| | | | |  | | By Jeremy B. White | Presented by California Resources Corporation | |  Psilocybin mushrooms | Getty Images | BUZZ KILL: It’s a sad day for Californians who want to ignore their bosses and try hallucinogenic mushrooms. The Legislature’s biannual culling of costly and controversial bills on the Appropriations committees’ respective “suspense files” — a ritual that took place today — is always harrowing for lawmakers. A brutal budget crunch made this one more, uh, suspenseful than usual. Assembly Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks led off the hearing by warning members to brace for impact. “It’s a very difficult budget environment,” Wicks said, “so we had to make some very difficult decisions.” Hundreds of bills didn’t make it. The Assembly blocked about a third of the bills on its list from advancing to the floor; the Senate, feeling more generous, stopped about a quarter. It was the end of the road for Assemblymember Matt Haney’s bill that would let employees leave after-hours texts and Slack messages unanswered; likewise for Sen. Scott Wiener’s attempt to allow supervised psychedelic drug use, the latest setback for a multi-year quest that last year ended in a Gov. Gavin Newsom veto. Wiener wasn’t the only one experiencing disappointment deja vu. Advocates of single-payer health care, also known as Medicare for All and CalCare, were thwarted yet again with the demise of Assemblymember Ash Kalra’s bill. Newer ideas didn’t necessarily fare better: the Senate Appropriations Committee stopped state Sen. Steve Bradford’s bills that sought to advance the state’s landmark slavery reparations panel by offering homeowner and tax assistance. Hours earlier, assemblymembers passed a bill off the floor offering a formal apology for California’s role in slavery and the harms Black people have suffered as a result. We also saw the artificial intelligence bill boom deflate a bit, lawmakers reject a proposal to let pregnant prison inmates bond with their babies, and a chair hold her own controversial bill. More details below. IT’S THURSDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to jwhite@politico.com.
| | | | A message from California Resources Corporation: California Resources Corporation (CRC) is a different kind of energy company, committed to our net zero future and advancing the energy transition. CRC’s carbon management business, Carbon TerraVault, will offer solutions to help reduce emissions while our workforce provides low-carbon energy needed to power our lives. Carbon TerraVault will enable the capture and permanent storage of carbon dioxide deep underground, helping decarbonize our local economies and empowering California to achieve carbon neutrality. CRC's Carbon TerraVault | | | |  | WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY | | A recap of what survived today’s hearings, and what did not. CALCAN’T: Single-payer is dead in California. Again. For the second time in a row, Kalra’s proposal to set up a state-run insurance program — called CalCare — was blocked before it could reach the floor. Assembly Bill 2200 included no funding mechanism, which Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said made it a hard sell to members when asked about it back in February, though he supports the idea. Kalra’s vision was to pass the bill this year, and then work with the federal government to determine the price tag. — Rachel Bluth REPARATIONS: Two of the five reparations bills carried by Bradford were held — proposals to create property tax assistance and homeowners assistance programs for qualifying Black Californians. The three bills that are now heading to the Senate floor include one to create the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency; one to establish a fund for reparations policies; and another to compensate those who had property taken from them as a result of racially-motivated eminent domain. The Assembly advanced a bill to prioritize African American applicants for professional licenses. “We didn’t expect 100 percent but I think the three that got out are critically important for setting up the framework for reparations going forward,” Bradford told reporters following the hearing. “So I think we have a good foundation to work from.” HOUSING CRASH: Two ambitious swings at digging California out of its housing deficit were blocked —- a Wiener bill exempting many downtown San Francisco housing projects from environmental review and Assemblymember Alex Lee's latest attempt at jumpstarting social housing development, a form of public housing. AI CASUALTY: The Assembly’s AI package came through largely unscathed, with a notable exception: Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s bill aiming to shine a light on the entities that power AI by processing huge reams of data. A proposal for an AI-in-schools working group also ended its journey. In the Senate, Wiener’s sweeping framework for large-scale AI models made it out with a few amendments, but the committee nixed a proposal from Angelique Ashby to review AI in the courts (Senate Bill 970) and one from Steve Padilla that would have required social media platforms to try and verify influential users’ identities (Senate Bill 1228). THE SHOW WON’T GO ON: Wicks, Assembly Appropriations chair, blocked her own bill today, effectively killing an effort to loosen Ticketmaster’s grip on the entertainment market. Wicks had introduced Assembly Bill 2808 with the goal of allowing multiple sellers to access a venue’s ticket manifest, thus creating more options and more competition in ticket sales. But she took extensive amendments in policy committees last month, prompting several of her original supporters to drop off. Wicks said in a statement that she held the bill to “make sure the policy advances thoughtfully and with consumer interests at the forefront,” and suggested she wasn’t giving up on the idea. "Loosening the hold of a massive entertainment monopoly that controls not only the ticket-buying experience, but also the success of artists and independent venues, is more than a one-year undertaking,” she said. — Lara Korte CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: Public safety is firmly on Sacramento’s agenda this year, but some tough-on-crime bills were stopped. Among them: bills enhancing penalties for selling fentanyl, prostitution, crimes involving firearms, crimes involving fentanyl and firearms, and attempted murder. Also, non-citizens still won’t be able to serve on juries. ROBOTAXI RESTRICTIONS: A labor-backed bill letting local governments limit autonomous vehicles advanced, but with some key edits: Senate Bill 915 now only applies to cities with 250,000 or more residents and neighboring jurisdictions. It also prohibits outright bans on robotaxis, although that didn’t exactly placate industry opponents given that the bill still allows vehicle caps and time restrictions.
| | | | NEW! AN EXCLUSIVE CALIFORNIA BALLOT-MEASURES COVERAGE TEAM: The impact that ballot measures have on California residents, industries, and Legislature is enormous. From settling broad cultural questions to changing obscure governance rules, ballot measures in essence, have become the fourth branch of government in the most influential state capital in the U.S. As your go-to source for reporting on Golden State politics, policy, power, POLITICO has formed a new ballot measure team in California that will deliver in-depth insights into the strategies, policy ideas, personalities, money and influence driving ballot measures. LEARN MORE. | | | | | | | IN OTHER NEWS | | | |  TOPSHOT - A pro-Palestinian demonstrator makes a peace sign in front of police as they clear an encampment after students occupied the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall at the University of California, Irvine, in Irvine, California on May 15, 2025. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images | | O.C. UPHEAVAL: Hundreds of police clad in riot-gear descended on the campus of UC Irvine Wednesday after pro-Palestinian protesters briefly occupied a university building. The standoff ended with 50 people, including some faculty members, arrested. It was the first time in California that campus unrest overlapped with battleground political territory. UC Irvine sits at the heart of the 47th congressional district, one of the most fiercely contested House seats in the country. Republicans have made no secret of the political opportunity they see in the chaos — both as a way to stoke a wedge issue for Democrats and to fuel GOP and independent voters’ fear of lawlessness. Notably, however, the two contenders for the seat struck remarkably similar notes in their social media statements about the ongoing commotion. Neither the Democrat, state Sen. Dave Min, nor Scott Baugh, the Republican, weighed in on the substance of the demonstrations. Instead, they both gave props to law enforcement for shutting down the disturbance and the UC Irvine administration’s handling of the situation. — Melanie Mason BRUIN BUCKS: UCLA is not just dealing with fallout from Gaza protests. This afternoon, the UC Regents ordered the campus to pay $30 million to UC Berkeley over three years to make up for leaving its rival campus behind in the Pac-12. The Bruins’ 2022 announcement that it would leave for more lucrative media deals in the Big Ten left Cal in a collapsing athletic conference, and has created a huge disparity between the two programs’ athletic revenues. UCLA is expected to bring in $60 million a year in the Big Ten, while Cal inked only an $11 million deal with the Atlantic Coast Conference. The payments that have come to be known as “Calimony” are intended to shrink that gulf. But they’ll also weigh on UCLA, which, like Cal, has a shortfall in its athletics budget. — Blake Jones | | | | A message from California Resources Corporation:   | | | | | WHAT WE'RE READING TODAY | | — A Southern California college professor will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of a Jewish counter-protester during demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war last year. (Associated Press) — California lawmakers approved an audit of Newsom’s return to work policy, which takes effect in June. (Sacramento Bee) —The estimated cost for California’s controversial Delta Conveyance tunnel has increased by more than $4 billion. (E&E News)
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Get The Facts on CRC's Carbon TerraVault | | | | | AROUND THE STATE | | — A fire at a battery storage facility has prompted evacuations in Southern California. (San Diego Union-Tribune) — Homelessness has risen in San Francisco over the last two years despite investments, according to new numbers. (San Francisco Chronicle) — A judge ruled that Huntington Beach has to comply with California’s plans to build more housing across the state to alleviate its housing crisis. (Courthouse News Service)
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