California Bills

Existing law establishes a low-income housing tax credit program pursuant to which the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee provides procedures and requirements for the allocation of state insurance, personal income, and corporation income tax credit amounts among low-income housing projects based on federal law. Existing law, in modified conformity to federal income tax law, allows the credit based upon the applicable percentage, as defined, of the qualified basis of each qualified low-income building. Existing law limits the total annual amount of the credit that the committee may allocate to $70 million per year and allows $500,000 per year of that amount to be allocated for projects to provide farmworker housing, as specified. This bill, for calendar years beginning 2017, would increase the aggregate housing credit dollar amount that may be allocated among low-income housing projects by $300,000,000, as specified. The bill would also increase the amount the committee may allocate to farmworker housing projects from $500,000 to $25,000,000 per year. The bill, under the insurance taxation law, the Personal Income Tax Law, and the Corporation Tax Law, would modify the definition of applicable percentage relating to qualified low-income buildings that meet specified criteria. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law authorizes certain health care districts to use the design-build process when contracting for the construction of a building or improvements directly related to construction of a hospital or health facility building in those districts, as specified. Existing law sets forth the procurement process for design-build projects, as specified, and requires specified information submitted by design-build entities to be certified under penalty of perjury. This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2022, the Beach Cities Health District and the Peninsula Health Care District to use the design-build process for the construction of facilities or other buildings in those districts, as specified. Because the bill would expand the application of the procurement process to additional design-build entities, the bill would expand the crime of perjury, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Beach Cities Health District and the Peninsula Health Care District. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing federal and state laws contain programs that authorize loan forgiveness to physicians, dentists, and individuals enrolled in a postsecondary institution studying medicine or dentistry who agree to practice in medically or dentally underserved areas. Under existing law, the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program was created by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the purpose of awarding grants to teaching health centers for the purpose of establishing new accredited or expanded primary care residency programs. This bill would establish the Teaching Health Center Primary Care Graduate Medical Education Fund for purposes of funding primary care residency programs, as specified, subject to appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would establish criteria for the awarding of grants under these provisions to teaching health centers, as defined. The bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and the Director of Statewide Health Planning and Development to administer these provisions, as specified. The bill would require the office to adopt emergency regulations to implement these provisions. The bill would provide that its provisions are subject to an appropriation in the Budget Act for these purposes.

Existing law prohibits Members of the Legislature, and state, county, district, judicial district, and city officers or employees from being financially interested in a contract, as specified, made by them in their official capacity or by any body or board of which they are members, subject to specified exceptions. Existing law imposes a criminal penalty on every officer or person who willfully violates these prohibitions. Existing law identifies certain remote interests that are not subject to this prohibition and other situations in which an official is not deemed to be financially interested in a contract, including, among others, that of a parent in the earnings of his or her minor child for personal services. This bill, on and after January 1, 2018, would include within the definition of remote interest that of a public officer in the financial interest of that public officer's child, parent, or sibling, or the spouse of the child, parent, or sibling, except a public officer's financial interests would not include any financial interest of those other persons unless the interest is actually known to the public officer. By expanding these prohibitions, this bill would create a new crime, and thus 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has broad regulatory authority pursuant to the California Constitution and the Public Utilities Act over public utilities, as defined. Existing law provides compensation for reasonable advocate's fees, reasonable expert witness fees, and other reasonable costs to public utility customers and representatives of customers for participation or intervention in formal proceedings of the commission involving electrical, gas, water, telegraph, and telephone public utilities, but does not provide that compensation for local government agencies. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to local educational agency involvement in commission proceedings. The bill would authorize compensation for participation or intervention in the proceedings described above for a county office of education, or a consortium of public school districts or agencies participating or intervening on behalf of local K–12 educational agencies in a commission proceeding relating to gas or electricity rates. The bill would require that a representative of a consortium not have had a direct financial interest in the resolution of the commission proceeding within the 2 years preceding the filing of comments with the commission and not have a direct financial interest in the resolution until 2 years after that resolution.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state, and authorizes them to operate campuses and provide instruction to students. The Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act requires a mandated reporter, which includes a specified employee or administrator of a community college district, to report whenever he or she, in his or her professional capacity or within the scope of his or her employment, has knowledge of or has observed a child whom the mandated reporter knows or reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse or neglect. This bill would establish the Mandated Child Abuse Reporting Employee Training Act of 2016, which would require each governing board of a community college district to: (1) annually train, using the online training module developed by the State Department of Education, or other training, as specified, employees and administrators of the district who are mandated reporters on the mandated reporting requirements, as specified; (2) develop a process for those persons required to receive training under the bill to provide proof of completing this training within the first 6 weeks of each academic year or within 6 weeks of that person's employment; and (3) develop a process to identify the students who are minors enrolled in classes at the community college district and provide that information only to faculty members and other employees who are mandated reporters, as specified. The bill would provide that a person employed by more than one community college district or by more than one college in a single community college district is only required to receive the required training one time in each academic year. By imposing new duties on community college districts, 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.

The California Constitution generally limits ad valorem taxes on real property to 1% of the full cash value, as defined, of that property, and provides that the full cash value base may be adjusted each year by an inflationary rate not to exceed 2% for any given year. Existing property tax law implementing this constitutional authority provides that the taxable value of real property is the lesser of its base year value compounded annually by the inflation factor not to exceed 2%, as provided, or its full cash value. Existing property tax law also provides that the taxable value of a manufactured home is the lesser of its base year value compounded annually by an inflation factor not to exceed 2% or its full cash value. This bill would provide that the inflation factor shall not apply to the principal place of residence, as specified, of a "qualified taxpayer," defined by the bill to mean a person who owns a dwelling as his or her principal place of residence, or a person who owns a manufactured home as his or her principal place of residence, who is 65 years of age or older on the lien date who meets specified requirements. By changing the manner in which local tax officials calculate the taxable value of real property owned by senior citizens, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code requires the Legislature to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to 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. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law establishes the Fair and Exposition Fund to, among other things, allocate moneys for the support of the network of California fairs. The balance of moneys in that fund, after appropriation by the Legislature for specified oversight and auditing costs, are continuously appropriated for capital outlay for specified fair projects. Existing sales and use laws impose taxes 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 measured by sales price, and requires that revenues, less refunds, derived from a specified rate of that tax be transferred to specified funds and then the balance to the General Fund. This bill would require a tax return filed for the purposes of the Sales and Use Tax Law to segregate the gross receipts of the seller and the sales price of the property on a form prescribed by the State Board of Equalization when the place of sale or use in this state is on or within the real property of a state-designated fair, as defined, which excludes any fair located in the County of Los Angeles, or any real property of a state-designated fair that is leased to another party. The bill would require, except as specified, that 30% of all revenues, less refunds and costs of administration, derived from those segregated sales and use tax amounts that would have been deposited into the General Fund instead be deposited into the Fair and Exposition Fund and continuously appropriated for allocation by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture for specified fair projects and subject to certain conditions. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2022.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health, within the California Health and Human Services Agency, vested with certain duties, powers, functions, jurisdiction, and responsibilities over specified public health programs. This bill, among other things, would create the Community-based Health Improvement and Innovation Fund in the State Treasury, and the moneys in the fund would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for certain purposes, including, but not limited to, reducing health inequity and disparities in the rates and outcomes of priority chronic health conditions, as defined, preventing the onset of priority chronic health conditions using community-based strategies in communities statewide and with particular focus on health equity priority populations, as defined, and strengthening local, regional, and state level collaborations between public health jurisdictions and health care providers, and across government agencies and community partners to create healthier communities, using a health-in-all-policies approach. The department would be required to use a specified percentage of moneys from the fund for certain public health and administrative activities and would be required to award a specified percentage of moneys from the fund to local health jurisdictions and as competitive grants to eligible applicants to be used to improve health and health equity, as provided. This bill would create the 13-member Community-based Health Improvement and Innovation Fund Advisory Committee to, among other things, advise the department with respect to policy development, integration, and evaluation of community-based chronic disease and injury prevention activities funded under these provisions, and for development of a master plan of recommendations and proposed strategies for the future implementation of those activities. The bill would require the advisory committee, based on the results of programs supported by these provisions, to produce a comprehensive set of recommendations and proposed strategies for advancing chronic disease and injury prevention throughout the state, to include implementation strategies in the recommendations for each priority chronic health condition throughout the state and identification of areas where innovative solutions are especially needed, and to submit the recommendations and proposed strategies to the Legislature triennially.

Under the Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013, the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, administers specific programs relating to small business, either administered directly by the bank or under contract with small business financial development corporations. The act authorizes bank programs to offer surety bond guarantees. The act prohibits a corporation from guaranteeing any loan unless and until it makes specified determinations, including that there is a low probability that the surety bond would be granted by a financial institution or financial company under reasonable terms or conditions, and the beneficiary has demonstrated a reasonable prospect of successful completion of the project. This bill would modify that prohibition to refer to a surety bond instead of a loan and would add private bonding companies to those entities considered when calculating the probability that a surety bond would be granted. The act, in addition to the authority described above, authorizes a corporation to act as a guarantor on a surety bond for any small business contractor, including, but not limited to, women, minority, and disabled veteran contractors. This bill would expand those entities for which a corporation may act as a guarantor on a surety bond to include disadvantaged business enterprise contractors. The bill would require a surety bond program to include technical assistance to a participating contractor, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the bank, in implementing a surety bond program under the act, to assign all or part of the program to another state entity in a prescribed manner, to establish one or more pilot projects before approving directives and guidelines for a statewide surety bond and small contractor assistance program, and to establish one or more nonstate contracts under specific circumstances. The act continues in existence the California Small Business Expansion Fund (expansion fund) , a continuously appropriated fund that includes General Fund moneys. The expansion fund may be used to pay defaulted loan guarantee or surety bond losses, or other financial product defaults or losses, to fund direct loans and other debt instruments, to pay administrative costs of corporations, to pay state support and administrative costs, and to pay costs to protect a real property interest in a financial product default. By expanding the activities of the bank that are funded by continuous appropriation from the expansion fund, this bill would make an appropriation.

Existing federal law provides for the allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states. Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program under which, through a combination of state and county funds and federal funds received through the TANF program, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Under existing law, certain amounts are exempt from the calculation of income of the family for purposes of determining the amount of a grant under the CalWORKs program, including specified amounts of disability-based unearned income and earned income. This bill would increase the amount of exempted disability-based unearned income and other earned income, as specified. By increasing county administrative duties relating to the CalWORKs program, 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. 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.