Existing law designates the State Water Resources Control Board as the agency responsible for administering specific programs related to drinking water, including, among others, the California Safe Drinking Water Act and the Emerging Contaminants for Small or Disadvantaged Communities Funding Program. This bill, which would become operative upon an appropriation by the Legislature, would enact a perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) mitigation program. As part of that program, the bill would create the PFAS Mitigation Fund in the State Treasury and would authorize certain moneys in the fund to be expended by the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes. The bill would authorize the state board to seek out nonstate, federal, and private funds designated for PFAS remediation and treatment and deposit the funds into the PFAS Mitigation Fund. The bill would continuously appropriate these funds to the state board for specified purposes. The bill would authorize the state board to establish accounts within the PFAS Mitigation Fund. The bill would authorize the state board to expend moneys from the fund in the form of a grant, loan, or contract, or to provide assistance services to water suppliers and sewer system providers, as those terms are defined, for multiple purposes, including, among other things, to cover or reduce the costs for water suppliers associated with treating drinking water to meet the applicable state and federal maximum PFAS contaminant levels. The bill would require a water supplier or sewer system provider to include a clear and definite purpose for how the funds will be used to provide public benefits to their community related to safe drinking water, recycled water, stormwater, or treated wastewater in order to be eligible to receive funds. The bill would require the state board to adopt guidelines to implement these provisions, as provided.
Existing law prescribes the procedures by which a proposed ordinance may be submitted to the governing board of a district by an initiative measure. These procedures do not apply to specified districts, including a district formed under a law that does not provide a procedure for elections. This bill would authorize the voters of any district that has authority to impose a transactions and use tax for transportation purposes to impose a retail transactions and use tax by an initiative measure. The bill would prohibit the initiative tax from exceeding the maximum authorized rate for a tax imposed by an ordinance enacted by the governing body of the district, and the bill would require the initiative measure to contain all spending limitations and substantive accountability standards applicable to a tax imposed by an ordinance enacted by the governing body. To the extent the bill would increase the duties of county elections officials, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
This measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to immediately restore and extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.
(1) 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, until the lien date in 2027, 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. This bill would provide that, for purposes of the exemption for property used exclusively for the preservation of specified natural resources or open-space lands, for the property tax lien dates for the 2026–27 fiscal year to the 2031–32 fiscal year, inclusive, property may be owned and operated by a federally recognized Indian tribe or a wholly owned subsidiary of a federally recognized Indian tribe meeting certain requirements. By expanding the duties of local tax officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law authorizes counties and cities and counties to impose a documentary transfer tax at a specified rate upon deeds, instruments, or other writings by which specified property is transferred. Existing law exempts certain transfers from the imposition of that tax, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2031, exempt from that tax the transfer of any deed, instrument, or other writing that makes effective a tribal land return transaction, as defined. (3) 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 include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. (4) 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. (5) This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and independent institutions of higher education, as the 4 segments of postsecondary education in the state. Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. This bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Legislative Analyst's Office, to conduct a study of the effects of enacting, in future legislation, a Pay it Forward, Pay it Back Pilot Program that would allow students to enroll at a California State University or University of California campus without paying upfront tuition, fees, or room and board, and instead would require participating students to pay, upon graduation or disenrollment and employment, a percentage of their annual adjusted gross income to the state for a number of years, as specified. The bill would require the commission to submit a report on the study of the pilot program to the Assembly Committee on Higher Education and the Senate Committee on Education on or before September 30, 2027. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on September 30, 2030, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2031.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, a violation of which is a crime, requires a distributor of beverage containers, as defined, to pay to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a monthly redemption payment for every beverage container sold or transferred, as provided. The act requires the department to deposit those amounts into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund. The fund is continuously appropriated to, among other things, pay refund values and administrative fees to processors that receive empty beverage containers from recyclers. Until January 1, 2028, the act continuously appropriates $60,000,000 annually from the fund to the department to make market development payments to glass beverage container manufacturers who purchase recycled glass collected within this state for use in manufacturing new beverage containers in this state. This bill would require the department, subject to the availability of funds, to pay a market development payment to a person who purchases a material produced from a by-product of glass recycling or processing that contains certain contaminants, cannot be remelted for use in glass beverage containers or fiberglass insulation, as specified, and that would otherwise be sent to a landfill or be used as low grade aggregate. The bill would, until January 1, 2030, authorize the department to expend up to $5,000,000 annually from the fund for these market development payments and up to $1,000,000 annually to facilitate the transportation of waste glass product by waste glass product end users. By authorizing new uses for continuously appropriated funds, this bill would make an appropriation.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, until January 1, 2031, authorizes the State Air Resources Board to adopt a regulation establishing a system of market-based declining aggregate emissions limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gases (market-based compliance mechanism) that meets certain requirements. Existing law establishes the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sales of allowances as a part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited into the fund and requires the Legislature to appropriate moneys in the fund for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state, as provided. Existing law, the California Climate Crisis Act, declares that it is the policy of the state both to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net-negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the 1990 levels. This bill would enact the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 and would establish the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Program to be administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency to require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere during the covered period, which the bill would define as the time period between the 1990 and 2024 calendar years, inclusive, resulting from the extraction, production, refining, sale, or combustion of fossil fuels or petroleum products, to relieve a portion of the burden to address cost borne by current and future California taxpayers. The bill would require the agency, within 90 days of the effective date of the act, to determine and publish a list of responsible parties, which the bill would define as an entity with a majority ownership interest in a business engaged in extracting or refining fossil fuels that, during the covered period, did business in the state or otherwise had sufficient contact with the state, and is determined by the agency to be responsible for more than 1,000,000,000 metric tons of covered fossil fuel emissions, as defined, in aggregate globally, during the covered period. This bill would require the agency, within one year of the effective date of the act, to conduct and complete a climate cost study to, among other things, quantify the total damage amount, which the bill would define as all past and future climate harms and damages to the state from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2045, inclusive. The bill would require the agency to update the climate cost study, not less frequently than every 5 years, through January 1, 2045, as provided. The bill would require the agency, within 60 days of the completion of the climate cost study, to determine and assess, as provided, a cost recovery demand for each responsible party listed, which represents the responsible party's proportionate share of the total damage amount. The bill would require responsible parties to pay their cost recovery demand, as provided. The bill would require the collected cost recovery demands to be deposited in the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require moneys in the fund be expended for, among other things, qualifying expenditures, which the bill would define to include expenditures for projects and programs to mitigate, adapt, or respond to the damages and costs caused to the state from climate change. The bill would require all interest earned on moneys that have been deposited into the fund to be retained in the fund for use in implementing the program. The bill would require the agency to determine the initial implementation costs for the act, as provided, and would require the agency to assess an amount allocated equitably among responsible parties to cover those costs. This bill would require the Director of Finance, within 45 days of the effective date of the act, to perform an initial assessment of the reasonable and appropriate initial implementation costs that will be incurred by the agency. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the trustees to establish an internal audit staff with prescribed duties, including auditing, reviewing, cost and systems analysis, analyzing, and recommending operating procedures for the university. Existing law also requires the university's internal audit staff to perform audits, at least once every 5 years, of the activities of the university, as provided. This bill would require an external financial audit of each campus of the California State University to be conducted at least once every 3 years. The bill would also require all audits of the California State University or any of its campuses, including audits conducted by the university's internal audit staff, to be available to the public.
Existing law establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Natural Resources Agency. Existing law requires the department to be responsible for specified activities, including maintaining an integrated staff to accomplish fire protection, fire prevention, pest control, and forest and range protection and enhancement activities, as needed. This bill would require the department to reach full staffing levels, as defined, on or before January 1, 2028, and to maintain full staffing levels throughout the calendar year at all fire stations and facilities under its jurisdiction. The bill would require the department to implement staffing requirements on a schedule, as specified. The bill would require the department to report annually to the Legislature on, among other things, progress toward implementation of year-round staffing requirements. The bill would require the Legislature to appropriate in the annual Budget Act or another statute sufficient moneys to implement these provisions.
Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law requires the trustees to control and expend all money appropriated for the support and maintenance of the university. This bill, the California State University Transparency Act of 2025, would require the California State University, on or before July 1, 2027, to include on its internet website certain information about each expenditure of state funds, as defined, by the California State University for expenditures that exceed $10,000, in a format that allows the public to search and aggregate that information, and to also include on its internet website, among other things, the capability for a user to give input to the California State University regarding the utility of the information and to give recommendations to the California State University for improvements to the manner in which the information is provided on the internet website.
