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The ballot initiative seeks to revise Prop 47 to boost criminal penalties for repeat offenders of theft and certain drug crimes.
Backers of a new measure are confident they'll have enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
One co-author also pushed back on the idea that Prop. 47 is responsible for the recent spike in retail theft incidents.
Lawmakers are also considering a revision of Prop. 47, which increased the threshold for misdemeanor theft from $450 to $950.
Supporters of the initiative said they’re collecting signatures quickly, because Californians are in favor of changing the law.
“It seems like we’ve just created this narrative,” Mr. Newsom said. “That’s not the fundamental issue ... it’s the other issues that are not Prop. 47 related.”
With retail theft impacting communities statewide, a new bill aims to tackle concerns related to a measure passed by voters in 2014 that reclassified some felony crimes as misdemeanors.
Some prosecutors said at the first committee hearing that existing laws, including Prop. 47, are allowing many crimes to go unpunished.
Some argued that ‘data drives decisions’ and said they needed more information to act upon, and the lack of data mainly stems from inconsistent reporting.
