sought to cap the exposure of well-managed cities when less frugal (or corrupt) municipalities offered top officials large 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. 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 Magazine stated the measure "created over a thousand local businesses." In August 2012, Gatto was appointed chair of the assembly's Appropriations Committee. In September 2012, Gatto introduced a bill requiring the California DMV to establish the California Legacy License Plate Program, bringing back exact 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