Existing law requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. Existing law under Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters. This bill would enact the Equitable Economic Recovery, Healthy Food Access, Climate Resilient Farms, and Worker Protection Bond Act of 2022, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $3,302,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, to finance programs related to, among other things, agricultural lands, food and fiber infrastructure, climate resilience, agricultural professionals, including farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers, workforce development and training, air quality, tribes, disadvantaged communities, nutrition, food aid, meat processing facilities, fishing facilities, and fairgrounds. The bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 8, 2022, statewide general election.
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Existing law provides for the regulation and development of aquaculture and requires the owner of each aquaculture facility to register with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Existing law authorizes the department, among other powers, to assess annual registration fees on owners of aquaculture facilities and to prohibit an aquaculture operation or the culturing of any species at any location where it would be detrimental to adjacent native wildlife. Existing law authorizes the Fish and Game Commission to lease state water bottoms or the water column to any person for aquaculture, as prescribed, and requires the department to notify the State Lands Commission of all applications for water bottom leases and of all leases for aquaculture executed, renewed, or assigned. Under existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, the California Coastal Commission is responsible for the implementation of the act and for state coastal zone planning and management. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with the California Coastal Commission, to, by January 1, 2024, create a pilot program in state waters to further develop shellfish and seaweed mariculture production and restoration capacity in California. The bill would require the department to establish a process to designate tracts for shellfish and seaweed mariculture production and restoration as part of the pilot program, as specified. The bill would authorize an applicant with a proposed shellfish, seaweed, or shellfish and seaweed mariculture production and restoration project to apply for a lease of any pilot program tract, or a portion thereof. The bill would require the State Lands Commission or the Fish and Game Commission, or both, if applicable to approve, deny, or return for revision a lease application within 4 months. The bill would authorize a local government to apply for a shellfish and seaweed mariculture production and restoration lease and designate individual mariculturalists as sublessees without authorization from the department, the State Lands Commission, or the Fish and Game Commission. A local government would be required to notify the department, the State Lands Commission, or the Fish and Game Commission of a sublease within 2 months of the beginning of the sublease. The bill would provide the department, by January 1, 2024, within the pilot program tracts, with sole authority or jurisdiction to approve, deny, or otherwise affect the ability of shellfish and seaweed mariculture production and restoration projects to operate, as well as to enforce compliance with relevant regulations, excluding the roles and responsibilities of the State Water Resources Control Board and the relevant leasing authorities. The bill would authorize a mariculturalist holding a lease to a pilot program tract to be able to begin cultivation without a permit under the regulations established by the department, except any permit required by the State Water Resources Control Board. The bill would require the department to conduct ongoing monitoring and enforce compliance with the rules and regulations of the pilot program and to work with noncompliant aquaculturalists to resolve any noncompliance issues if possible. The bill would authorize the department to close any operation in the pilot program due to noncompliance if no other reasonable resolution is possible. The bill would require, when sufficient data has been collected, the department to make recommendations to the Legislature on any relevant changes to the mariculture and restoration permitting and regulatory processes, as specified. The bill would repeal the provisions establishing the pilot program on January 1, 2036, and upon termination, would require the department to offer participants in the pilot program, one year from the date of termination, to come into compliance with any rules and regulations not applicable in the pilot program tracts in order to keep operating. The bill would require the department to consider and, if appropriate, investigate whether and how to seek state verification authority from the United States Army Corps of Engineers and any other federal agencies offering state verification authority in order to streamline the review and approval of federal permits issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers or another federal agency that may be required by a mariculture project intending to operate in this state. The bill would require the department to ensure the inclusion of socially disadvantaged aquaculturalists in the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of laws, regulations, and policies and programs relating to aquaculture production and restoration. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations and adopt definitions to implement its provisions.
Existing law requires the Department of Community Services and Development to, among other things, plan and evaluate strategies for overcoming poverty in the state, mobilize resources in support of antipoverty and community services programs, and administer public and private funds designed to support antipoverty programs that are not currently administered by other departments. This bill would require the department to establish and administer the Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Grant Program for the purpose of addressing child poverty and achievement gaps among California children of different races and socioeconomic statuses. Under the bill, C2C grants awarded would be available to community-level or regional networks, as specified. The bill would require the department to convene and facilitate a workgroup to establish common indicators and metrics, an application process, and additional requirements deemed appropriate to further the purposes of the program. The bill would create the Cradle-to-Career Grant Fund and would authorize the department to set aside no more than 6% of moneys in the fund to cover administrative costs. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that, subject to appropriations from the General Fund made in the annual Budget Act for the purposes of the program, those appropriations be made in the form of an installment of $30,000,000 per year for the 2021–22 and 2022–23 fiscal years, to be allocated for planning and implementation grants, as specified. The bill would make C2C grant recipients who continue to meet the program requirements eligible for 2-year extensions, subject to approval by the department.
Existing law generally requires the State Department of Public Health to license, inspect, and regulate health facilities, including skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and congregate living health facilities, all of which provide skilled nursing and supportive care. This bill would require, by July 1, 2022, the State Department of Public Health and the State Department of Social Services to collaborate to create health and safety guidelines and a description of best practices for use by skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and congregate living health facilities that are providing post-acute care during a pandemic, public health crisis, or other emergency.
Existing law provides for officers and employees of the state to receive travel expenses when away from their headquarters for state business. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would prohibit state-sponsored travel to any state that enacts any law that limits or reduces access to voting.
Existing law, the Personal Income Tax Law and Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, generally allow various deductions in computing the income that is subject to taxes imposed by those laws, including a deduction for a net operating loss as specified. Existing law suspends the deduction for a net operating loss, as specified, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2023. The Personal Income Tax Law and Corporation Tax Law generally authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. Existing law provides that, except as specified, the total credits allowable under those laws may not reduce the taxes imposed by those laws by more than $5,000,000, as provided, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2023. This bill, the Golden State Innovation Act of 2021, would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2023, exclude a taxpayer that performs research and development in biotechnology, as described, from the above-described suspension of the deduction for net operating losses and the above-described limitation on the total credits allowable. 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. The bill also would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law provides for various specified special circumstances, including the murder of a peace officer, firefighter, or witness, which, if found true as specified, require a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree to be sentenced to death or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole. Existing law, added by Proposition 115 of the June 5, 1990, statewide primary election, prohibits a judge from striking or dismissing any special circumstance admitted by plea or found true by a jury or court, as specified. Existing law provides for amendment of these provisions by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would amend Proposition 115 by repealing the provision prohibiting a judge from striking a special circumstance and by, instead, authorizing a judge, on the judge's own motion or upon the application of either party, and in the furtherance of justice, to order the dismissal of a special circumstance finding or admission. The bill would authorize a judge to order the dismissal of a special circumstance finding or admission retroactively when the trial court judgment has become final and the sentence has been executed, or the imposition of the sentence has been suspended, including when the sentence previously pronounced was life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, as specified. This bill would state that its provisions are severable.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires individual and group health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies to provide coverage for the screening and diagnosis of prostate cancer, when medically necessary and consistent with good professional practice. Existing law specifies that it does not prevent the application of deductible or copayment provisions for those services. Existing law requires an individual or small group health care service plan contract or health insurance policy to, at a minimum, include coverage for essential health benefits, which include preventive services, pursuant to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This bill would prohibit a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2022, from applying a deductible, copayment, or coinsurance to coverage for specified screening services for prostate cancer for an enrollee or insured who is 55 years of age or older or is 40 years of age or older and is high risk, as determined by their health care provider. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be 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.
Existing law expresses the policy of the state to promote safety for persons and property in and connected with the use and equipment of vessels. Existing law requires every for-hire vessel company to procure adequate liability protection for the payment of damages for personal bodily injuries, including death, and property damage as a result of an accident. This bill would require a vessel used for commercial purposes to have a minimum of $1,000,000 of protection and indemnity insurance to cover wreck removal costs of the vessel. The bill would authorize the Division of Boating and Waterways to adopt regulations to implement that requirement and would subject the operator of a vessel who violates that requirement or those regulations to a civil penalty not exceeding an unspecified amount per day per violation.
Existing law establishes, among other housing programs administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Multifamily Housing Program, pursuant to which the department provides assistance in the form of deferred payment loans to pay for specified eligible costs of development of specified housing projects. This bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to convene a working group to advise it in its administration of the Multifamily Housing Program, as specified. The working group would be tasked with, among other things, developing and proposing consistent program requirements for determining eligibility for awarding financial resources to multifamily projects, and proposing alignment of application deadlines for multifamily housing projects.