Existing law regulates home protection companies, which issue contracts for the repair or replacement of a component, system, or appliance of a home. Existing law prohibits a person from issuing or offering a home protection contract unless the person holds a home protection company license issued by the Department of Insurance, as specified. This bill would, notwithstanding the above-described provisions, prohibit a person or entity from selling or offering any form of a home protection contract unless the person is licensed as an insurance agent or broker, falls under a specified exemption, or has been issued a license under the provisions described below. The bill would provide for the licensure of an applicant and require specified information be submitted to the Insurance Commissioner along with a written application, including an application fee, as specified, and a certificate by a home protection company or insurer stating that it is satisfied that the named applicant is trustworthy and competent to act as an agent on its behalf. The bill would authorize an endorsee, as defined, to act on behalf of, or under the supervision of, a licensee, as defined, in matters relating to selling or offering home protection contracts, if specified conditions are met. The bill would require the licensee to provide specified training to an endorsee prior to allowing the endorsee to sell or offer home protection contracts. The bill would also require a licensee to provide the training materials with the initial application for a license, and whenever the materials are changed, for review and approval by the department. The bill would prohibit the licensee or endorsee from selling or offering a home protection contract under specified circumstances, including through telephone solicitation, as defined. The bill would prohibit the licensee from specified actions, including selling a contract without providing the prospective customer with specified information. The bill would also authorize the commissioner to take specified disciplinary actions for a violation of these provisions after notice and hearing, including suspending or revoking the license of the licensee. The bill would authorize the commissioner to send an application for renewal to the licensee, through mail or an electronic delivery method, not less than 60 days before a license period, as defined, expires. The bill would place the responsibility for renewal on the licensee, whether or not they receive an application from the commissioner, and would require the licensee to pay a renewal fee. The bill would require the commissioner to impose a penalty fee equal to 12 of the renewal fee for a renewal filed after the license period expires, unless specified circumstances occur.
Existing law creates the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a local area planning agency for the 9-county San Francisco Bay area with comprehensive regional transportation planning and other related responsibilities. Existing law creates various transit districts located in the San Francisco Bay area, with specified powers and duties relating to providing public transit services. Existing law requires the commission to adopt rules and regulations to promote the coordination of fares and schedules for all public transit systems within its jurisdiction, as specified. This bill would create the Regional Network Management Council as an 11-member council to represent the interests of its stakeholders, to provide leadership and critical input on regional transit policies, and to provide executive guidance on regional transit policies and actionable implementation plans in pursuit of transformative improvements in the customer experience San Francisco Bay area transit. The bill would require the commission to facilitate the creation of the council. By requiring the commission to facilitate the creation of the council, and requiring certain employees of specified local agencies to serve on the council, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct audits on the internal controls of the department, as specified. This bill would require the department to, on or before July 1, 2025, and on or before July 1 each year thereafter, submit a report to the Governor, the Legislature, the Senate Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, and the Assembly Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs. The bill would require the report to include, but not be limited to, a description of significant problems discovered by the department's internal auditor and a summary of investigations and reviews conducted by the department during the previous year. The bill would additionally require the report to be made available to the public, as specified.
Senate Resolution 94 officially designates June 1, 2024, as California Adopt-a-Pet Day to encourage pet adoptions across the state. This proclamation aims to help shelters find homes for 2,024 animals during a special event organized by animal welfare groups. The resolution does not change any laws or policies but serves as a formal declaration to support a one-day campaign. It is intended to raise awareness and facilitate adoptions without altering existing regulations or funding.
(1) Existing law creates the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a local area planning agency for the 9-county San Francisco Bay area with comprehensive regional transportation planning and other related responsibilities. Existing law creates various transit districts located in the San Francisco Bay area, with specified powers and duties relating to providing public transit services. This bill would authorize the commission to raise and allocate new revenue and incur and issue bonds and other indebtedness, as specified. In this regard, the bill would authorize the commission, until January 1, 2041, to impose a retail transactions and use tax, a regional payroll tax, a parcel tax, and a regional vehicle registration surcharge in all or a subset of the 9 counties of the San Francisco Bay area, except as specified, in accordance with applicable constitutional requirements. The bill would prohibit a tax or surcharge described above from being imposed for a period of time of more than 30 years. The bill would require the parcel tax to be collected by counties and the other 3 taxes to be collected by specified state agencies, and would require the net revenues from those taxes to be remitted to the commission, as prescribed. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with county transportation authorities, to develop an expenditure plan for the expenditure of the revenues expected to be generated by the tax or surcharge, together with other federal, state, and local funds expected to be available for transportation improvements, as specified. The bill would require, before the election on the tax or surcharge, the expenditure plan to be approved by county transportation authorities representing counties meeting certain criteria, as provided. The bill would require the revenue generated pursuant to these provisions to be used for transportation improvements in the San Francisco Bay area, including for various transit purposes, and would require the commission to allocate those revenues in accordance with specified requirements. By adding to the duties of local officials with respect to elections procedures for revenue measures on behalf of the commission, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law establishes the Transportation Agency, consisting of various state agencies under the supervision of an executive officer known as the Secretary of Transportation, who is required to develop and report to the Governor on legislative, budgetary, and administrative programs to accomplish comprehensive, long-range, and coordinated planning and policy formulation in the matters of public interest related to the agency. This bill would require the Transportation Agency to select a transportation institute, as defined, to conduct an assessment that analyzes the benefits and disbenefits to riders, and the administrative, financial, legal, contractual, and governance feasibility, of various forms of consolidation and enhanced coordination, as defined, among transit agencies, as defined, that are located in the 9-county San Francisco Bay area. The bill would require that assessment to be completed on or before January 1, 2026, and would require, as part of that assessment, the transportation institute to identify specified information about each transit agency and to consider certain topics relating to consolidation and enhanced coordination. Based on the findings of the assessment, the bill would require the Transportation Agency, on or before January 1, 2027, to develop a report of recommendations that, among other things, identifies opportunities for the consolidation or enhanced coordination, or both, of 2 or more agencies and provides specific recommendations for the consolidation or enhanced coordination of transit agencies and their governing bodies without resulting in the elimination of programs and transportation services, as specified. The bill would establish the Bay Area Transit Consolidation and Coordination Technical Assistance Fund in the State Treasury for the deposit of moneys that can be used for specified purposes, including paying for the cost of conducting the assessment and preparing the report, as specified. The bill would require the assessment and the report to be submitted to the Legislature upon completion. (3) Existing law requires the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to adopt rules and regulations to promote the coordination of fares and schedules for all public transit systems within its jurisdiction, as specified. This bill would revise and recast this provision by, among other things, providing that the commission is responsible for implementing a seamless transit rider experience across the San Francisco Bay area and requiring those rules and regulations to also promote the coordination of mapping and wayfinding, real-time transit information, and other customer-facing operating policies, as specified. The bill would also declare that it is the intent of the Legislature that the commission implement and sustain specified outcomes in undertaking these responsibilities. The bill would require the commission to submit an annual report to the Legislature on the status of those outcomes and the status of transit ridership in the San Francisco Bay area. By imposing additional duties on the commission, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (4) Under existing law, a transit operator within the jurisdiction of the commission is not eligible to receive funding allocated by the commission pursuant to the State Transit Assistance Program unless it has complied with the above-described rules and regulations adopted by the commission. This bill would also make a transit operator ineligible to receive an allocation from the commission of specified revenues generated by the new taxing authority authorized by the bill if the operator is not in compliance with those rules and regulations. (5) Existing law requires designated transportation planning agencies to prepare and adopt regional transportation plans directed at achieving a coordinated and balanced regional transportation system. Existing law requires that each regional transportation plan include a sustainable communities strategy prepared by each metropolitan planning organization in order to, among other things, achieve certain targets established by the State Air Resources Board for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks in the region for 2020 and 2035, respectively. Existing law also requires a regional transportation plan to include a financial element that summarizes the cost of plan implementation constrained by a realistic projection of available revenues and that contains recommendations for allocation of funds. This bill would require the commission, on or before April 1, 2025, to amend or update its regional transportation plan to include a specified project operated by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District within the transportation network identified in the sustainable communities strategy and within the financial element. By imposing additional duties on a local agency, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (6) Existing law authorizes the commission and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to jointly adopt a commute benefit ordinance that requires covered employers operating within the common area of the 2 agencies with a specified number of covered employees to offer those employees certain commute benefits, as specified. This bill would also authorize one of those commute benefit options to include an employer-provided regional transit pass. This bill would authorize the commission, as part of a measure to impose a tax described above, to propose a ballot measure that would require a covered employer that is located in proximity to transit to purchase a regional transit pass for each of its employees and to require a covered employer that is not located in proximity to transit to provide a subsidy to each of its employees corresponding in financial value to the regional transit pass, as specified. If the ballot measure is approved by the voters, the bill would require the commission and the district to update the ordinance accordingly. (7) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and requires the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. These provisions grant the regents all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of its trust. This measure would require employees of the Regents of the University of California to have the right to, and be covered by, certain basic state labor standards, as provided. The measure would require individuals who perform certain work for the regents to have the right to the payment of a prevailing wage. The measure would authorize the Legislature to enact laws that further these rights, establish, define, or specify the basic state labor standards applicable to the regents, or establish other health, safety, and labor protections for individuals performing work for the regents.
This bill is a House Resolution that formally recognizes May 27, 2024, as Memorial Day in California. It serves as a commemorative measure to honor the men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. The resolution does not alter laws or create new programs but instead expresses the state's gratitude for the sacrifices made by military personnel.
Existing law establishes the Native American Heritage Commission, consisting of 9 members appointed by the Governor subject to Senate confirmation. Existing law, among other things, authorizes the commission to bring an action to prevent severe and irreparable damage to, or assure appropriate access for Native Americans to, a Native American sanctified cemetery, place of worship, religious or ceremonial site, or sacred shrine located on public property. This bill, no later than January 1, 2027, would require the commission to cause to be prepared a report on the ethnography and ethnohistory of Native American tribes in the Sacramento region, as provided. The bill would require the commission to collaborate with certain Native American tribes in the selection of an entity to prepare the report and in the preparation of the report, as specified, and would require the commission to submit copies of the report to specified entities.
Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans, except as specified. Existing law authorizes any local agency or combination of local agencies overlying a groundwater basin to decide to become a groundwater sustainability agency for that basin and imposes specified duties upon that agency or combination of agencies, as provided. Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to request of the county, and requires a county to consider, that the county forward permit requests for the construction of new groundwater wells, the enlarging of existing groundwater wells, and the reactivation of abandoned groundwater wells to the agency before permit approval. This bill would instead require a county to forward permit requests for the construction of new groundwater wells, the enlarging of existing groundwater wells, and the reactivation of abandoned groundwater wells to the groundwater sustainability agency before permit approval. Existing law requires the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt a model water well, cathodic protection well, and monitoring well drilling and abandonment ordinance implementing certain standards for water well construction, maintenance, and abandonment and requires each county, city, or water agency, where appropriate, not later than January 15, 1990, to adopt a water well, cathodic protection well, and monitoring well drilling and abandonment ordinance that meets or exceeds certain standards. Under existing law, if a county, city, or water agency, where appropriate, fails to adopt an ordinance establishing water well, cathodic protection well, and monitoring well drilling and abandonment standards, the model ordinance adopted by the state board is required to take effect on February 15, 1990, and is required to be enforced by the county or city and have the same force and effect as if adopted as a county or city ordinance. This bill would prohibit a county, city, or any other water well permitting agency from approving a permit for a new groundwater well or for an alteration to an existing well in a basin subject to the act and classified as a critically overdrafted basin unless specified conditions are met. Among these conditions, the bill would require a county, city, or any other water well permitting agency to obtain a written verification from the groundwater sustainability agency that manages the basin or area of the basin where the well is proposed to be located determining that, among other things, the extraction by the proposed well is consistent with any sustainable groundwater management program established in any applicable groundwater sustainability plan adopted by that groundwater sustainability agency or an alternate plan approved or under review by the Department of Water Resources. The bill would also require, as a condition of approving a permit for a new groundwater well or for an alteration to an existing well in an above-described basin, a county, city, or any other water well permitting agency to, among other things, post the well permit application on its internet website for at least 30 days before approving the permit. By imposing additional requirements on a county, city, or any other water well permitting agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would provide various exemptions from the above-described provisions, including exempting a permit for any well that provides less than 2 acre-feet of water annually for domestic use or any well used by a public water supply system or state small water system. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law prescribes requirements for the disposal of surplus land by a local agency. Existing law defines terms for these purposes, including, among others, "surplus land" to mean land owned in fee simple by any local agency for which the local agency's governing body takes formal action in a regular public meeting declaring that the land is surplus and is not necessary for the agency's use. Existing law defines "exempt surplus land" to mean, among other things, surplus land that a local agency is exchanging for another property necessary for the agency's use and surplus land that a local agency is transferring to another local, state, or federal agency for the agency's use. Existing law provides that an agency is not required to follow the requirements for disposal of surplus land for "exempt surplus land," except as provided. This bill would provide, until January 1, 2024, that land that is subject to a sectional planning area, as described, is not subject to the above-described requirements for the disposal of surplus land if specified conditions are met. The bill would, commencing April 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, require a local agency that disposes of land pursuant to these provisions submit a specified report to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would make a local agency that disposes of land in violation of these provisions liable for a civil penalty, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Chula Vista.
The California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Act of 2018, approved by the voters as Proposition 68 at the June 5, 2018, statewide primary election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,100,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a drought, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, and outdoor access for all program. Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters. This bill would enact the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, Clean Energy, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2024, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $15,995,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparation, flood protection, extreme heat mitigation, clean energy, and workforce development programs. This bill would provide for the submission of these provisions to the voters at the March 5, 2024, statewide primary election.
The California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Act of 2018, approved by the voters as Proposition 68 at the June 5, 2018, statewide primary election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a drought, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, and outdoor access for all program. The California Constitution requires a measure authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires the measure to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters. This bill would enact the California Flood Protection Bond Act of 2024 which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,500,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law for flood protection projects, as specified. The bill would provide for the submission of these provisions to the voters at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election.
