SACRAMENTO — California will cover the cost of tuition for first-year community college students under legislation Gov. Jerry Brown signed Friday.

AB19 by Assemblymen Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles; David Chiu, D-San Francisco; and Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, will save first-year, full-time students $1,104 a year by waiving the $46-per-unit fee. Beginning Jan. 1, the state will cover tuition for an additional 19,000 students who don’t already receive fee waivers for low-income students.

“This is a win for students, Californians and the economy,” McCarty said before the bill was signed. “We want to make sure students graduate from college with reduced debt.”

Students will still be responsible for other educational and living expenses if not covered by financial aid or scholarships. Lawmakers said they hope the bill will increase enrollment and college completion rates.

Enrollment spiked at City College of San Francisco this fall after the college made attendance virtually free for San Francisco residents who have lived in the state for at least a year. Enrollment jumped 16 percent over last year for an increase of nearly 4,900 students.

Lawmakers said more needs to be done to increase enrollment to ensure the state has the workforce needed in the coming years. California is expected to have a shortage of 1 million college-educated workers by 2025, with lawmakers saying AB19 will help bridge that gap.

“It’s an important step toward restoring the promise of public higher education in California, and we’re grateful to Gov. Brown for signing it into law,” said Max Lubin, a UC Berkeley student and founder of the student group Rise California, which advocates for free college tuition.

On Thursday, Brown also signed:

•AB485 by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, which requires pet stores in California to sell only rescue and shelter dogs, cats and rabbits. O’Donnell said the bill will drastically decrease the number of mass-bred animals that fill up shelters and rescues in the state. The bill goes into effect Jan. 1, 2019.

“This is a big win for our four-legged friends, of course,” O’Donnell said. “But also for California taxpayers who spend more than $250 million annually to house and euthanize animals in our shelters.”

•AB1127 by Assemblyman Ian Calderon, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County), which requires restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores, and other private and public buildings to have at least one diaper-changing station in both women’s and men’s bathrooms. The requirement affects new construction and bathroom renovations.

•AB1491 by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, which bans rent-to-own pet leases that have become popular financing methods for expensive dogs and cats. Consumers have complained that they did not understand that they were renting the pet and that their pet was subject to repossession if the loan was not paid back.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez