California legislators are considering a bill to help those affected by the Garden Grove chemical emergency over Memorial Day weekend.
With a threat that a compromised tank at the GKN Aerospace plant could leak or explode, sending dangerous and toxic chemicals over a section of Orange County, more than 50,000 people from six cities were evacuated late last month. Residents have since been able to return home, albeit accompanied by new fears about the nearby aerospace plant.
• Related: Back at home across from Garden Grove’s GKN Aerospace, these residents are filled with anger, angst
To help those affected, Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, is behind a bill that would let residents and businesses exempt legal settlement payments from their income taxes. At this point, the bill applies to legal settlements or payouts, not judgments, related to the chemical emergency.
“When families are compensated for expenses caused by an evacuation, that money should stay with the people who were affected,” Ta said.
“The goal of this bill is simple: make sure disaster victims can keep every dollar intended to help them move forward,” he added. “The state should not be taking a share of those funds through income taxes.”
Assembly Bill 760 is backed by Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein, Stanton Mayor David Shawver and Westminster City Councilmember Amy Phan West.
“At a time when families are struggling with an affordability crisis, this legislation is the right approach,” bill co-author Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, said. “Throughout and after the hazmat incident, I heard directly from residents and business owners about the financial strain they faced as they worked to recover.”
At a recent Garden Grove City Council meeting, a GKN executive apologized on behalf of the company, saying he understood how “disruptive” and “unsettling” the incident was to the community.
Late last month, several lawsuits against GKN Aerospace quickly began showing up in state and federal courts. They generally alleged negligence on the part of the United Kingdom-based company and described it as being a public nuisance following the apparent failure of emergency systems involving the compromised chemical tank. Most of the lawsuits sought class action status.
Ta’s bill was only amended last week and has been referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
In other news:
• With primary Election Day in the rearview mirror, Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, pushed a pair of bills last week aimed at strengthening California’s elections. Dubbed the “Hands Off Our Elections” initiative, Umberg said the bills are meant to curtail federal interference into how the state conducts its elections.
One of his bills, Senate Bill 884, would increase the number of vote-by-mail drop-off locations across the state. But it would also let the state or local governments “place reasonable restrictions on polling places located on their property” and allow county elections officials to keep polls open longer if it’s been determined that arrests or electioneering activities near polling places disrupted voting.
Another, Senate Bill 46, seeks to block presidential or vice presidential candidates from appearing on California’s ballot if they do not “fully meet the qualifications for office.” Umberg has said this is an effort to prevent a president from attempting to seek a third term, since the U.S. Constitution explicitly says no president can be elected more than twice.
“California is facing serious threats to the integrity of our elections, and we will not treat those threats as idle or theoretical,” Umberg said. “We need to take proactive steps now to safeguard voters and preserve confidence in the electoral process.”
Both bills are in the Assembly.
• The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body of Formula 1, recently weighed in on a bill in the California Legislature.
The FIA signaled its support for legislation that’s been dubbed “Leno’s Law,” which seeks to exempt certain collector motor vehicles, built between 1976 and 1985, from smog check requirements. Comedian and car enthusiast Jay Leno is supporting the bipartisan bill, sponsored by Sens. Dave Cortese, D-San José, and Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield.
“These are not daily drivers. They are historic vehicles that are rarely driven, carefully maintained, and used primarily for shows, parades, charitable events, exhibitions, display, maintenance, and preservation,” Senate Bill 1392‘s analysis described.
California law requires smog checks on cars at initial registration, and biennially upon the renewal of the registration, and again if ownership is transferred. Cars that have a manufactured year of 1975 or earlier, and are defined as a collector vehicle, can be exempt from certain smog tests. But those vehicles also must meet emissions standards and pass inspections for fuel cap and liquid fuel leaks, Grove’s office has said.
“These vehicles are typically owned by passionate collectors and used primarily for shows, parades, charitable functions, historical exhibitions, and educational purposes. Their environmental footprint is negligible when compared to the broader vehicle fleet, particularly because the bill is limited to a very small, narrowly defined collector-vehicle population,” Giuseppe Redaelli, president of the FIA International Historical Commission, and Willem Groenewald, FIA’s secretary general for mobility, sustainability, and tourism, said in a letter to lawmakers.
“It is worth noting that many European countries, despite maintaining some of the world’s strictest motor vehicle emissions standards, have adopted more flexible and thoughtful approaches to regulating classic vehicles,” they said. “These policies recognize that the environmental impact of historic vehicles and that preserving automotive heritage is a legitimate public interest.”
The Petersen Automotive Museum is also among the bill’s supporters, while opponents include the Sierra Club and the American Lung Association in California.
The bill was recently referred to the Assembly Transportation Committee, and a hearing has been scheduled for June 29, a spokesperson for Grove said Friday.
Staff writer Sean Emery contributed to this report.