Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, 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 provisions. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2014, implement various provisions of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) (Public Law 111-148) , as amended, by, among other things, modifying provisions relating to determining eligibility for certain eligibility groups. The bill would, in this regard, extend Medi-Cal eligibility to specified adults and would require that income eligibility be determined based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) , as prescribed. The bill would prohibit the use of an asset or resources test for individuals whose financial eligibility for Medi-Cal is determined based on the application of MAGI. The bill would also add, commencing January 1, 2014, benefits, services, and coverage included in the essential health benefits package, as adopted by the state and approved by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, to the schedule of Medi-Cal benefits. Because counties are required to make Medi-Cal eligibility determinations and this bill would expand Medi-Cal eligibility, 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 prohibits state and local agencies from negotiating life and disability insurance or requiring the placing of that insurance through particular agents, brokers, or companies, except to the extent that the state has a direct financial interest in the subject of the insurance, as specified. Existing law excepts from these provisions a tax-sheltered annuity under an annuity plan that meets the requirements of Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code to be placed or purchased for an employee, as specified. Existing law requires an annuity contract and custodial account as described in Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code to be offered to all employees of any state agency who are members of the State Teachers' Retirement Plan, any employee of a local public agency or political subdivision of the state that employs persons to perform creditable service subject to coverage by the plan, and eligible state employees of a state employer under the uniform state payroll system, excluding the California State University System. The Teachers' Retirement Law provides a registration process for information relating to tax-deferred retirement investment products. This bill, until January 1, 2018, would authorize a pilot project that would allow the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Community College District to select specific 403(b) products offered by 4 or more vendors of tax-deferred retirement investment products described in Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code or establish a list of preferred vendors that are recommended to employees, through a due diligence and competitive review process, as specified. The bill would make a related statement of legislative intent.
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. One of the methods by which these services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care health plans, including through a county organized health system. Existing law authorizes the Director of Health Care Services to enter into contracts with one or more managed health care plans to provide a comprehensive program of managed health care services to Medi-Cal beneficiaries residing in specified counties. This bill would require specified counties to be annexed to the closest, contiguous county organized health system, upon approval of the county and the county organized health system.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to prepare and adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan, and requires the general plan to include specified, mandatory elements, including a housing element. That law requires the housing element, in turn, to contain, among other items, an identification and analysis of existing and projected housing needs and a statement of goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of housing. This bill would revise references to redevelopment agencies within these provisions to instead be to successor housing agencies.
(1) Existing law, the Physical Therapy Practice Act, creates the Physical Therapy Board of California and makes it responsible for the licensure and regulation of physical therapists. The act defines the term "physical therapy" for its purposes and makes it a crime to violate any of its provisions. This bill would specify that patients may access physical therapy treatment directly, and would, in those circumstances, require a physical therapist to refer his or her patient to another specified healing arts practitioner if the physical therapist has reason to believe the patient has a condition requiring treatment or services beyond that scope of practice, and, with the patient's written authorization, to notify the patient's primary physician and surgeon, if any, that the physical therapist is treating the patient. The bill would prohibit a physical therapist from treating a patient beyond 30 business days or 12 visits, whichever occurs first, unless the physical therapist receives a specified authorization or medical diagnosis from a person with a physician and surgeon's certificate or from a person with a podiatric medicine certificate and acting within his or her scope of practice. The bill would require a physical therapist, prior to the initiation of treatment services, to provide a patient with a specified notice concerning the limitations on the direct treatment services. (2) Existing law regulating professional corporations provides that certain healing arts practitioners may be shareholders, officers, directors, or professional employees of a medical corporation, a podiatric medical corporation, or a chiropractic corporation, subject to certain limitations. This bill would add licensed physical therapists and licensed occupational therapists to the list of healing arts practitioners who may be shareholders, officers, directors, or professional employees of those corporations. The bill would also provide that specified healing arts licensees may be shareholders, officers, directors, or professional employees of a physical therapy corporation. The bill would require, except as specified, that a medical corporation, podiatry corporation, chiropractic corporation, and physical therapy corporation provide patients with a specified disclosure notifying them that they may seek physical therapy treatment services from any physical therapy provider. The bill would also make conforming changes to related provisions. Because the bill would specify additional requirements under the Physical Therapy Practice Act, the violation of which would be a crime, it 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 Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, establishes the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund program pursuant to which state and federal funds are continuously appropriated from the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund to the State Water Resources Control Board for loans and other financial assistance for the construction of publicly owned treatment works by a municipality, the implementation of a management program, the development and implementation of a conservation and management plan, and other related purposes in accordance with the federal Clean Water Act and the state act. Existing law authorizes the board, until 2014, to assess a specified annual charge in connection with any financial assistance made pursuant to the revolving fund program in lieu of interest that otherwise would be charged and requires the proceeds generated from the imposition of the annual charge in lieu of interest to be deposited in the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund Small Community Grant Fund (grant fund) , along with any interest earned upon the moneys in the grant fund. Existing law provides that the annual charge in lieu of interest remain unchanged until 2014, at which time it will terminate and be replaced by an identical interest rate, and prohibits the deposit of more than $50,000,000 into the grant fund. Existing law authorizes the board to expend the moneys in the grant fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for grants for eligible projects under the revolving fund program that serve small communities, as defined. This bill would authorize the board to assess the charge in lieu of interest until 2019. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Under the Public Utilities Act, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations. A violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Existing law requires the commission, except as provided, to require revenues, including any accrued interest, received by an electrical corporation as a result of the direct allocation of greenhouse gas allowances to electric utilities to be credited directly to the residential, small business, public transportation agency, and emissions-intensive trade-exposed retail customers of the electrical corporation. This bill would also require the revenues to be credited to public transportation agency customers, and would define "public transportation agency" for that purpose. Because a violation of a requirement of the commission is a crime. This bill would impose a State-mandated local program by changing the definition of a crime. 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 establishes the Local Agency Investment Fund, authorizes a local government having money in its treasury not required for immediate needs to remit it to the Treasurer for deposit in that fund for the purpose of investment, and prescribes the handling of that money. This bill would establish the Voluntary Investment Program Fund within the State Treasury for the receipt of voluntary deposits from local entities, as specified. The bill would provide that the deposits in the fund may be used only to cover short-term cash needs of the state, as specified. This bill would appropriate $1,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Finance for the administration of its provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
The Enterprise Zone Act provides for the designation and oversight by the Department of Housing and Community Development of various types of economic development areas throughout the state, including enterprise zones, targeted tax areas, local agency military base recovery areas (LAMBRAs) , and manufacturing enhancement areas, collectively known as geographically targeted economic development areas, or G-TEDAs. Pursuant to these provisions, qualifying entities in those areas may receive certain tax and regulatory incentives. This bill would revise various definitions for purposes of the act and modify specified requirements for designating and administering enterprise zones, LAMBRAs, and G-TEDAs, collectively. The bill would impose new requirements on the Department of Housing and Community Development with respect to the enterprise zone program and modify department and Franchise Tax Board reporting requirements. Existing law, the Enterprise Zone Act, authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to assess a fee of not more than $15 on each enterprise zone and manufacturing enhancement area for each application for issuance of a certificate pursuant to specified tax credit provisions. Existing law, the Local Agency Military Base Recovery Area Act, authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to assess a fee of not more than $15 on each local agency military base recovery area for each application for issuance of a certificate pursuant to specified tax credit provisions. This bill would instead authorize the department to charge a fee for those applications not to exceed the reasonable cost of administering the Enterprise Zone Act or the Local Agency Military Base Recovery Area Act, respectively, but not to exceed $20. The bill would require any increase in the fee higher than the amount that was charged by the department as of January 1, 2013, to be adopted by regulation.
(1) Existing law, until January 1, 2013, requires a legal owner to maintain vacant residential property purchased at a foreclosure sale or acquired by that owner through foreclosure under a mortgage or deed of trust. Existing law, until January 1, 2013, authorizes a governmental entity to impose civil fines and penalties for failure to maintain that property of up to $1,000 per day for a violation. Existing law, until January 1, 2013, requires a governmental entity that seeks to impose those fines and penalties to give notice of the claimed violation and an opportunity to correct the violation at least 14 days prior to imposing the fines and penalties, and to allow a hearing for contesting those fines and penalties. This bill would delete the repeal clause for these provisions and thus extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely. (2) The State Housing Law requires the housing or building department or, if there is no building department, the health department, of every city, county, or city and county, or a specified environmental agency, to enforce within its jurisdiction all of the State Housing Law, the building standards published in the State Building Standards Code, and other specified rules and regulations. If there is a violation of these provisions or any order or notice that gives a reasonable time to correct that violation, or if a nuisance exists, an enforcement agency is required, after 30 days' notice to abate the nuisance, to institute any appropriate action or proceeding to prevent, restrain, correct, or abate the violation or nuisance. This bill would prohibit an enforcement agency from commencing any action or proceeding until at least 60 days after a person takes title to the property, unless a shorter period of time is deemed necessary by the enforcement agency in its sole discretion, as specified, if the person has purchased and is in the process of diligently abating any violation at a residential property that had been foreclosed on or after January 1, 2008. This bill would require any entity that releases a lien securing a deed of trust or mortgage on a property for which a notice of pendency of action, as defined, has been recorded against the property, as specified, to notify, in writing, the enforcement agency that issued the order or notice within 30 days of releasing the lien. (3) Existing law authorizes, among other things, the enforcement agency to seek and the court to order imposition of specified penalties or the enforcement agency, tenant, or tenant association or organization to seek, and the court to order, the appointment of a receiver for a substandard building, if the owner of the property fails to comply within a reasonable time with the terms of an order or notice. This bill would authorize a court to require the owner of the property to pay all unrecovered costs associated with the receivership in addition to any other remedy authorized by law.
(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. 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 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, 2013. By extending the imposition of a tax whose revenues are continuously appropriated, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) 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, 2013. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law creates the Healthy Families Program, administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB) , to arrange for the provision of health, vision, and dental benefits to eligible children pursuant to a federal program, the Children's Health Insurance Program. Under existing law, the Director of Health Care Services may contract with any qualified individual, organization, or entity to provide services to, arrange for, or case manage the care of Medi-Cal beneficiaries, subject to specified requirements. Existing law requires a Medi-Cal applicant or beneficiary to be informed of the managed care and fee-for-service options available regarding methods of receiving Medi-Cal benefits. Existing law provides for the transition of specified enrollees of the Healthy Families Program to the Medi-Cal program, to the extent that those individuals are otherwise eligible, no sooner than January 1, 2013. Existing law requires this transition to take place in 4 phases, as prescribed. This bill would repeal the provisions requiring the transfer of Healthy Families Program enrollees into the Medi-Cal program. (4) Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 provides that 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. (5) This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. (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.
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. A violation of the act is a crime. The act also requires a person who owns timberlands, which are to be devoted to uses other than the growing of timber, to file an application for conversion with the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and requires the board to establish a system of graduated timberland conversion permit fees. This bill would require the permit fee to cover the costs of the department and the Department of Fish and Game with regard to reviewing the application and ensuring compliance with specified requirements imposed by the bill. The bill would prohibit the board from approving an application for conversion of timberlands of 3 or more acres unless the board makes specified findings regarding the mitigation of the conversion. The bill would require all mitigation associated with these conversion projects to be on lands that secure the mitigation with a permanent conservation easement unless the reforestation requirement meets a minimum acreage ratio and would require an applicant for conversion to take specified actions with regard to the management of timberland and reforestation. The bill would also require a county that adopts a timberland conversion and mitigation ordinance to demonstrate that it meets or exceeds specified requirements to petition the board. The bill would require a timberland conversion permit applicant to enter into an agreement with the board to implement the requirements of the bill. The bill would establish the Timberland Conversion Services Fund, to be administered by the board. The bill would continuously appropriate the money in the fund to the board to implement the bill, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes with regard to the requirements imposed by the bill upon a person that applies to convert timberland and by imposing new duties upon local agencies by requiring counties to enter into an agreement with the board and the applicant. The bill would require the board to develop guidelines to assist in compliance with the requirements imposed by the bill and would require the guidelines to be submitted to the State Air Resources Board. The bill would exempt the development of these guidelines from the requirements imposed upon the adoption of regulations. The bill would authorize the board to expend the money in the fund to develop those guidelines and would authorize the State Air Resources Board to expend certain fees deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to review the guidelines. (2) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
