Sen. Melissa Hurtado

Existing law, subject to exceptions, provides that any person who has been convicted of certain misdemeanors may not, within 10 years of the conviction, own, purchase, receive, possess or have under their custody or control, any firearm and makes a violation of that prohibition punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. Under existing law, a person who alters, removes, or obliterates, or who buys, receives, disposes of, sells, offers for sale, or has in possession any pistol, revolver, or other firearm that has had the name of the maker or model or the manufacturer's number or other mark of identification changed, altered, removed, or obliterated is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would prohibit a person, who is convicted on or after January 1, 2027, of the above prohibition, from owning, purchasing, receiving, or having in their possession or under their custody or control any firearm within 10 years of the conviction. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. This bill would provide that the provisions of this bill are severable. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 29805 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 1753 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1753 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law, commonly known as the Cartwright Act, identifies certain acts as unlawful restraints of trade and unlawful trusts and prescribes provisions for its enforcement. Chapter 338 of the Statutes of 2025 provides that in a complaint for any violation of the Cartwright Act, it is sufficient to contain factual allegations demonstrating that the existence of a contract, combination in the form of a trust, or conspiracy to restrain trade or commerce is plausible. Chapter 338 of the Statutes of 2025 also provides that a complaint for any violation of the Cartwright Act is not required to allege facts tending to exclude the possibility of independent action. Existing case law, In re Cipro Cases I & II (2015) 61 Cal.4th 116, establishes a rule of reason analysis for certain claims under the Cartwright Act, which, among other things, determines whether an act was made for the purpose of avoiding competition and whether the anticompetitive effects of the agreement outweigh any procompetitive justifications. This bill would prohibit any person from monopolizing or monopsonizing any part of trade or commerce, as provided. The bill would require courts to use the analytical framework and guidance provided in In re Cipro Cases I & II. The bill would require a plaintiff bringing an action under its provisions to allege, and prove at trial, substantial market power through either direct or indirect evidence. The bill would exempt a small business, as defined, from these provisions. The bill would provide that its provisions do not prevent, limit, or prohibit certain conduct and legal instruments, including exclusive franchises granted and supervised by a local, state, or federal governmental agency. This bill would require any action brought pursuant to these provisions to be initiated only by the Attorney General or a district attorney, and would, with certain exceptions, preclude an alleged violation under its provisions from serving as a predicate violation under the Unfair Competition Law. The bill would require an action brought pursuant to these provisions to be filed as a "complex case" pursuant to provisions of law requiring the assessment of additional court fees, as specified. The bill would also make related findings and declarations. The bill would require courts to liberally interpret California's antitrust laws to best promote free and fair competition, as provided. Because the bill would expand the scope of activities prohibited by the Cartwright Act, the violation of which is punishable as a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law authorizes any corporation organized for or engaged in the business of selling, distributing, supplying, or delivering water for irrigation purposes, and requires any corporation organized for or engaged in the business of selling, distributing, supplying, or delivering water for domestic use, to provide in its articles or bylaws that water shall be sold, distributed, supplied, or delivered only to owners of its shares and that those shares are appurtenant to certain lands, as specified. Under existing law, these corporations are known as mutual water companies. This bill would prohibit a mutual water company from charging, issuing a bill, or otherwise seeking to hold tenants of shareholders responsible for the costs of water or its delivery, except for specified tenants, and would require all notices of charges for water to be sent to the last known address of the shareholder or tenant, as applicable, or by electronic mail if the shareholder or tenant, as applicable, has provided and verified the use of an electronic mail address to the company within the last year. Existing law authorizes a mutual water company that is not a public utility to levy assessments upon its shares, except as provided. This bill would require a mutual water company that operates a public water system and that proposes to levy an assessment or to increase the charge for water to shareholders by more than 20% to comply with specified notice and public meeting requirements before it seeks to collect the assessment or increase the water charge. The bill would require the mutual water company to prepare a written proposal at least 45 days before a public meeting to adopt a proposal to collect an assessment or to increase a water charge, as specified, and to convene a public meeting regarding the proposal, as provided. The bill would require the mutual water company to provide or send a copy of the written proposal and the notice of the public meeting, at least 45 days beforehand, to specified persons, along with other information, and to also provide or send a copy of the written proposal and the notice to a newspaper of general circulation or another specified communication outlet. The bill would also require the company to post a copy of the written proposal and the notice, at least 45 days beforehand, on the company's internet websites or social media platforms, as applicable. The bill would require the individual votes of board members of the mutual water company on the assessment or the increase of the water charge to be recorded in the minutes of the board meeting. The bill would prohibit the mutual water company from beginning to collect an assessment or increase a water charge earlier than 30 days after the public meeting where the proposed assessment is adopted. Existing law requires a mutual water company that operates a public water system to make certain records promptly available upon written request to an eligible person, as defined, upon payment of fees covering direct costs of duplication, including, among other documents, agendas and minutes of board meetings and copies of the mutual water company's annual budget and accounting report. Existing law defines "eligible persons" for purposes of this requirement to include, among others, shareholders of the mutual water company, a person who is an occupant, pursuant to a lease or rental agreement, of commercial space or a dwelling unit to which the mutual water company sells, distributes, supplies, or delivers drinking water, and an elected official of a city or county who represents people who receive drinking water directly from the mutual water company, as specified. This bill would additionally require a mutual water company to make available to those eligible persons, upon request, a copy of a written proposal to levy an assessment or to increase a water charge. The bill would also include as an eligible person, for purposes of all of the above-described provisions, the chief administrative officer for each city, county, and government water agency in the mutual water company's service area, as specified. The bill would prohibit a mutual water company that provides the requested records in digital form from charging for any duplication costs, as provided.

Existing law makes it a crime to operate a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and sets forth the penalties for a violation of these provisions. Existing law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury or death to a person, other than that driver, to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident and provide specified personal information to the injured person or the occupants of the other vehicle and to any traffic or police officer at the scene of the accident. Existing law makes failing to comply with these requirements a crime, punishable as a misdemeanor for an accident resulting in injury and punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony for an accident resulting in death or serious injury, as defined. This bill would make the above-described violation for an accident resulting injury punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony and would impose an increased felony penalty for the above-described violation for an accident resulting in death or serious injury, if either of those violations occurred within 10 years of a separate driving under the influence, reckless driving, or gross vehicular manslaughter violation, as specified. By increasing the potential time of imprisonment, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires a person who is convicted of specified crimes related to driving under the influence to be advised by the court of the dangerousness of their actions and that if that behavior in the future results in a person's death, they may be charged with murder. This bill would additionally require this advisement to be given if a person enters a plea to a different or lesser offense, as described. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. By imposing an increased term of imprisonment, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law requires the Governor to proclaim various days as days of remembrance or recognition. This bill would require the Governor to annually proclaim September 25 as Dolly Parton Day. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Under the Political Reform Act of 1974, various individuals and entities, including candidates, committees that support candidates and ballot measures, lobbyists, slate mailer organizations, and public officials, are required to periodically file certain statements and reports that disclose their financial activities. When an original statement or report is filed after the deadline for its filing under the act, the person responsible for making the filing is subject to a late filing penalty of $10 per day, as specified, in addition to any other penalties or remedies under the act. This bill would authorize the Fair Political Practices Commission to extend any filing deadline established by the act, by no more than 60 days, for individuals that live in an area impacted by an emergency situation if the emergency situation is reasonably likely to affect the individual's ability to timely file. The bill would prohibit the commission from extending a deadline under these provisions during the 90 days before an election. The bill would define emergency situation to mean an emergency proclaimed by the Governor or a local governing body pursuant to a specified law. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.

(1) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , establishes the Civil Rights Department to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment, as prescribed. The FEHA recognizes and declares to be a civil right the opportunity to seek, obtain, and hold employment and housing without discrimination because of a specified characteristic. The FEHA makes certain discriminatory practices based on those characteristics unlawful. The FEHA also declares that its purpose is to provide effective remedies that will eliminate these discriminatory practices. The FEHA defines terms used in connection with unlawful practices. These include "sex," which includes pregnancy or medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or medical conditions related to childbirth, and breastfeeding or medical conditions related to breastfeeding. This bill would include perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause or other related medical conditions within the above definition of sex. The FEHA separately defines the term "medical condition" to mean either a health impairment related to or associated with a diagnosis of cancer or a record or history of cancer or specified genetic characteristics. The Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) establishes that all persons within the jurisdiction of the state are free and equal and, regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments, as prescribed. The Unruh Act defines "sex" to include, among other things, pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth. This bill would provide that "medical condition" as used in the definition of "sex" in FEHA and the Unruh Act includes, but is not limited to, the conditions included in the definition of "medical condition" in FEHA. (2) Existing law requires the Civil Rights Department to provide a poster on discrimination in employment to an employer or a member of the public upon request. Existing law requires the poster to be available at each office of the department and requires each employer to post the poster in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace, as prescribed. This bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2027, to update the poster to notify people of their rights and protections in regard to perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, or related medical conditions. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 51 of the Civil Code proposed by AB 2563 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2563 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12926 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2563 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2563 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state, including telephone corporations, and to fix just and reasonable rates and charges for public utilities. Existing law establishes the state's 6 universal service funds in the State Treasury, including the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund (CHCF-A) and the California High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund (CHCF-B) , and provides that moneys in each of the state's universal service funds are the proceeds of rates and are held in trust for the benefit of ratepayers and to compensate telephone corporations for their costs of providing universal service. Moneys in the funds may only be expended to accomplish specified telecommunications universal service programs, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act or upon supplemental appropriation. Existing law, the CHCF-A program, until January 1, 2028, requires the commission to develop, implement, and maintain a suitable program to establish a fair and equitable local rate structure aided by universal service rate support to small independent telephone corporations that serve rural areas and are subject to rate-of-return regulation by the commission. Existing law, the CHCF-B program, until January 1, 2028, requires the commission to develop, implement, and maintain a suitable, competitively neutral, and broad-based program to establish a fair and equitable local rate support structure aided by universal service rate support to telephone corporations serving areas where the cost of providing services exceeds rates charged by providers, as determined by the commission. This bill would extend the CHCF-A program and CHCF-B program requirements to January 1, 2033. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the CHCF-A program and CHCF-B program, which would be extended under the provisions of this bill, are part of the act, and a violation of a commission action implementing the programs' requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law prohibits a local agency from entering into any form of agreement that would result, directly or indirectly, in the payment, transfer, diversion, or rebate of any tax revenue resulting from the imposition of a sales and use tax under the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law to any person for any purpose when the agreement results in a reduction in the amount of revenue under the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law that, in the absence of the agreement, would be received by another local agency and the retailer continues to maintain a physical presence within the territorial jurisdiction of that other local agency. Existing law also requires a local agency entering into an agreement that results in a reduction of the amount of revenue under the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law that, in the absence of the agreement, would be received by another local agency to take certain actions with respect to that agreement, including posting the proposed agreement on its internet website for at least 30 days prior to ratification or approval of that agreement by its governing body. This bill would prohibit a person from paying compensation to a consultant with respect to a specific tax sharing agreement, as defined, that exceeds the lower of 5% of the total tax revenues shared pursuant to the tax sharing agreement and $250,000. The bill would define a tax sharing agreement for this purpose to mean any agreement that would result, directly or indirectly, in the payment, transfer, diversion, or rebate of any tax revenue resulting from the imposition of a sales and use tax under the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law to any person for any purpose. The bill would exclude from these provisions agreements between a local agency and a member of the agency's staff directly employed by the jurisdiction or technical consultants providing noncompensated advisory services. The bill would apply these provisions only to agreements entered into on and after January 1, 2027. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.

The State Aeronautics Act establishes the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund, and continuously appropriates the moneys in the account for expenditure for airport purposes by the Division of Aeronautics within the Department of Transportation and the California Transportation Commission. Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, including taxes imposed on the sale, storage, use, or other consumption of jet fuels. Existing law requires revenues from these taxes to be transmitted to the Treasurer and deposited into the Retail Sales Tax Fund. Existing federal law requires that any revenue from sales and use taxes imposed on aviation fuel be used for the operation costs of airports, the local airport system, or other local facilities that are directly and substantially related to the air transportation of passengers or property, except as provided. This bill would require the Controller, on or before September 1 of each year, to transfer an amount calculated to represent the sales and use tax revenues derived with respect to the sale, storage, use, or other consumption of jet fuel, as provided, from the Retail Sales Tax Fund to the account for allocation to airports and aviation-related purposes, as provided. The bill would require all public and private use airports where jet fuel is sold or consumed to report fuel flowage statistics to the Division of Aeronautics, as provided, and would require the division to determine the revenue allocation for each airport that reports fuel flowage statistics. By adding new reporting requirements for county-owned and city-owned airports, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. From the above-described sales and use tax revenues deposited into the account, this bill would require the division, after deducting its administrative costs, as provided, to allocate 75% of those revenues to public and private use airports based on their reported fuel flowage statistics, as provided, 15% of those revenues for general aviation airports, as provided, 1% to award grants for aviation education, as provided, and 9% for existing grant programs that serve nonhub and small hub airports. From the above-described 75% of revenues deposited into the account, the bill would apportion, until January 1, 2032, $500,000 annually to award grants to rural, nonhub commercial airports and general aviation airports, as provided. By increasing the sources of funding for and expanding the purposes for which money may be used from a continuously appropriated fund, the Aeronautics Account, this bill would make an appropriation. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.