Check In: Poring Over More Than 2,500 Legislative Proposals.

• Author: Fox, Jason

by Jason Fox

As spring sets in and we wrap up the first third of the calendar, it is a good time to check in on CalCPA's advocacy work.

Navigating 2,600+ Legislative Proposals Legislators introduced more than 2,600 pieces of legislation by the February deadline for bill introductions. While it's normal to see a large number of introductions in the first year of a two-year session, this was more than most insiders had anticipated. Most had expected that a down budget and a large group of new legislators would be more judicious with their proposals. CalCPA filtered through these proposals and outlined some of the items we are tracking.

On the business front, AB 39 (Grayson) would create a regulatory framework, including audit requirements, for digital financial asset businesses. A reintroduction of environmental, social and governance (ESG) related proposals, SB 253 (Wiener) would create the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act to require reporting of scope 1, 2 & 3 greenhouse gas emissions for certain corporations doing business in California. The reporting would require assurances auditing provisions. SB 261 (Stern) would require certain businesses to prepare a report disclosing its climate-related financial risk and measures adopted to reduce and adapt to disclosed risks. Artificial intelligence is also a focus of proposals. AB 331 (Bauer-Kahan) would add requirements and require an impact assessment for the developer and deployer of automated decision tools used in consequential decisions, including employment and financial services. Employment issues, particularly AB 1076 (Bauer-Kahan), which would limit the use of noncompete contracts is another area we are following.

On the tax front, we saw the reintroduction of a California wealth tax on worldwide net worth of high-income individuals in AB 259 (Lee) and the corresponding ACA 3 (Lee). While this has gotten a lot of attention in the media, the political realities of these proposals are slim particularly since Gov. Newsom has already come out in opposition to them.

We also are following ACA 11 (Ting), a proposal to abolish the Board of Equalization (BOE). While much of the BOE's statutory duties were moved to the Office of Tax Appeals and the California Dept. of Tax and Fee Administration in 2017, the remaining constitutional authorities stayed with the BOE. This proposal would put before the voters an initiative to reassign the remaining BOE responsibilities to a new or existing...