The California Legislature is back in session today, Monday, Jan. 6, and we’re kicking off this year’s work by tracking some early bills from Orange County’s legislators.
While it’s still early in the legislative process, many lawmakers already have begun the process of filing bills.
Sacramento Snapshot
Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.
Some of the new proposals are called “spot bills,” essentially legislation that doesn’t yet have much substance. Think of spot bills as placeholders that let legislators fine-tune an idea, add or subtract detail, and then get a vote during the current session.
Other early filings offer a sneak peek into political priorities — either for the legislature as a whole or for individual lawmakers — over the next two years. (As a reminder, the California Legislature operates on a two-year schedule and 2025 is the first of the new session.)
Among the initial bills filed by Senate and Assembly members who represent Orange County, topics range from the state budget to drug treatment courts.
Sen. Kelly Seyarto is again pushing legislation to exempt military retirement income from state taxation. A Republican whose district includes a sliver of northeastern Orange County, Seyarto previously has pushed similar bills. He says California is the only state that does not, at least in part, exempt military retirement or Survivor Benefit Plans from state taxes.
One of the first bills from Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, is a measure to let voters decide if the state should set more money aside in its rainy day fund, an account used for things like unexpected emergencies or a recession or a deep drop in the stock markets, which tends to dampen tax revenues in California.
California’s constitution requires setting aside just 1.5% of the all general fund revenue (the main income California gets from taxes) for its rainy day account. Valencia has not yet offered a set-aside number that he’d prefer.
Other early bills include a measure to ensure eligible Californians have access to drug treatment facilities, an idea that is part of Proposition 36, a law approved by voters in November that increases penalties for certain types of theft and drug-related crimes. Yet another bill would require the state to study mental health among female veterans.
But these are early days, legislatively speaking, and only a handful of bills have been filed to date. Legislators have until Friday, Feb. 21 to introduce legislation.
In 2024, legislators filed 2,124 bills, with 1,505 pitched in the Assembly and 619 in the Senate, according to a tally from veteran Sacramento lobbyist Chris Micheli.
For this year’s legislative session, we’re tracking significant OC legislator-led bills here. You can find where the bills are at in the legislative process, who the authors are and more details as they emerge. You’ll also be able to find stories we’ve written about the legislation.
And keep checking back. We’ll update the tracker, and add additional bills to watch, as more work is done in Sacramento this year.
In other news
• The 2024 elections resulted in just one change to Orange County’s contingent in Sacramento: Sen. Steven Choi defeated Sen. Josh Newman in the race for the 37th Senate seat. Choi, a Republican, might be a familiar name to legislature watchers; he is a former Assembly member and Irvine mayor.
But the ’24 elections also created a local vacancy. The 36th Senate district, which stretches along Orange County’s coastline, is without a representative after Republican Janet Nguyen won a seat on the county’s Board of Supervisors. A special election will be held this year to fill that seat.
Sign up for Down Ballot, our Southern California politics email newsletter. Subscribe here.All nine Assembly members whose districts touch at least some of Orange County were reelected.
• This year, Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, has been selected to chair the Banking and Finance Committee. Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, is leading the Budget – State Administration Committee. Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco, D-Downey, is chairing the Rules Committee, and Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, is leading the Utilities and Energy Committee.
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