---
type: "Bill"
title: "Water theft: enhanced penalties."
description: "Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or a county to make, by ordinance, any violation of an ordinance subject to an administrative fine or penalty and limits the maximum fine or penalty amounts for infractions, to $100 for the first violation, $200 for a 2nd violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation, and $500 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "SB 427"
citation: "California SB 427 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Water theft: enhanced penalties."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Eggman"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 23
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2021-02-12"
last_action: "2021-07-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/93bae362-8cf9-40de-9c58-dc35a75a1475"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB427"
source_hash: "1e71afe5a787f85a86271740161079da75f10a3144ebd0be69e301816aa4a832"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California SB 427 (20212022) — Water theft: enhanced penalties.

Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or a county to make, by ordinance, any violation of an ordinance subject to an administrative fine or penalty and limits the maximum fine or penalty amounts for infractions, to $100 for the first violation, $200 for a 2nd violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation, and $500 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/12/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB427&version=20210SB42799INT)
2. **03/25/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB427&version=20210SB42798AMD)
3. **04/12/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB427&version=20210SB42797AMD)
4. **07/23/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB427&version=20210SB42795CHP)
5. **SB427** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB427)
6. **07/14/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB427&version=20210SB42796ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Public Safety] — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 427 Eggman Senate Third Reading By COOPER — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading — **36–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **8–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Eggman — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-02-12** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2021-02-16** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 18.
- **2021-02-22** Art. IV. Sec. 8(a) of the Constitution dispensed with.
- **2021-02-22** (Ayes 32. Noes 4.)
- **2021-02-22** Joint Rule 55 suspended. (Ayes 32. Noes 4. Page 272.)
- **2021-02-25** Referred to Coms. on GOV. & F. and PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-24** Set for hearing April 8.
- **2021-03-25** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-08** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 727.) (April 8). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-12** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-13** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2021-04-13** Ordered to second reading.
- **2021-04-14** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-03** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 1005.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-03** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-13** Referred to Com. on L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-10** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 9). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-14** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-07-12** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 2308.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-07-12** In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
- **2021-07-15** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2021-07-23** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-07-23** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 137, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/93bae362-8cf9-40de-9c58-dc35a75a1475`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).