Existing law, the Trial Court Delay Reduction Act, requires the Judicial Council to adopt standards of timely disposition for the processing and disposition of civil and criminal actions. The act requires each superior court to establish a delay reduction program for limited civil cases in consultation with the local bar that is consistent with the act, and authorizes the Judicial Council to adopt procedures, standards, or policies for a delay reduction program for limited civil cases in superior courts on a statewide basis that are consistent with the act. Existing law provides that a traffic referee has the same jurisdiction, and may exercise the same powers and duties, as a judge of the court with respect to any infraction. Existing law authorizes the court to order any person convicted of a traffic violation to attend a licensed traffic violator school, as specified. This bill would authorize the Superior Court of Fresno County to establish a 3-year pilot program to permit trials and proceedings to be conducted using remote 2-way video trials for traffic infractions and any infraction violation of compulsory attendance laws by a parent or guardian. The bill would require the Judicial Council to report its findings on the pilot program, including its recommendations as to whether the program should be expanded throughout the state, to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2016.
(1) Under the Public Utilities Act, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The act requires the PUC to require, until January 1, 2012, an electrical corporation to identify a separate electrical rate component to fund energy efficiency, renewable energy, and research, development, and demonstration programs that enhance system reliability and provide in-state benefits. Existing law requires the rate component collected for the purposes of funding the research, development, and demonstration programs be transferred to the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Fund. Existing law requires that the moneys collected between January 1, 2007, and January 1, 2012, from the electrical corporations for public interest research, development, and demonstration projects be transferred to the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Fund and be used for the purposes of the Public Interest Research, Demonstration, and Development Program. This bill would expressly provide that expenditure of moneys collected for public interest research, development, and demonstration before January 1, 2012, would be expended for the Public Interest Research, Demonstration, and Development Program. The bill would require the Energy Commission to establish and administer the California Energy Innovation Program (CEIP) to fund research, development, and demonstration projects that may lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs to overcome those barriers that prevent the achievement of the state's energy policy goals. The bill would require the Energy Commission to convene, no less than twice a year, meetings of the CEIP Coordinating Council consisting of members representing specified entities and would require the council to identify the technological challenges that most warrant funding under the CEIP and opportunities to leverage funding of projects and to make recommendations to avoid funding duplicative projects. The bill would require the Energy Commission to adopt regulations or modify existing regulations to implement the CEIP. The bill would require the Energy Commission to consult with the CEIP Coordinating Council to establish a process for tracking the progress and outcome of funded projects. The bill would require the Energy Commission to consult with the CEIP Coordinating Council and the Treasurer to establish terms that may be imposed as conditions for the receipt of CEIP funding. The bill would require the Energy Commission, no later than March 31 of each year, to prepare and submit to the Legislature an annual report regarding projects funded by the CEIP. The bill would require the PUC to fund mechanisms to finance comprehensive energy efficiency retrofits of specified building sectors. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act that the public goods charge collected on or before December 31, 2011, to fund research, development, and demonstration shall be expended pursuant to the law in effect January 1, 2012 and the public goods charge collected for this purpose on and after January 1, 2012, shall be expended pursuant to the law in effect on and after the effective date of this act. (2) Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to require, until January 1, 2012, an electrical corporation to identify a separate electrical rate component (public goods charge) to fund energy efficiency, renewable energy, and research, development, and demonstration programs that enhance system reliability and provide in-state benefits. Existing law requires that the moneys collected between January 1, 2007, and January 1, 2012, from the electrical corporations for public interest research, development, and demonstration projects be deposited in the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Fund and be used for the purposes of the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Program. This bill would expressly provide that public goods charge for public interest research, development, and demonstration projects collected before January 1, 2012, be deposited into the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Fund and expended for the purposes of the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Program. The bill would establish the Clean Energy Innovation Program Fund (CEIP Fund) in the State Treasury and would require public goods charge collected on and after January 1, 2012, be deposited into the CEIP Fund and expended by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , upon appropriation, for specified purposes. The bill would require the Energy Commission, in making awards from the CEIP Fund to minimize overhead expenditures on the award recipients' contracts. The bill would prohibit the Energy Commission from using sole source method or interagency agreement in making awards unless specified conditions are met. (3) Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish a surcharge on all natural gas consumed in the state to fund certain low-income assistance programs, cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation activities, and public interest research and development. Existing law requires a public utility gas corporation, as defined, to collect the surcharge from natural gas consumers, as specified, and to remit the moneys collected to the State Board of Equalization (state board) on a quarterly basis. Existing law requires persons consuming natural gas delivered by an interstate pipeline to pay the surcharge to the state board. Existing law requires every public utility gas corporation and every person consuming natural gas transported by a provider other than the public utility gas corporation to file a quarterly return with the state board in the form prescribed by the state board. The money from the surcharge is transmitted by the state board to the Treasurer for deposit in the Gas Consumption Surcharge Fund and is continuously appropriated to specified entities, including to the commission, or to an entity designated by the commission, to fund low-income assistance programs, cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation activities, and public interest research and development not adequately provided by the competitive and regulated markets. This bill would require the commission to establish rates that are sufficient to fund the specified low-income assistance programs, cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation activities, and public interest research and development, and would require the surcharges imposed on natural gas customers of an interstate gas pipeline to be equal to the rate component imposed upon the customers of a public utility gas corporation to fund those programs. The bill would require only persons consuming natural gas delivered by an interstate pipeline to pay the surcharge quarterly to the state board and require only those persons consuming natural gas transported by a provider other than the public utility gas corporation to file a quarterly return with the state board. A public utility gas corporation would continue to collect the surcharge to fund the specified programs, but would not remit the moneys collected to the state board. The bill would repeal existing provisions relieving public utility gas corporations from liability to collect the surcharges for specified uncollected and worthless accounts. The bill would make other conforming changes. (4) This bill would not become operative unless AB 724 of the 2011–12 Regular Session of the Legislature is enacted on or before January 1, 2012.
The Vacation Ownership and Time-share Act of 2004 requires a time-share association to maintain among its records a complete list of the names and addresses of all owners of time-share interests in the time-share plan, as specified. Existing law prohibits an association from publishing the owners list or providing a copy of it to any time-share interest owner or to any 3rd party or using or selling the list for commercial purposes, except as provided in the time-share instruments. This bill would require the association to maintain a complete list of the names and post office addresses of all owners of time-share interests in the time-share plan, and would prohibit the association from publishing the owners list or providing a copy of it to any time-share interest owner or to any 3rd party or using or selling the list for commercial purposes. The bill would provide methods for a time-share interest owner to communicate with the entire membership of the association through a written request to the association, as specified. The bill would authorize an owner, whose request to communicate was denied by the association, to file a court action, and, under certain circumstances, authorize a court to award to the requesting owner costs, including attorney's fees, reasonably incurred to enforce the owner's rights. The bill would also specify that certain provisions of the Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law do not apply to time-share associations under the Vacation Ownership and Time-share Act of 2004. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides for allocation of certain federal transportation funds apportioned to the state between state purposes administered by the Department of Transportation and local and regional purposes administered by various regional agencies. This bill would revise these allocations and other related provisions in accordance with recent modifications of federal law through enactment of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act. In this regard, the bill would provide a set aside from funds made available to the state under the federal Surface Transportation Program for transportation planning and for certain highway bridges that are not on the National Highway System, and would otherwise specify the amount of funds that the department is required to allocate to regional agencies. The bill would allocate funds to regional agencies under the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program based on a weighted formula that considers population and pollution in a given area, as specified. The bill would require a set aside for the Safe Routes to School Program from federal highway safety funds apportioned to the state, and would require activities under the program that are not eligible for federal highway safety funds to be funded from other federal funds available to the department. The bill would implement the new federal Transportation Alternatives Program by specifying the purposes for which these funds may be used, eligible entities that may receive these funds, and an allocation formula. The bill would allow the state to opt out of the federal Recreational Trails Program if the Governor so notifies the United States Secretary of Transportation. The bill would enact other related provisions.
Existing provisions of federal law regulate immigration. Under federal law, state laws regulating immigration are preempted. This bill would require the Employment Development Department and the Department of Food and Agriculture to convene a working group to consult with the United States Department of Homeland Security and the United States Department of Justice in order to determine the legal roles and responsibilities of federal and state agencies in implementing a program to provide undocumented persons who are agricultural or service industry employees with a permit to work and live in California. The bill would require the working group to create a report expressing its recommendations, which would be required to incorporate specified provisions describing a model program, and the bill would require the report to be submitted to the Legislature and the Governor. The bill would require the Governor, using the report, to either make a formal request to the federal government to implement a program to provide undocumented persons who are agricultural or service industry employees with a permit to work and live in California, or issue an explanation as to why a formal request was not made and make recommendations to the Legislature for how a program to provide undocumented persons who are agricultural or service industry employees with a permit to work and live in California should be structured. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) 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. Existing law requires the department to impose a uniform quality assurance fee on each skilled nursing facility, with certain exceptions, in accordance with a prescribed formula. The formula is based on the determination of the projected net revenues, as defined, of skilled nursing facilities. Under existing law, the charge will cease to be assessed after July 31, 2013, and these provisions will be repealed on January 1, 2014. Existing law, the Medi-Cal Long-Term Care Reimbursement Act, requires the department to implement a facility-specific reimbursement ratesetting system for certain skilled nursing facilities. Reimbursement rates for freestanding skilled nursing facilities are funded by a combination of federal funds and moneys collected pursuant to the skilled nursing uniform quality assurance fee. Existing law also establishes the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund in the State Treasury, which is a continuously appropriated fund that contains moneys from the assessment of specified administrative penalties and set asides of General Fund moneys, for the purposes of making quality and accountability payments. Existing law provides that this rate methodology shall cease to be implemented after July 31, 2013, and that these provisions shall be repealed on January 1, 2014. This bill would modify the calculation of rates under the above-referenced rate methodology, and would extend the assessment of the charge, implementation of the rate methodology, and implementation of related provisions until July 31, 2015. By extending the period of time during which transfers are made to the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would also modify the amount of moneys to be deposited into the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund, by, among other things, requiring that specified set-asides under the rate methodology remain in the General Fund instead of transferring to the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund and increasing the amount of certain set-asides to be transferred to the fund. This bill would instead require that the quality and accountability payments be made beginning with the 2013–14 rate year. (2) Existing federal Medicaid law requires nursing facilities, as defined, to perform an assessment of each resident's functional capacity that is based on a uniform minimum data set, as specified. This bill would require nursing facilities, the State Department of Health Care Services, and the State Department of Public Health to perform various duties with respect to the federal government's nursing home quality initiative and this assessment. (3) Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is through contracts with various types of managed care plans. Existing law imposes a tax at a specified rate on the gross premiums of an insurer, as defined, and, until July 1, 2012, on the total operating revenue, as specified, of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, as defined. Existing law exempts from that tax the total operating revenue of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, if specified events occur before July, 1, 2012. Existing law continuously appropriates the revenues derived from the tax on Medi-Cal managed care plans for specified purposes. This bill would extend the imposition of the tax on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans until July 1, 2014, and would make other conforming changes. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2013, allocate the sum of $15 million dollars from the revenues derived after July 1, 2012, to the State Department of Health Care Services for the purpose of creating a performance-based incentive payment program for specified Medi-Cal managed care plans. This bill also would authorize the Controller to loan funds in the Children's Health and Human Services Special Fund to the General Fund, as provided, until July 1, 2014. By extending the imposition of a charge whose revenues are continuously appropriated, this bill would make an appropriation. (4) Existing law requires, until July 1, 2012, every return required to be filed with the Insurance Commissioner pursuant to provisions governing taxes on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans to be signed by the insurer or the Medi-Cal managed care plan or an executive officer of the insurer or the plan and to be made under oath or contain a written declaration that is made under penalty of perjury. This bill would instead apply this signature requirement until July 1, 2014. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 provides that the act becomes inoperative if any of its provisions are amended or repealed. This bill would repeal that provision and would provide that, notwithstanding Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011, the provisions of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 do not become inoperative upon the amendment or repeal of any provision of that chapter made by this bill. (6) 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. (7) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) The existing California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, establishes an integrated waste management program. Existing law requires each city, county, and regional agency, if any, to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management plan. The act requires the source reduction and recycling element to divert from disposal 50% of all solid waste subject to the element through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities, with specified exceptions. Under the act, the use of solid waste for beneficial reuse in the construction and operation of a solid waste landfill, including the use of alternative daily cover, constitutes diversion through recycling and is not considered disposal. This bill would require the department to adopt regulations to provide that, on and after January 1, 2020, the use of green material as alternative daily cover or alternative intermediate cover does not constitute diversion through recycling and would be considered disposal for purposes of the act. The bill would authorize the department to delay the effective date of this requirement, as specified. The bill would impose a state-mandated local program by imposing new duties upon local agencies with regard to the diversion of solid waste. This bill would require the department, by January 1, 2014, to conduct an analysis of the use of residual fines from material recovery facilities and materials left over from the composting process for use as alternative daily cover and other forms of beneficial use in the design and operation of a solid waste landfill. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations, by July 1, 2014, based on this analysis, if the department makes a specified determination that residual fines from material recovery facilities and materials left over from the composting process would serve as adequate daily cover. (2) The act requires rigid plastic packaging containers that are sold or offered for sale in this state to meet, on average, one of specified criteria and defines terms for purposes of those requirements. One of those criteria that a rigid plastic packaging container may meet to satisfy this requirement is that the container be source reduced. The act provides for the enforcement of these requirements by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery and provides that an entity making a false certification pursuant to those requirements is subject to a violation for fraud. This bill would revise the definitions of the various terms used in the those requirements, including revising the definition of the term "source reduced" to impose new requirements, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by changing the definition of a crime. (3) The act requires a business, which is defined as a commercial or public entity, that generates more than 4 cubic yards of commercial solid waste per week or is a multifamily residential dwelling of 5 units or more, to arrange for recycling services. Existing law also requires jurisdictions to implement a commercial solid waste recycling program meeting specified elements. Existing law defines the term "commercial solid waste" by reference to a specified regulation. This bill would instead define commercial solid waste in statute to include all types of solid waste generated by a store, office, or other commercial or public entity source, including a business or a multifamily dwelling of 5 or more units, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by imposing new requirements upon local jurisdictions. The bill would define the term "large-quantity commercial organics generator" as a business that generates significant amounts of organic waste, including food waste and green material, that is traditionally disposed of in a solid waste landfill, as determined by the department. The bill would require the department to adopt, by January 1, 2017, regulations to require a large-quantity commercial organics generator to arrange for separate organics collection and recycling services, except as specified. The bill would impose a state-mandated local program by imposing new duties upon local agencies with regard to the commercial solid waste program required to be implemented by local agencies. (4) The act requires the department to adopt regulations setting forth standards for solid waste handling. A violation of the provisions regulating solid waste facilities is a crime. This bill would require a solid waste facility that accepts solid waste from the public or self-haulers to establish a separate collection area for segregated green material and nonhazardous woody material. The bill would prohibit the disposal of this material, but would allow its use for beneficial reuse in the construction and operation of a solid waste landfill, including as alternative daily cover. Since a violation of this requirement would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) 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 specified reasons.
Existing law provides for state hospitals for the care, treatment, and education of mentally disordered persons, which are under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to various provisions of law to, in part, delete obsolete references to the State Department of Mental Health. This bill would appropriate the sum of $1,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of State Hospitals for administration. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
(1) Existing law makes the vote by mail ballot available to any registered voter. Existing law requires that those vote by mail ballots be received by the elections officials from whom they were obtained or by the precinct boards before the polls close on election day in order to be counted. Existing law authorizes certain local, special, or consolidated elections to be conducted wholly by mail, so long as specified conditions are satisfied. Existing law requires ballots cast in these vote by mail elections to be returned to the elections official from whom they were obtained no later than 8 p.m. on election day. This bill would, notwithstanding the above provisions, provide that any vote by mail ballot is timely cast if it is received by the voter's elections official no later than 3 days after election day, and either the ballot is postmarked on or before election day or the voter has executed a declaration under penalty of perjury stating that the ballot was voted and mailed prior to 8 p.m. on election day. Because the bill would expand the duties of local elections officials, it would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the elections official to prepare a certified statement of the results of the election and submit it to the governing body within 28 days of the election, except for specified elections. This bill would instead require the elections official to submit the certified statement of the results of the election to the governing body within 31 days of the election. (3) 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 that the Department of Transportation has full possession and control of the state highway system and associated property. Existing law authorizes the department to place signs on state highways directing motorists to culturally unique and historically significant communities within the geographic boundaries of a city, county, or city and county under certain conditions. Among these conditions is a requirement for the governing body of the city, county, or city and county in which the community is located to adopt a resolution that designates the name of the community, defines the geographic boundaries of the community, and requests the department to post the signs. This bill would, until January 1, 2014, authorize the department to also post signs under these provisions in the absence of compliance with the above-referenced resolution requirements, if the governing board of the county in which the community is located adopts a resolution conforming with the above-referenced requirements and the city in which the community is located, if any, provides a letter from the director of transportation or the city official in charge of transportation matters indicating that the city is not opposed to the placement of signs. This bill would also authorize the department to continue to display the signs installed under these provisions after the repeal of these provisions.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. That law provides that the place of sale or purchase is the place where the tangible personal property is physically located at the time the act constituting the sale or purchase takes place, with sales tax thereby being imposed on retail sales of tangible personal property physically located in this state at the time of sale. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law and provides the methods of allocating those local sales and use taxes to a city or county. This bill would clarify that the place of sale or purchase of property for purposes of determining whether sales tax or use tax applies to the transaction is determined in the same manner under the Sales and Use Tax Law and the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law, and would state that this provision is declaratory of existing law. Existing law provides that after January 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2013, the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Law, Underground Storage Tank Maintenance Fee Law, and Fee Collection Procedures Law allow the State Board of Equalization to accept an offer in compromise on a final tax liability, as defined, imposed under or in accordance with those laws regardless of whether the liabilities are generated from a business, that has been discontinued or transferred or whether the taxpayer or feepayer has a controlling interest or association with a similar business as the transferred or discontinued business, as prescribed. Under these laws, a taxpayer or feepayer would be guilty of a felony if the taxpayer or feepayer conceals specified property or receives, withholds, destroys, mutilates, or falsifies specified items or makes a false statement related to the offer in compromise, as specified. This bill would extend the repeal date for the above provisions to January 1, 2018. The bill, by extending the repeal date, would expand an existing crime and, thus, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to prescribe, by regulation, appliance efficiency standards, based on reasonable and current use patterns, to promote the use of energy- and water-efficient appliances. Existing law requires these standards to become effective no sooner than one year after the date of adoption or revision. Existing law provides that, within 5 years after the adoption of an appliance standard, a change in an appliance standard shall not become effective unless the commission adopts other cost-effective measures for that appliance. This bill would provide that the battery charger labeling requirements do not become effective and would prohibit the enforcement of those requirements if, no later than January 31, 2013, the United States Department of Energy issues a decision adopting a federal labeling requirement for battery chargers that becomes effective no later than July 1, 2013. The bill would provide that the battery charger labeling requirements adopted by the commission that become effective would remain in effect only until the United States Department of Energy adopts a final labeling rule for battery chargers that becomes effective.
