12/31/2017
California legislators used the last year to expand state government still further, and the more than 800 new laws taking effect in 2018 will raise the extent of liberal meddling in people’s private lives as well as extending the redistribution of free stuff to favored groups, financed on the backs of the overtaxed residents.The big news is the legalization of recreational marijuana which will tend to increase the general left coast haze. Sacramento will collect a 15 percent tax on weed purchases, and local governments can tax at will, so the money bears watching.
Some new laws are harmless, like naming a California dinosaur to go along with the state bird, flower, fossil and fabric.
Behold, the Augustynolophus morrisi, a duckbill plant-eater that lived 66 million years ago in Fresno County.
The Los Angeles Times helpfully reported on the new laws by general category, including Immigration:
● Local law enforcement officials across California have new, strict limits on how much they can help federal immigration authorities — a law that pushes back against President Trump’s policies on illegal immigration. [LTG note: This is the Sanctuary State legislation to protect illegal alien criminals from the feds.]So California is about to become even friendlier to illegal aliens. It’s hard to imagine that being possible, but open borders extremists are creative in that perverted way.● A landlord can face civil penalties for threatening to report a renter to federal immigration authorities.
● It now takes a warrant from a judge for federal agents to come to someone’s workplace on an immigration raid, and employers can be fined for not giving workers a 72-hour notice that those agents will be inspecting employee records.
● State agencies that provide help to juveniles and the developmentally disabled no longer have to report immigration violations to the federal government.
Even the dependably liberal San Francisco Chronicle noted the busybody aspect:
California spreads its liberal wings in 2018 with a slew of new laws, San Francisco Chronicle, December 29, 2017SACRAMENTO — Whether you cross the street, head to college or apply for a new job, one of the hundreds of new laws that California will add to the books on New Year’s Day is likely to affect you.
The biggest change, however, is that licensed dispensaries can legally sell recreational marijuana to adults 21 years and older starting Monday. About four dozen dispensaries are licensed by the state to sell marijuana for recreational use, with many other retailers expected to receive licenses in 2018.
Another significant state law bars local law enforcement officers from cooperating with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on deportations except in cases in which immigrants had been convicted of certain crimes. Officers also will be barred from asking about a person’s immigration status.
The 800-plus laws passed this year show that California and its Democratic-led Legislature are flexing their political power in a state that has stood up to President Trump’s conservative policies. Democrats took the first step in making community college free, to address knee-buckling student debt: The first year will be tuition-free for new students. State lawmakers approved long-sought reforms to boost housing production, and approved new fees to pay for it.
Pedestrians will no longer face jaywalking fines for entering a crosswalk after the countdown signal starts, a law that few people knew about unless they had received a ticket. Those looking for a higher-paying job in the new year will no longer have to justify their current salary after lawmakers banned employers from asking what prospective workers make.
“It’s full-speed ahead for liberal Democrats in California,” said Larry Gerston, an emeritus professor of political science at San Jose State University. “I think the state will continue on this liberal trajectory into 2018.”
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