Budget Deficit
By Evan Symon | California Globe
Governor Gavin Newsom signed new legislation on Monday that pays off a $2.8 billion budgetary shortfall for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicare program, allowing it to run through the end of the fiscal year at the end of June.
While the supplemental budget bill, which was approved by the legislature late last week, now keeps Medi-Cal alive for a few months longer, it is not out of the woods yet. Medi-Cal faced a $6.2 billion deficit going into March, which was solved by a $3.4 billion loan from the general fund last month by Newsom and Monday’s budgetary bill. However, come next fiscal year, a new, likely higher figure for Medi-Cal is expected, meaning that the state could have to face a similar situation next year.
As the Globe has previously reported, the main reason for Medi-Cal’s massive budget hole is because of the state opting to include all illegal immigrants under Medi-Cal. While Medi-Cal was expanded to cover undocumented children in 2015 and undocumented seniors 50 and older in 2022, the program being expanded to cover all illegal immigrants last year ballooned the cost of Medi-Cal for all illegal immigrants under the program to $9.5 billion. The state received more than the intended number of recipients, causing a $6.2 billion deficit to open up. How much more? $2.7 billion more than the state budgeted for illegal immigrants signing on.
Bill to Raise Minimum Age to Sit in Car Front Seat Moves Through Assembly
By Evan Symon | California Globe
A bill that would raise the minimum age to sit in the front seat of a car to the age of 13 continued to move forward this week despite significant opposition against it.
Assembly Bill 435, authored by Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City), would starting in 2027, require a parent, legal guardian, or driver who transports a child between 10 to 13 years of age on a highway in a motor vehicle to properly secure that child in a rear seat in an appropriate child passenger restraint system, except a child or ward between 10 to 13 years of age may be acceptably restrained by a safety belt by meeting the requirements of the 5-Step test, which requires that the child or ward may be restrained by a safety belt rather than by a child passenger restraint system. The bill would require the 5-Step test to include that the child or ward is sitting all the way back against the auto seat, the knees of the child or ward bend over the edge of the auto seat, the shoulder belt snugly crosses the center of the child’s chest and shoulder, not the child’s neck, the lap belt is as low as possible and is touching the child or ward’s thighs, and the child or ward can stay seated like this for the whole trip.
In short, AB 435 would require all children younger than 10 years old, and those under 13, and shorter than 4 feet 9 inches, to sit on a booster seat. Those younger than 13 would need to sit in the backseat, as would those under the age of 16 who are shorter than 4 feet 9 inches tall. Beginning January 1st, it would also require a public or private hospital, clinic, or birthing center to discuss that information if the child is under 10 years of age.
