Blogs

By: @Kyle Packham 

Friday, February 20, was the last day for lawmakers to introduce bills in the State Legislature this year, with California’s 80 Assembly Members collectively authoring 1,237 Assembly Bills and the 40 State Senators authoring 561 Senate Bills. As CSDA undertakes review of the combined 1,798 newly introduced bills, themes facing special districts are beginning to emerge.

The CSDA Legislative Committee held a four-hour marathon meeting on February 20 at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District to discuss legislation introduced in the first six weeks of the year, adopting priority positions on many measures. The committee will next meet March 20 to weigh positions on the more than 1,000 bills introduced in the final weeks before the Legislature’s deadline.

CSDA members can follow the Legislative Committee’s actions and information by subscribing to the CSDA Secondary Legislative Committee Distribution List. Members can find all CSDA-tracked legislation at Bill Tracking - California Special Districts Association.

One of the hottest topics arising this year includes legislation affecting artificial intelligence and automated decision systems. Meanwhile, housing and affordability generally remains the biggest issue of concern to voters and lawmakers alike.

Anticipating housing, and specifically development related fees, would remain at the forefront of public policy conversations in the second year of the legislative session, CSDA hosted a virtual tour in December on this important topic.

Visit 2025 Virtual Tour: Funding Infrastructure Essential for Housing - California Special Districts Association to download a tour packet, presentation slide decks, and share the informative videos with your peers:

• Funding Infrastructure Essential for Housing (4 minutes)
• Recording of 2025 Special Districts Virtual Tour (60 minutes)
• Meeting Emergency Response Needs of a Growing Community (3 minutes)
• Park District Planning Effectively for Fast-Growing Affordable Region (4 minutes)
• Water District Maximizes Investments Needed for Rapidly-Growing Region (5 minutes)

The 1,798 Assembly Bills and Senate Bills introduced since January 1, 2026 are in addition to 99 resolutions and constitutional amendments, as well as 374 two-year bills introduced in 2025 that passed their house of origin and remain eligible for consideration. Resolutions, constitutional amendments and urgency legislation requiring a two-thirds supermajority vote are not beholden to the February 20 bill introduction deadline.

According to information disseminated by veteran Sacramento lobbyist Chris Micheli, the 2026 bill introduction number was the lowest in 20 years. He also noted that 600 of the measures introduced (about one-third) were “placeholder” bills that must be amended with substantive language before they can be referred to a policy committee.

Placeholder bills are introduced for a variety of reasons but are primarily used to clear the bill introduction deadline and buy time for the author to have a vehicle available for a legislative purpose later in the year. There are two categories of placeholder bills, including “intent” bills that forecast what the author wants the bill to accomplish and “spot” bills, which simply make a minor or technical change to statute, such as a punctuation mark or other grammatical adjustment.

The deadline to amend spot bills with substantive language this year is March 16 in the Assembly and March 25 in the Senate. The last day for policy committees to meet will be May 8 and the last day for fiscal committees (or Appropriations Committees) to meet is May 15.

CSDA will be hosting Special Districts Legislative Days in Sacramento April 7-8. Don’t miss your opportunity to engage directly in the state legislative process at this pivotal time. Meanwhile, stay tuned to CSDA eNews and subscribe to Advocacy News for all of the latest information from the halls of the Capitol.

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