California Bills

(1) Existing law establishes the Department of Water Resources in the Natural Resources Agency, and, among other things, empowers the department to conduct investigations of all or any portion of any stream, stream system, lake, or other body of water. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism relative to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would require the department to increase statewide water storage capacity by 25% by January 1, 2025, and 50% by January 1, 2050, as specified. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2017, to identify the current statewide water storage capacity and prepare a strategy and implementation plan to achieve those expansions in statewide water storage capacity, and would require the department to update the strategy and implementation plan on January 1, 2018, and every 2 years thereafter, until January 1, 2050. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to report to the Legislature on January 1, 2020, and every 5 years thereafter, until January 1, 2050, on the department's progress on achieving those required increases in statewide water storage capacity, as specified. The bill would, beginning in the 2016–17 fiscal year, continuously appropriate 25% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the department to comply with these requirements. (2) Existing law establishes the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards as the principal state agencies with authority over matters relating to water quality. Existing law requires the state board to formulate and adopt state policy for water quality control. Existing law requires each regional board to formulate and adopt water quality control plans for all areas within the region and prohibits a water quality control plan, or a revision of the plan, adopted by a regional board, from becoming effective unless it is approved by the state board. Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. This bill would require the state board, in formulating state policy for water quality control and adopting or approving a water quality control plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, to take into consideration, consistent with the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, any applicable groundwater sustainability plan or alternative and available information and data regarding the impacts of groundwater use and management on beneficial uses of surface waters.

Existing law establishes various programs to fund the development, construction, and repair of local roads, bridges, and other critical transportation infrastructure in the state. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to establish permanent, sustainable sources of transportation funding to improve the state's key trade corridors and support efforts by local governments to repair and improve local transportation infrastructure.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. One of the methods by which these services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care health plans. Existing federal law provides for the federal Medicare Program, which is a public health insurance program for persons 65 years of age and older and specified persons with disabilities who are under 65 years of age. Existing law, the Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI) , requires the department to seek federal approval pursuant to a Medicare or a Medicaid demonstration project or waiver, or a combination thereof, to establish a demonstration project that enables beneficiaries dually eligible for the Medi-Cal program and the Medicare Program to receive a continuum of services that maximizes access to, and coordination of, benefits between the programs. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the CCI and the availability of consumer protections for beneficiaries. The bill would require, no later than July 1, 2016, the department to develop and post on the department's Internet Web site, an educational and informational guide to assist consumers and patients in understanding the rights afforded to them under the CCI and how to effectively exercise those rights, as specified. The bill would require the department to distribute the educational and informational guide to specified consumer advocacy groups and programs and, upon request, to all other interested persons. The bill would require the department to update the educational and informational guide annually, or as necessary, to keep the information contained in the guide up to date regarding changes to the CCI.

Existing law, the California Fostering Connections to Success Act, revises and expands the scope of various programs relating to cash assistance and other services to and for the benefit of certain foster and adopted children, and other children who have been placed in out-of-home care, including children who receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) , Adoption Assistance Program, California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) , and Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment (Kin-GAP) benefits. Among other provisions, the act extends specified foster care benefits to youth up to 21 years of age, if specified conditions are met. Existing law defines a nonminor dependent for these purposes as a foster child who is a current dependent child or ward of the juvenile court, or who is a nonminor under the transition jurisdiction of the juvenile court pursuant to a voluntary reentry agreement, and in accordance with a transitional independent living case plan who has attained 18 years of age while under an order of foster care placement by the juvenile court and is not older than 21 years of age. Existing law defines a nonminor former dependent or ward as a person who meets these criteria who reached 18 years of age while subject to an order for foster care placement, for whom dependency, delinquency, or transition jurisdiction has been terminated, and who is still under the general jurisdiction of the court. This bill would revise the definition of a nonminor dependent and former nonminor dependent to include a person who has not attained 21 years of age, if he or she was adjudged a ward of the court on the basis of criminal activity, was subject to an order for foster care placement at the time the petition to adjudge him or her a ward of the court was filed, and was held in secure confinement when he or she attained 18 years of age. This bill would make conforming changes to allow a court to assume or resume dependency jurisdiction or transition jurisdiction over a nonminor who satisfies this criteria. Because the bill would expand the application of the above county administered programs, 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 these statutory provisions.

(1) Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to prescribe, by regulation, lighting, insulation climate control system, and other building design and construction standards that increase the efficiency in the use of energy and water for new residential and new nonresidential buildings. Existing law also requires the commission to prescribe, by regulation, energy and water conservation design standards for new residential and new nonresidential buildings. In order to implement these requirements, existing law requires the commission to develop a public domain computer program that enables contractors, builders, architects, engineers, and government officials to estimate energy consumed by residential and nonresidential buildings. This bill would require the commission to approve and make publicly available, not less than 6 months prior to the effective date of adopted or updated efficiency standards, a version of the public domain computer program that will function properly with these adopted or updated standards. The bill would require the commission, before approving the public domain computer program for use with adopted or updated standards, to perform preliminary tests of the public domain computer program using common examples of residential and nonresidential buildings and building systems to ensure the usability of the program. The bill would require the commission to make the results of those preliminary tests publicly available. (2) Existing law requires the commission to establish criteria for adopting a statewide home energy rating program for residential dwellings. For existing single-family residential dwellings and multifamily residential dwellings with up to 4 units, this bill would require the commission, in administering the statewide home energy rating program, to ensure that energy assessment tools approved by the commission are routinely adjusted to improve modeling accuracy and to ensure that consumers receive a notice with the output of the energy assessment tools explaining the assumptions used in the energy assessment tools and how they may differ from actual usage patterns.

Existing law establishes a specialized license plate program under which the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issues specialized license plates on behalf of a sponsoring state agency that meets certain requirements. Existing law authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to sponsor a Gold Star Family specialized license plate program, which allows specified persons to apply for Gold Star Family license plates. Existing law requires that Gold Star Family license plates be issued in a sequential series. Existing law imposes additional fees for the issuance and renewal of specialized license plates, but exempts Gold Star Family license plates from these fees. Existing law also requires an applicant to pay specified environmental fees when applying for a specialized environmental license plate, and directs the DMV to deposit this revenue in the California Environmental License Plate Fund. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2017, require the DMV to issue Gold Star Family license plates as environmental license plates if the requester pays the above-described environmental license plate fees and specialized license plate fees. The bill would direct the revenue generated from the environmental license plate fees to be deposited into the Motor Vehicle Account within the State Transportation Fund until the DMV's upfront cost of implementing this program is covered. The bill would then direct this revenue to be deposited into the Veterans Service Office Fund.

Existing law prohibits the disclosure of the home addresses of certain public employees and officials, including an employee of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities or the Prison Industry Authority, that appear in records of the Department of Motor Vehicles, except to a court, a law enforcement agency, an attorney in a civil or criminal action under certain circumstances, and certain other official entities. This bill would extend that prohibition, subject to those same exceptions, to the disclosure of the home addresses of an employee of the State Department of State Hospitals, as specified.

The California Constitution requires the reasonable and beneficial use of water. Existing law establishes various state water policies, including the policy that the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable. Existing law, the Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation Development Act, declares, among other things, that electrical and natural gas utilities should have as a principal goal of their resource planning and investment to minimize the cost to society of reliable energy services, improve the environment, and encourage the diversity of energy sources. The act also declares that those utilities should seek to exploit all practicable and cost-effective conservation and improvements in the efficiency of energy use and distribution that offer equivalent or better system of reliability. This bill would declare the policy of the state that water use and water treatment shall operate in a manner that is as energy efficient as is feasible and energy use and generation shall operate in a manner that is as water efficient as is feasible. This bill would require all relevant state agencies to consider this state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, and grant criteria when pertinent to these uses of water and energy.