Hundreds of new California laws take effect Jan. 1, including dozens by local lawmakers.

For years, gridlock has been the leading narrative to describe Congress. But California state lawmakers did better: they sent 1,074 bills to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk in 2014, and Brown signed 930 of those into law. Legislators repping the Central Coast were responsible for dozens of successful new laws, with effects ranging from state-level bureaucratic tweaks to funneling cash from Sacramento to Monterey County.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest legislative accomplishments by State Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel; State Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres; Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville; and Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley. All of these new laws take effect Jan. 1.

Monning’s SB 1087 requires training on sexual harassment and prevention for farm labor contractors and supervisors. It was Monning’s response to the documentary Rape in the Fields, telling the stories of women farmworkers being attacked and intimidated.

Another kind of safety bill will require people to take a short test and get a license before operating a motorized boat on any waterway in California. A constituent who’d lost her son in a boating accident had been trying to get a lawmaker to take up a similar bill for 12 years before Monning introduced SB 941.

Cannella’s SB 1255, known as Revenge Porn 2.0, expanded on an earlier bill to include selfies. The bills criminalize the dissemination of pornographic photos with ill intent, even if the photos were taken willingly. In December, a Los Angeles man became the first in the state to be convicted under Cannella’s bill. He was sentenced to a year in jail and 36 months probation.

“As technology evolves, it is important that government act to protect our citizens from new types of crime,” Cannella writes by email.

Under Cannella’s SB 1339, California’s Drug Medi-Cal outpatient treatment program clinics will be subject to greater fraud prevention oversight.

Alejo partnered up with state Attorney General Kamala Harris on two bills, AB 1585 and AB 1609. The first allows victims of human trafficking to clear their own criminal records. “It will allow victims to have a fresh start,” Alejo says.

The second passed over opposition from Second Amendment advocates. The law mirrors existing federal law, and will allow California law enforcement to prosecute people for bringing firearms into the state illegally. Between 59 and 65 percent of guns seized in California are either untraceable or registered outside the state.

Stone was a champion for California’s poor again last year, authoring AB 1614, a consumer protection bill for EBT cards, which are like debit cards pre-paid with public benefit money. The new law is designed to get EBT cards working more like regular ATM cards, avoiding surcharges and fees, which totaled $19 million last year.

“It’s not sexy, but it’s key to make the system function for whom it was intended to function,” Stone says.

Similarly wonky but significant: The Healthy Babies Act (AB 1579) adjusts the timing during a pregnancy when women can tap into Calworks benefits. And AB 2236 increases the fines licensed community care facilities can pay if their patients die.

Monning’s SB 936 – co-authored by Alejo, Cannella and Stone – is estimated to save Monterey Peninsula ratepayers $30 million-$60 million on California American Water’s proposed seawater desalination project. It allows a public entity, Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, to issue bonds at a lower rate than Cal Am, a private utility.

Besides bringing cash home, Monning says the bill is a pioneering plan for water infrastructure.

“It’s a tool used in the energy industry for electric and gas,” he says. “It’s the first time it will be used for water.”