With hundreds of bills on his desk and up against an Oct. 14 deadline, Gov. Gavin Newsom sent back 143, or 30%, of the bills lawmakers sent his way as of Oct. 9.
In comparison, Newsom vetoed a total of 169 bills last year, accounting for 14% of proposed bills.
Cal Matters, which tracks California bills as they move through the Legislature, first reported that Newsom was sent about 700 bills leading up to the deadline.
This year, the governor cited that some bills will cost the state too much money, that they went too far on policy too fast, or were simply unnecessary, Cal Matters reported.
Here are some of the notable bills Newsom vetoed
Free condoms for California high schoolers
Newsom rejected the bill that would have made free condoms available to all public high school students in the state, arguing it was too expensive for a state with a budget deficit of over $30 billion.
Cannabis cafes
Assembly Bill 374 would have allowed Amsterdam-style lounges where cannabis products could be sold alongside food and drinks to be legal in California.
Some similar businesses already exist in the state but do so through a legal loophole, allowing a technically separate business to “deliver” food and drink products to customers.
Increased Juror pay
Assemblymember Phil Ting, a Democrat from San Francisco, introduced a bill that would pay low-income jurors $100 per day for serving during a criminal case.
The statewide bill was similar to a pilot program in San Francisco, known as “Be The Jury,” which found that people of color and low-income residents who received the additional payments were more eager to serve as a juror.
State funding would have supported the increased pay.
Caste discrimination
California would have been the first state to outlaw caste-based discrimination.
Caste is a division of people related to birth or descent. Those at the lowest strata of the caste system, known as Dalits, have been pushing for legal protections in California and beyond. They say it is necessary to protect them from bias in housing, education and in the tech sector — where they hold key roles, the Associated Press reported.
On Sept. 28, Fresno became the second U.S. city and the first in California to prohibit discrimination based on caste by adding caste and indigeneity to its municipal code.
Newsom vetoed the bill, citing that Newsom “California already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics, and state law specifies that these civil rights protections shall be liberally construed.”
Decriminalizing psychedelics
The legislation would have allowed those 21 and older to possess psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component in what’s known as psychedelic mushrooms. It also would have covered dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and mescaline.
The bill would not have legalized the sale of the substances and would have barred any possession of the substances on school grounds. Instead, it would have ensured people are neither arrested nor prosecuted for possessing limited amounts of plant-based hallucinogens, the Associated Press reported.
Hearing aids, insulin pricing and perinatal care
Three health care-related bills got all got vetoed. One bill would have required health plans to cover hearing aids for individuals age 20 and younger; another would have capped insulin copayments to $35 and a third would have expanded perinatal care under Medi-Cal, Cal Matter reported.
California Legislature could override vetoes, with two-thirds majorities in the Assembly and Senate, but that’s rarely happened and hasn’t happened in recent decades.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
