Existing law imposes an excise tax on motor vehicle fuel (gasoline) . Existing law, as a result of the elimination of the sales tax on gasoline effective July 1, 2010, provides for a commensurate increase in the excise tax on gasoline. These taxes are deposited to the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account in the Transportation Tax Fund. Existing law requires certain moneys attributable to taxes imposed upon distribution of gasoline related to specified off-highway motor vehicles and off-highway vehicle activities to be transferred monthly from the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account to the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund. Existing law, however, transfers, with respect to the increase in gasoline excise taxes as a result of the elimination of the sales tax on gasoline, to the General Fund the revenues attributable to off-highway vehicles that would otherwise be deposited in the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund. Existing law also requires the Controller to withhold $833,000 from the monthly transfer, and transfer that amount to the General Fund. The moneys in the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund are required to be used, upon appropriation, for specified purposes related to off-highway motor vehicle recreation. This bill would, on June 30, 2017, eliminate the requirement that the Controller withhold $833,000 from the monthly transfer and transfer it to the General Fund and would thereby transfer this amount monthly to the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund.
Existing law requires a conservator of the person to be responsible for the care, custody, control, and education of a conservatee, except if the court, in its discretion, limits the powers and duties of the conservator. Existing law also provides that the conservator's control of the conservatee does not extend to personal rights retained by the conservatee, including, but not limited to, the right to receive visitors, telephone calls, and personal mail, unless specifically limited by court order. Existing law authorizes the court to issue an order that specifically grants the conservator the power to enforce the conservatee's rights to receive visitors, telephone calls, and personal mail or that directs the conservator to allow those visitors, calls, and mail. This bill would add the right to receive electronic mail to a conservatee's personal rights for purposes of these provisions. This bill would update an obsolete reference.
Existing law, except as specified, prohibits any state agency from expending funds appropriated for design-build projects until the Department of Finance and the State Public Works Board have approved performance criteria for the project. This bill would include among the exceptions to those provisions amounts appropriated for projects at the Salton Sea. Existing law requires either the Director of General Services or the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to notify the State Public Works Board regarding the method to be used for selecting a design-build entity, prior to advertising the design-build project. This bill would, for purposes of projects at the Salton Sea, instead require the Director of the Department of Water Resources to notify the California Water Commission regarding the method to be used for selecting a design-build entry, prior to advertising a design-build project. The bill would make other conforming changes.
Existing law, the Wildlife Conservation Law of 1947, establishes the Wildlife Conservation Board in the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Under existing law, the board consists of the president of the Fish and Game Commission, the Director of Fish and Wildlife, and the Director of Finance. Existing law prescribes the board's duties with regard to, among other things, real property acquisitions for property used for wildlife preservation and conservation purposes. This bill would establish the Inner Coast Range Program with specified goal areas and authorization related to the Inner Coast Range Region, as defined. This bill would require the board to establish an advisory board for the program consisting of one representative of each of the counties within the region and would authorize the board to invite certain legislators and representatives of state and federal agencies to participate as members on the advisory board. The bill would create the Inner Coast Range Program Fund in the State Treasury and would provide that moneys in the fund would be available, upon appropriation, for the purposes of the program. The bill would require the board to make a biannual report to the Legislature and to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency regarding expenditures, land, management costs, and administrative costs for the purposes of the program. The bill, by January 1, 2027, would require the board, in consultation with the advisory board, to review the program and issue a report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature about the possible creation of a state conservancy for the Inner Coast Range Region.
Existing law establishes various programs for the recruitment of teachers. This bill would establish the California Center on Teaching Careers for the purposes of recruiting qualified and capable individuals into the teaching profession. From funds appropriated for that purpose, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing would be required to provide a multiyear grant to a local educational agency through a competitive grant process to establish and administer the center with the concurrence, as defined, of representatives of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the University of California, the California State University, the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges, and independent institutions of higher education, as defined. The bill would require that the activities of the California Center on Teaching Careers be implemented with the active involvement of local educational agencies that elect to participate, whenever appropriate. The California Center on Teaching Careers would be required to perform specified duties, including, among others, creating or expanding a referral database for qualified teachers seeking employment in the public schools. The bill would require the California Center on Teaching Careers, in conducting those duties, to focus on chronic teacher shortage areas, including special education and bilingual teachers, and to coordinate and work collaboratively with the Education Job Opportunities Information Network, existing teacher recruitment centers, school districts, county offices of education, and other teachers clubs and organizations. This bill would require the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, on or before January 1, 2020, to conduct an evaluation and report to the Department of Finance, relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, and the Legislative Analyst's Office on the outcomes of the California Center on Teaching Careers.
Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, and to adopt procedures for the submission of instructional materials, and provides that instructional materials may be submitted for adoption in specified subject areas every 8 years. This bill would instead provide that instructional materials may be submitted for adoption at least once but no more than twice every 8 years. The bill would require the State Department of Education, before conducting a follow-up adoption, as defined, in a given subject area to post a notice on the department's Internet Web site and notify all publishers or manufacturers known to produce basic instructional materials in that subject area that each publisher and manufacturer choosing to participate in the follow-up adoption shall be assessed a fee, as specified.
Existing law prohibits a person from being tried, adjudged to punishment, or having his or her probation, mandatory supervision, postrelease community supervision, or parole revoked while that person is mentally incompetent. Existing law establishes a process by which a defendant's mental competency is evaluated and by which the defendant receives treatment, including, if applicable, antipsychotic medication, with the goal of returning the defendant to competency. Existing law credits time spent by a defendant in a state hospital or other facility as a result of commitment during the process toward the term of any imprisonment for which the defendant is sentenced. This bill, until January 1, 2021, for the Counties of Los Angeles and Santa Clara, would authorize a defendant who is or has been eligible for public mental health services due to a serious mental illness or who is eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits due to a diagnosed mental illness to petition the court, after the defendant's plea or conviction but prior to sentencing, for a sentence that includes mental health treatment. The bill would authorize a court, if it finds that the defendant has shown that he or she meets the criteria by a preponderance of the evidence, to order the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the county authority to provide specified mental health service, including placement in a residential mental health treatment facility instead of state prison or county jail, placement in a mental health program within the state prison or county jail, or preparation of a postrelease mental health treatment plan. The bill would authorize the court, upon petition of the defendant or the prosecution, to recall a sentence that includes a mental health order and resentence the defendant to other mental health treatment or resentence the defendant without mental health treatment. The bill would provide that the defendant has the right to counsel for these proceedings. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor, as specified. By imposing additional duties upon county jail authorities, this bill would create 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. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Los Angeles and Santa Clara.
Existing law establishes the Commission on Correctional Peace Officer Standards and Training within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and requires the commission to develop standards and training for correctional peace officers. This bill would require the commission to establish an Internet Web site to include meeting minutes, agendas, and supporting documents. The bill would require the commission to transmit live video and audio of all of its meetings via the Internet Web site. The bill would require the commission to include an archive of past meeting minutes, agendas, and supporting documents and the video and audio of past meetings. The bill would require the commission to include documents on the Internet Web site to provide employees and the public with greater access to professional development materials.
(1) The California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009 provides for the regulation of private postsecondary educational institutions by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act also establishes the Student Tuition Recovery Fund and requires the bureau to adopt regulations governing the administration and maintenance of the fund, including requirements relating to assessments on students and student claims against the fund, and establishes that the moneys in this fund are continuously appropriated to the bureau for specified purposes. This bill would appropriate the sum of $1,300,000 from the Student Tuition Recovery Fund to the Attorney General for the purposes of providing grants to eligible nonprofit community service organizations to assist eligible students affected by the closure of Corinthian Colleges, Inc., as defined, with loan discharge and other student loan-related requests and tuition recovery-related claims, and to pay an amount not to exceed $150,000 for the reasonable administrative costs of the Attorney General's office related to these grants, as specified. The bill would require the bureau to notify the Attorney General of all unlawful Corinthian Colleges closures within 15 days of the effective date of these provisions. The bill would require the Attorney General to, among other things, within 90 days of the notification, solicit grant applications from eligible nonprofit community service organizations, select one or more of these organizations deemed to be qualified, and set additional terms and conditions of the grants as necessary. The bill would provide that any unused funds are to be returned to the Attorney General for return to the Student Tuition Recovery Fund, except that, upon the approval of the Attorney General, an eligible nonprofit community service organization may expend those unused funds to provide assistance to students who were enrolled at an institution approved to operate by the bureau and who were harmed by the unlawful closure of that institution. The bill would set a schedule for how grant funds are to be distributed. The bill would require the grantee to submit specified information to the Attorney General on a quarterly basis, and require the Attorney General to make these reports available to the Legislature and the bureau upon request. The bill would require the Attorney General to provide the Legislature and the bureau a final report summarizing all the information submitted to it by grantees, promptly following the time when all funds are expended by the grantees, or by January 1, 2019, whichever is earlier. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to contract with another qualified entity to perform the Attorney General's duties under these provisions. (2) This bill would, until July 1, 2020, authorize state agencies that provide licensure to consider for licensure students who were enrolled in an educational program of Corinthian Colleges, Inc., designed to lead to licensure from that state agency, and who did not receive that licensure due to the institution's closure. (3) The Cal Grant Program prohibits an applicant from receiving Cal Grant awards totaling in excess of the amount equivalent to the award level for a total of 4 years of full-time attendance in an undergraduate program, except as provided. This bill would partially exempt from this limitation on Cal Grant awards a student who was enrolled and received a Cal Grant award at a California campus of Heald College, and who was unable to complete an educational program offered by the campus due to its closure. (4) The California National Guard Education Assistance Award Program authorizes the renewal of California National Guard Education Assistance Awards, for a maximum of the greater of either 4 years of full-time equivalent enrollment or the duration for which the qualifying member would otherwise be eligible pursuant to the Cal Grant Program, if specified conditions are met. This bill would partially exempt from this limitation on California National Guard Education Assistance Awards a student who was enrolled and received a California National Guard Education Assistance Award at a California campus of Heald College, and who was unable to complete an educational program offered by the campus due to its closure. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders and brokers, which includes any person who is engaged in the business of making consumer loans, by the Commissioner of Business Oversight and makes a willful violation of its provisions a crime. Existing law authorizes the commissioner to investigate at any time the loans and business, and examine the books, accounts, records, and files used in the business of every person engaged in the business of a finance lender or broker for the purpose of discovering violations or securing information required by the commissioner in the administration and enforcement of the California Finance Lenders Law, as provided. This bill would require the commissioner to examine at least every 48 months the affairs of every person engaged in the business of a finance lender or broker for compliance under that law, and would authorize the commissioner to examine those persons as often as the commissioner deems necessary and appropriate for those purposes. The California Finance Lenders Law regulates the terms and conditions under which a licensee under that law may make consumer loans, including, but not limited to, the maximum rate and administrative fee a borrower may be charged for specific loan amounts. This bill would revise and impose additional terms and conditions under which a licensee may make unsecured consumer loans of a maximum principal balance upon origination of $3,000 or less, including, among other things, the term of the loan, maximum rates that a licensee may charge for a loan, and restrictions on refinancing, as specified. The bill would allow a licensee, with prior approval from the commissioner, to use the services of one or more referral partners with respect to those loans that the licensee may make or negotiate, if specified conditions and requirements are met. By imposing new requirements under the California Finance Lenders Law, the violation of which would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The Planning and Zoning Law authorizes a state or local agency, where that agency requires a project proponent to transfer property to mitigate adverse project impacts upon natural resources, to in turn authorize a government entity, special district, or any of certain types of parties to hold title to, and manage, the transferred property. Existing law allows a state or local agency that has required such a transfer of property for mitigation purposes to identify the funding needs for the long-term stewardship of the property, and establishes various requirements with respect to the amount and management of any endowment conveyed or secured for purposes of funding the protection of the property. Existing law authorizes a state or local agency that, in the development of its own project is required to protect property in order to mitigate an adverse impact upon natural resources, to take any action that the agency deems necessary to meet its mitigation obligations, including, but not limited to, transferring the interest to specified entities, providing funds to specified entities to acquire land or easements or to implement a restoration or enhancement project, or holding an endowment in an account administered by an elected official, as provided. This bill would authorize a regional park district, regional park and open-space district, and regional open-space district to meet the mitigation obligation by possessing budget reserves in excess of funds required to, among other things, meet the mitigation obligation and retain permanent stewardship and maintenance staff to manage the resource. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations, including findings and declarations demonstrating the necessity of a special statute with respect to a particular district.
Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to make specified findings before commencing the acquisition of real property for a new schoolsite in an area designated in a city, county, or city and county general plan for agricultural use and zoned for agricultural production, including a finding that the school district has notified and consulted with the city, county, or city and county within which the prospective schoolsite is to be located and that the school district will attempt to minimize any public health and safety issues resulting from the neighboring agricultural uses that may affect the pupils and employees at the schoolsite. This bill would require the school district to include within its findings that it has notified and consulted with the city, county, or city and county, including, but not limited to, the county agricultural commissioner. The bill would additionally require the school district to make a finding that the school district will attempt to minimize any land use incompatibilities that may arise when using a portion of land in an area zoned for agricultural production for a purpose other than agricultural use. Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district, by a 23 vote of its members, to render a city or county zoning ordinance inapplicable to a proposed use of school district property, except if the proposed use is for nonclassroom facilities. This bill would additionally condition this authorization upon compliance with a notice requirement regarding a schoolsite on agricultural land, and would require the governing board to notify the city or county, in writing, of the reason the governing board intends to take that vote at least 30 days prior to the vote. The bill would also require that vote to be based upon written findings that a zoning ordinance fails to accommodate the need to renovate and expand an existing public school or locate a new public school within the city or county.
