Carole Migden

(Senate Bill 1827).

Carole Migden (born August 14, 1948, in New York City) is an American politician from San Francisco who represented the third district of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008 and the 13th district of the California State Assembly from 1996 to 2002.

She is the state's second openly lesbian legislator.

Migden's former district, the 3rd Senate district, includes parts of San Francisco, Sonoma County, and Marin County.

Migden was born August 14, 1948, in New York City.

Migden is Jewish.

Migden has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Adelphi University and a Master of Arts degree from Sonoma State University.

Prior to that, she had served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (1991–1996).

She also chaired the San Francisco Democratic Party for eight years and is a former member of the Democratic National Committee.

Migden was the Chairperson of California Senate Labor & Industrial Relations Committee and the Chairperson of the Senate Majority Caucus.

She was previously the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair.

She was, at the time, the only openly lesbian state legislator from Northern California.

She was previously a member of the California State Assembly (1996–2002), where she became the first freshman, first woman, and first lesbian to chair the Committee on Appropriations.

In 1998, Migden authored the '‘Safe Needles Act'’ (AB1208 - 1998) that became a national model for legislation that President Clinton signed into law in 2000.

Prior to this bill being passed, needles injured 100,000 health care workers a year.

Migden authored the '‘Clean Water Act'’ in 1999 that imposed tougher penalties on industrial polluters dumping harmful toxins in California waterways.

She also authored the Headwaters Forest and SF Wetlands/Cargill legislation that enabled the state preservation of the ancient Headwaters Forest and restoration of the San Francisco Baylands into a wildlife habitat and recovery of endangered species.

Over the last seven years Migden has authored legislation for domestic partnership in California providing benefits to the LGBT community and unmarried senior citizens.

Assembly Bill 26 in 1999 marked the first time in the nation a state legislature passed a domestic partnership statute without forcible intervention of the courts.

(Assembly Bill 26).

Migden's SB 565 provided for the legalization of the transfer of property between domestic partners without reassessment for tax purposes (Senate Bill 565) and provided for the filing of domestic partner income-tax returns under the same status as married couples.

She was also Chairwoman of the California Board of Equalization (2002–2004), the nation's only publicly elected tax commission.

In 2002 Migden authored legislation (AB 1860) requiring the state to provide information regarding the "morning after" contraception to female victims of sexual assault.

Staunchly opposed to the war in Iraq, Migden became one of the first critics of the war and passed a Senate resolution making California the first state in the nation to formally oppose the surge of troops in Iraq.

In February 2004, she married Cristina Arguedas, a criminal defense attorney and her partner since 1985, in a ceremony at San Francisco City Hall officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

In 2005, Migden's SB 663 closed tax loopholes allowing corporate giants to put millions in offshore tax shelters and depleting the state of revenues.

Migden has authored legislation to improve foster care that created new programs such as transitional housing, increased savings accounts, and adoption incentives for parents adopting teenagers.

Migden has authored legislation providing for rapid HIV testing (AB 1263), protection of health care workers from needle injuries (AB 1046) and enabling of HIV positive people to have healthy children (SB 443).

In the fall of 2007 Migden helped resolve a five-year- standoff between Marin County and the state of California regarding property taxes taken by the State and diverted to fund education deficits.

With rising property tax values, the state decided to withhold an additional $4 million of county generated tax revenues to pay for programs for troubled children throughout California.

Marin officials claimed the state was forcing the county to shoulder an unfair degree of state oriented funding.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed two bills pushed forward by Migden to resolve the issue.

Migden's third bill passed and resulted in cutting the amount of surplus funds the county will annually pay to the state by half.

The bill resulted in an extra $1.9 million a year for Marin County and a total return of $24.7 million to the area.

In 2009, Migden was appointed State Commissioner of the California Integrated Waste Management Board (2009-2010), promoting green technology and a zero-based waste policy.

In 2011, Appointed Commissioner of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (2011-2012), set up to protects the legal rights of agricultural workers.

In the State Assembly, Migden served for five years as Chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.

She was the first woman and the first lesbian to chair that committee.

She also served for four years as a conferee on the state's Joint Budget Conference Committee, which writes the final version of California's state budget.

As a member of the State Assembly, Migden authored legislation to create California's domestic partner registry, promote children's health, preserve the old growth Headwaters Forest, increase accountability in K–12 schools, protect borrowers from predatory and deceptive lending practices, protect consumers from manipulation by energy generators, and promote the use of emergency contraception.