Announcing Catalyst California's legislative priorities for 2026
As California navigates federal political threats to its communities and institutions, economic uncertainty, and recovery from climate-driven disasters, Catalyst California presents a policy agenda centered on protecting our vulnerable communities.
These are Catalyst California’s 2026 priority bills to further our goals of protecting democracy, strengthening communities, and ensuring equitable wildfire recovery/investment.
Democracy
SB 73(Cervantes, S) and SB 884 (Umberg, T): Elections, inspection of voting systems
Expand voter access and strengthen protections around voting centers and drop boxes. These bills respond to troubling federal overreach and specify that no one can enforce immigration law within a certain radius of a polling place, while also adding more flexibility for county elections officials to keep polls open longer if voting is interfered with.
SB 1164 (Cervantes, S) and SB 1360 (Cervantes, S):
The California Voting Rights Act of 2026
Protects against voter discrimination through expansion of the state’s voting rights act to do the following:
a. Provide the attorney general and civil rights groups with the means to combat voter suppression and vote dilution by allowing them to sue to stop these actions under state law, and add capacity to the Attorney General’s office for enforcement.
b. Prepare courts to expeditiously decide voting rights cases and require them to interpret laws in favor of broad access and equal participation in the democratic process.
c. Provide for a modest preclearance program that requires jurisdictions with a recent history of voting discrimination to get preapproval from the Attorney General for any reductions in language assistance, annexations or deannexations, or any change to their method of election, including redistricting plans.
d. Codify and modestly expand the language assistance requirements currently guaranteed by Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act, but not guaranteed under state law.
Birth to 12th Grade Education
SB 121 (Budget omnibus): Community schools state budget proposal
Establishes $1 billion in ongoing funding to support existing and new community schools across the state—a transformational approach to public education that research has shown to have significant benefits for students, especially in closing equity gaps. Schools would be eligible to receive funding if they have 65% or more of enrolled students that are English Learner or low income.
The proposal also sets aside $10 million for technical assistance centers and establishes an accreditation process that would begin in 2033-34, which would be managed by the centers and the California Department of Education. With communities and public institutions facing unprecedented threats, community schools provide critical spaces for families, students, community partners, and educators to provide mutual support, mental health resources, safety and connection to support students to thrive.
AB 2379 (Solache, J. and Carillo): Family daycare homes, Fourth Amendment training
Requires that the California Department of Social Services provides licensed and license-exempt childcare providers with training and resources about their constitutional rights and responsibilities should they be confronted with immigration enforcement. This bill would require the department to designate a statewide entity to develop and provide a training program about those rights. This training program would be offered starting July 1, 2026. Although California recognizes child care sites as sensitive locations that are protected, child care providers and families have experienced fear and confusion due to ongoing ICE threats. This bill would take effect immediately as an urgency statute to protect access to child care.
AB 1981 (Aguiar- Curry, C.): Subsidized child care, reimbursement rates, reporting
Establishes a timeline to stabilize the child care workforce by advancing rate settings that better reflect the true cost of care, and ensure working families can continue to access to child care. The bill requires the California Department of Social Services to provide the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee with the department’s timeline to transition to the new reimbursement rates by January 31, 2027. CDSS would be required to continue quarterly reports to the Legislature until new reimbursement rates set under the alternative methodology are fully implemented. This bill has an urgency statute to prevent further delays transitioning to the new systems for setting reimbursement rates.
Eaton Fire Recovery
AB 1642 (Harabedian, J.): Wildfire Environmental Safety and Testing Act
Protects survivors by requiring the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to adopt emergency regulations on the investigation, testing, and clearance of lead and asbestos inside and outside of structures after a wildfire by July 1, 2027. In doing so, the bill sets standards for insurance companies to ensure that survivors can return to and live within a healthy built environment.
SB 1090, (Perez, S.): Offers of purchase, real property damaged by wildfire disaster
Establishes a five-year prohibition on any individual or entity that owns, directly or indirectly, 75 or more single-family properties from making an unsolicited offer to purchase real property that is located in an area affected by a wildfire disaster for which a state of emergency has been proclaimed by the Governor or the President of the United States. Such a prohibition would enable lesser resourced individuals and entities, such as community land trusts, to compete in the market for properties in such areas.
(Perez, S.): Community Aid for Rebuilding and Equity Fund (CARE Fund)
Gov. Newsom acknowledged in his proposed 2026-27 budget that survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires are facing a gap funding problem (i.e., a gap between what survivors receive from insurance and what it costs to rebuild their homes).
The budget ask provides funding to Eaton Fire survivors to bridge the gap. Additionally, the fund provides capital to community land trusts and nonprofit housing developers to purchase and redevelop properties, including single family and multiunit properties, destroyed by the fire. The fund thus facilitates preservation and expansion of affordable housing options.
Revenue Raising
AB 2729 (Bonta): Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund
Closes the $1B gap in health care funding created by HR 1 by fining and penalizing employers that currently force employees to enroll in Med-Cal rather than directly providing health care coverage. Such practices cost taxpayers an estimated $28 billion. The bill goes into effect only if Medicaid provisions in HR 1 are not repealed by January 1, 2027.
AB 1790 (Connolly, Elhawary, Lee): Corporate tax law: water’s-edge election, global intangible low-taxed income
Eliminates a tax loophole that allows multi-national corporations doing business in California to only pay taxes on income they designate as generated within the “water’s edge” of the United States, leading to an estimated $4.1 billion in lost tax revenue due to suspected underreporting. It updates the tax code to federal standards meant to prevent underreporting, so corporations have to pay taxes on all income regardless of where it was generated.
Reparations
AB 2599 (Bryan, I.): Truth in Disclosure Act
Increases corporate transparency and public trust by requiring companies in specific industries to disclose their historical ties to slavery. It mandates the submission of affidavits under penalty of perjury that detail whether companies or their related entities were involved in slavery-related transactions. The bill also calls for the creation of a public digital platform to house these disclosures and associated data.