Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: Banning Not Just a City’s Name
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 5 years ago on
October 21, 2019

Share

Banning is the name of a small city in Southern California, but also applies to a pervasive theme of the Legislature this year.
The 1,042 bills that passed the Legislature and the 870 signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom included an extraordinary number that used the state’s police powers to prohibit activities deemed to violate the Capitol’s often unique sensibilities.


Dan Walters
Opinion
They ranged from the semi-ridiculous, such as banning tiny plastic bottles of shampoo and other toiletries from hotel rooms, to the obviously justified, such as tightening up the ban on unvaccinated school children.
Guns and gun owners were the targets of several legislated bans, such as one on gun shows in San Diego County’s Del Mar fairgrounds and another to limit purchases of rifles to no more than one every 30 days, emulating a pre-existing limit on handgun purchases.
Some of the newly minted prohibitions would affect, or even erase, whole economic sectors, such as eliminating cash bail, banning the sale of some animals, barring circuses from using elephants and other wild animals in their shows, or making it difficult, if not impossible, to work on contract, rather than as a payroll employee.

Newsom Is a More Conventional Liberal

The latter, if not overturned by voters, is one of several union-sponsored bills aimed at changing employer-employee relationships in favor of the latter. Another would prohibit employers from requiring binding arbitration of disputes as a precondition to employment.
In signing both the binding arbitration ban and another measure prohibiting smoking on state beaches and in state parks, Newsom departed sharply from his predecessor, Jerry Brown, who had a streak of libertarianism and sometimes rejected bills he saw as going too far down the path of official nannyism.
Brown vetoed beach smoking bans three times, saying last year, “Third time is not always a charm. My opinion on the matter has not changed. We have many rules telling us what we can’t do and these are wide open spaces.”
Newsom is a more conventional liberal, or “progressive” in the preferred nomenclature of those on the left side of the political scale, and generally endorses their latter-day puritanism.
That said, during his first experience with the Legislature’s 11th-hour blizzard of more than 700 bills approved before adjournment in September, Newsom did show a bit of political fortitude.
Clearly worried about a slowing economy, the freshman governor rejected several bills that would have committed the state budget to multi-billion-dollar spending increases backed by influential interest groups.

Newsom Signed a Bill to Require the State’s Middle and High Schools to Eliminate Early Classes

One would have reinstated a new version of redevelopment, which local governments once used to remake neighborhoods deemed to be blighted. Brown and the Legislature eliminated redevelopment seven years ago, and the revised version Newsom vetoed would have cost the state budget as much as $2 billion a year. In doing so, he bucked local governments and construction unions.
Newsom also vetoed legislation that local governments and their unions had wanted to change the wording of local ballot measures for a tax increase and bond as they were presented to voters. Such measures must now be up-front with voters on their financial consequences, but local officials wanted to bury that information in the voter pamphlet.
Finally, Newsom signed a bill to require the state’s middle and high schools to eliminate early classes that, pediatric physicians said, were depriving teenagers of much-needed sleep. The entire education establishment, including the very influential California Teachers Association, wanted Newsom to veto the bill that Brown had previously rejected.
Scarcely two months hence, the Legislature will return to Sacramento and the whole process will begin again.
CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary

DON'T MISS

Merced Police Chief: Local Sexual Assault Exams ‘Worth’ Higher Cost

DON'T MISS

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes to Headline Chukchansi’s Summer Series with ‘Family Reunion Tour’

DON'T MISS

Sue or Hold Back? The University of California Does Both as It Faces Trump’s Wrath

DON'T MISS

Central Unified Takes Additional Steps To Protect Undocumented Students

DON'T MISS

Americans Trade Michelin Stars for Mac and Cheese

DON'T MISS

Dueling Protests Clash at Fresno Tesla Dealership

DON'T MISS

Hamas Says It Accepts New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal but Israel Makes Counter-Offer

DON'T MISS

Andrew Tate’s Ex-Girlfriend Accuses Him of Sexual Assault and Battery in New Lawsuit

DON'T MISS

Protesters Rebelling Against Elon Musk’s Purge of US Government Swarm Tesla Showrooms

DON'T MISS

Plastics Are Seeping Into Farm Fields, Food and Eventually Human Bodies

UP NEXT

If California Bails Out LA’s $1 Billion Budget Deficit, Beware the Slippery Slope

UP NEXT

Trump Has Had Enough. He Is Not Alone.

UP NEXT

The Real Crisis in California Schools Is Low Achievement, Not Cultural Conflicts

UP NEXT

Trump and Musk Are Suffering From Soros Derangement Syndrome

UP NEXT

CA Politicians Have an Irritating Habit of Ignoring the Downsides

UP NEXT

If Pete Hegseth Had Any Honor, He Would Resign

UP NEXT

If Zero-Emission Cars Cut Gasoline Sales and Tax Revenue, How Will California Replace Them?

UP NEXT

How Israel Divides the Right

UP NEXT

Under Pressure From Trump, UC Abandons ‘Diversity Statement’ Requirement for Faculty

UP NEXT

California Seniors Are Paying the Price for Lawsuit Abuse 

Central Unified Takes Additional Steps To Protect Undocumented Students

13 hours ago

Americans Trade Michelin Stars for Mac and Cheese

14 hours ago

Dueling Protests Clash at Fresno Tesla Dealership

1 day ago

Hamas Says It Accepts New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal but Israel Makes Counter-Offer

1 day ago

Andrew Tate’s Ex-Girlfriend Accuses Him of Sexual Assault and Battery in New Lawsuit

1 day ago

Protesters Rebelling Against Elon Musk’s Purge of US Government Swarm Tesla Showrooms

1 day ago

Plastics Are Seeping Into Farm Fields, Food and Eventually Human Bodies

1 day ago

Myanmar’s Earthquake Death Toll Jumps to 1,644 as More Bodies Are Recovered From the Rubble

1 day ago

Top Vaccine Official Resigns From FDA, Criticizes RFK Jr. for Promoting Misinformation, Lies

1 day ago

If You Want to Ski Affordably Next Season, Buy Now

2 days ago

Merced Police Chief: Local Sexual Assault Exams ‘Worth’ Higher Cost

Last year, The Merced FOCUS reported that for the first time in over a decade, a crucial service for survivors of sexual assault would be of...

12 hours ago

12 hours ago

Merced Police Chief: Local Sexual Assault Exams ‘Worth’ Higher Cost

12 hours ago

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes to Headline Chukchansi’s Summer Series with ‘Family Reunion Tour’

13 hours ago

Sue or Hold Back? The University of California Does Both as It Faces Trump’s Wrath

13 hours ago

Central Unified Takes Additional Steps To Protect Undocumented Students

14 hours ago

Americans Trade Michelin Stars for Mac and Cheese

1 day ago

Dueling Protests Clash at Fresno Tesla Dealership

1 day ago

Hamas Says It Accepts New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal but Israel Makes Counter-Offer

1 day ago

Andrew Tate’s Ex-Girlfriend Accuses Him of Sexual Assault and Battery in New Lawsuit

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend