Economic relief: California Emergency Relief Fund.

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist, and establishes the California Emergency Relief Fund to provide emergency resources and relief relating to state of emergency declarations proclaimed by the Governor. Existing law transferred $150,000,000 from the General Fund to the California Emergency Relief Fund for purposes relating to the COVID-19 emergency proclaimed by the Governor on March 4, 2020. Existing law authorizes the Controller to make a one-time payment to qualified recipients in a form and manner determined by the Franchise Tax Board. This bill would require the Controller to issue one-time cost-of-living payments of specified amounts to qualified recipients, as defined, from the California Emergency Relief Fund. The bill would transfer, from the General Fund to the California Emergency Relief Fund, the amount necessary for the Controller to issue these one-time payments, and would appropriate that amount from the California Emergency Relief Fund to the Controller for that purpose. The bill would require the Controller to issue the payments by June 15, 2023, to the extent practicable. The Personal Income Tax Law imposes a tax on individual taxpayers measured by the taxpayer's taxable income for the taxable year, but, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows various exclusions from gross income. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure, as defined to include exclusions from income, to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would exclude the one-time cost-of-living payments described above from the gross income of qualified recipients for personal income tax purposes. The bill would also include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure This bill would make findings and declarations related to a gift of public funds. The California Constitution generally prohibits the total annual appropriations subject to limitation of the state and each local government from exceeding the appropriations limit of the entity of government for the prior fiscal year, adjusted for the change in the cost of living and the change in population, and prescribes procedures for making adjustments to the appropriations limit. The California Constitution makes certain specified appropriations exempt from this total annual limit if certain requirements are satisfied, including appropriations approved by a 23 vote of the Legislature relating to an emergency declared by the Governor. This bill would provide that the appropriations made by the bill are appropriations relating to the state of emergency declared by the Governor on March 4, 2020, relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, and pursuant to the above-described constitutional provision are not subject to the annual appropriations limit set by the California Constitution when passed by a 23 vote of the Legislature.