Mike Gatto

Gatto also authored AB 1900 and 2196, which created the modern renewable fuels industry in California.

Those pieces of legislation allowed, and set the framework for, farmers to turn cow dung and landfills to turn decomposing yard clippings into an ultra-clean transportation fuel, thereby creating a major renewable-energy market in California.

Gatto authored the California Homemade Food Act to allow small startup businesses to produce certain food products without the regulations for large commercial operators applying to them.

The Act was noted by KCRA as being beneficial to small businesspeople in the food-production sector.

Forbes stated the measure "created over a thousand local businesses."

Gatto's 43rd Assembly District included Burbank, Glendale, La Crescenta, La Canada Flintridge, and the Los Angeles communities of Atwater Village, Franklin Hills, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, the Hollywood Hills, and half of Hollywood.

Michael Anthony Gatto, (born October 19, 1974) is an American public official.

After being elected to the California State Assembly in a special election, he served as Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Chairman of the Consumer Protection & Privacy Committee, and Chairman of the Utilities & Commerce Committee, and was the author of several pieces of notable legislation.

He served four terms, representing Los Angeles, Glendale, and Burbank.

Data analyses of the voting records conducted by the Sacramento Bee newspaper concluded that Gatto was one of the most independent lawmakers.

Gatto is known for authoring and passing the first California Rainy Day Fund, a constitutional amendment to force the state to put away money during good times—a measure that California Governor Jerry Brown subsequently adopted as his own.

Gatto earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1996 and a J.D. from Loyola Law School's night school, magna cum laude, in 2004.

He worked as a top aide to Congressman Brad Sherman for five years, during and after law school.

As an attorney, he worked first at O'Melveny & Myers and later at Mayer Brown; his practice focused on representing small- and medium-sized businesses to resolve issues with the government.

Gatto also served in the administrations of three successive mayors of Los Angeles as President of the El Pueblo (Los Angeles Historical Monument Authority) Commission.

Gatto won three elections in seven weeks in 2010, and was sworn into the Assembly in mid-June.

During the election, Gatto secured the endorsement of the Los Angeles Daily News, which wrote that Gatto was "fiscally minded and intelligent... the kind of legislator California needs."

In 2010, Gatto introduced legislation to reduce municipal pension costs.

His bill sought to cap the exposure of well-managed cities when less frugal (or corrupt) municipalities offered top officials excessive salaries.

In October 2010, Gatto authored ACA 4, the Rainy Day Fund (or "savings account") for the State of California.

The constitutional amendment mandated that the legislature, during years of strong revenues, follow a strict program limiting expenditures.

First, the state would have to fulfill all obligations to education, then deposit up to 10% of general fund revenues into a savings account, to be used during years of weak revenue.

After that, the state would be mandated to pay down bond debt.

Gatto's Rainy Day Fund legislation passed both houses of the legislature and was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the 2011-2012 session, Gatto served as Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore of the California Assembly.

One of Gatto's bills in 2011 would have required the state to study embedding piezoelectric sensors in state highways, which produce electrical energy by the vibrations vehicles make as they traverse the pavement.

In August 2012, Gatto was appointed chair of the assembly's powerful Appropriations Committee.

In September 2012, Gatto introduced a bill requiring the California DMV to establish the California Legacy License Plate Program, bringing back replicas of black license plates issued in California in the 1960s.

Gatto's 2013 legislation included a bill to forbid cities from writing tickets to motorists who park at broken parking meters that a city has failed to repair.

He also authored legislation which would give small businesses a safe harbor for correcting deficiencies in Proposition 65 warnings without being subject to financial penalties and lawsuits, the first substantive Prop.

65 reform ever.

Gatto also authored legislation to make better use of carpool lanes during off-peak hours.

In mid-2013, Gatto pushed for an audit of the Child Protective Services departments in the state of California, based on the concern that they were not spotting child abuse fast enough.

In 2014, Gatto introduced a landmark federal constitutional amendment to force Congress to address campaign-finance reform.

He introduced a number of measures to address hit-and-run crashes.

In October 2019, Gatto authored a statewide ballot initiative to comprehensively address the state's homelessness crisis.

In March 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom adopted the same principles in Gatto's proposal.

Gatto grew up in the Franklin Hills and Silver Lake neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

His grandfather was an immigrant coal miner.

Gatto was raised, and is a practicing Roman Catholic.