Former Senate Majority Leader Emeritus Robert Hertzberg was first elected to the California State Assembly in 1996. He then served as the 64th Speaker of the California State Assembly, unanimously elected by both parties in 2000 and 2001. After his tenure as Speaker, Hertzberg set out to the private sector as a clean energy entrepreneur and, in 2014, he returned to state government when he was again elected to represent nearly 1 million people in the San Fernando Valley in the California State Senate. He was re-elected in 2014 and termed out in 2022.
Hertzberg is known for taking on the biggest and most challenging issues facing California, and for brokering some of the toughest negotiations. In the words of one veteran Sacramento columnist, he is “an intense bundle of energy, an all-night negotiator.” The Los Angeles Daily News said he, “has relentless dedication and indefatigable energy...he has a reputation for integrity and perseverance.” The Los Angeles Times said: “He is a high velocity wonk; he loves big ideas and will flesh out every one of them if you give him a chance.”
Hertzberg’s areas of public policy interest know no limit. He is characterized as a legislator who fears nothing and takes on everything. From criminal justice (battling the unfair and unjust cash bail system in California) to technology related issues (negotiating the 2018 passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act, enacting the strongest data privacy protections in the nation), Hertzberg approaches every problem through a lens of governing for the next generation, not the next election.
There’s nothing more critical to the success of the next generation than education. Hertzberg’s unwavering commitment to California schools began during his time in the Assembly when Hertzberg negotiated a compromise that allowed the Legislature to break a decade-long logjam regarding building and repairing schools, resulting in the voters supporting the largest school construction program in American history in the early 2000s. More recently, he eliminated the practice of school lunch shaming with his landmark Child Hunger Prevention and Fair Treatment Act of 2017.
In the field of higher education, he co-authored the 2000 bill that expanded the state's existing Cal-Grant program, guaranteeing funding for every qualified student who applied. Hertzberg was instrumental in making the University of California’s 10th campus in Merced a reality.
Among his many legislative efforts during his time in the Assembly that have lasting impacts to this day, Hertzberg authored the Women's Contraceptive Equity Act, which required health care service plan contracts to cover contraception, and the Hertzberg-Leslie Witness Protection Act, which established a Witness Protection Program in California.
Hertzberg is also a leader in California’s fight against climate change and its impacts like drought and wildfire. He helped shape and pass legislation that hammered nearly seven decades of California-Colorado River water disputes. As Chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water, Hertzberg championed resource conservation standards that will guide our state for generations: he oversaw the passage of a parks bond to improve and safeguard our state and local parks, as well as the most significant changes to forestry protection laws in a generation. He authored legislation to avoid future drought by establishing permanent water efficiency standards and goals across the state, making water efficiency a way of life for Californians. He also fought for clean water for all in his 2021 legislation strengthening the state’s drought response in rural and small communities.
His passion for the environment extended beyond his time in the Legislature. After he termed out of the Assembly in 2002, Hertzberg became a global clean-energy entrepreneur. He helped create one of the first solar manufacturing companies in Los Angeles, and co-launched a company that produced inexpensive, lightweight solar panels for use around the world. In recognition of his clean energy efforts in Rwanda, he received the “World Bank Award for Lighting Africa,” and the United Kingdom-based Guardian Magazine named him one of the “50 People Who Could Save the Planet.”
Throughout his time in the Legislature, Hertzberg has always been a champion for the communities he represents in the San Fernando Valley. Named “One of the Most Influential People in Southern California” by the Los Angeles Times, he is deeply committed to delivering results for the Valley. Hertzberg launched Metro’s Orange Line and the construction of the CSU Northridge Valley Performing Arts Center. He also helped fund the construction and modernization of 38 new Valley schools, the construction of more than 200 million dollars of sound walls throughout the Valley and the Skirball Cultural Center.
He served as chair of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, one of the largest in the nation, in 2004 and again in 2011. He also chaired the World Trade Center Association Los Angeles – Long Beach. He serves on the boards of the USC Price School of Public Policy, the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, the Pepperdine School of Public Policy, and the Claremont McKenna College Rose Institute of State and Local Government, among dozens of other civic and public policy boards.
Hertzberg is dedicated to improving government so it works for all. His work in this space includes participation in bipartisan groups like The Think Long Committee. The Committee’s work included reform of the California budget process, rethinking the initiative system, term limits, and redistricting – to name a few.
In addition to being former Chair of the Committee on Natural Resources and Water, Majority Leader Emeritus Hertzberg serves on the Senate Committees on Governance and Finance; Judiciary; Elections and Constitutional Amendments; and Energy, Utilities and Communications; along with the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and Joint Legislative Rules Committee.
In 1979, Hertzberg earned his law degree from University of California, Hastings College of the Law and became a member of the California Bar. The Los Angeles Business Journal named him one of the top ten lawyers in Los Angeles, and The Daily Journal has repeatedly named him one of the top 100 lawyers in California.
Hertzberg has two grown sons. David is a classical music composer and a Juilliard graduate, and Daniel graduated from Goucher College and, like his father, loves politics and public policy. He also has a young daughter.
Then There's California Podcast Episodes
- “Politics isn’t a game…it’s a deeper mission for me.” / CA State Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg
- "A Cloak & A Wheelbarrow" / Senator Bob Hertzberg, on the Tools for Restoring CA
- "You're supposed to push the envelope..." / Senator Robert Hertzberg Reflects on His Years in Public Service
Senate Legislation, 2015-2022
2022 LEGISLATION
SB 529 – Permit to Construct Transmission Facilities
This measure speeds up construction of key electrical transmission lines and promotes clean energy to fight climate change.
SB 774 – Emotional Support Dogs
This exempts homeless persons from an existing requirement that they have a 30-day relationship with a doctor before having an emotional support animal certification. This will allow them to be admitted to state-funded shelter program.
SB 786 – Blockchain Vital Records
Counties may now provide vital records via blockchain technology, a secure and highly convenient process allowing the average person to access their vital records.
SB 891 – Stormwater Permits
This pro-environment bill improves the state’s management of water runoffs by closing loopholes in existing law to bring businesses into compliance and improve water quality.
SB 903 – CDCR Reporting on Homelessness
This legislation addresses efforts by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s tackle the housing needs of persons recently released from its custody, including individuals with serious mental health needs.
SB 967 – Access to Health Care
This pro-patient measure allows taxpayers to indicate on their annual tax returns if they want information on their low-cost health care options.
SB 973 – State Supplemental Payments
Residents of modest means will receive greater financial support under this plan to streamline payments and cut bureaucracy in California’s State Supplemental Program.
SB 989 – Property Taxation
This new law will prevent unintended tax increases when homeowners move, whether they are seniors, disabled or forced to relocate because of a natural disaster.
SB 1157 – Indoor Water Use Standards
Supported by state and national environmental groups, SB 1157 builds on California’s success in increasing water efficiency by updating indoor residential water use standards.
SB 1174 – Clean Energy Transmission
Supported by the Environmental Defense Fund as well as the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and many others, this environmentally friendly bill will speed up needed transmission upgrades to connect offshore wind farms and other clean-energy sources to the state power grid.
SB 1254 - Drinking Water
This removes barriers to providing safe drinking water to all Californians, including about 1 million Californians who currently lack access.
SB 1327 - Gun Safety
This first-in-the-nation law will help end gun violence by allowing private citizens to sue those who provide certain dangerous firearms.
SB 1340 – Solar Property Tax Reform
This environmentally friendly bill will reform taxes related to construction of new active solar energy systems to ensure green energy projects are built in our state.
2021 LEGISLATION
SB 267 - Solar Tax Exclusion Clean-Up
Clarifies changes in ownership as it relates to tax exclusions for solar energy systems. This will incentivize the construction of renewable energy projects in the State, thus benefiting both the economy and the environment.
SB 273 - Storm Water Diversion Authority
Authorizes municipal wastewater agencies to enter into voluntary agreements with entities responsible for storm water management – including municipal, industrial, and commercial storm water dischargers to more effectively manage storm water and dry weather runoff.
SB 539 - Home Protection
In conjunction with Proposition 19, this measure makes several clarifying changes to the “Home Protection for Seniors, Severely Disabled, Families and Victims of Wildlife or Natural Disaster Act.”
SB 552 Drought Resilient Communities Act
Improves drought preparedness for small and rural communities by making various changes to local drought and water shortage contingency plans. It also enhances coordinated efforts between local and state governments, small water suppliers, and rural communities.
SB 572 - The Workforce Asset Guarantee and Enforcement (WAGE) Act
Allows the Labor Commissioner to record a certificate of lien on real property in order to secure amounts due to wronged-employees under final wage and penalty citations issued by the Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement.
2020 LEGISLATION
SB 960 - Bail and Immigration Consumer Protection Act of 2020
SB 960 strengthens protections for vulnerable California consumers by making it clear that consumer financial protection laws apply to all bail and immigration bond companies.
SB 1065 CalWORKs: homeless assistance
This bill would require the temporary shelter assistance to be granted or denied the same day as the family's application for homeless assistance. The bill would eliminate the requirement for the county welfare department to verify the family's homelessness within the first 3 working days, and instead would require the family, upon applying for homeless assistance, to provide a sworn statement that the family is homeless.
SB 522 - Business entities: filings
This bill would delete the exception and would prohibit the name from being one that the Secretary determines is likely to mislead the public. The bill would also authorize enjoining the use of a name violating these provisions notwithstanding the Secretary filing the certificate of limited partnership.
SB 342 - Misleading advertising: domain and subdomain names
This bill makes make it unlawful for a person, with bad faith intent, to register, traffic in, or use a domain name or subdomain name that is identical or confusingly similar to either the personal name of another living person or deceased personality without regard to goods or services or the name of a specified entity for the purpose of selling or reselling goods, as defined
SB 707- Arbitration agreements: enforcement
This bill would additionally require a private arbitration company to collect and report demographic data in the aggregate relative to ethnicity, race, disability, veteran status, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation of all arbitrators, as specified.
2019 LEGISLATION
SB 36 - Pretrial Risk Assessment Data & Accountability
SB 36 requires each court or county that uses a pretrial risk assessment tool to maintain individualized data regarding the tool’s inputs and outcomes, as well as any associated recommendations to the court. This measure ensures that risk assessment tools are thoroughly evaluated to ensure effectiveness in mitigating risk while minimizing biases and disparate results based on race, ethnicity, gender, economic circumstances, and behavioral or developmental disability.
SB 41 - Equity in Civil Damage Awards
SB 41 prohibits consideration of a plaintiff’s race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation in the calculation of monetary damage awards in civil damage awards.
SB 63 - For-Profit College Student Tax Relief
SB 63 ensures students impacted by the recent closures of Brightwood Colleges and Art Institutes across California are not penalized for the failure of the for-profit college. This bill ensures that federal loan debt assistance is not considered “gross income” for tax purposes.
SB 192 - Posse Comitatus
Previously, it was a misdemeanor for any able-bodied person over the age of 18 to neglect or refuse to join a posse called by a peace officer. SB 192 abolished this outdated and unnecessary crime from California law.
SB 205 - Stormwater Quality Improvement Act
SB 205 diminishes water pollution by requiring applicable industrial facilities to demonstrate compliance with the Industrial General Permit (IGP) when applying for their business license or renewal. This standardizes the filing process for all facilities subject to an IGP, encouraging uniformity with water quality requirements, and would bolster California’s efforts to keep harmful pollutants out of precious water sources.
SB 229 - Whistleblower Protections
This bill builds on protections created by SB 306 (Hertzberg, 2017) to strengthen due process for workers who have reported illegal activity in the workplace.
SB 265 - Commitment to Child Hunger Prevention
Under previous law, when a school meal debt owed by a student's parent or guardian went unpaid, schools often denied the student lunch, or offered them an alternative, essentially publicly shaming the child. SB 250 (Hertzberg, 2017) made that practice illegal, but some schools are still maintaining policies that discriminate against children because they didn’t have lunch money that day. SB 265 ensures that meal charge policies established by school officials do not delay or deny food, or provide an alternative meal to punish students.
SB 389 - Mental Health Services Act for Parolees
The Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) currently prohibits using funds for certain treatment services for state parolees. Should members of this population suffer from a mental health crisis that goes untreated, they could be at greater risk of recidivism and potential harm to themselves or to the community. SB 389 amends the MHSA to authorize counties to use money from the MHSA to provide services to people who are participating in a presentencing or post sentencing diversion program or who are on parole, probation, post release community supervision, or mandatory supervision.
SB 438 - EMS Dispatch Services
Some efforts to privatize public services, such as law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical response, along with the dispatch of such services, have resulted in increased costs to citizens, a reduction in services provided, and in some cases a failure to deliver timely services. SB 438 prohibits a public agency from outsourcing its local emergency dispatch services to a private, for-profit entity – except when pursuant to a joint powers or cooperative agreement.
SB 520 - Electricity Safety Net
SB 520 establishes a safety net for electricity customers, ensuring that service continues without disruption or extreme price shocks in the event that an electricity provider exits the market for any reason.
SB 671 - Wage Payment for Print Media Employees
SB 671 harmonizes existing law regarding payment of wages to short-term entertainment industry employees by allowing employers to pay individuals hired for print media photo shoots on the next scheduled pay day, rather than the last day of employment. This will bring the payment timeline for employees working in print media photo shoots into alignment with those in other short-term, assignment-based employment relationships.
SB 743 - Design-Build Contracting for School Districts
SB 743 clarifies stages of the design-build project delivery method to assist school districts in achieving their environmental and project goals. This clarity harmonizes the environmental review process with the recognized economic benefits afforded to school districts by utilizing the design-build contract.
2018 LEGISLATION
SB 10 - Bail Reform
After two years of research, stakeholder collaboration, and negotiations, the Legislature passed SB 10 and Governor Brown signed it into law. SB 10 eliminates the predatory commercial bail system and replaces it with a system based on public safety risk and judicial discretion - not wealth - to determine whether an individual will detained pretrial. You can read more about SB 10 and its implementation on the California Courts' website.
AB 375 - California Consumer Privacy Act
Recent data breaches that affected millions have raised concerns from Internet users around the world. The continued prevalence of such occurrences and uncertainty about what data is being collected has drawn the ire of consumer and public interest groups. So with Assemblymember Ed Chau, we passed the strongest consumer privacy data protection law in the nation. AB 375 gives consumers the ability to know what data is being collected about them online, and even to delete it. When it goes into effect in 2020, it will also empower consumers to decline the sale of their information and report violations.
SB 237 - Greater Electricity Choice for Businesses (Direct Access)
As California's clean energy economy evolves, utility customers are seeking greater choice in how they obtain electricity, sometimes opting to choose electricity service separate from their local utility. SB 237 lifts an existing cap on such transactions for non-residential customers, allowing California businesses (like universities, hospitals, and grocery stores) to make cost-effective energy decisions while also providing them with options to meet, or exceed, the state's renewable energy goals.
SB 606 - Water Efficiency as a California Way of Life
Along with a broad coalition of water districts, environmental groups, and local governments throughout California, we developed SB 606 to establish, for the first time, permanent water efficiency standards and goals across the state to be met by 2026.
SB 838 - Blockchain Stock Certificates
With technology rapidly changing and improving, the tech industry - especially in Los Angeles - is developing all kinds of improvements to help business and government run better. SB 838 allows a forward thinking way of doing business by giving California corporations the option to issue and transfer stock certificates on the blockchain.
SB 913 - Graffiti Busters
My office partnered with local organizations, including the LA Beautification Team, Northeast Graffiti Busters, and Koreatown Youth+ Community Center, along with local labor unions to pass SB 913. This bill ensures that the City of Los Angeles can continue to fund and operate volunteer-run graffiti abatement programs, which comprise a large portion of all the graffiti abatement work being done in the Los Angeles area.
SB 931 - Conservatorship Proceedings
In California today, too many mentally ill individuals languish in jail. Under existing law, severely mentally ill individuals who could be eligible for a psychiatric evaluation for a conservatorship may not receive one because of their custody status. SB 931 specifies that a person's custody status can't be used as the sole reason for delaying their evaluation for a conservatorship, paving the way for them to access needed services.
SB 1001 - B.O.T Act of 2018
The B.O.T. Act makes it illegal for automated accounts on online platforms to knowingly deceive or mislead a person in order to influence a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election. Under SB 1001, bots must be clearly identified as bots online. We even created a bot, @Bot_Hertzberg, to show how these accounts can be helpful and informative - when properly labeled.
SB 1007 - Veteran's Reinvestment Tax Exemption
SB 1007 waives state and local taxes for charitable organizations that donate military and veteran medical facilities to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for operation on federal land in California.
SB 1147 - Oil Bankruptcies
Recent oil bankruptcies have left the state on the hook to decommission two abandoned offshore oil and gas sites in California. With this in mind, I introduced SB 1147, which requires the state to increase bonding amounts when negotiating leases or re-leases for offshore oil and gas operators. This means that if an offshore oil rig becomes defunct, the cost of decommissioning it would be on the operator, not the taxpayers.
SB 1215 - Safe & Sustainable Wastewater Management
In the past few years, our state has made miles of progress to ensure all communities receive safe drinking water. We decided now was the time to address our neighbors' wastewater needs as well. SB 1215 authorizes extension of sanitary sewer service to communities with failing onsite sewage treatment systems.
SB 1054 - Pretrial release and detention: pretrial services
This bill would provide that if SB 10 of the 2017-18 Regular Session becomes operative, the release prohibitions described above would be expanded to additionally include persons convicted of sex crimes and certain other offenses subject to the Sex Offender Registration Act, as specified. By increasing the length of time certain persons remain in county jails, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
SB 1136 – Electricity, load-serving entities: resource adequacy requirements
This bill would require the commission, in establishing resource adequacy requirements, to ensure the reliability of electrical service in California while advancing, to the extent possible, the state's goals for clean energy, reducing air pollution, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
SB 1239 - Political Reform Act of 1974: campaign disclosures
This bill would generally recast certain provisions governing the processing of campaign reports and statements to provide for the filing, verification, delivery, amendment, retention, and inspection of those documents online or electronically, as prescribed. The bill would repeal the above-mentioned monetary thresholds, thereby making the online and electronic filing requirements applicable to all specified filers. The bill would also repeal various obsolete or extraneous provisions of the act, and would make conforming and other technical, nonsubstantive changes.
2017 LEGISLATION
SB 231 – Stormwater
Is part of Hertzberg’s strategy to modernize California’s water resources as they are strained by climate change, continuing cycles of drought and a steadily growing population. As California suffered through a punishing five-year drought, public awareness has grown about the importance of capturing and reusing rainwater.
SB 61 - Food Bank Tax Check-off
Keeps food banks on tax state returns through 2026, provides vital source of funding to feed the hungry. SB 61 and SB 440 follow legislation Hertzberg authored last year to increase transparency and oversight of charitable contributions made on tax returns. That bill (SB 1476) became law on Jan. 2.
SB 250 - Child Hunger Prevention and Fair Treatment Act
Ensures that school officials do not delay or deny food to hungry students as punishment for unpaid school meal fees, and it directs schools to establish a process for notifying their families about unpaid fees and collecting them.
SB 606 and AB 1668 - Water management planning
Embrace Governor and Legislature’s reengineered approach to water management in California
In the midst of the drought, the Brown administration developed a plan to make water conservation a way of life. SB 606 and AB 1668 build on the administration’s plan to modernize the state’s management of this most precious resource by establishing a 21st century framework for drought resiliency by focusing on water use efficiency, something that has never been done before.
SB 237- Electricity: direct transactions
Will lift cap on Direct Access, giving commercial and industrial customers more choice in their electricity service
SB 306 - Worker Retaliation
The legislation allows the state labor commissioner to seek an immediate and temporary injunction when workers face retaliation for reporting violations of law in the workplace. Retaliation against employees under those circumstances is already illegal, but it takes months – and sometimes years – to resolve retaliation complaints, meaning an employee who reports a health or safety violation may be without work for a year or more.
SB 313 - Automatic Service Renewals
Requires businesses that offer online signups for services or subscriptions that are automatically renewed to also offer a similarly straightforward way online to stop the renewal. Businesses often sign consumers up for a free trial offer of a product or service without clearly informing consumers that it will be automatically renewed at some time in the future for a charge.
SB 440 – Breast Cancer and Cancer Research Voluntary Tax Check-offs
Extends a tax checkoff for cancer research from 2017 through 2024.
The California Breast Cancer Research Fund and the California Cancer Research Fund are two of the 19 tax checkoff funds that presently appear on tax returns, but they were scheduled to disappear after 2017 without legislative action. Checkoffs must be renewed every seven years to remain on tax returns.
2016 LEGISLATION
SB 820 – Brownfields
Renews the California Land Reuse & Revitalization Act (CLRRA), which is set to expire on Jan. 1, 2017, for another 10 years. The act encourages redevelopment of blighted properties by allowing purchasers of contaminated lots to negotiate a cleanup plan with the state in exchange for liability protection from damages associated with the original contamination that they had no role in.
SB 882 - Crimes: public transportation: minors
Prohibits youths from being charged with a criminal violation for transit fare evasion and instead treats the offense through an administrative process.
SB 954 - Prevailing Wage
Clarifies the list of deductions an employer can count to reduce hourly wages, without prior consent from employees. The bill excludes wage credits for employer payments for industry advancement unless it is part of a bargained agreement.
SB 1029 - Bond Accountability
Which is sponsored by state Treasurer John Chiang, takes effect on Jan. 1, 2017. The bill requires the issuer of any new state or local government debt to provide an annual report to the state, and debt issuers must certify they have adopted local debt policies and that the debt issuance is consistent with those policies.
SB 614 - Public Defenders
Eliminates a discrepancy in law that came to light in a recent ruling in The People v. Prescott case. Under state law, defendants serving more than a year in state prison are presumed to be unable to pay for legal defense and therefore granted access to free legal representation. A recently issued court decision, however, said that state statute does not apply to those sentenced to county jail, even if the sentence is more than a year.
SB 1476 - Tax Checkoffs
Is the result of a Senate Governance and Finance Committee oversight hearing held in December that found problems with how the donations are managed. The committee learned that contributions could take years to reach the intended recipient and sometimes money that wasn’t spent ended up reverting to the state general fund.
SB 936 - Hertzberg. California Small Business Expansion Fund: corporate guarantees
Makes more private loans possible through the IBank’s Small Business Loan Guarantee Program by adopting the federal standard for leveraging the financing, which means less money is required to back the private loans than under the current state standard. In essence, the change allows the state and federal funding used to guarantee the loans to go further.
SB 1137 – Ransomware Prevention
Clarifies that introducing ransomware into any computer, system or network is punishable as extortion
SB 881 - Ending Driver's License Suspensions
Follows Hertzberg’s landmark measure, SB 405, and Brown’s related budget proposal that together established a new traffic amnesty program on Oct. 1, 2015. The program allows people to talk to a judge if they want to before paying fines, restores driver’s licenses to those with a payment plan and reduces exorbitant fee debts by taking a person’s income into account. SB 405 applies to traffic offenses that occurred prior to 2013, and it expires on March 31, 2017. SB 881 requires courts to consider any traffic amnesty claim filed with them by that day
SB 1349 - Secretary of State: online filing and disclosure system
Directs the state to overhaul the Secretary of State’s antiquated Cal-Access system for filing and accessing campaign finance and lobbying data. It establishes important guidelines for the project, including creating a system that is data driven, rather than form based, and adhering to prevailing standards for search and open data.
SB 450 - Public bodies: bonds: public notice
Voters will be able to vote in person at vote centers located at public spots throughout their county for the 10 days prior to an election, including two weekends. Also, every voter will receive a vote by mail ballot that can be returned by mail, or dropped off at any vote center.
2015 LEGISLATION
SB 405 – Driving Down Debt
Citing the loss of the ability to drive as a threat to economic security – especially among working residents – this plan will improve court access by eliminating the requirement that all fines and penalties be paid before the driver can get a court hearing.
SB 272 – Local Government Data
Local governments will now create an inventory of their key data-keeping systems, make that catalog publicly available online and list the types of data collected by those systems. Cybersecurity systems and infrastructure-control systems are exempted.
SB 664 – Earthquake Preparedness for Water Infrastructure
Regional water-management officials will now assess the vulnerability of their water systems to an earthquake and publicly report that assessment as well as any mitigation plans.
SB 621 – Mental Health and Public Safety
This measure clarifies that counties can apply for Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grant funds to pay for diversion programs that reduce recidivism of non-violent mentally ill offenders.
SB 540 – Taxpayer Advocate
Makes permanent a soon-to-expire taxpayer-advocate program to help ensure taxpayers who are overcharged by the state Franchise Tax Board can receive assistance and refunds.
SB 239 – Contracts for Fire Protection
This proposal will ensure residents and public officials have an opportunity to examine plans, costs and other financial estimates before local governments provide new or extended fire-protection services.
SB 134 – Public Interest Attorney Loan Forgiveness
In an effort to help ensure low-income Californians have greater access to equal justice, this bill allows the use of certain unclaimed funds to help pay off loans for attorneys practicing public-interest law.
SB 697 – Accountability Act
This good-government bill will increase accountability and transparency in the Public Utilities Commission.