Full Agenda
Krell gets busy in her new Assembly job
By Jeff Harris
February 2025
From immigration policy to human trafficking legislation, Maggy Krell has a long list of goals as the city’s new state Assembly representative.
Housing comes first. Throughout the campaign and since her election last November, Krell listened to constituents. She found clarity in the public’s priorities.
“What I’m hearing is the cost of living and specifically the cost of housing is too high in California,” she says.
Krell’s approach to housing solutions involves collaboration with city and county leaders. One possibility is to repurpose unused state properties for housing and educational uses.
Soon after taking office, Krell walked Downtown streets with Mayor Kevin McCarty and representatives from the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.
Among the discussions were the possibilities of collecting property taxes on state buildings to bolster city revenue—an old idea that deserves consideration.
I met Krell in 2013 when I campaigned for City Council. At that time, she was running for Sacramento County district attorney against Anne Marie Schubert. Krell lost and returned to work at the state attorney general’s office under Kamala Harris.
Krell focused on stopping slave labor and sex trafficking. Her efforts contributed to the seizure and shutdown of the “adult services” website Backpage.com by federal authorities in 2018.
Later that year, Krell became general counsel to Planned Parenthood. She is a champion of women’s access to reproductive health care and worked to enshrine abortion rights in the California Constitution.
As an assemblymember, Krell wants to install legal guardrails around social media companies such as Instagram and TikTok to prevent human trafficking.
She knows content restrictions disrupt social media sites and require creative legislation. While she promotes protective legislation, Krell continues to aid victims of trafficking and establish pathways for victims to build successful lives.
The state’s immigration policies intersect with Krell’s anti-trafficking efforts. Many exploited workers are undocumented. Other undocumented immigrants operate in underground economies and exploit workers. Krell wants to establish legislative safeguards against wholesale deportations, while protecting victims.
Krell is fiscally realistic. For budgetary goals, she says, “Replenish the state’s rainy-day budget fund and raise the cap on how much we put in it.”
Whenever I speak with Krell, I come away believing she’s a truth seeker. Politically, she’s a centrist, earnest and practical—the hallmarks of a true public servant.
Jeff Harris represented District 3 on City Council from 2014 to 2022. He can be reached at cadence@mycci.net. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
