The 2025 legislative session ended on Saturday. Here’s what cities need to know

By Brian Hendershot, Cal Cities Advocate managing editor. Additional contributions by Cal Cities Advocacy Team.

The Legislature finished up its work mid-afternoon on Saturday, with mostly beneficial results for cities. Lawmakers managed to stabilize a jittery Cap-and-Trade market and Cal Cities' eight remaining sponsored measures - including housing element reform - breezed through to the Governor's desk.

However, Cal Cities' work is far from over. The Governor has until Oct. 13 to sign or veto the hundreds of bills on his desk. Here are the top bills cities should consider advocating for or against over the next four weeks.

Environmental Quality

The bulk of the immediate post-session media coverage was understandably focused on changes to the state's Cap-and-Trade Program. (More on that later this week and apparently, next year: SB 840 (Limón) would create the new funding framework, including $1 billion for the Legislature to allocate as part of the annual budget process.)

But lawmakers also sent a host of other bills to the Governor's desk, including the Cal Cities-sponsored AB 996 (Pellerin). The bill would help coastal and bay cities meet the already-required sea level rise plans that must be completed by 2034. It joins SB 454 (McNerney), another sponsored measure that would help fund local efforts to remove forever chemicals from water supplies.

"PFAS has been used in thousands of products during the past eight decades, so forever chemicals have contaminated a substantial portion of our water," said McNerney, whose bill sailed through without a single no vote.

Also awaiting action is SB 415 (Reyes), which would clean up a controversial warehouse siting and design law from last year. The measure would address many of the concerns raised by Cal Cities.

Cal Cities is urging the Governor to sign all four measures.

Housing, Community, and Economic Development

The final vote counts for AB 650 (Papan) and SB 79 (Wiener) followed a now well-established trend. AB 650 passed unanimously, and SB 79 squeaked through with just the bare minimum number of votes.

Sponsored by Cal Cities, AB 650 would significantly improve the housing element review process by encouraging local jurisdictions to begin planning earlier and providing greater clarity and certainty to a difficult and complex process.

SB 79 would force cities to approve higher-density residential projects near specific transit stops with limited environmental review and public engagement. Strong city opposition made for a tight fight, but several lawmakers moved to support the bill after securing concessions in one of its many revisions. With the Governor likely to sign SB 79, stakeholders have already begun floating the idea of clean-up legislation next year.

Cal Cities is asking the Governor to sign AB 650 and veto SB 79.

Community Services

Cal Cities' sponsored community services bills already landed on the Governor's desk in advance of the weekend vote fest.

For the second year in a row, Newsom has the opportunity to reverse years of legislative inaction on recovery housing oversight. AB 424 (Davies) would require the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to notify individuals when their complaint has been received, when the investigation concludes, and the outcome of the investigation. AB 492 (Valencia) would require DHCS to notify a city if the department approves a new license in its jurisdiction.

"We've been working on this issue for over a decade, and I do think we're seeing more progress than we've seen in the past 10 years," Caroline Grinder, Cal Cities legislative advocate, told the Orange County Register. "It does seem like we're building momentum."

Also awaiting the Governor's signature is SB 456 (Ashby). The measure would provide a narrow exemption from state contractor license requirements for muralists working on public and private art projects.

Revenue and Taxation

SB 346 (Durazo), Cal Cities' sponsored short-term rental reform, is awaiting the Governor's signature. The bill would require short-term rental facilitators, at the request of a city, to provide the property address of a short-term rental listing to a city. It would also give cities audit authority for transient occupancy taxes collected and remitted by short-term rental facilitators.

On Monday, Politico reported that Airbnb plans to spend an additional $1 million strengthening its ties with Newsom and Democratic lawmakers. While not aimed specifically at SB 346, a spokesperson did say it will back candidates who "champion home sharing and tourism."

For many cities and legislators alike, SB 346 is simply about playing by the rules. "While short-term rentals support visitation and bring revenue to our communities, they also can cause negative community impacts, including upward pressure on the availability and affordability of workforce housing," said Truckee Mayor Jan Zabriskie last week. "In Truckee, we manage short-term rentals in order to better balance these competing interests."

Also on the Governor's desk is AB 330 (Rogers). The measure would extend the sunset date on the Local Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Surcharge Collection Act to 2031. Currently, 102 cities and 2 counties use the act to help fund emergency services. Cal Cities is urging the Governor to sign the bill.

Transportation, Communications, and Public Works

Two measures supported by Cal Cities cleared their final legislative hurdles with zero no votes. AB 620 (Jackson) would allow cities to rent zero-emission vehicles, rather than buy them, when complying with the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation. (Newsom vetoed a similar measure last year.) The Cal Cities-sponsored AB 476 (González, Mark) would help reduce metal theft and improve enforcement. Although the measure's enhanced charges for repeat offenders were struck, new reporting requirements and restrictions for scrap metal recyclers are still in place.

In less good news, AB 538 (Berman) also skated through to the Governor's desk. The measure would require cities to obtain certified payroll records from a contractor and make them available when requested. Local agencies do not maintain such records, and the bill makes no effort to give cities enforcement powers to seek them out. Cal Cities is urging the Governor to veto the measure.

Governance, Transparency, and Labor Relations

After almost turning it into a two-year bill, legislators sent SB 707 (Durazo) to the Governor's desk. The measure would create new remote public comment and translation requirements, new exemptions from certain teleconferencing requirements, and extended sunsetting Brown Act laws - including a teleconferencing law set to expire in 2026.

Lawmakers also sent AB 339 (Ortega) and SB 827 (Gonzalez) to Newsom. AB 339 would require cities to give unions no less than 45 days' written notice before contracting services within the scope of the job classifications represented by the recognized employee organization. The bill's impractical, unclear language would impose considerable costs, create new legal liabilities, and slow down public services.

SB 827 would make changes to existing ethics training requirements and require certain local agency officials to receive at least two hours of fiscal and financial training at least once every two years. Cal Cities urged the author to apply those same ethics standards to lawmakers, which she refrained from adopting. As such, Cal Cities is asking the Governor to veto the bill.

Public Safety

A host of measures aimed at improving home hardening and other property-level wildfire mitigation efforts passed out of the Legislature. Cal Cities is asking Newsom to sign all four: AB 1 (Connolly), AB 888 (Calderon), SB 326 (Becker), and SB 616 (Rubio).

Cal Cities is also urging the Governor to sign two police officer education bills. AB 992 (Irwin) would require police officers hired on or after Jan. 1, 2031, to obtain specified college degrees, including modern policing, within 36 months of obtaining their basic certificate from the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST). SB 385 (Seyarto) would repeal the requirement that the POST adopt standards based on the report to the Legislature by November 2025.

Additionally, Cal Cities is requesting the Governor's signature on SB 701 (Wahab). The bill would make it a crime to create, sell, or operate a signal jammer and increase penalties for operating a signal jammer in connection with criminal activity - especially if it results in significant injury or death.

What's next?

Once the Legislature passes a bill, Gov. Gavin Newsom has 30 days to sign or veto the measure. This means he has until Oct. 13 to sign the hundreds of bills that passed over the weekend. Cal Cities has already prepared dozens of sample sign/veto letters for the measures above: More will become available over the next few days. To learn more about Cal Cities' remaining priority measures, contact your regional public affairs manager.