CivicSignal | California Ballot Desk | October 15, 2026
Proposition 45: current-law verification record
Article comparison table | The Signal Desk homepage
Method and controlling sources
Checked the Legislature's official Legislative Information code pages and their cross-reference chaptered bills views on October 15, 2026. The research fetcher returned access challenges, but ordinary browser access succeeded. This is direct official-source verification, not reliance on an unofficial substitute. Read amendment notes and the relevant chaptered 2026 laws; distinguish enactment, effective date, and an expressly deferred operative date. Pending bills are not current law.
The Secretary of State's final Proposition 45 text, Attorney General summary, and current LAO analysis remain the controlling proposal sources. Rechecked October 15; no material change identified in the approved proposal framing.
CEQA statutory baseline
| Official section | Version / timing verified | Comparison consequence |
|---|---|---|
| PRC 21091 | AB 819, Stats. 2021, ch. 97, section 3; effective January 1, 2022. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | General EIR 30-day minimum, 45 for specified state involvement; negative declaration 20/30. Existing exceptions and limited shortening remain relevant. Prop. 45's periods are caps, not uniformly lower numbers. |
| PRC 21100.2; 21151.5 | 21100.2: AB 2564, Stats. 2012, ch. 487, section 5; expressly operative January 1, 2018. 21151.5: Stats. 1996, ch. 808, section 3; effective January 1, 1997. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | Existing state/local private-project review limits and exceptions; one year for EIRs, 180 days for negative declarations. Do not equate the proposal's 365 business days with one calendar year. |
| PRC 21167 | AB 2965, Stats. 2022, ch. 38, section 1; effective January 1, 2023. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | Explicitly add the existing 35-day notice-of-exemption window, versus the proposal's 30. Retain 30-day determination and specified 180-day no-notice paths. |
| PRC 21167.6 | SB 131, Stats. 2025, ch. 24, section 19; effective June 30, 2025. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | Current record already excludes specified privileged, logistical, and internal communications, with statutory distinctions. Do not claim every agency email is currently admissible. Proposal still materially narrows the record. |
| PRC 21168; 21168.5 | Stats. 1976, ch. 1312. Official text and chaptered cross-references checked. | Existing administrative-mandamus / prejudicial-abuse review includes required procedures and substantial evidence. Proposal changes more than timing. |
| PRC 21168.6; 21168.7 | Added by Stats. 1972, ch. 1154. No later chaptered amendment shown in the section indexes. | PUC-specific writ provision and declaratory existing-law provision; not a general deadline or general new remedy. Initiative separately preserves PUC judicial-review laws. |
| PRC 21168.9 | Stats. 1993, ch. 1131, section 9; effective January 1, 1994. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | Existing approval-voiding and suspension powers are already tailored. Prop. 45's no-rescission restriction is additional. |
| Special sections in the range: full official Chapter 6 | 21168.6.2: SB 676, Stats. 2025, ch. 550, effective January 1, 2026, but its review procedure applies on and after January 1, 2027. 21168.6.6: AB 3265, 2024 ch. 255, effective January 1, 2025. 21168.6.7: AB 734, 2018 ch. 959. 21168.6.8: AB 987, 2018 ch. 961; conditional January 1, 2025 repeal clause. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed for these sections. | Reviewed intervening decimal sections, not just the endpoints. Special media-campus and stadium programs are not a general CEQA rule. Do not count the wildfire rebuilding procedure as operative in October 2026 or assume a conditionally repealed program's applicability to a new project. |
Permit Streamlining Act
| Official section | Version / timing verified | Comparison consequence |
|---|---|---|
| GOV 65928; 65940 | 65928: SB 158, Stats. 2025, ch. 650, section 3, effective October 11, 2025. 65940: SB 489, Stats. 2025, ch. 518, section 2, effective January 1, 2026. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | Existing development-project definition and published completeness checklists already matter; housing and post-entitlement exclusions require care. |
| GOV 65943; 65944 | 65943: AB 130, Stats. 2025, ch. 22, section 19, effective June 30, 2025. 65944: SB 242, Stats. 2019, ch. 142, section 3, effective January 1, 2020. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | 30 calendar days, exhaustive missing-items list, deemed completeness, limits on later requests already exist. Section 65944 preserves supplemental CEQA information. Strengthen article to prevent overstating novelty. |
| GOV 65950; 65950.1; 65951 | 65950: SB 158, Stats. 2025, ch. 650, section 4, effective October 11, 2025. 65950.1 added 1983 ch. 1240. 65951 amended 1998 ch. 283. 2026 enactment found: SB 1433, ch. 57, section 64, changes “sixty” to “60” in 65950(a)(6), not the duration; ordinary January 1, 2027 effective date. | General 180-day EIR lead clock; specified housing 90/60; negative declaration/exemption 60; ministerial and qualifying exempt housing have separate clocks. 65950.1 and 65951 preserve special 90-day rules. No uniform “all permits currently take 180 days” claim. |
| GOV 65952 | AB 1007, Stats. 2025, ch. 502, section 1; effective January 1, 2026. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | General responsible-agency later-of-180 clocks; covered housing 45; specified Coastal Commission / BCDC / water-board decisions 90. Add these exceptions to the final comparison. |
| GOV 65956; 65957 | 65956: AB 130, Stats. 2025, ch. 22, section 25, effective June 30, 2025. 65957: Stats. 1998, ch. 283, section 4, effective January 1, 1999. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed. | Existing deemed permit approval is separate from deemed completeness; notice/hearing obligations remain. Written extensions and statutory exceptions matter. Article now explicitly explains the distinction. |
Material labor references
The initiative's section 21031 generally imports outside statutes/regulations as of December 31, 2025, except Labor Code 218.9 as of January 1, 2026. These are not rolling references to whatever a statute says at implementation.
- GOV 65913.4: current code reflects SB 597, Stats. 2025, ch. 774, section 2, effective January 1, 2026. Checked the earlier SB 423 chaptered text, including (a)(8)'s prevailing-wage provisions, for the pre-2026 reference. The initiative itself limits its stated use of that provision to housing buildings above 85 feet. Do not replace the frozen reference with the current full housing statute.
- 2026 enactment found: AB 2390, Stats. 2026, ch. 799, approved/filed September 29, changes 65913.4's modification review and approval-validity rules, not the article's described prevailing-wage cross-reference. No urgency clause; ordinary January 1, 2027 effectiveness. It is recorded, not silently treated as operative October law or imported into Prop. 45's frozen reference.
- PRC 21183.5: SB 1380, Stats. 2022, ch. 28, section 137, effective January 1, 2023; prevailing-wage / skilled-and-trained workforce rules with statutory qualifications. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed.
- PRC 21080.66(d)(3), (5): SB 158, Stats. 2025, ch. 650, section 9, effective October 11, 2025; specified housing labor protections / committee-enforcement rules, not a universal new wage claim. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed.
- LAB 218.9: SB 597, Stats. 2025, ch. 774, section 5, effective January 1, 2026. Initiative expressly uses that date and extends stated wage liability to owners. No chaptered 2026 amendment listed.
January 1 compilation versus current official law
The state-hosted AEP compilation is an expressly unofficial January 1 snapshot. It was not evidence of no later legislation. Direct checks confirmed the cited general CEQA provisions still have the same operative amendment versions; the 2025 SB 131 record exclusions were already part of that baseline. The permit comparison now explicitly reflects SB 489 and AB 1007 changes effective January 1, 2026. Labor SB 597 is effective January 1, 2026 but must not overwrite the initiative's December 31 references.
Two chaptered 2026 amendments were found in the relevant indexes: SB 1433 section 64 and AB 2390. Neither changes today's comparison result. Both are ordinary regular-session enactments; California Constitution Article IV, section 8(c)-(d) supplies the effective-date rule. Enacted does not mean operative today. SB 676 is the converse caution: effective January 2026 but its special review procedure begins January 2027.
Result: The legal-baseline verification was completed October 15, 2026. The article incorporates precision corrections to existing-law comparisons and source documentation. The primary record supports the finding that the initiative narrows court powers and participation as well as changing clocks. Future material source changes warrant revisiting the assessment.