California Air Resources Board

Summary

Would have established the Equity, Climate Resilience, and Quality Jobs Fund in the State Treasury and required, to the extent authorized by the federal jobs acts, as defined, one percent of all qualified moneys from the federal jobs acts to be transferred into the fund to be utilized by the California Workforce Development Board for specified purposes. The bill would have also required the establishment of memorandums of understanding and reporting of labor standards’ outcomes from affected State agencies, such as CARB.

View full bill text here

Governor’s Veto Message

To the Members of the California State Senate:

I am returning Senate Bill 1375 without my signature.

This bill establishes the Equity, Climate Resilience, and Quality Jobs Fund and requires one percent of all qualified monies from the federal jobs acts to be transferred into the fund for specified purposes, including the development of poverty-reducing programs and labor standards.

California has long led the nation with strong worker protections, from robust health and safety standards to requiring livable wages to ensuring protections against discrimination in the workplace. For public works projects, state standards include both prevailing wage and minimum apprentice-to -journeyperson requirements to protect and promote these high-quality jobs. The state has also made historic investments in pre-apprenticeship programs to further reduce barriers. This structured pathway builds partnerships between the state, building and construction trades, local workforce boards, community colleges, and community-based organizations to recruit and support individuals from disadvantaged communities on their path to an apprenticeship program.

When the Biden-Harris Administration launched historic federal infrastructure investments, I issued an Executive Order creating an Infrastructure Strike Team within my Administration to coordinate work across all state agencies. This year, we launched www.build.ca.gov to highlight the state's key investments and issued guidelines for programs to embed equity in project development. Additionally, in March, my Administration established the California Jobs First Council to focus on streamlining the state's key economic and workforce development programs and create more jobs, faster.

I strongly support efforts to maximize state and federal funding opportunities to deliver high-quality jobs that increase opportunities for all communities and decrease disparities in historically disadvantaged areas. However, creating a memorandum of understanding process with potentially 200 independent agreements and establishing an entirely new regulatory framework, as envisioned by this bill, is unnecessary to accomplish this goal. Significant coordination between state agencies is well underway to build upon the state's existing strong workforce development programs and worker protection laws.

For these reasons, I cannot sign this bill.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom

View Governor’s veto message here