Existing law provides for the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons receive services enabling them to remain in their own homes. Existing law requires prospective providers of in-home supportive services to complete a provider orientation at the time of enrollment and, at the conclusion of the provider orientation, to sign a specified statement. Existing law requires the county to retain this statement indefinitely in the provider's file. This bill would instead require the county to retain the statement in the provider's file for a period of 7 years.
Existing law establishes in the state government a State Department of Education and the department is responsible for various ongoing activities involving the public schools. Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law sets forth the minimum requirements for a services credential with a specialization in health for a school nurse, as provided. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils, and authorizes the governing board of a school district to employ properly certified persons for that work. Existing law authorizes a school nurse, subject to approval by the governing board of the school district, to perform various pupil health care services. This bill would require the department to appoint a state school nurse consultant to be housed within the department. The bill would require the state school nurse consultant to be a school nurse credentialed by the commission, as specified, who has a minimum of 5 years of experience in school health program management. The bill would require the state school nurse consultant to work with school districts and school nurses to promote quality school nursing services and school health programs that address the broad health needs of pupils, among other responsibilities. The bill would require the state school nurse consultant to annually report to the Governor and the Legislature a summary of the year's activities and specific recommendations, as provided. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. Under existing law, the commission is composed of 5 members who are appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Existing law requires the Governor to fill any vacancies on the commission, subject to confirmation by the Senate, within 60 days of the date of the vacancy. This bill would reduce the time to fill a vacancy to within 45 days of the date of the vacancy. Existing law authorizes the Governor to remove a member of the commission for incompetence, neglect of duty, or corruption upon first giving the member a copy of the charges and an opportunity to be heard. This bill would require the Governor to notify the Legislature of the removal of a member of the commission.
Existing law requires a court to charge various fines, fees, penalties, and assessments for criminal defendants, including fines assessed as a penalty for a crime, restitution fines, and fees for the support and maintenance of the courts, as specified. Existing law permits a judgment against a criminal defendant that orders the defendant to pay a fine, other than a restitution fine or order, to also direct that the defendant be imprisoned until the fine is satisfied, as specified. Existing law authorizes a court to sentence a person convicted of an infraction to perform community service in lieu of the total fine, as defined, that would otherwise be imposed, upon a showing that payment of the total fine would pose a hardship on the defendant or the person's family. This bill would require the court to offer a payment plan to a criminal defendant who has been assessed fines, fees, penalties, and assessments in an amount over $500, other than a restitution order payable to the victim, resulting from a criminal prosecution on or after January 1, 2022, and would authorize the court to offer a payment plan under those circumstances to a defendant who has been assessed fines, fees, penalties, and assessments of $500 or less. The bill would require the court to allow a defendant to pay those fines, fees, penalties, and assessments with a credit card, as specified. The bill would specify that these provisions do not prohibit a court from converting a fine to jail time or community service, or otherwise limit the court's ability to consider a defendant's ability to pay without undue hardship. The bill would require the Judicial Council to adopt Rules of Court to implement these provisions.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill, under both laws, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2022, and before January 1, 2027, would allow a credit against those taxes to a taxpayer that owns a unit rented to, or leased by, persons receiving housing services or assistance, as specified, at below market rates, in an amount equal to $500 for each qualified property owned by the taxpayer, not to exceed $5,000 per taxable year. The bill would also provide findings to comply with the additional information requirement for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law requires state agencies to take into account the current and future impacts of climate change when planning, designing, building, operating, maintaining, and investing in state infrastructure. Existing law requires specified entities to submit to the Natural Resources Agency sea level rise planning information, as provided. This bill would require a state agency to take into account the current and future impacts of sea level rise based on projections provided by the Ocean Protection Council when planning, designing, building, operating, maintaining, and investing in infrastructure located in the coastal zone, within the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or otherwise vulnerable to flooding from sea level rise or storm surges, or when otherwise approving the allocation of state funds, including, but not limited to, bonds, grants, and loans, for those purposes. The bill would provide that new or expanded infrastructure built pursuant to the above-described provision shall only qualify for state funds if the project is not anticipated to be vulnerable to sea level rise risks during the life of that project. The bill would provide that specified projects may be exempt from the above-described analysis so long as the project design is resilient to mid-century sea level rise projections provided by the Ocean Protection Council and consistent with relevant state and local agency policies. The bill would require, by March 1, 2022, the Ocean Protection Council, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research, to establish a multiagency working group, consisting of specified individuals, on sea level rise to provide recommended policies, resolutions, projects, and other actions to address sea level rise, the breadth of its impact, and the severity of its anticipated harm. The bill would require the council, in consultation with the working group, to, among other things, develop a standardized methodology and template for conducting economic analyses of risks and adaptation strategies associated with sea level rise, as provided. The bill would require a state agency to conduct a sea level rise analysis for any state-funded infrastructure project located in the coastal zone, within the jurisdiction of the commission, or otherwise vulnerable to flooding from sea level rise or storm surges, and restrict funding as needed, pursuant to that methodology. The bill would authorize the Controller to conduct audits of state agencies and consult with working group member agencies, as necessary, to verify and ensure compliance with certain of the above-described provisions.
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, as defined, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from some or all of those provisions of the act a person engaging in specified forest management activities, as prescribed, including the cutting or removal of trees on the person's property that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuel break, known as the Small Timberland Owner Exemption. The act provides that the Small Timberland Owner Exemption is applicable to small forestland owners within the northern forest district or the southern forest district who own 100 acres or less of timberland within a single planning watershed. The act limits the authority of the department to grant the Small Timberland Owner Exemption to each landowner to 3 exemptions. The act makes the Small Timberland Owner Exemption operative for a period of 5 years after the adoption of emergency regulations by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. This bill would increase the acreage owned by a small forestland owner within the northern forest district and southern forest district to which the Small Timberland Owner Exemption is applicable to 300 acres or less. The bill would repeal the limitation on authority of the department to grant no more than 3 Small Timberland Owner Exemptions to each landowner. The bill would authorize the construction or reconstruction of temporary roads on slopes of 30 percent or less that meet certain requirements under the Small Timberland Owner Exemption.
Existing law requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. Existing law, the Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995, requires the department to establish and oversee an environmental farming program to provide incentives to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat. This bill would establish the Smart Climate Agriculture Program under the administration of the department. As part of the program, the bill would require the department to, among other things, provide grants to persons farming on small to midsize farms to transition the use of the land from raising livestock or growing feed crops to plant-based agriculture and to provide technical assistance to those persons with regard to the program. The bill would require a person who receives a grant to provide a report, in consultation with a specified technical assistance provider, to the department that demonstrates that the person is transitioning to plant-based agriculture.
Existing law classifies certain controlled substances into Schedules I to V, inclusive. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) database for the electronic monitoring of the prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, Schedule III, and Schedule IV controlled substances by a health care practitioner authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense a Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substance. Existing law requires a dispensing pharmacy, clinic, or other dispenser to report specified information to the department for inclusion in the database. This bill would repeal those provisions as of January 1, 2023.
Existing law requires a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining a kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, and authorizes the school district or county superintendent of schools to use funds available from any federal or state program to comply with that requirement, as provided. Existing law generally requires a school district or a county superintendent of schools to provide breakfast and lunch free of charge to all pupils at a very high poverty school, as defined. This bill would require a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining a kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a pupil, eligible to receive a reduced-priced meal, that meal free of charge. By creating a new duty on a school district or a county superintendent of schools, the bill would create a state-mandated program. The bill would require the state to provide sufficient funding to school districts and county offices of education to cover the cost of providing meals free of charge to pupils from households that would otherwise be required to provide a copayment for these meals. To comply with the above, the bill would authorize a school district or county office of education to use funds made available through any federal, to the extent allowed, or state program relating to the provision of meals to pupils, as provided. 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 Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the tax imposed by that law. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax credit to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would allow a credit under the Personal Income Tax Law for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2021, to a qualified taxpayer, as defined, in an amount equal to 50% of the annual fee paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer for an alcohol license for a qualified establishment during that taxable year. The bill would also allow a credit under the Corporation Tax Law for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2021, to a qualified taxpayer, as defined, in an amount equal to 50% of the annual fee paid or incurred by an owner or operator of the qualified taxpayer for an alcohol license, as defined, during that taxable year. The bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax credit. The bill would also make related findings and declarations. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The Personal Income Tax Law, in conformity or modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by that law, including a deduction for the medical and dental expenses paid during the taxable year, not compensated for by insurance or otherwise, for the medical or dental care of the taxpayer, spouse, or a dependent, to the extent that such expenses exceed 7.5% of federal adjusted gross income. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2022, and before January 1, 2027, instead allow that deduction to the extent that those medical and dental expenses exceed 4% of federal adjusted gross income. Existing law requires any bill expanding an existing tax deduction to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill would provide findings and declarations relating to the goals of the expansion of the deduction for medical and dental expenses. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
