2025-26 Legislative Session: Key Developments in Government Finance and Administration Policy Area 

Throughout the 2025 Legislative Year, CSAC has kept you informed about key legislative developments. With Governor Newsom’s final actions now complete, CSAC will publish a series of articles highlighting new laws and vetoed bills in each policy area. This week, our focus is on the Government Finance and Administration policy area, covering legislation on revenue and taxation, labor and employment, general government, artificial intelligence, elections, and more. 

For additional information, please contact Eric Lawyer, Emma Jungwirth, or Julissa Ceja Cardenas. 

Elections 

AB 287 (Lackey) (Chapter 253, Statutes of 2025)
Elections: polling places and vote centers. This bill will enhance accessibility at voting centers for individuals with disabilities by clarifying requirements for accessible parking, curbside voting spaces, and adequate storage for election materials. This bill builds on Chapter 658, Statutes of 2023 (AB 545, Pellerin), which mandated that all vote centers and polling places offer curbside voting, regardless of a voter’s accessibility status. Read our request for signature here.  

Labor 

AB 339 (Ortega) (Chapter 687, Statutes of 2025) 
Local public employee organizations: notice requirements. CSAC strongly opposed this measure which will require local agencies to notify union representatives at least 45 days before issuing a request for proposals, request for quotes, or to renew or extend an existing contract.  While the bill provides an exemption for public works contracts, it provides no similar exemptions for other categories of contracts and places no cost thresholds or minimum terms for when the rules are invoked. Read our request for a veto here.  

AB 692 (Kalra) (Chapter 703, Statutes of 2025)
Employment: contracts in restraint of trade. This bill will restrict employers from providing fringe benefits that require employees to pay back amounts owed if they cease employment before meeting the benefits’ conditions. This bill will require signing bonuses to meet certain conditions, including that the employee has the option to receive the bonus at the end of their retention period. Read our request for a veto here.  

AB 1293 (Wallis) (Chapter 298, Statutes of 2025)
Workers’ compensation: qualified medical evaluators. This measure will help improve workers’ compensation disputes by improving the quality of qualified medical evaluator panels. These panels are vital to providing objective medical reports on a workers’ compensation dispute. Read our request for signature here.  

SB 7 (McNerney) (VETOED)
Employment: automated decision systems. This bill would have restricted the use of automated decision systems (ADS) to make employment-related decisions in the workplace. Specifically, the bill would have: (1) applied to a broad range of tools and employment-related decisions, (2) required pre- and post-use notices be sent to employees and potential employees, and (3) provided worker anti-retaliation protections for exercising their rights under the bill’s provisions. Read our request for a veto here.  

SB 303 (Smallwood-Cuevas) (Chapter 216, Statutes of 2025)
Employment: bias mitigation training: unlawful discrimination. This measure will protect the confidentiality of employee communications shared during bias mitigation training. By protecting that confidentiality, the measure removes a disincentive for employees to participate in the training or for employers to provide it. Read our request for signature here.  

SB 464 (Smallwood-Cuevas) (Chapter 760, Statutes of 2025)
Employer pay data. This bill would have required counties and other local governments to submit an annual pay data report to the California Civil Rights Department. The bill was amended to exclude counties and other local governments – applying provisions of the bill solely to the state. CSAC removed opposition and was neutral on the bill.  

SB 487 (Grayson) (Chapter 763, Statutes of 2025)
Workers’ compensation. This bill will provide that police and firefighters employed by local agencies who are injured by a third party are entitled to recover at least two-thirds of the amount owed by the third party in a civil claim. Effectively, the bill would limit the amounts counties and other public agencies could recover from third-party settlements or judgements to account for the cost of workers’ compensation claims. This bill was amended to exclude state police officers and firefighters from these provisions. Read our request for a veto here.  

SB 617 (Arreguin) (Chapter 229, Statutes of 2025)
California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act. This bill will expand employer requirements under the CalWARN Act, mandating additional information in layoff notices. Employers must include contact information for the local workforce development board (LWDB), a description of LWDB services, and information on CalFresh benefits. This bill strengthens the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act by increasing transparency in Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) around dislocated worker assistance and promote coordination between employers and local service providers. Read our request for signature here.  

Administration/General Government 

AB 370 (Carrillo) (Chapter 34, Statutes of 2025) 
California Public Records Act: cyberattacks. This bill will amend the definition of “unusual circumstances” in the California Public Records Act (PRA) to include instances where a public agency is unable to access its electronic records due to a cyberattack. This bill will provide some relief to public agencies facing system or server failures, allowing additional time to respond to PRA requests when cybersecurity incidents disrupt access to records. Read our letter in support here.   

AB 538 (Berman) (Chapter 616, Statutes of 2025)
Public works: payroll records. The Governor signed AB 538, which imposes a new state mandate on counties by requiring them to obtain payroll records from public works contractors upon public request if the agency does not already possess them. If a contractor fails to respond within 10 days, counties must notify Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement (DLSE), who are authorized to pursue penalties. This bill burdens counties with administrative responsibilities without granting enforcement authority, while exempting DLSE from new responsibilities. Read our request for a veto here.  

AB 1430 (Bennett) (VETOED)
County recorders: fees. This measure would have increased the statutory maximum fee for county recorders from $10 to $15 for the first page and from $3 to $4 for additional pages. Read our request for signature here.  

SB 413 (Allen) (Chapter 221, Statutes of 2025)
Juveniles: case file inspection. This bill will allow specified attorneys access to juvenile case files without requiring a court order for specified purposes. Recent amendments narrowed the types of cases eligible for this access and added protections for sensitive information including immigration status and details about minors who are not the subject of the case. This bill will improve efficiency and reduce costs for local agencies and courts by minimizing unnecessary delays in proceedings. Read our letter in support here.  

SB 707 (Durazo) (Chapter 327, Statutes of 2025)
This measure represents the most sweeping and ambitious changes to the Brown Act in several years. There was near certainty that a version of this bill would pass in 2025. CSAC worked throughout the year to ensure that county priorities were reflected in the final legislation and to mitigate as much of the costs or administrative impacts as possible. This represented a careful balance of the best interests of county governments and the accessibility of public meetings. The bill extends sunset dates on laws that provide meeting participation flexibility; adds new flexibility for multi-jurisdictional bodies, and addresses challenges in recruitment and retention for advisory bodies by allowing them the flexibility to meet remotely. New requirements are tempered by language that provides needed legal protection, ability to use low- to no- cost tools, and greater flexibility to administer.  Read our request for signature here.  

SB 777 (Richardson) (Chapter 658, Statutes of 2025)
Abandoned cemeteries: report. CSAC opposed this measure earlier in the year, when it would have required counties to absorb responsibility for managing abandoned cemeteries that had previously been operated by private entities. CSAC remained opposed to the bill after it was amended to instead require a local agency formation commission (LAFCO) to determine which local agency should assume responsibility for managing abandoned cemeteries. Ultimately, the bill was amended to require a working group that includes CSAC to submit a report to the legislature regarding recommendations for how abandoned cemeteries should be managed. CSAC removed opposition and was neutral on the bill.  

Revenue and Taxation 

AB 265 (Caloza) (VETOED)
Small Business Recovery Fund Act. CSAC supported this measure which would have established a small business recovery grant program, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to support small businesses directly impacted by a state of emergency or other specified emergencies. This bill was ultimately vetoed by the Governor due to funding concerns. Read our request for signature here. 

AB 418 (Wilson) (Chapter 149, Statutes of 2025)
Property taxation: tax-defaulted property. This bill will outline a process for counties to use during the Chapter 8 sales process to ensure that the property is disposed of in a transparent manner and affords property owners an administrative remedy if the property owner disputes the price set at a Chapter 8 tax sale. The bill will contain costs at the county level and ensures the fair collection and allocation of taxes for all local taxing entities. Read our letter in support here.   

AB 699 (Stefani) (VETOED)
Elections: local tax measures. This bill would have allowed election officials to refer voters to the Voter Information Guide for detailed tax rate information, rather than requiring lengthy text directly on the ballot. The intent was to increase transparency by offering more information to voters for these measures, giving local agencies the alternative to remove confusing language from the ballot and include detailed summaries. The Governor vetoed this bill stating that, as drafted, this bill will reduce transparency for local tax and bond measures. Read our request for signature here.  

SB 346 (Durazo) (Chapter 751, Statutes of 2025)
Local agencies: transient occupancy taxes: short-term rental facilitator. This bill will enact the Short-Term Renter Facilitator Act of 2025 to allow local agencies to require short-term rental facilitators to share specified rental data. This bill allows local governments to track and regulate short-term rentals and collect the appropriate transient occupancy taxes. Read our request for signature here.