- posted: Feb. 02, 2021
2020 was the year of the pandemic. Legislative hearings in Sacramento were cancelled or truncated and many laws proposed were abandoned. Governor Newsom signed 372 new laws in 2020. Some of them are as follows:
Property Tax: Perhaps the most important law which was passed was not legislation but proposition 19. This allows homeowners who are 55 years or older to take with them their reduced property tax rate under proposition 13 and blend it with a new home in California. It also to a large degree eliminates or limits the parent child exemption on transfers by inheritance. This will be effective February, 2021.
Housing: Allows victims of domestic abuse or sexual assault to get out of a housing lease early including victims of violent crimes. Also various state, county, local government entities have passed short term eviction moratoriums.
Healthcare: Private insurance must cover medically necessary mental health and substance abuse disorder treatments like other medical conditions
Covid 19: Employers must provide written notice to workers who may have been exposed to someone with Covid 19 or face certain fines. Skilled nursing facilities must report Covid 19 deaths to public health authorities within 24 hours.
Police: Police officers can no longer use chokeholds or any restraint that compresses a person’s carotid arteries.
Juries: County jury commissioners will receive information on citizens who have paid taxes to use for the county pool of potential jurors.
Corporations: Most publicly held corporations that are primarily based in California must have at least one board of director member who represents an underrepresented community. Employers with more than 100 workers have to submit pay data to state officials based on race, ethnicity and gender.
Education: California State University students in the Fall are required to take an ethnic studies course. New regulations on student loans in California impose similar regulations as those on Credit Cards including giving student borrowers information about programs that can lower payments or offer debt forgiveness
Pets: The retail sale in pet stores of all dogs, cats and rabbits is no longer allowed.