Happy Wednesday to you, readers. Thanks for starting your morning with the AM Alert.
First up — We’ve got you covered for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State this morning. Sophia Bollag is anchoring our coverage, but I’ll be in the Assembly to catch the leadership’s response. Follow us to make sure you don’t miss out on any high speed rail breaking news or digs at President Donald Trump.
The address is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.
A PINK PROBLEM
State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, is sick of paying more for pink stuff.
Yes, literally pink products like rose-hued shoes and soccer balls. But also razors, underwear, sportswear and blankets.
So she wrote Senate Bill 873 to end the so-called “pink tax” that hikes what women pay for female-marketed products, while similar goods for men aren’t as expensive.
“While women earn less on average than our male counterparts, we also pay more for virtually the same goods,” Jackson said during a press conference on Tuesday. “This gender-based price discrimination results in women paying thousands of dollars more over the course of our lives. That is wrong.”
Women pay more for products about 42 percent of the time and, on average, pay 7 percent more for similar goods that men pay less for, according to a 2015 study by The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs.
The study analyzed close to 800 products ranging from toys to clothing to personal and health care items and was cited during the presser as justification for Jackson’s legislation.
Jackson called the disparity a “tax on being female” and said the price differences most notably affect women of color and low-income households.
“The examples are endless,” Jackson said. “They go from baby blankets to sports equipment to razors to health care products.”
To make her point — Jackson pointed to two teddy bears propped up on a table in front of her podium, one pink and the other blue. The “girl” bear was $14.99. The boy’s was priced at $12.30.
California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier was in the Capitol Tuesday to bolster the effort. She has a companion measure in Congress that she’s attempted for three sessions, she said. Speier also wrote legislation while in the California Assembly in 1996 that required services like dry cleaning and haircuts be priced not by gender but by the amount of time it took to complete the job.
“It’s ubiquitous and insidious that we still have this kind of discrimination going on,” Speier said. “A quarter of a century ago I raised this issue in this Legislature.”
In opposition — The California Chamber of Commerce labeled Jackson’s bill a “job killer” because it would introduce “a flurry of costly litigation for claims that two products are substantially similar, even though they made be different, and that any price differential is based on gender, when it is actually based upon legitimate non-gender related issues.”
BE SPECIFIC
A California consumer advocacy group filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to force Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and his agency to hand over detailed calendar appointments with industry executives who contributed to his campaign.
Consumer Watchdog, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit is alleging that Lara and the California Department of Insurance are hiding details of appointments Lara had with a list of people who donated in April more than $54,000 to his re-election campaign. The donors in question all had professional ties to Applied Underwriters, a company with issues pending before the insurance agency.
The group requested calendar logs under a Public Records Act request in June of 2019. The San Diego Union-Tribune first reported the donations on July 7.
Lara did release some calendars in September. Those documents showed he had meetings with an executive of Applied Underwriters, including a “relationship-building” luncheon scheduled for campaign purposes.
Lara while running for office pledged not to accept contributions from companies he regulates. He acknowledged the contributions marked a broken campaign promise.
Consumer Watchdog has long argued the released calendars are insufficient. The group said more exhaustive records would answer questions of a potential “pay-to-play scandal.”
You can read my full report here.
BECERRA CHALLENGES FEDERAL PROPOSALS
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is challenging President Donald Trump on a pair of federal proposals that Becerra argues would roll back critical anti-discrimination measures aimed at protecting students and patients.
Becerra filed two multi-state comment letters, one with the U.S. Department of Education, the other with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department of Education is considering expanding the definition used to claim religious exemption from federal Title IX requirements, which Becerra argued would allow schools to discriminate against students and faculty on the basis of sex.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services is considering eliminating transparency requirements for faith-based providers, requirements Becerra said help patients understand their rights and access referrals to care from alternative providers.
“There’s no excuse for discrimination against patients or students, including denying lifesaving referrals or educational programs that help students thrive,” Becerra said in a statement. “Sadly, these new proposals are just the latest example of the Trump Administration’s obsession with trampling on our nation’s anti-discrimination protections. California is prepared to step up to protect the rights of the people of our state.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I am requesting audits of the LA, Fresno & Alameda sheriffs’ departments because of budget battles, inmate deaths & a county-level refusal to conduct an audit, respectively. Thanks (Sacramento Bee reporter Jason Pohl) for covering.”
– Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, via Twitter.
Best of The Bee:
Hannah Wiley joined The Bee as a legislative reporter in 2019. She produces the morning newsletter for Capitol Alert and previously reported on immigration, education and criminal justice. She’s a Chicago-area native and a graduate of Saint Louis University and Northwestern.
