Read. Adopted. (Ayes 25. Noes 8.)
Existing law requires employers to make specified payments and withholdings from wages paid for employment to the Employment Development Department, which also is charged with administering the state's unemployment insurance program. Existing law also requires employers, as defined, to register with the department, and imposes penalties on employers for failure to register. This bill would prohibit a person or entity from providing, advertising for, or otherwise holding itself out as providing, professional employer services in the state, unless that person or entity is registered as a professional employer organization with the department. The bill would require the director to prescribe rules establishing the method for professional employer organizations to report quarterly wages and contributions to the director for worksite employees, as specified.
Existing law, the Song-Brown Family Physician Training Act, declares the intent of the Legislature to increase the number of students and residents receiving quality education and training in the specialty of family practice and as primary care physician's assistants and primary care nurse practitioners. Existing law establishes, for this purpose, a state medical contract program with accredited medical schools, programs that train primary care physician's assistants, programs that train primary care nurse practitioners, registered nurses, hospitals, and other health care delivery systems. Existing law establishes the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, identify specific areas of the state where unmet priority needs for primary care family physicians and registered nurses exist, establish standards for family practice training programs, family practice residency programs, primary care physician assistants programs, and programs that train primary care nurse practitioners, and review and make recommendations to the Director of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development concerning the funding of those programs that are submitted to the Health Professions Development Program for participation in the state medical contract program. The bill would create the Graduate Medical Education Trust Fund in the State Treasury to consist of private moneys donated to the commission for deposit into the fund and any interest that accrues on those moneys, and would require that moneys in the fund be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to fund grants to graduate medical residency training programs, as specified. The bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, in consultation with the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission, to develop criteria, upon receipt of private donations of sufficient moneys to develop the criteria, for distribution of available funds. The bill would state that no General Fund moneys shall be used to implement the provisions of the bill.
Existing law establishes the California Commission on Disability Access to develop recommendations that will enable persons with disabilities to exercise their right to full and equal access to public facilities, and that will facilitate business compliance with disability access laws and regulations to avoid unnecessary litigation. Existing law requires the commission to study specified disability access issues, and to make reports on those issues to the Legislature. This bill would require the commission to analyze and make recommendations to the Legislature regarding whether compliance with state and federal construction-related disability accessibility laws would be improved or potentially deterred by changes to state rules regarding legal standing for actions seeking injunctive relief to correct alleged violations of disability access laws or the manner by which these claims are pleaded.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to maintain and operate a comprehensive pharmacy services program for those facilities under the jurisdiction of the department that is both cost effective and efficient, and that may incorporate a requirement for the use of generic medications, when available, unless an exception is reviewed and approved in accordance with an established nonformulary approval process. This bill would instead require the use of less expensive medications as achieved by the statewide pharmaceutical program, when those medications are available, unless an exception is reviewed and approved in accordance with an established nonformulary approval process, or unless the prescriber has indicated on the face of the prescription or on any other appropriate form for electronic prescriptions "dispense as written".
Existing law establishes the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) , and requires a local educational agency to retain all data necessary to compile reports required by specified federal laws, including, but not limited to, dropout and graduation rates. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to submit to the Governor, the Legislature, and the State Board of Education an annual report on dropouts using the data produced by CALPADS. Existing law requires that certain data listed in the report be presented, if possible, for specified subgroups, including ethnicity and gender. This bill would additionally require that the behavioral data included in the report, including suspension and expulsion data, be presented for those subgroups, if possible. Existing law authorizes the establishment of county and local school attendance review boards that may promote the use of alternatives to the juvenile court system if available public and private services are insufficient or inappropriate to correct school attendance or school behavior problems. Existing law provides that any minor pupil who is a habitual truant, is irregular in attendance at school, or is habitually insubordinate or disorderly during attendance at school may be referred to a school attendance review board. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to adopt rules and regulations to require the appropriate officers and employees of the district to gather and transmit to the county superintendent of schools the number and types of referrals to school attendance review boards and of requests for petitions to the juvenile court. This bill would instead require the governing board of a school district to transmit the above-described information to the State Department of Education. Existing law limits the number of schooldays for which a pupil may be suspended from school to 5. Existing law allows the superintendent of the school district or other person designated by the superintendent to extend the period of suspension if the governing board of the school district is considering expelling the pupil or the suspension is for the balance of the semester from continuation school. Existing law requires a school district to maintain specified data regarding pupils who are recommended for expulsion. This bill would require a school district to also maintain certain data relating to extending the period of suspension. Existing law requires that a school district identify each suspension or expulsion of a pupil by offense committed for the reporting of expulsion and suspension offenses to the department. This bill would require the department, by July 1 of each year, to make specified data regarding suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to school attendance review boards available to the public on its Internet Web site, and to disaggregate the data, to the extent possible, by ethnicity, special education status, English learners, socioeconomic status, and gender, and cross-tabulate all those categories by gender and special education status. The bill would require the Superintendent, if reliable data is not available by July 1, to report to the Legislature, on or before that date, regarding the reason for the delay and the date that he or she anticipates the data will become available. The bill would prohibit the publication of the data in a manner that would reveal personally identifiable information of any pupil, or cause the suspension of a pupil to be counted more than once, as specified.
The Cobey-Porter Saline Water Conversion Law authorizes the Department of Water Resources, either independently or in cooperation with public or private entities to conduct a program of investigation, study, and evaluation in the field of saline water conversion, to provide assistance to persons or entities seeking to construct desalination facilities, and after submission of a written report and upon appropriation from the Legislature, to finance, construct, and operate saline water conversion facilities. Existing law required the department, not later than July 1, 2004, to report to the Legislature on potential opportunities and impediments for using seawater and brackish water desalination, and to examine what role, if any, the state should play in furthering the use of desalination technology. Existing law also required the department to convene a Water Desalination Task Force, comprised of representatives from listed agencies and interest groups, to advise the department in carrying out these duties and in making recommendations to the Legislature. The California Ocean Protection Act establishes the Ocean Protection Council in state government. Existing law requires the Ocean Protection Council to coordinate activities of state agencies that are related to the protection and conservation of coastal waters and ocean ecosystems to improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean resources within existing fiscal limitations, to establish policies to coordinate the collection, evaluation, and sharing of scientific data related to coastal and ocean resources among agencies, and to identify and recommend to the Legislature changes in law needed to achieve these goals. This bill would require the council to report to the Legislature, by December 31, 2014, on opportunities for improving the current statewide permitting processes for seawater desalination facilities and to recommend potential administrative and legislative actions for improving the permitting process while maintaining current regulatory protections. The bill would require the chair of the council to select a member of the council to be the chair of the Seawater Desalination Permit Improvement Task Force. This bill would require the chair of the task force to convene the Seawater Desalination Permit Improvement Task Force to review the current permitting processes required by all state regulatory agencies for the planning, design, construction, monitoring, and operation of seawater desalination facilities, to identify opportunities for improving the permitting process, and to advise the council in making the report.
Existing law provides that the California Workforce Investment Board is responsible for assisting the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system. Existing law further provides that the board must assist the Governor in targeting resources to specified high-wage industry sectors and providing guidance to ensure that services reflect the needs of those sectors. This bill would provide that the board is also responsible for assisting the Governor in the alignment of the education and workforce investment systems to the needs of the 21st century workforce and the promotion and development of a well-educated and highly skilled 21st century economy and workforce. This bill would require the board to assist the Governor in targeting resources to specified industry clusters that provide economic security and leverage state and federal funds to ensure that resources are invested in activities that meet the needs of specified industry sectors and advance the education and employment of students and workers so they can meet the specified needs of the state, its regional economies, and leading industry sectors. Existing law requires the board, in collaboration with specified state and local partners, and the local workforce investment boards to develop a specified strategic workforce plan, updated at least every 5 years, to address the state's economic, demographic, and workplace needs and to meet the single state plan requirement of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. This bill would require, as part of the strategic workforce plan, the creation of a California Industry Sector Initiative that will accomplish specified tasks, including aligning and leveraging federal, state, and local Workforce Investment Act funding streams, identifying specified industry sectors and clusters, providing skills-gap analysis, and establishing specified eligibility criteria for the Workforce Investment Act eligible training provider list. This bill would also make related changes.
(1) The Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act requires a local public agency to adopt a plan to implement a 911 emergency telephone response system, and establishes the State 911 Advisory Board to advise on specified subjects relating to the state's 911 emergency telephone response system. The board is comprised of 11 members who are appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the Governor. This bill would add 2 members to the advisory board who would be selected by the Legislature, as specified. This bill would also make legislative findings and declarations and eliminate the ability of a member of the advisory board to designate another to act in his or her place. (2) Existing law requires the Public Safety Communication Division to assist a local public agency in the development of its plan to implement a 911 emergency telephone response system, and to approve a final plan before it is implemented. Existing law requires the board to, if requested by a local public agency, conduct a hearing on any conflict between a local agency and the Public Safety Communication Division regarding a final plan. This bill would, instead, require the board to, if requested by a local agency, conduct a hearing on any conflict between a local public agency and the Public Safety Communication Division regarding that agency's 911 emergency telephone response system and cost reimbursement decisions.
The Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006 authorizes the issuance of bonds to finance various housing programs, capital outlay related to infill development, brownfield cleanup that promotes infill development, housing-related parks, and transit-oriented development programs. Existing law transfers bond moneys to the Self-Help Housing Fund to be expended for purposes of the California Homebuyer's Downpayment Assistance Program, as specified. Existing law, the CalHome Program, authorizes funds appropriated for purposes of the program to be used to enable low- and very low income households to become or remain homeowners. This bill would establish the California Neighborhood Revitalization Partnership Act of 2012, to be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, to provide funding to local public agencies or nonprofit corporations for the purchase and improvement of foreclosed or abandoned single-family or multifamily residential properties and for downpayment assistance associated with the resale of an improved property, subject to specified requirements. The bill would authorize the Department of Housing and Community Development to expend $25,000,000 of the bond moneys available in the Self-Help Housing Fund for the purpose above.
Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , to authorize electrical corporations to collect moneys for the self-generation incentive program (SGIP) at 2008 calendar year levels through December 31, 2014. Existing law requires the PUC to require electrical corporations to administer the SGIP, until January 1, 2016. Existing law limits eligibility for SGIP incentives to distributed energy resources that the PUC, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, determines will achieve reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. This bill would state legislative findings and declarations regarding the use of waste products from forest thinning and fire prevention activities to generate electricity at biomass facilities. The bill would require the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to establish an incentive program to compensate producers and collectors of biomass material associated with forest fuel reduction and fire prevention activities that are delivered to eligible biomass facilities, as defined, for use as a fuel source.
Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requires each state to, by January 1, 2014, establish an American Health Benefit Exchange that makes available qualified health plans to qualified individuals and small employers. Existing state law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange within state government to facilitate enrollment of qualified individuals in qualified health plans and to assist qualified employers in facilitating the enrollment of their employees in qualified health plans. The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also authorizes the establishment of a basic health program under which a state may enter into contracts to offer one or more standard health plans providing a minimum level of essential benefits to eligible individuals instead of offering those individuals coverage through an Exchange, if specified criteria are met. Under existing law, the State Department of Health Care Services (department) administers various programs to provide health care coverage to persons with limited financial resources, including the Medi-Cal program. This bill would establish in state government a Basic Health Program, to be administered by the department. The bill would require the department to enter into a contract with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement the Basic Health Program, and would set forth the powers and the duties of the department relative to determining eligibility for enrollment, setting premiums for coverage, and selecting participating health plans under the Basic Health Program, subject to requirements under federal law. The bill would require the department to permit enrollment in the Basic Health Program on January 1, 2014. The bill would create the Basic Health Program Trust Fund for those purposes and would make moneys in the fund subject to appropriation by the Legislature, except that if the annual Budget Act is not enacted by a certain date, the bill would authorize the department to transfer specified funds from the trust fund to health plans in order to comply with certain requirements, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the Basic Health Program to be funded by federal funds, private donations, premiums paid by eligible individuals, and other non-General Fund moneys available for that purpose. Notwithstanding those provisions, the bill would authorize the department to obtain loans from the General Fund for initial startup expenses, to be repaid by July 1, 2016, and would establish a procedure for continued coverage of individuals under the California Health Benefit Exchange if costs of the Basic Health Program exceed moneys available from specified sources. The bill would require the department to request an evaluation of the Basic Health Program and to seek funding for the evaluation from an unspecified independent nonprofit private foundation.
