Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law, relative to electrical restructuring, requires the commission to authorize and facilitate direct transactions between electricity suppliers and retail end-use customers. Existing law, enacted during the energy crisis of 2000–01, authorized the Department of Water Resources, until January 1, 2003, to enter into contracts for the purchase of electricity, and to sell electricity to retail end-use customers at not more than the department's acquisition costs and to recover those costs through the issuance of bonds to be repaid by ratepayers. That law suspended the right of retail end-use customers, other than community choice aggregators and a qualifying direct transaction customer, as defined, to acquire service through a direct transaction until the Department of Water Resources no longer supplies electricity under that law. Existing law continues the suspension of direct transactions except as expressly authorized, until the Legislature, by statute, repeals the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions. Existing law requires the commission to authorize direct transactions for nonresidential end-use customers subject to a reopening schedule adopted and implemented by July 1, 2010, that will phase in over a period of not less than 3 years and not more than 5 years, and subject to an annual maximum allowable total kilowatthour limit established for each electrical corporation. The annual maximum allowable total kilowatthour limit is required to be established for each electrical corporation at the maximum total kilowatthours supplied by all other providers to distribution customers of that electrical corporation during any sequential 12-month period between April 1, 1998, and October 11, 2009. This bill would modify the annual maximum allowable total kilowatthour limit for each electrical corporation to include the total kilowatthours of new load previously authorized and implemented by the commission pursuant to a specified statute. The bill would require the commission to adopt a specified schedule to phase in the allowable amount of increased kilowatthours by July 1, 2012, instead of July 1, 2010. The bill would change an existing requirement that the commission review and modify its currently effective rules governing direct transactions to instead authorize the commission to perform such review and modification.
Read. Amended. Adopted. (Page 2178.).
Existing law governs the seizure, rescue, adoption, and euthanasia of abandoned and surrendered animals by animal shelters and rescue organizations. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions by replacing references to a "pound" with references to an animal shelter and by replacing references to destroying an animal with references to humanely euthanizing the animal.
Existing law requires the Controller to prescribe uniform accounting and reporting procedures that are applicable to specified types of local agencies, including special districts. This bill would instead require the Controller to prescribe uniform accounting procedures that are applicable only to specified types of special districts, subject to these provisions. The bill would require the Controller to prescribe uniform accounting procedures for cities, subject to specified criteria, in collaboration with the Committee on City Accounting Procedures, which would be created by the bill. This bill would also make various conforming changes.
Existing law, the California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law, provides for the licensure and regulation by the Commissioner of Corporations of persons engaged in the business of making or negotiating deferred deposit transactions, as defined. Existing law authorizes a licensee to defer the deposit of a customer's personal check for up to 31 days, prohibits the face amount of the check from exceeding $300, and requires each deferred deposit transaction to be made pursuant to a written agreement. This bill would instead authorize the face amount of a check for a deferred deposit transaction to be up to $500.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax 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. That law defines a "retailer engaged in business in this state" to include retailers that engage in specified activities in this state and requires every retailer engaged in business in this state and making sales of tangible personal property for storage, use, or other consumption in this state to register with the State Board of Equalization and to collect the tax from the purchaser and remit it to the board. This bill would include in the definition of a retailer engaged in business in this state any retailer entering into agreements under which a person or persons in this state, for a commission or other consideration, directly or indirectly refer potential purchasers, whether by an Internet-based link or an Internet Web site, or otherwise, to the retailer, provided the total cumulative sales price from all sales by the retailer to purchasers in this state that are referred pursuant to these agreements is in excess of $10,000, within the preceding 12 months, and provided further that the retailer has cumulative sales of tangible personal property to purchasers in this state of over $500,000, within the preceding 12 months, except as specified. This bill would further provide that a retailer entering specified agreements to purchase advertising is not a retailer engaged in business in this state and would define a retailer to include an entity affiliated with a retailer under federal income tax law, as specified. This bill would further provide that these provisions would not apply if the retailer can demonstrate that the referrals would not satisfy specified United States constitutional requirements, as provided. This bill would provide that the provisions of this bill are severable.
Existing law divides the state into agricultural districts within the boundaries of which agricultural associations may be formed. Existing law provides that District 32 is the County of Orange. Existing law creates District 32a which consists of all that real property that is a portion of District 32 that is commonly known as the Orange County Fair and authorizes the Department of General Services to sell all or any portion of the real property that composes District 32a pursuant to a public bidding process. This bill would authorize the Board of Directors of the Orange County Fair, or an agent of that entity, as specified, to enter into a revenue sharing plan with the state regarding property of the Orange County Fair, as specified, if the plan would generate an amount in excess of $100,000,000 for the state over a period not to exceed 40 years from the initial date of the agreement. The bill would also require, not less than 30 days prior to entering into that agreement, the Director of General Services to submit the complete terms of the agreement to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
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 authorizes the County of Napa, during a specified period ending June 30, 2007, to meet up to 15% of its existing share of the regional housing need for lower income households by committing funds for the purpose of constructing affordable housing units, and constructing those units in one or more cities within the county, only after specified conditions are met. Among those conditions is a requirement that the receiving city demonstrate that it has met, within a specified period, at least 20% of its share of the regional need for housing for very low income households allocated to the city, as specified. This bill would extend the period of this authorization to October 31, 2022, and would delete the requirement that the receiving city demonstrate that it has met at least 20% of its share of the regional need for housing for very low income households allocated to the city.
Existing law requires counties to administer various public safety programs, including, among others, mental health services for children, substance abuse recovery services, jail services, and fire protection and support services. This bill would, contingent upon a specified finding made by the Director of Finance, authorize the Department of Finance and any county to enter into a contract that would authorize the county to integrate public services, as specified. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to provide an analysis of any contract entered into pursuant to these provisions, and would require the Legislature to ratify the contract by an enactment of a bill. The bill would also require the applicable county board of supervisors to ratify the contract. The bill would provide that a contract would last 10 years, and would require the county to report to the Department of Finance and the Legislature on the progress towards meeting the goals of the contract during the 5th year.
Under existing law, any person who willfully inflicts corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition upon a person who is his or her spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, or the mother or father of his or her child, is guilty of a felony, punishable as specified. This bill would make those provisions apply to the infliction of that type of injury on the fiancé or fiancée of that person or on someone with whom the person has, or previously had, a dating or engagement relationship. By expanding the scope of a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act authorizes the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. That law authorizes the department to enter into 5-year contracts with regional centers, subject to an annual appropriation of funds by the Legislature. The act requires the contracts to specify that each regional center include annual performance objectives that will meet certain standards and allows the department to specify additional areas of support that require development or enhancement. The act requires corrective action if a regional center fails to meet the performance standards. This bill would authorize the department to specify additional areas of support requiring development or enhancement, as specified. This bill would require the department to develop processes and procedures, as specified, to address issues of retaliation against regional center employees and vendors and would require those processes and procedures to be included in the regional center standard agreement contracts. This bill would require a regional center to report annually to the department the total number of complaints it has received within a fiscal year and would require the department to report the information to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would require the department, in addition to all other audits and reviews, to conduct a review of each regional center's compliance with the procedures for developing individual program plans, as specified, and to utilize the results of the review to develop annual performance objectives. The bill would also, beginning July 1, 2013, require each regional center to post on its Internet Web site a directory of vendorized service providers, and negotiated rates, if applicable, and to update that list annually. The act provides that the regional centers purchase needed services for individuals with developmental disabilities through approved service providers that are identified through a process of vendorization. The act requires services and supports of comparable quality that are offered at different costs by different providers to be assessed and the lower cost provider used unless specified determinations are made. This bill would require the determination of comparability to be made by the program planning team and to include specified criteria.
Existing law provides various circumstances that constitute rape including an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person who is not the spouse of the perpetrator where the person submits under the belief that the person committing the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with the intent to induce the belief. This bill would additionally provide that this type of rape occurs where the person submits under the belief that the person committing the act is the victim's cohabitant, as provided. By expanding the definition 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.
