Public resources: omnibus trailer bill.

(1) Existing law requires a tax return filed with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) that reports gross receipts for sales and use tax purposes to segregate the gross receipts of the seller and the sales price of the property on a line or a separate form when the place of sale in this state or for use in this state is on or within the real property of a state-designated fair, as defined, or any real property of a state-designated fair that is leased to another party. Existing law requires, on or before November 1 of each year, the CDTFA to report to the Department of Finance the total gross receipts segregated on these tax returns, and that 34 of 1% of the total gross receipts be included in the next annual Governor's Budget for use by the Department of Food and Agriculture for allocation to fairs and that those funds be transferred by the Controller to the Fair and Exposition Fund in the State Treasury, as prescribed. This bill would, for the 2019–20 fiscal year and all subsequent fiscal years, make the total gross receipts subject to review by the CDTFA for errors. The bill would require the CDTFA to note any identified errors and the approximate impact of those errors on the total gross receipts in its report to the Department of Finance to allow an adjusted total gross receipts amount to be determined for the purpose of calculating the amount to be included in the Governor's Budget for use by the Department of Food and Agriculture for allocation to fairs. (2) The Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, approved by the voters as Proposition 12 at the November 6, 2018, statewide general election, prohibits (A) a farm owner or operator within the state from knowingly causing any covered animal to be confined in a cruel manner and (B) a business owner or operator from knowingly engaging in the sale within the state of certain items that the business owner or operator knows or should know is the product of a covered animal who was confined in a cruel manner. The act defines a covered animal to mean a calf raised for veal, breeding pig, or egg-laying hen who is kept on a farm. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. The act requires the Department of Food and Agriculture and the State Department of Public Health to jointly promulgate rules and regulations for the implementation of the act. This bill would require the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to adopt, by regulation, fees to cover the Department of Food and Agriculture's reasonable regulatory costs of the administration, implementation, and enforcement of laws governing the confinement of animals, as described in Proposition 12, as prescribed. The bill would require the fees to be separately accounted for in the Department of Agriculture Account, Department of Food and Agriculture Fund. (3) The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating any debt or liability that, individually or in the aggregate, exceeds $300,000, unless an exception applies. The Constitution authorizes the Legislature to reduce the amount of the indebtedness authorized by law at any time after the approval of law by the people to an amount not less than the amount contracted at the time of the reduction. The Earthquake Safety and Public Buildings Rehabilitation Bond Act of 1990 authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $300,000,000 to finance, among other things, the costs of retrofitting, reconstruction, repair, replacement, or relocation of state buildings or facilities that are seismically unsafe. The Water Conservation Bond Law of 1988 authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $60,000,000 to finance capital outlay water conservation projects and programs to help meet the growing demand for clean and abundant water supplies in the state. This bill would reduce the amount of indebtedness authorized by the Earthquake Safety and Public Buildings Rehabilitation Bond Act of 1990 and the Water Conservation Bond Law of 1988 to $292,510,000 and $54,765,000, respectively. (4) The Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Act of 2016 prohibits a person from disposing, or attempting to dispose, of a lead-acid battery at a solid waste facility or on or in any land, surface waters, watercourses, or marine waters, but authorizes a person to dispose of a lead-acid battery at certain locations. The act imposes a manufacturer battery fee on a manufacturer of lead-acid batteries for each lead-acid battery it sells at retail to a person in California, or that it sells to a dealer, wholesaler, distributor, or other person for retail sale in California. The act creates in the State Treasury the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund and requires that the fees collected pursuant to the act, except for specified administrative expenses, be deposited into the fund. The act provides that moneys in the fund are available upon appropriation by the Legislature to the Department of Toxic Substances Control for specified activities, including, among others, the investigation or site evaluation of any area of the state that is reasonably suspected to have been contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility. This bill would explicitly require moneys in the fund to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, on specified activities to protect public health and the environment from hazardous substances and hazardous waste at or from the former Exide Technologies lead-acid battery recycling facility in the City of Vernon. The bill would require that, notwithstanding any other law, any costs incurred by the department using moneys from the fund that are recovered be deposited into the fund. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes. (5) Existing law establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Natural Resources Agency to provide fire protection and prevention services, as specified. Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to work cooperatively with other public agencies of local, state, and federal government to encourage these agencies to undertake forest resource improvement work, as provided. Existing law authorizes the director to enter into contracts or cooperative agreements with these agencies to provide, among other things, technical assistance and necessary supervisorial personnel. Under existing federal law, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to National Forest System land, and the United States Secretary of the Interior, with respect to Bureau of Land Management land, are authorized to enter into good neighbor agreements with a Governor to carry out specified forest, rangeland, and watershed restoration services, as provided. This bill would establish in the State Treasury the Good Neighbor Authority Fund to be administered by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection under the direction of the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency. The bill would make moneys in the fund available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, and as authorized by federal law, and to the extent not in conflict with federal law or federal Good Neighbor Authority agreements, for state departments or agencies to undertake forest health and fuels reduction projects on federal lands executed through these agreements, and to fund costs associated with planning, implementing, and maintaining these projects, as provided. The bill would require the fund to be the depository for revenues derived from the sale of forest products from federal lands, as authorized by federal law, and to the extent not in conflict with federal law or federal Good Neighbor Authority agreements, to support those activities. The bill would authorize state departments or agencies engaged in federal Good Neighbor Authority agreements to accept grants and donations, as provided, to be transferred to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and deposited into the fund for use by state departments or agencies engaged in federal Good Neighbor Authority agreements to support those activities at the direction of the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency. (6) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board administers a water rights program pursuant to which the state board grants and revokes permits and licenses to appropriate water. Existing law requires a person who holds a permit or license to appropriate water, leases water pursuant to specified provisions of law, or files a specified application, registration, petition, request, or statement relating to water use to pay fees imposed by the state board, calculated in accordance with a fee schedule adopted by the state board. Existing law establishes the Water Rights Fund, which consists of various fees and penalties imposed pursuant to the water rights program, and authorizes the state board to use moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the administration of the water rights program. Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency or local agency to apply for, and the state board to issue, a conditional temporary permit or conditional temporary change order for the diversion of surface water to underground storage for beneficial use that advances the sustainability goal of a groundwater basin, as specified. This bill would require the state board, in setting the fee schedule for the above-specified conditional temporary permit or conditional temporary change order, to also include an amount estimated by the state board, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, necessary to recover costs incurred by the department under those provisions. The bill would provide that moneys in the Water Rights Fund are available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, by the department for purposes of carrying out those provisions, consistent with the amounts estimated by the state board. The bill would also make technical changes. (7) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (federal act) and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Under the federal act, any applicant seeking a federal license for an activity that may result in any discharge into the navigable waters of the United States is required to first seek a state water quality certification, as specified. The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act authorizes the state board to certify or provide a statement to a federal agency, as required pursuant to federal law, that there is reasonable assurance that an activity of any person subject to the jurisdiction of the state board will not reduce water quality below applicable standards. The federal act provides that if a state fails or refuses to act on a request for this certification within a reasonable period of time, which shall not exceed one year after receipt of the request, then the state certification requirements are waived with respect to the federal application. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report for a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would authorize the state board to issue a certificate or statement required by any federal agency under federal water quality control laws that an activity subject to the jurisdiction of the state board will comply with applicable requirements of that federal law or any other appropriate requirements of state law. The bill would authorize the state board to issue these certificates or statements before completion of any environmental review required under CEQA if the state board determines that waiting until completion of environmental review poses a substantial risk of waiver of the state's certification authority under federal water quality control laws. The bill would require the state board, to the extent authorized by federal law, to reserve authority to reopen and revise the certificate or statement as appropriate based on the information provided in the environmental document prepared for the project. (8) Existing law creates the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy in the Natural Resources Agency and, among other things, authorizes the conservancy to acquire and hold specified lands in the Coachella Valley and the surrounding mountains for certain open-space, wildlife protection, and recreational uses. Existing law establishes the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Fund, available upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of parks and resources improvement, including $5,000,000 to the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy for the acquisition, development, enhancement, and protection of land, and for related administrative costs. This bill would appropriate $73,000 from the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Fund to the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy. (9) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.