“I thank my colleagues in both houses for their support on my bills, which cover a range of topics that are important to the people of the 2nd Senate District,” Wiggins said. “I also appreciate the fact that the Governor has already signed three of my bills into law, which gives me hope that he will sign the others as well.”
In numerical order, the Wiggins bills awaiting a decision by Schwarzenegger are as follows:
SB 108, which modifies an existing provision of law allowing wine orders to be taken at wine tasting events held by specified non-profit organizations to include three additional types of non-profit: civic leagues, social organizations, and voluntary employees' beneficiary associations;
SB 319, extending an existing exemption to state labor law allowing 16- and 17-year-olds in Lake County to work up to 10 hours a day and up to 60 hours a week in agricultural packing plants during harvest season (when school is not in session);
SB 557, designating Doctors of Audiology as professionals eligible to serve as qualified medical examiners for the evaluation of medical-legal issues in worker’s compensation claims;
SB 565, providing for the position of “hospital administrator” at the Yountville Veterans Home;
SB 568, authorizing counties to allow, following a required court hearing, the involuntarily medication of inmates who are diagnosed as mentally ill and are found incompetent to stand trial (the bill requires involuntary medications be administered utilizing a medically approved protocol administered at a county jail facility, in the same manner as an in-patient unit or state hospital);
SB 581, allowing the Volunteer Firefighter Length of Service Award fund (an employee-funded program that provides a very small monthly stipend to people who perform long service to their communities as volunteer firefighters) to be removed from administration by CalPERS and placed with a stand-alone board of administration composed of members of the program);
SB 678, enabling Napa County to purchase Skyline Park, which is currently state surplus property, from the state at fair market value;
SB 701, which would reinstate the previously-expired California Forest Legacy Program, which is designed to protect forest land, including working forests, from conversion to other purposes (the California Forest Legacy Program is necessary for the state to receive federal funds for forest conservation);
SB 735, requiring the state Department of Transportation, or CalTrans, to track the use of recycled aggregate materials;
SB 773, allowing 43-foot cattle trailers to be used in transporting livestock over certain parts of Hwy 101;
SB 861, enabling the North Coast Railroad Authority to divert $5.5 million, previously designed for repayment of a federal loan which has since been forgiven, for other purposes;
The three Wiggins bills already signed into law by the governor are SB 106 (ratifying the gaming compact between the Yurok Tribe and the state), SB 556 (establishing the Light Brown Apple Moth Act of 2007 and establishing a program to fund eradication activities), and SB 813 (clarifying portions of the state election code).
In addition, Wiggins has a number of bills that are still alive and will be carried over into 2008, among them:
SB 562, focusing on salmon restoration funding;
SB 695, focusing on recruitment and retention of wardens at the state Department of Fish & Game;
SB 992, focusing on adult recovery maintenance facilities.
Visit Wiggins' Web site at http://dist02.casen.govoffice.com/.
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