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 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. The federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was created in 2007 by the federal College Cost Reduction and Access Act and requires certain student loans to be forgiven after 10 years of public service, as provided. This bill would require the commission to establish a public service educational loan forgiveness program of up to $10,000 per applicant, as specified. The bill would require applicants for the program to have made continuous payments on their debt and be active employees of a state agency, local government agency, or nonprofit organization, as defined, who have served for a minimum of 10 years. The bill would require an applicant to provide proof of full-time employment and for the applicant's supervisor, manager, or a nonprofit organization board member to attest, under penalty of perjury, that the applicant is in good standing with the respective agency or nonprofit organization for which they serve. By expanding the crime of perjury, and to the extent that the bill would otherwise impose additional duties on local government officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would create the Public Service Education Loan Forgiveness Fund and authorize the commission to accept donations for purposes of the program and deposit them in the fund. The bill would require the commission to monitor the program for fraud and to annually report to the Legislature on the program, as specified. The bill would make the operation of the program contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute. 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.
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 act authorizes the state board to include in its regulation of those emissions the 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. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain purposes. This bill would eliminate the continuous appropriation of 25% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority on June 30, 2026. The bill, beginning with the 2026–27 fiscal year, would instead require 25% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be transferred to the General Fund and for those moneys, upon appropriation, to be used to augment funding provided to local governments to improve infrastructure.
Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula (LCFF) , as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the LCFF to include, among other things, the sum of a base grant, supplemental grant, and concentration grant, if applicable, multiplied by average daily attendance, as provided. Existing law authorizes a school district or charter school to maintain a transitional kindergarten program. Existing law requires a school district or a charter school, as a condition of receipt of apportionment for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program, to ensure that, beginning with the 2025–26 school year, a child who will have their 4th birthday by September 1 of a school year be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school. Under existing law, pursuant to the LCFF, school districts and charter schools receive, as funding for transitional kindergarten, the sum of a base grant, a supplemental grant, a concentration grant, if applicable, and a transitional kindergarten add-on, multiplied by transitional kindergarten average daily attendance, as provided. Under existing law, school districts that receive local revenues that exceed the LCFF amount do not receive a specified apportionment of LCFF funds, as provided, and are known as "basic aid school districts" or "excess tax entities." Existing law, notwithstanding those provisions, requires charter schools and school districts, including basic aid districts, to receive a minimum level of state-aid funding, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, require the minimum level of state funding for basic aid districts to include both the above-described sum of the LCFF base, supplemental, and concentration grants for transitional kindergarten, and an unspecified add-on amount for transitional kindergarten, multiplied by transitional kindergarten average daily attendance, as provided. Existing law provides for the funding of necessary small schools and high schools, as specified. Existing law requires that funding to be based on, among other things, the necessary small school's average daily attendance and the number of full-time teachers, as specified. Existing law requires these necessary small school amounts to be added to the LCFF calculations for school districts with necessary small schools, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate funding for pupils attending transitional kindergarten in certain necessary small schools, as provided. The bill would require this allocation to include, for any average daily attendance generated by pupils attending a transitional kindergarten program in the necessary small school, the sum of the above-described LCFF base grant, supplemental grant, and concentration grant, if applicable, and transitional kindergarten add-on amounts, as provided. The bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, appropriate the amount of funding necessary to implement the required allocations for the applicable fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to necessary small schools under these provisions. Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
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.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue or renew environmental license plates to provide revenue for the California Environmental License Plate Fund that indicate on the plates the combination of letters or numbers, or both, requested as a registration number by the applicant, to be displayed on the applicant's vehicle in lieu of regular license plates. Existing law imposes fees for the issuance or renewal of an environmental license plate, in addition to the regular registration and renewal fees. Existing law also establishes procedures for the cancellation, transfer, or retention of the environmental license plates and requires the payment or reimbursement of additional fees in connection with those transactions, as specified. This bill would establish a similar program, to be known as the "8-letter license plate" program, for the support of the Natural and Agricultural Open Space and State Recreational Support Fund, which would be created by the bill. The bill would impose additional fees, including, but not limited to, fees for the issuance and renewal of an 8-letter license plate, as specified. The bill would require all revenue derived from the fees to be deposited in the fund and would continuously appropriate those moneys for specified purposes that include, among other things, subventions for open-space land programs, assistance to California fairs, and support of programs administered by the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, and authorizes local educational agencies throughout the state to operate schools and provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. This bill would appropriate $21,500,000 from the General Fund to the Paradise Unified School District for the purpose of completing construction of schools damaged by the Camp Fire of 2018. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Paradise Unified School District. Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
Existing law requires the State Water Resources Control Board to develop a plan for the funding and implementation of the Low-Income Water Rate Assistance Program. Existing law requires the plan to include, among other things, a description of the method for collecting moneys to support and implement the program and a description of the method for determining the amount of moneys that may need to be collected from water ratepayers to fund the program. This bill would establish the Water Rate Assistance Program. As part of the program, the bill would establish the Water Rate Assistance Fund in the State Treasury, available upon appropriation by the Legislature, to provide water affordability assistance, for both residential water and wastewater services, to low-income residential ratepayers, as specified. The bill would require the state board to take various actions in administering the fund, including, among other things, tracking and managing revenue in the fund separately from all other revenue. The bill would require the state board, in consultation with relevant agencies and after a public hearing, to adopt guidelines for implementation of the program and to adopt an annual report to be posted on the state board's internet website identifying how the fund has performed, as specified. The bill would require the guidelines to include minimum requirements for eligible systems, including the ability to confirm eligibility for enrollment through a request for self-certification of eligibility under penalty of perjury. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the state board to take various actions in administering the program, including, but not limited to, providing guidance, oversight, and funding for low-income rate assistance for residential ratepayers of eligible systems. The bill would authorize the Attorney General, at the request of the state board, to bring an action in state court to restrain the use of any method, act, or practice in violation of these provisions, except as provided. The bill would make the implementation of all of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature. 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 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 act authorizes the state board to include in its regulation of those emissions the 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. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain purposes. This bill would suspend the appropriation to the High-Speed Rail Authority for the 2026–27 and 2027–28 fiscal years and would instead require those amounts from moneys collected by the state board to be transferred to the General Fund. The bill would specify that the transferred amounts shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to augment funding for water infrastructure and wildfire prevention.
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.
