Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. Existing law establishes the Gambling Control Fund within the State Treasury for the receipt and deposit of fees and revenue collected pursuant to the act. Under the act, specified licensing fees are required to be paid for the issuance or renewal of a state gambling license, as specified. Existing law requires that all fees and revenue collected pursuant to the act, except all fines and penalties, be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for expenditure exclusively for the support of the department and the commission in carrying out their duties and responsibilities under the act. This bill would require the commission or the department, upon the adoption or amendment of a fee that is deposited into the Gambling Control Fund, to post on its public internet website a detailed statement of the need for, purpose of, and authorized use of the fee, including the general activities the fee is intended to support, along with reference to publicly available rulemaking materials. The bill would state that these provisions do not apply to a fee adopted or amended prior to January 1, 2027.
Existing law defines "sexual orientation change efforts" as practices by mental health providers that seek to change an individual's sexual orientation, as specified. Existing law prohibits a mental health provider, as defined, from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with a patient under 18 years of age, and provides that such efforts attempted by a mental health provider are considered unprofessional conduct and must subject the mental health provider to discipline by that provider's licensing entity. This bill would define "sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts" as any practices of a licensed mental health provider that seek, during the provision of mental health services, to direct a patient toward a predetermined sexual orientation or gender identity, as specified, and would apply the prohibitions described above to such efforts. The bill would exclude specified practices, including age-appropriate interventions to address unlawful conduct or unsafe practices that do not seek to direct the patient toward a particular sexual orientation or gender identity, from this definition.
Existing law generally regulates the business of renting passenger vehicles to the public. The law prohibits a rental company from taking various actions, including requiring the purchase of a damage waiver, optional insurance, or another optional good or service, and using electronic surveillance technology to track a renter in order to impose fines or surcharges relating to the renter's use of a rental vehicle. This bill would require any privately owned vehicle rented by, or furnished to, any federal, state, or local law enforcement agency for the use of detaining, arresting, or transporting persons who have violated, or are suspected of having violated, any law, to display a temporary decal displaying the agency name and logo, as specified. The bill would authorize certain attorneys, including the Attorney General, to pursue a civil action against the entity renting the vehicle from the private owner for failure to comply with these provisions. The bill would require the rental car contract to include a term that compliance with state law is mandatory. The bill would exempt privately owned vehicles rented or otherwise furnished or loaned to a law enforcement agency for specified purposes and rental car contracts entered into prior to January 1, 2027, from these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to exempt from taxation, in whole or in part, property that is used exclusively for religious, hospital, or charitable purposes, and is owned or held in trust by a nonprofit entity. Pursuant to that authority, existing law provides for a welfare exemption under which property used exclusively for an exempt purpose and owned and operated by specified entities, including foundations, limited liability companies, or corporations meeting certain statutory requirements is exempt from taxation. Existing law also provides that property used exclusively for the preservation of specified natural resources or open-space lands owned or operated by a specified entity meeting specified criteria is deemed to be included within the welfare exemption. Existing law makes that provision operative up to, and including, the lien date in 2027 and repeals that provision on January 1, 2028. This bill would extend the above-described operative date up to, and including, the lien date in 2032 and would extend the corresponding repeal date to January 1, 2033. By imposing additional duties upon local tax officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would state that it is the intent of the Legislature to apply those requirements to the bill and would set forth specified information relating to those requirements. 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 the statutory provisions noted above. Existing law requires the state 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 those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law prohibits a video streaming service, as defined, that serves consumers in the state from transmitting the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the advertisements accompany, as specified. This bill would clarify that video streaming service includes a user-generated video streaming service, and would additionally prohibit a music streaming service or podcast streaming service that serves consumers in the state from transmitting the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the content the advertisements accompany.
Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA) within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, to advocate for causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. Existing law also establishes the California Small Business Technical Assistance Program (SB-TAP) within OSBA, under the direct authority of the Small Business Advocate, for the purpose of assisting small businesses through free or low-cost one-on-one consulting and low-cost training by entering into grant agreements with one or more small business technical assistance centers. Under existing law, OSBA administers the Capital Infusion Program (CIP) pursuant to the SB-TAP, as specified. Existing law sets forth the criteria that an applicant must meet to be eligible to participate in these programs, which can vary depending on whether the applicant is receiving funding from federal or private sources. This bill would revise certain eligibility criteria for the small business technical assistance center grant programs, as specified. The bill would create uniform eligibility requirements for applicants with funding from a nonstate source. The bill would also authorize multiple small business technical assistance centers to apply as a network with a single fiscal agent if their active contracts are under the same funding authority. The bill would also require the OSBA to establish standardized performance metrics, reporting requirements, and outcome measures applicable to all grant recipients participating in the SB-TAP and would require the OSBA to monitor grant recipients during the grant performance period to ensure their compliance with SB-TAP requirements, as provided. The bill would include findings and declarations by the Legislature relating to the administration of the CIP and would require the OSBA to report its findings and actions and aggregate program outcomes to the Legislature.
Existing law, commonly referred to as the Density Bonus Law, requires a city or county to provide a developer that proposes a housing development, as defined, within the city or county with a density bonus, other incentives or concessions, and waivers or reductions of development standards, as specified, if the developer agrees to construct specified units and meets other requirements. Existing law, among other things, requires compliance with certain affordability requirements, including requiring that the applicant agree to ensure, and that the city, county, or city and county ensure, that a for-sale unit that qualified the applicant for the award of the density bonus is either (1) initially sold to and occupied by a person or family of very low, low, or moderate income, as specified, or (2) if the unit is not purchased by an income-qualified person or family within 180 days after the issuance of the certificate of occupancy, the unit is purchased by a qualified nonprofit housing corporation, as provided. This bill would additionally allow the applicant and the city, county, or city and county to comply with the above-described affordability requirements with respect to a for-sale unit by ensuring that the unit is purchased by a nonprofit housing corporation, as specified, for properties to be sold to and occupied by extremely low, very low, or lower income families who participate in a below market interest rate loan program, as described. By adding to the duties of local agencies to implement the Density Bonus Law, 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.
Existing law, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, governs the management and operation of common interest developments by an association. Existing law requires the board of an association to provide general notice of a proposed rule change at least 28 days before making the rule change, in accordance with certain procedures. Existing law, however, permits the board to make an emergency rule change if it determines that the change is required to address an imminent threat to public health or safety, or an imminent risk of substantial economic loss to the association, as prescribed. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision. Existing law, the Common Interest Development Open Meeting Act, prohibits the board of a common interest development from taking action on any item of business outside of a board meeting. Existing law also prohibits the board from conducting a meeting via a series of electronic transmissions, except in specified emergency circumstances. This bill would prohibit a majority of the directors of the board, outside an authorized meeting, from using a series of communications of any kind, directly or through intermediaries, to discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item of business within the board's subject matter jurisdiction, except in an emergency. The bill would also exempt from this prohibition certain informational and ministerial communications. Existing law authorizes the board to adjourn to, or meet solely in, executive session to consider litigation and other specified matters. Existing law requires any matter discussed in executive session to be generally noted in the minutes of the immediately following meeting that is open to the entire membership. This bill would require discussions regarding ongoing litigation to have the case name, case number, and name of the court included as part of the executive session meeting minutes. This bill would require, if open session meetings of the board are electronically recorded using audio, or audio and video, that the recordings be considered a record of the association and be made available to members on the same basis as written meeting minutes. The bill would exempt a recording used solely for the purpose of creating meeting minutes and would authorize that the recording be deleted 12 months after the meeting minutes are completed. The bill, for meetings that are being recorded, would require notice to be given at the beginning of every open session of the board that the meeting is being recorded. Existing law requires the minutes, minutes proposed for adoption that are marked to indicate draft status, or a summary of the minutes of a board meeting, other than an executive session, to be available to members within 30 days of the meeting and distributed to a member upon request and upon reimbursement of the association's cost for making that distribution. This bill would prohibit the imposition of a charge for minutes that are distributed electronically. The bill would allow minutes posted on the association website to meet minute distribution requirements. The bill would require the minutes, or proposed minutes, to include specified information, including the date and time of the meeting. The bill would require an association to make the minutes available to a member who requests a physical copy of the minutes. Existing law requires an association to distribute an annual budget report 30 to 90 days before the end of its fiscal year that contains specified information. This bill would require the annual budget report to also include a statement listing any active litigation in which the association is named as a party, as specified.
The Money Transmission Act (MTA) prohibits a person from engaging in the business of money transmission in the state, or from advertising, soliciting, or holding itself out as providing money transmission in the state, unless the person is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the act. The MTA defines "money transmission" to mean, among other things, selling or issuing stored value to a person located in the state and defines "stored value" to mean monetary value representing a claim against the issuer that is stored on an electronic or digital medium and evidenced by an electronic or digital record and that is intended and accepted for use as a means of redemption for money or monetary value or payment for goods or services. The MTA punishes noncompliance with, among other things, a civil penalty, license revocation, and, for certain violations, as a felony, as prescribed. This bill would prohibit a licensee under the MTA from allowing a user login unless the licensee has implemented specified processes, including 2-factor authentication, multifactor authentication, or other reasonably equivalent or more secure access control, as specified. The bill would provide that its provisions become operative January 1, 2028. By expanding the scope of 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.
Existing law, the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, establishes procedures for the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of elder and dependent adult abuse. Existing law requires a mandated reporter of suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as defined, to report financial abuse in a specified manner, including by telephone or through a confidential internet reporting tool, as specified, immediately, or as soon as practicably possible. If reported by telephone, existing law requires a written report to be sent, or an internet report to be made through the internet reporting tool, to the local adult protective services agency or the local law enforcement agency within 2 working days. Existing law deems all officers and employees of a financial institution to be mandated reporters of suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult. A mandated reporter who fails to report financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult is liable for civil penalties, as specified. If a report of financial abuse is made by a mandated reporter, as described above, this bill would also require a report to be made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center within 2 working days. Within 48 hours of filing a report, the bill would require a financial institution to notify the elder or dependent adult identified in the report, as specified, and provide additional required information. The bill would require a financial institution to provide annual training to its mandated reporters on how to escalate internally and report suspected financial abuse of an elder or a dependent adult to both local and federal authorities, as specified. The bill would specify that violations of these provisions would not incur the above-described liability for civil penalties. The bill would make its provisions operative on January 1, 2028.
Existing law allows for an eligible person to be excused from jury service only for undue hardship upon themselves or the public, as defined by the Judicial Council. Existing rules of court allow a person with a disability or their representative to seek a permanent medical excuse from jury service and require the individual to submit a written request accompanied by a supporting letter, memo, or note from a treating health care provider, as specified. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2028, authorize a person 80 years of age or older to seek a permanent excuse from jury service due to a medical impairment without providing a supporting letter, memorandum, or note from a treating health care provider. The bill would require the court to permanently excuse a person who seeks the above-described permanent excuse from jury service upon the jury commissioner's receipt of a written attestation stating that the person has an impairment, as specified. The bill would authorize the Judicial Council to adopt or amend a rule of court and publish related judicial forms as necessary to implement these provisions.
Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of medicine by the Medical Board of California. The act requires the board to automatically revoke a license under certain circumstances and authorizes the person to petition the board for reinstatement or modification of penalty after a specified period of time. Existing law prohibits the board from reinstating the certificate of a person if the person's certificate has been surrendered because the person committed an act of sexual misconduct, relations with a patient, or sexual exploitation, as specified. This bill would instead prohibit the board from reinstating the certificate of a person whose certificate was surrendered while a board accusation was pending against their license that alleges the person committed those acts.
