Existing law establishes the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families using federal, state, and county funds. Existing law imposes limits on the amount of income and personal and real property an individual or family may possess in order to be eligible for CalWORKs aid. This bill would exempt from consideration as income or property, for purposes of determining eligibility or available income or property, education, training, vocation, or rehabilitation benefits provided through the United States Department of Veterans Affairs for active duty personnel or veterans, and dependents or spouses of those who either died in the line of duty or have a service-connected disability. By expanding eligibility for CalWORKs, which is administered by counties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires a recipient of CalWORKs to participate in welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility. Under existing law, a person may meet his or her welfare-to-work requirements by taking part in a self-initiated education or training program. Under that program, if a recipient does not complete a specified number of hours of classroom, laboratory, or internship activities, the county human services agency is required to have the recipient participate in concurrent work activities, as specified. Existing law prohibits a program offered by a private postsecondary training provider from being approved for these purposes unless the program is either approved or exempted by the appropriate state regulatory agency and the program is in compliance with all other laws. This bill would authorize study time to be included in the number of hours a recipient may complete before he or she is required to participate in concurrent work activities. This bill would additionally prohibit a program offered by a private college from being approved if the program is not approved or exempted by the appropriate state regulatory agency or is not in compliance with all other laws. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. 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.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2016, and before January 1, 2021, would allow a credit in the amount of 30% of the costs of startup expenses for child care programs, constructing a child care facility, providing child care information and referral services, and contributing to a qualified care plan, as defined. The bill would authorize, in the case where the credit allowed for the taxable year exceeds the "net tax" or "tax" the excess to be carried over to reduce the "net tax" or "tax" in the following year, and the succeeding 7 years if necessary, as specified. The bill would also require the Franchise Tax Board to report to the Legislature on the effectiveness of these credits, as specified. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law makes a specified continuous appropriation to the High-Speed Rail Authority from the fund. This bill would require the High-Speed Rail Authority to allocate not less than 25% of the moneys continuously appropriated to the authority from the fund to projects that either reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions directly associated with the construction of the high-speed rail project and provide a cobenefit of improving air quality. The bill would require priority to be given within this expenditure category to measures and projects that are located in communities in areas designated as extreme nonattainment. The bill would expand the purposes of a continuous appropriation, thereby making an appropriation.
Existing law, the Medical Waste Management Act, regulates the disposal of medical waste, including requiring medical waste to be treated by specified methods prior to disposal, including incineration in a controlled-air, multichamber incinerator, or other method of incineration approved by the State Department of Public Health that provides complete combustion of the waste into carbonized or mineralized ash. This bill would include among those authorized treatment methods any alternative medical waste treatment solely designed to treat pharmaceutical waste, including a pharmaceutical incinerator, as defined, and would require this method to be evaluated and approved by the State Department of Public Health. The bill would require the department to complete the first evaluation of these alternative medical waste treatments by June 1, 2017, and would require the department to consult with specified entities, including the Department of Toxic Substances Control and the State Air Resources Board, in the evaluation to ensure compliance with all other applicable environmental quality laws. The bill would authorize a law enforcement agency that operates a prescription drug takeback program to utilize a pharmaceutical incinerator up to 4 times per year if the incinerator is evaluated and approved by the department and complies with all other applicable federal and state laws and local ordinances.
Existing law requires the Department of Parks and Recreation to issue a park pass for free use of all park facilities in the state park system to a veteran of war in which the United States has been, or may be, engaged, who is a resident of this state, who presents to the department proof of a disability, proof of being held captive as a prisoner of war, or proof of being a recipient of a Congressional Medal of Honor, as provided. This bill would additionally require the department to allow free day use entry to all units of the state park system to a registered vehicle that has been issued specialized license plates by the Department of Motor Vehicles under the Pearl Harbor Survivor, Legion of Valor, former prisoner-of-war, Congressional Medal of Honor, Purple Heart Veteran, or Gold Star Family license plate programs.
Existing law designates the Division of Boating and Waterways within the Department of Parks and Recreation as the lead agency of the state for purposes of cooperating with other state, local, and federal agencies in identifying, detecting, controlling, and administering programs to manage invasive aquatic plants in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, its tributaries, and the Suisun Marsh, and prescribes the duties of the division with regard to the management and control or eradication of those plants. This bill would require the division, no later than 90 days after the effective date of the bill, to establish, and designate and provide staff support to, an advisory and oversight committee to evaluate and monitor the activities of the division relating to the management and control or eradication of those plants. The bill would require the membership of the advisory and oversight committee to include an equitable number of representatives from specified interests and would require the advisory and oversight committee to meet, at a minimum, twice per year and communicate any findings or recommendations to the division. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law, the Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995, requires the Department of Food and Agriculture 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. The act requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to convene a 5-member Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming for the purpose of providing advice and assistance to federal, state, and local government agencies on issues relating to air, water, and wildlife habitat, as specified. This bill instead would authorize, rather than require, the environmental farming program to provide incentives, including loans, grants, research, technical assistance, or educational materials and outreach, to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat, and reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions or increase carbon storage in agricultural soils and woody biomass, or both. The bill would rename the panel the Environmental Farming Science Advisory Panel and revise the panel's membership and duties, as specified. The bill would require the panel to provide a biennial report describing its work to the Legislature and the Governor, among others. The bill would provide that $25,000,000 shall be made available to the department, upon appropriation, from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to support projects to demonstrate agricultural management practices and activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon storage in agricultural soils and woody biomass, as specified. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the panel, to develop and implement a grant program to carry out the purposes of the act and would require the State Air Resources Board, in consultation with the secretary and the panel, to consider and recommend, as appropriate, the use of available tools to demonstrate and quantify greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the grant program. (2) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates 20% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the Strategic Growth Council for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, as provided. This bill would require the council, no later than the 2015–16 fiscal year, to establish and administer a grant program, as part of the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program established by the council in conjunction with the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, to provide financial incentives for the adoption and use of land management practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon in soil and woody biomass, and provide other cobenefits on working agricultural operations, as specified. The bill would continuously appropriate 2% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the Strategic Growth Council to be expended for agricultural land protection consistent with the provisions of that grant program, thereby making an appropriation.
The California Endangered Species Act prohibits the taking of an endangered, threatened, or candidate species, except as specified. Under the act, the Department of Fish and Wildlife may authorize the take of listed species if the take is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity and the impacts are minimized and fully mitigated. This bill would require the department, by June 30, 2016, to develop a science-based plan that addresses predation by nonnative species upon species of fish listed pursuant to the act that reside all or a portion of their lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and that considers predation reduction for all Chinook salmon and other native species not listed pursuant to the act.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law requires the Department of Finance, in consultation with the state board and any other relevant state agency, to develop, as specified, a 3-year investment plan for the moneys deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law requires moneys in the fund to be used to facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and, where applicable and to the extent feasible, to foster job creation by promoting in-state greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects carried out by California workers and businesses. This bill would require priority be given to projects involving hiring that support the targeted training and hiring of workers from disadvantaged communities for career-track jobs.
Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and provides for the establishment of school districts and other local educational agencies to operate these schools and provide instruction to pupils. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, among his or her other duties, to serve as the chief executive officer of the State Department of Education. Existing law makes a one-time appropriation from the General Fund to the Superintendent to apportion to a designated county office of education or designated county offices of education for the purposes of providing technical assistance and encouraging and assisting in the development of schoolwide, data-driven systems of learning and behavioral supports to meet the needs of California's diverse learners. This bill, until January 1, 2020, would require the designated county office of education or county offices of education in the above-mentioned appropriation, in conjunction with the State Board of Education and a steering committee that the bill would require the department to establish, to establish a 3-year pilot program to encourage inclusive practices that integrate mental health, special education, and school climate interventions following a multitiered framework in school districts that apply to participate, as specified. The bill would require the designated county office of education or designated county offices of education to select schools where at least 60% of the student body is eligible for a free or reduced-price meal program and whose applications provide evidence of a plan to serve their pupils with a combination of school funds and mental health funds and detail a model approach that targets the behavioral, emotional, and academic needs of pupils with multitiered and integrated mental health, special education, and school climate interventions. The bill, in accordance with the above-mentioned appropriation, would require the designated county office of education or county offices of education to provide startup and evaluation funding to each school participating in the pilot program, and would require the department, in accordance with a comprehensive evaluation plan developed by the steering committee, to assess the impact of the pilot program and disseminate best practices. The bill would require the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to revise its guidelines and regulations regarding prevention and early intervention programs in K–12 schools, as specified.
(1) Existing law requires each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal for each needy pupil during each schoolday, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a school district or county office of education to use funds made available through any applicable federal or state program or to use its own funds to provide the required meals. This bill would express legislative intent that schools provide pupils with adequate time to eat lunch during the schoolday. The bill would require school districts, in addition to providing a nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal for each needy pupil each schoolday, to ensure that each of the schools in their respective jurisdictions makes available to its pupils adequate time to eat after being served lunch. The bill would declare that the State Department of Education specifies that an adequate time to eat school lunch is 20 minutes after being served. The bill would require a school that determines, upon annual review of its bell schedule, that it is currently not providing pupils with adequate time to eat, to identify and develop a plan to implement, in consultation with the school district, ways to increase pupils' time to eat lunch. To the extent this requirement would create new duties for schools and school districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. The bill would specify that, in order to comply with its requirements requiring adequate time for pupils to eat after being served, the appropriate school food authority may use available federally or state-regulated nonprofit school food service cafeteria accounts to defray any costs allowable under federal and state law. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. (2) 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.
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 provisions. Qualified individuals under the Medi-Cal program include medically needy persons and medically needy family persons who meet the required eligibility criteria, including applicable income requirements. Existing law requires the department to establish income levels for maintenance need at the lowest levels that reasonably permit a medically needy individual to meet his or her basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter, and for which federal financial participation will still be provided under applicable federal law. In calculating the income of a medically needy individual in a medical institution or nursing facility, or a person receiving institutional or noninstitutional services from a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly organization, the required monthly maintenance amount includes, among other things, an amount providing for the upkeep and maintenance of the individual's home. This amount is also referred to as the home upkeep allowance. Existing law requires that the maintenance of need amount provide for personal and incidental needs in an amount not less than $35 for a person in a medical institution or nursing facility, or for a person receiving institutional or noninstitutional services from a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly organization. Existing law authorizes the Director of Health Care Services to adopt, amend, or repeal reasonable rules and regulations to carry out the purposes and intent of the Medi-Cal program, that are not inconsistent with any state statute. The department has adopted regulatory requirements relating to the determination of the home upkeep allowance described above. This bill would establish eligibility and other requirements for providing the home upkeep allowance or transitional personal needs fund, to Medi-Cal patients residing in a long-term care facility, as specified. The bill would prescribe general requirements as well as specific requirements both for facility residents who intend to leave the facility and return to an existing home, who would receive the home upkeep allowance, and residents who intend to leave the facility and establish a new home, who would establish a transitional personal needs fund, as part of the personal needs allowance provided to the resident. The bill would require the department to adopt implementing regulations, and to advise appropriate long-term care facility residents and other specified personnel and health care facilities of the existence and availability of the home upkeep allowance and transitional personal needs fund. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2016, to seek federal approval to implement these provisions, and would require these provisions to be implemented only if, and to the extent that, federal financial participation is available and any necessary federal approvals have been obtained. Because counties are required to make Medi-Cal eligibility determinations and this bill would impose new eligibility requirements for purposes of these allowances, this 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.
