Transform’s Legislative Priorities for 2025

This year marks the beginning of a new two-year legislative session with a number of new legislators in the California Assembly and Senate. That has led to a bumper crop of bills relating to transportation, housing, and climate. Transform is supporting several bills, opposing one, and watching many others to see how they develop through the legislative process.

Top-priority bills

Transform’s top priorities this year are Bay Area transit funding, Cap-and-Trade reauthorization, an equitable road charge, an affordable housing bond, and preventing an environmentally fraught highway widening.

Regional transportation funding measure

Senators Scott Weiner and Jesse Arreguín are leading the campaign to shore up the finances of the Bay Area’s transit providers with SB 63. The bill is on our watch list because it contains only intent language for now. Transform, as part of the Voices for Public Transportation coalition, is carefully watching for what funding source will be selected, how the revenue will be spent, and what accountability mechanism will be required.

Cap-and-Trade reauthorization

California’s Cap-and-Trade Program is up for reauthorization this year, though the new terms won’t take effect until 2030. AB 1207, introduced by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, and SB 840, introduced by Senators Monique Limón and Mike McGuire, will be the legislative vehicles for reauthorization. Both bills state their intent to reauthorize the Cap-and-Trade Program but don’t specify the terms under which it will operate, as those details will be hashed out through the committee process and legislative working groups. 

Transform is leading a coalition of advocacy organizations working to make the program more equitable and more effective at reducing carbon emissions and pollution in environmental justice communities. For now, these measures are on our watch list; we hope they will become bills we can wholeheartedly support.

State housing bond

A pair of measures, AB 736, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, and SB 417, introduced by Senator Christopher Cabaldon, prep the Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026 for a statewide ballot in the June 2026 primary. 

California is facing a housing crisis, with only 17% of households able to afford the median-priced home, less than half the national average. Over half of renters, including 65% of low-income renters, are “rent burdened,” spending over 30% of their income on housing, leaving less for essentials like food, transportation, and healthcare. This measure authorizes $10 billion in general obligation bond funds to support the construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable housing and permanent supportive housing.

Road usage charge study

In 2014, California passed a law to study road usage fees as an alternative to the gas tax. As more drivers switch to EVs and fuel-efficient vehicles, gas tax revenue will continue to decline, threatening needed investments in transit, walking, biking, and roadway maintenance. A road usage fee would charge all drivers based on the number of miles driven and ultimately could replace the gas tax entirely. The Road Usage Charge Study Bill, AB 1421, introduced by Assemblymember Lori Wilson, adds another eight years to the study period to continue to study and pilot the best way to implement a road usage fee, including ways to mitigate its impact on low-income and rural drivers. Transform strongly supports road user fees if they are designed to advance equity and climate by incentivizing drivers to use alternate transportation and providing funding for transit and active transportation infrastructure and programs. We want to see an income-based road user charge evaluated in future pilots.

Two bills Transform is opposing

Transform doesn’t oppose many bills. But there are two bills this year that champion policies we have to take a stand against: making housing more expensive and fast-tracking an ill-advised highway widening.

Forcing Californians to pay for unwanted parking

A few years ago, as part of a legislative push to update California’s building codes with the goal of reducing building costs and making housing more affordable, the legislature passed AB 1317 (W. Carrillo), unbundling parking from housing. Before that measure, a parking spot might be included in the cost of a rental or condo, whether the resident needed it or not. Car-free renters, who are overwhelmingly low-income, should not be forced to pay, on average, 17% higher rent for an amenity that they do not use. Unbundling also encourages better use of parking spaces and, in the long term, can reduce the cost of building housing as developers build additional units instead of parking spots, which can cost $19,000 or more.

Senator Aisha Wahab’s SB 381 reverses this excellent policy. It will lead to more money wasted on empty parking spaces instead of affordable housing and encourage more driving.

No highway expansion through protected habitats 

Transform opposes the planned widening of Highway 37 for many reasons: highway widening is not a long-term solution to congestion and increases GHG emissions; more affordable housing in Napa and Marin Counties is the true solution to congestion on this highway; and the area in question will be underwater due to sea level rise within about a decade and will need to be raised. Adding to the many reasons this highway widening is a terrible solution to transportation problems in this area is the fact that the road runs through a sensitive habitat with many endangered species. The Highway Through Sensitive Habitat Bill, AB 697, is a free pass to ignore threatened species, such as the California clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse, as road construction intrudes on sensitive ecosystems. Transform is opposing this bill on principle and for the dangerous precedent it sets.

Bills Transform supports

We have a long list of excellent bills we are supporting this legislative session. Some watch list bills may move to the support column as they make their way through the legislative process.

• Slow School Zones (AB 382, Berman): This bill would change the way communities can institute slow zones around schools and improve safety for students.
• Transit Passes for LA Community College Students (AB 861, Solache): A measure enabling LA Metro to work with the LA Community College District to give free passes to students and create a student ambassador program on LA transit. Versions of transit passes for students have been floated before and haven’t passed; we hope this one does.
• Caltrans Quick-Build Pilot (AB 891, Zbur): This bill would introduce a pilot at Caltrans to use quick-build to move active transportation and transit improvements through the agency’s pipeline at an accelerated rate. Considering the years it normally takes to get a Caltrans project from planning to groundbreaking, this is a welcome initiative. 
• Bicycle Highways (AB 954, Bennett): The bicycle highways pilot would provide funding to create connected, off-road bikeways through two major California cities. It’s an excellent way to make bike travel safer, more appealing to a wider range of riders, and also faster.
• Lower Speed Limits on State Roadways (AB 1014, Rogers): A few years ago, AB 43 gave local jurisdictions greater ability to lower speed limits, but the same rules did not apply to state routes, many of which serve as local streets. This bill applies similar speed limit rules to streets controlled by Caltrans, bringing greater safety to those streets too.
• Transit Board Members Ride the Bus (AB 1070, Ward): This bill would prohibit transit boards from providing compensation to any member who couldn’t prove they used the transit system at least a minimum amount during the prior month. It’s a welcome change that ensures the people making decisions about transit agencies have experience riding their systems.
• Transportation Resilience Assessment (AB 1132, Schiavo): This bill would require California’s Department of Transportation to assess and report on the vulnerability of community access to our transit systems, in addition to assessing risks to infrastructure and disruptions due to climate change.
• CEQA Exemption for Transit, Bike, and Pedestrian Projects (SB 71, Wiener): The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires environmental review of certain types of construction projects. A few years ago, Senator Wiener passed a bill to exempt active transportation planning and construction from CEQA until 2030 because these types of projects have a built-in positive environmental impact. This bill would extend the exemption indefinitely.
• The Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act (SB 222, Wiener): This bill will create a private right of action for individuals injured by climate disasters and extreme weather events to recover their losses from the oil and gas companies that misled the public about the harm their products would cause.
• Rent Control Preservation Act (SB 522, Wahab): California law prohibits local rent control ordinances from applying to buildings built after 1995, which makes existing rent-controlled units a precious commodity. When rent-controlled units are destroyed due to disaster, this bill extends rent controls to the units built to replace them. While California voters have rejected past attempts to revise California’s outdated rent control regulations, we think this is a reasonable step to stem the loss of affordable housing in our state. 

Legislative watch list

At this stage in the legislative session, many bills are placeholders with language to be developed through committee hearings and negotiations. Transform is watching a number of bills to see how they develop. 

Just because we’re monitoring rather than supporting these bills doesn’t mean they aren’t significant. For example, we’re closely watching the Safe, Sustainable, Traffic-Reducing Transportation Bond Act of 2026, AB 939, which would put a $20 billion transit and rail bond on the statewide ballot in 2026.

• AB 36 (Soria) Housing elements: prohousing designation
• AB 314 (Arambula) California Environmental Quality Act: major transit stop
• AB 394 (Wilson, D) Crimes: public transportation providers
• AB 590 (Lee) Social Housing Bond Act of 2026
• AB 609 (Wicks) Housing Accountability Act
• AB 939 (Schultz) The Safe, Sustainable, Traffic-Reducing Transportation Bond Act of 2026
• AB 1223  (Nguyen) Local Transportation Authority and Improvement Act: Sacramento Transportation Authority
• AB 1244 (Wicks) Multifamily Housing Program: definitions
• AB 1275 (Elhawary) Regional housing needs: regional transportation plan
• AB 1340 (Wicks) Metropolitan Transportation Commission: duties
• ACA 4 (Jackson) Homelessness and affordable housing
• SB 73 (Cervantes) California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions
• SB 79 (Wiener) Planning and zoning: housing development: transit-oriented development
• SB 262 (Wahab) Housing element: prohousing designations: prohousing local policies
• SB 358 (Becker) Mitigation Fee Act: mitigating vehicular traffic impacts
• SB 445 (Wiener) Sustainable Transportation Project Permits and Cooperative Agreements
• SB 492 (Menjivar) Youth Housing Bond Act of 2025
• SB 607 (Wiener) California Environmental Quality Act: categorical exemptions: infill projects
• SB 772 (Cabaldon) Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019: applications: eligibility

We’ll provide periodic updates as these measures move through the legislature. And we’ll work with our allies, in the legislature and out, to advocate for stronger bills that preserve transit operations, expand housing opportunities, and reduce climate-killing carbon emissions.