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2024 brings a new year – and new laws that take effect in California.
As he does each year, Reform California’s Carl DeMaio is highlighting a few of the craziest laws taking effect with the new year.
“Governor Gavin Newsom and California Democrat legislators are completely unhinged from reality as they double down on fatally-flawed policies that are hurting Californians,” warns DeMaio.
“Every year I pick out really bad new laws to highlight, but this year that was exponentially harder to do because there are so many terrible new laws that are taking effect in California,” explains DeMaio.
1. Illegal Immigrants Will Get a Bunch More Free Stuff at Your Expense!
Despite the fact that California faces a massive $68 billion deficit this year, Gavin Newsom and California Democrats are continuing to divert billions of dollars in state taxpayer funds to provide a wide range of free services and benefits to illegal immigrants – including completely free healthcare.
In 2015, California Democrats started providing free taxpayer-funded healthcare services to illegal immigrants 19-25 and those over 50. Starting January 1, 2024, there will be no age restriction to the free taxpayer-funded healthcare services to illegal immigrants.
Over 700,000 additional illegal immigrants will receive new healthcare benefits as of January 1, 2024 – making the total number of illegal immigrants eligible for free taxpayer-funded healthcare 2.4 million! The cost to taxpayers? $5-7 billion per year!
That’s not all. To add insult to injury, California Democrats are using $60 million in state taxpayer funds to hire free lawyers that illegal immigrants can use to sue our own government as well as fight deportation.
And now California Democrats are even giving out taxpayer-funded goodies to foreign citizens! Mexican citizens who still live in Mexico will be allowed to receive “in-state tuition discounts” at California colleges!
“California is incentivizing human trafficking by giving away taxpayer-funded welfare to illegal immigrants – and it has to stop if we are to secure the border,” DeMaio says.
2. Making the Job of Police Officers Harder:
Starting Jan. 1, police officers across California will no longer be able to ask, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" That’s because AB 2773 requires police officers to state the purpose of a traffic or pedestrian stop before asking any other questions.
And if a cop does not comply with this new law, the cop gets in trouble!
Traffic stops already are highly-charged situations where criminals and people with bad attitudes do things that escalate the encounter – putting both the cop and the person pulled over at risk. Why complicate matters with yet another feel-good legal mandate?
3. Creating a More Toxic Workplace
California labor regulations already have made our state the worst place to create jobs in by imposing high costs and high risks, but Newsom and California Democrats approved SB 497 to exponentially increase the risk to all businesses by changing the burden of proof on worker retaliation cases.
Under SB 497 any disgruntled employee will be assumed to be a victim of retaliation and the employer has very little chance of protecting itself from false retaliation claims.
In addition, Newsom and California Democrats made it harder for businesses to justify creating jobs in our state by passing SB 363 to limit the use of arbitration to resolve disputes and AB 594 which weaponizes local city attorneys to use their taxpayer-funded lawyers as free legal attack funds for local labor unions targeting small businesses.
To add to the coddling of the workforce, Senate Bill 731 also will require employers to provide a 30-day written notice before requiring employees working from home to return to the office.
Finally, a new law in 2024 takes effect that prohibits employers from firing or taking any “corrective action” against workers for failing drug tests. This puts employers in a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t situation as drug use by an employee could be cited in lawsuits to establish negligence in any cases of accidents or injuries. In California, drug addicts have more rights now than job creators.
4. Taking Parents’ Rights Away
A number of new laws take effect that undermine parents’ rights in California – making the state the most anti-parent state in the nation.
Newsom and California Democrats approved AB-1078 they say is designed to stop book banning in California schools. Yet this bill will only serve as an infringement of local control over curriculum decisions and limit the ability of parents and communities to have a say in what is taught in schools.
Newsom and state Democrats also passed AB 665 which makes it easier for children as young as 12 to be taken away from their parents. Existing state law required that a child could only be removed and “emancipated” if a licensed therapist or health professional determined that abuse or neglect was occurring that posed a threat to the child in the parents’ home and the child was mature enough to govern their own affairs. AB 665 removes any need to show abuse, neglect or a threat – and allows even an “intern” or “trainee” to make the decision! Perhaps one of the most reckless and anti-parent bills ever conceived is now law.
Finally, a new law also mandates that foster families will be required to demonstrate their commitment to support gender-bending surgeries and therapies for minor children – or they will lose their ability to be a foster parent. At a time when there is a severe shortage of foster homes, this new law is insane and only will hurt foster kids!
5. Infringing on Your Right to Self-Defense (SB 2 and AB-28)
Newsom and California Democrats have created a crime wave with their other negligent policies, but now they want to make it harder for you to defend yourself by imposing a massive excise tax on guns and ammunition – as well as severely restricting your right to concealed carry. Both of these laws are unconstitutional on their face, but state politicians have shown zero regard for following well-established civil rights rulings.
What can be done to restore sanity to California’s political system and prevent more crazy laws like these from be imposed?
“We need to stop bad bills like this by changing who we elect to the state legislature in 2024,” DeMaio notes.
That’s why DeMaio and Reform California are leading a campaign to recruit, train, endorse, support candidates for the state legislature in seats across California.
DeMaio urges common-sense California voters to join the fight by contributing to Reform California’s campaign or signing up to volunteer to share the Plain English Voter Guide his group publishes each election.
