Updated 2008 Legislative Priorities

Updated CALPIRG 2008 Legislative Priorities: June 2008

Reforming the Mortgage Lending Industry: Unsound lending practices of the mortgage industry led to a dramatic decline in California’s home values, a $16 billion budget deficit, and a struggling economy. In 2008, CALPIRG is committed to ensuring that a mortgage collapse like this will never happen again.
 
AB 1830 (Lieu):  Will prevent another mortgage meltdown by stopping the unsound lending practices that led to the current foreclosure problems.  

AB 2359 (Jones): Will protect homebuyers’ right to a civil trial by stopping lenders from requiring mandatory arbitration as condition of a home loan.   

Health Care: Lowering Costs, Expanding Coverage, Protecting Consumers: With the defeat of the comprehensive health care reform bill, the need for legislation that brings costs under control, expands coverage, and gives consumers more power when dealing with insurance companies is greater than ever. CALPIRG supports several bills that, taken together, will make significant strides towards the broader health care reforms we need
 
SB 1522 (Steinberg):  Will  require insurance companies to give consumers clear, comparable information about the costs and benefits of their plans. These changes will increase competition between insurers, and better enable consumers to choose the policy that is best for them and their families.

AB 1945 (DeLaTorre):  Will protect patients by keeping insurance companies from dropping patients’ coverage and refusing to pay for medical procedures that have already been performed.

AB 2967 (Lieber): Will promote high-quality, cost-effective health care by establishing better, public reporting of health quality and cost data by hospitals, HMOs, and doctors.
 
SB 1440 (Kuehl): Will help keep costs under control by requiring health insurers to spend 85 cents of every premium dollar on health care benefits, not administrative costs or excess profits.
 
Investing in World-Class Public Transportation: Especially with California’s booming population, we need to expand and invest in public transit services that prevent traffic congestion from getting worse and contribute the least amount of unhealthy pollution, including local public transit and high-speed rail. With $4 a gallon gasoline, California’s public transit systems are experiencing record ridership in early 2008. Unfortunately, last year’s budget cut more than $1.2 billion from our public transit agencies, reducing funds for bus, light rail, and subway lines throughout the state.  
 
2008 Budget (Public Transit Funding): While still a sharp decrease from what local public transit agencies should get under law, and far below what the state should spend to adequately invest in public transit needs, the Assembly and Senate budget subcommittees recently approved investing $624 million in public transportation, more than double what the Governor proposed in his May Revise. CALPIRG urges legislators to, at a minimum, protect this level of funding.    

AB 3034 (Galgiani): Will update language and improve the high speed rail bond measure already on the November 2008 ballot. This bill must be signed by June 26th.

AB 2558 and AB 2321 (Feuer): would both assist Los Angeles County in their efforts to invest more local funding in public transit systems, by allowing various local funding measures to go on the ballot for voter approval.  

Keeping Unsafe Products Off Store Shelves: In 2007, 25 million toys were recalled worldwide because they were laced with lead or contained small, powerful magnets that could perforate a young child’s intestines. To protect our health and safety, we need to set better standards and hold companies accountable.
 
AB 2964 (Ma) CALPIRG is the sponsor: Will protect kids from lead in products intended for children 12 and under.

AB 1860 (Huffman) Will prohibit retailers from continuing to sell recalled products on store shelves.

Protecting Consumers From Identity Theft: California has some of the strongest laws in the country regarding identity theft, and is considered a national leader on the issue.  Unfortunately, millions of Californians still become victims of ID theft every year.  As technology changes, and we rely more and more on electronics to run our daily lives, we need to continue to modernize the protections that are in place.

SB 364 (Simitian): Gives consumers more tools to protect themselves against identity theft by setting up standard requirements for what information companies have to give their customers if they lose their information or have it stolen.