'Suspense' Is Over as Powerful Senate Panel Decides Fate of Spending Bills

The state Senate’s powerful Appropriations Committee determined the fate of hundreds of bills on Thursday during its Suspense File hearing, when lawmakers make decisions on bills with annual price tags of more than $150,000.

The opaque biannual process ended with the death of proposals that would have given teachers tax breaks, renovated buildings at the University of California and Cal State, and made it easier to pass local taxes to fund transportation.

Overall, the process that one senator dubbed "Bloody Thursday" proved to be forgiving toward the most high-profile bills making their way through the Senate.

An effort to create a single-payer health care system, others to fund and streamline affordable housing development, and a bill to reform the state's bail system all advanced to the floor.

The following five bills were among those not as fortunate. Due to Appropriations Committee rules, we'll never know which senators voted against these proposals, as the roll calls on measures that are labeled "held in committee" are not released.

Bills That Didn't Advance:

SB 305 This legislation from Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Oakland) sought to invest $20 million in low-interest loans to upgrade unsafe live-work spaces. It was introduced in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which broke out in an unpermitted living space and killed 36 people . The measure did not propose any new source of funding, which Skinner predicted could pose a challenge in the Appropriations Committee.

SB 472  Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Tehama) pushed a proposal to end the demarcation of :free speech zones" on California public colleges campuses. In the wake of heated debates over whether University of California campuses should allow controversial speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter, Nielsen hoped to limit schools to placing only certain logistical restrictions, such as the location and noise of free speech.

SB 483 Last year, California voters approved $9 billion in bond funds to upgrade K-12 school buildings. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Concord) wanted voters to pass another bond in 2018 to fix UC and Cal State facilities. Legislative analysts say the state already has $73.4 billion of general obligation bond debt. Selling lawmakers on adding to that "wall of debt" with a proposal that would benefit the UC system (currently in hot water with state lawmakers) was too high a hurdle to overcome. Not helping Sen. Glazer: His recent vote against SB 1, the massive transportation funding bill that barely gained the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate.

SB 807 Sen. Henry Stern (D-Ventura) proposed to help teachers struggling to get by in California with two tax breaks. Aspiring teachers could use a tax credit toward half of what it was costing them to earn a credential. Teachers working in a high-poverty school between their sixth and 10th year could exclude half of their income from tax purposes. Aside from the general fund price tag (a projected annual loss of roughly $40 million in tax dollars), the measure was opposed by the powerful California Teachers Association. They preferred the tax money be paid to the state and directed to schools, and worried that a large tax break would undermine public support for the teaching profession.

SCA 6 This proposed constitutional amendment from Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would have lowered the threshold for approving local transportation taxes from two-thirds to a 55 percent vote. Wiener pointed to the increased need for transportation funding in the state, and initiatives like last year's Measure X in Contra Costa County, which failed despite receiving 63 percent of the vote. Anti-tax groups pushed back against the proposal, and it may have lost urgency after the Legislature approved a $52.4 billion transportation infrastructure package that included money for local transit.

On Friday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee will go through its Suspense File, which includes hundreds more bills than on the Senate side.