Could this CA bill make self-checkout faster?

If the confusion and delays caused by self-checkout machines irritate you, California’s Legislature is considering a bill that aims to bring you some relief during your next shopping trip. But businesses say the proposal could drive up prices.

As CalMatters’ Maya C. Miller explains, the measure would require stores to designate at least one employee to help self-service customers and monitor the stands. Stores must also impose restrictions on the type and number of items a customer could bring through self-checkout, and they would need to have at least one traditional staffed checkout lane.

Proponents of the union-backed proposal say it would make self-checkout stations more efficient. Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, the bill’s author and chairperson of the Senate labor committee, also argues that it would make stores safer for workers, since understaffed stores are likelier targets for shoplifters. 

• Smallwood-Cuevas, a Los Angeles Democrat, at a June Senate floor session: “This is about supporting our workforce, to make sure that they’re safe, but mostly to also make sure that they’re providing the level of service that customers expect and deserve.”

But with Californians struggling with the state’s high cost of living, business groups and grocers say that the bill would add labor costs that retailers will pass along to consumers by raising prices. 

They also have concerns over one of the measure’s provisions, which they say could lead to local municipalities passing their own stricter requirements, such as the one Long Beach recently enacted that requires stores to assign at least one worker for every three self-checkout machines.

• Daniel Conway, a lobbyist for the California Grocers Association, at a June committee hearing: “This seems like a clear example of why Californians pay the highest prices for groceries, regardless of what checkout line they go through.”

Read more here.

For the record: Monday’s newsletter did not include a link to CalMatters’ story about California potentially having to forgive PG&E’s loan to keep Diablo Canyon operating. Read it here.

From CalMatters politics reporter Maya:

Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to have ordered workers back to the office based on vibes rather than data on worker productivity, according to a newly released report from the California state auditor’s office.

The audit, which legislators ordered in May 2024 after Newsom first ordered workers back to the office two days per week, found that Newsom’s office not only failed to gather “important information” about departments’ office space needs and the associated costs, but also did not use any California state worker-specific productivity data to justify its in-office mandate. Earlier this year, Newsom signed a new executive order that upped the required in-office days from two to four. 

The governor’s office also ignored findings from its own telework oversight agency, the Department of General Services, which had collected estimates from departments on how much office space they would need to fulfill the mandate. 

Supporters of work-from-home cheered the report as further vindication for their claims that Newsom’s return-to-office mandates were capricious, politically motivated decisions rather than a true effort to increase worker productivity. Union leaders say adoption of flexible hybrid work policies can simultaneously save the state money and aid emissions goals by reducing commuter traffic. 

With spending cuts to social services and tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the rich, President Donald Trump’s budget bill doesn’t offer much to like for California Democrats. But tucked inside the spending plan is a provision that housing advocates have been pushing for years and could help the state develop more affordable housing, write CalMatters’ Ben Christopher and Marisa Kendall.

Included in Trump’s budget is an increase in support for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which is the most important federal funding source for affordable housing. California uses this tax credit for low-income projects, and experts say this could help the state double the number of affordable units over the next decade.

Though it’s unclear how much the state’s housing situation will change due to the additional support — factors including tariffs, labor costs and state funding still need to be considered — a state committee that oversees the credits has already approved changes that incentivize developers to make the most of the new policy.

Read more here.

If passed, a proposed ballot initiative to change the way California regulates property insurance would prevent the public from intervening in rate filings and change the role of insurance commissioner from an elected office to a gubernatorial appointment. Find out who is proposing this measure from CalMatters’ Levi Sumagaysay.