Asm. Joan Buchanan

This measure would designate that January 20, 2014, be observed as the official memorial of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth and commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America. This measure would also recognize the anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington in connection with the advancement of civil rights.

(1) The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, provides that children up to 13 years of age are eligible, with certain requirements, for child care and development services. The act requires the department to contract with local contracting agencies to provide for alternative payment programs, and authorizes alternative payment programs for services provided in licensed centers and family day care homes and for other types of programs that conform to applicable law. This bill would require child care providers authorized to provide services pursuant to those provisions to submit to the alternative payment program a monthly attendance record or invoice for each child who received services that, at a minimum, documents the dates and actual times care was provided each day. The bill would require the monthly attendance record or invoice to, at a minimum, be signed by the parent or guardian of the child receiving services and the child care provider once per month to attest that the child's attendance is accurately reflected. The bill would require verification of attendance to be made by signature at the end of each month of care and under penalty of perjury by both the parent or guardian of the child receiving services and the child care provider. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require an alternative payment program to accept the monthly attendance record or invoice as documentation of the hours of care provided if the attendance record or invoice includes adequate information documented on a daily basis, as specified. The bill would specify the hours or days and hours that an alternative payment program is required to reimburse. The bill would make these provisions operative on July 1, 2014. This bill would also authorize alternative payment programs and providers and other contractors providing child care development services to maintain records in electronic format if the original documents were created in electronic format, including, but not limited to, child immunization records. (2) Existing law authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction to enter into and execute local contractual agreements with any public or private entity or agency for the delivery of child care and development services related to the delivery of child care and development services or the furnishing of property, facilities, personnel, supplies, equipment, and administrative services related to the delivery of child care development services. This bill would require the department, on and after the date on which the Superintendent determines that the Financial Information System for California has been implemented within the department, at the request of a contractor, to request the Controller to make payments via direct deposit by electronic funds transfer, as specified. (3) 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 Personal Income Tax Law allows taxpayers, until January 1, 2015, to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of the California Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Research Fund, unless earlier repealed for failure to meet annual minimum contribution amounts. This bill would instead make these provisions effective for taxable years beginning before January 1, 2020.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of the health facilities, as defined. Existing law requires certain types of health facilities, such as acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, to develop, implement, and comply with a patient safety plan for the purpose of improving the health and safety of patients and reducing preventable patient safety events, as specified. A person who violates the provisions governing health facilities is guilty of a misdemeanor, as specified. The Community Care Facilities Act provides for the licensure and regulation of community care facilities, as defined, including residential facilities and facilities that provide adult day programs. A person who violates the act is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law, the California Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly Act, requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate residential care facilities for the elderly, as defined. A person who violates the act is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law, the California Adult Day Health Care Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of adult day health care centers, as defined, by the State Department of Public Health. A person who negligently, repeatedly, or willfully violates the act is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would require specified health facilities, including various kinds of intermediate care facilities, congregate living health facilities, and skilled nursing facilities, community care facilities providing adult residential care or offering adult day programs, residential care facilities for the elderly, and adult day health care centers to develop and comply with an absentee notification plan for the purpose of addressing issues that arise when a patient, resident, or participant, as applicable, is missing from the facility. The bill would require the plan to include and be limited to a requirement that an administrator of the facility, or his or her designee, inform the patient's, resident's, or participant's authorized representative when that patient, resident, or participant is missing from the facility, except under specified circumstances, and the circumstances in which an administrator of the facility, or his or her designee, shall notify local law enforcement. Because violations of these provisions would be misdemeanors, 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, the Veterans' Bond Act of 2008, as approved by the voters, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $900,000,000, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, for purposes of financing the Cal-Vet program for farm, home, and mobilehome purchase assistance for veterans. This bill would amend the Veterans' Bond Act of 2008 to reduce the amount of bonds that are authorized to be issued under the act from $900,000,000 to $300,000,000. The bill would enact the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2014 (the bond act) to authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $600,000,000, as specified, for expenditure by the California Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide multifamily housing to veterans pursuant to the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Act of 2014 (VHHPA) , also enacted by the bill. The bill would authorize the Legislature to amend the provisions of the bond act, by majority vote, for specified purposes. The bill would impose a specified reporting requirement on the Department of Housing and Community Development to evaluate, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs, any program established by the former pursuant to the VHHPA. The bill would authorize the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide specified assistance to veterans. The bill would provide for submission of a specified section to the voters at the June 3, 2014, statewide primary election, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing workers' compensation law requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. Existing law provides that an injury may be either "specific," occurring as the result of one incident or exposure that causes disability or need for medical treatment, or "cumulative," occurring as repetitive mentally or physically traumatic activities extending over a period of time, the combined effect of which causes any disability or need for medical treatment. Existing law provides that an employee who has been hired outside of this state and his or her employer are exempt from these provisions while the employee is temporarily within this state doing work for his or her employer if the employer has furnished workers' compensation insurance coverage under the workers' compensation insurance or similar laws of a state other than California, as specified. This bill would exempt an employee hired outside of this state and his or her employer from the occupational disease and cumulative injury provisions of this state's workers' compensation laws if (1) the employee is a professional athlete, defined, for purposes of these provisions, to include an athlete who is employed at the minor or major league level in the sport of baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, or soccer, (2) that professional athlete is temporarily within this state doing work for his or her employer, and (3) the employer has furnished workers' compensation insurance under the laws of the state other than California that covers the professional athlete's employment while in this state, except as specified. This bill would deem a professional athlete to be temporarily within the state doing work for his or her employer if, during the 365 consecutive days immediately preceding the professional athlete's last day of work for the employer within the state, the professional athlete performs less than 20% of his or her duty days, as defined, in the state. The bill would also exempt a professional athlete and his or her employer from the occupational disease or cumulative injury provisions of this state's workers' compensation laws when all of the professional athlete's employers in his or her last year of work as a professional athlete are exempt from these provisions unless the professional athlete has, over the course of his or her professional athletic career, (1) worked for 2 or more seasons for a California-based team or teams, as defined, or worked 20% or more of his or her duty days in California or for a California-based team, and, (2) worked for fewer than 7 seasons for any team other than a California-based team. The bill would also state that it is the intent of the Legislature that the decision of the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board in Wesley Carroll v. Cincinnati Bengals, et al. (2013) 78 Cal.Comp.Cases ____ (ADJ2295331) (WCAB En Banc) be limited to professional athletes, and would include other specified statements of legislative intent. The bill would provide that these changes apply to all pending claims for benefits filed on or after September 15, 2013, as specified.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical 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 requires the commission to designate a baseline quantity of electricity and gas necessary to supply a significant portion of the reasonable energy needs of the average residential customer and requires that electrical and gas corporations file rates and charges, to be approved by the commission, providing baseline rates. Existing law requires the commission, in establishing the baseline rates, to avoid excessive rate increases for residential customers. Existing law requires the commission to establish a program of assistance to low-income electric and gas customers, referred to as the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program. The CARE program provides lower rates to low-income customers that are financed through a separate rate component, which is required to be a nonbypassable element of the local distribution service and collected on the basis of usage. Eligibility for the CARE program is for those electric and gas customers with annual household incomes that are no greater than 200% of the federal poverty guideline levels. Existing law revises certain prohibitions upon raising residential electrical rates adopted during the energy crisis of 2000–01, to authorize the commission to increase the rates charged residential customers for electricity usage up to 130% of the baseline quantities by the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index from the prior year plus 1%, but not less than 3% and not more than 5% per year. Existing law additionally authorizes the commission to increase the rates in effect for CARE program participants for electricity usage up to 130% of baseline quantities by the annual percentage increase in benefits under the CalWORKs program, as defined, not to exceed 3%, and subject to the limitation that the CARE rates not exceed 80% of the corresponding rates charged to residential customers not participating in the CARE program. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that CARE program participants be afforded the lowest possible electric and gas rates and, to the extent possible, be exempt from additional surcharges attributable to the energy crisis of 2000–01. This bill would repeal the limitations upon increasing the electric service rates of residential customers, including the rate increase limitations applicable to electric service provided to CARE customers, but would require the commission, in establishing rates for CARE program participants, to ensure that low-income ratepayers are not jeopardized or overburdened by monthly energy expenditures and to adopt CARE rates in which the level of discount for low-income electricity and gas ratepayers correctly reflects their level of need, as determined by a specified needs assessment. The bill would require that this needs assessment be performed not less often than every 3rd year. The bill would revise the CARE program eligibility requirements to provide that for one-person households, program eligibility would be based on 2-person household guideline levels. The bill would require the commission, when establishing the CARE discounts for an electrical corporation with 100,000 or more customer accounts in California, to ensure that the average effective CARE discount be no less than 30% and no more than 35% of the revenues that would have been produced for the same billed usage by non-CARE customers and that the entire discount be provided in the form of a reduction in the overall bill for the eligible CARE customer. The bill would require that increases to rates and charges in rate design proceedings, including any reduction in the CARE discount, be reasonable and subject to a reasonable phase-in schedule relative to the rates and charges in effect prior to January 1, 2014. The bill would authorize the commission to approve new, or expand existing, fixed charges, as defined, for an electrical corporation for the purpose of collecting a reasonable portion of the fixed costs of providing service to residential customers. The bill would require the commission to ensure that any new or expanded fixed charges reasonably reflect an appropriate portion of the different costs of serving small and large customers, do not unreasonably impair incentives for conservation and energy efficiency, and do not overburden low-income and moderate-income customers. The bill would impose a $10 limit per residential customer account per month for customers not enrolled in the CARE program, would impose a $5 per month limit per residential customer account per month for customers enrolled in the CARE program, and would, beginning January 1, 2016, authorize the commission to adjust this maximum allowable fixed charge by no more than the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the prior calendar year. The bill would authorize the commission to consider whether minimum bills are an appropriate substitute for any fixed charges. Existing law prohibits the commission from requiring or permitting an electrical corporation to do any of the following: (1) employ mandatory or default time-variant pricing, as defined, with or without bill protection, as defined, for residential customers prior to January 1, 2013, (2) employ mandatory or default time-variant pricing, without bill protection, for residential customers prior to January 1, 2014, or (3) employ mandatory or default real-time pricing, without bill protection, for residential customers prior to January 1, 2020. Existing law authorizes the commission to authorize an electrical corporation to offer residential customers the option of receiving service pursuant to time-variant pricing and to participate in other demand response programs. Existing law requires the commission to only approve an electrical corporation's use of default time-variant pricing for residential customers, beginning January 1, 2014, if those residential customers have the option to not receive service pursuant to time-variant pricing and incur no additional charges, as specified, as a result of the exercise of that option. Existing law exempts certain customers from being subject to default time-variant pricing. This bill would delete these provisions and instead prohibit the commission from requiring or permitting an electrical corporation from employing mandatory or default time-variant pricing, as defined, for any residential customer, except that beginning January 1, 2018, the commission may require or authorize an electrical corporation to employ default time-of-use pricing to residential customers, subject to specified limitations and conditions. The bill would permit the commission to authorize an electrical corporation to offer residential customers the option of receiving service pursuant to time-variant pricing and to participate in other demand response programs. The bill would provide that a residential customer would have the option to not receive service pursuant to time-variant pricing and not incur any additional charge as a result of the exercise of that option. Unless the commission has authorized an electrical corporation to employ default time-of-use pricing, the bill would require the commission to require each electrical corporation to offer default rates to residential customers with at least 2 usage tiers and would require that the first tier include electricity usage of no less than the baseline quantity established by the commission. The bill would authorize the commission to modify the baseline seasonal definitions and applicable percentage of average consumption for one or more climate zones. Existing law requires every electric utility, defined to include an electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, or an electrical cooperative, to develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering, as defined, and to make this contract or tariff available to eligible customer generators, as defined, upon request for generation by a renewable electrical generation facility, as defined. An electric utility, upon request, is required to make available to eligible customer generators contracts or tariffs for net energy metering on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity used by eligible customer generators exceeds 5% of the electric utility's aggregate customer peak demand. Existing law authorizes a local publicly owned electric utility to elect to instead offer co-energy metering, which uses a generation-to-generation energy and time-of-use credit formula, as specified. This bill would require a large electrical corporation, defined as an electrical corporation with more than 100,000 service connections in California, to provide net energy metering to additional eligible customer-generators in its service area through July 1, 2017, or until the corporation reaches its net energy metering program limit, as specified. The bill would require the commission, no later than December 31, 2015, to develop a standard contract or tariff for eligible customer-generators with a renewable electrical generation facility that is a customer of a large electrical corporation. In developing the standard contract or tariff for large electrical corporations, the commission would be required to take specified actions. The bill would require the large electrical corporation to offer the standard contract or tariff to an eligible customer-generator beginning July 1, 2017, or prior to that date if ordered to do so by the commission because it has reached the net energy metering program limit established for the corporation. The bill would provide that there shall be no limitation on the number of new eligible customer-generators entitled to receive service pursuant to the new standard contract or tariff developed by the commission for a large electrical corporation. Existing law provides that a fuel cell electrical generation facility is not eligible for the tariff unless it commences operation before January 1, 2015. This bill would instead provide that a fuel cell electrical generation facility is not eligible for the tariff unless it commences operation before January 1, 2017. The Public Utilities Act requires each electrical corporation, as a part of its distribution planning process, to consider specified nonutility owned distributed energy resources as an alternative to investments in its distribution system to ensure reliable electric services at the lowest possible costs. This bill would require an electrical corporation, by July 1, 2015, to submit to the commission a distribution resources plan proposal, as specified, to identify optimal locations for the deployment of distributed resources, as defined. The bill would require the commission to review each distribution resources plan proposal submitted by an electrical corporation and approve, or modify and approve, a distribution resources plan for the corporation. The bill would require that any electrical corporation spending on distribution infrastructure necessary to accomplish the distribution resources plan be proposed and considered as part of the next general rate case for the corporation and would authorize the commission to approve this proposed spending if it concludes that ratepayers would realize net benefits and the associated costs are just and reasonable. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish a rewewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, as defined, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, at specified percentages of the total kilowatthours sold to their retail end-customers during specified compliance periods. The program additionally requires each local publicly owned electric utility, as defined, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources to achieve the targets established by the program. Existing law prohibits the commission from requiring the procurement of eligible renewable energy resources in excess of the specified quantities. This bill would authorize the commission to require a retail seller to procure eligible renewable energy resources in excess of the specified quantities. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because portions of this bill are within the act and require action by the commission to implement their requirements, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime or expanding an existing 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.

(1) Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district or community college district to order an election and submit to the electors of the district the question whether the bonds of the district should be issued and sold to raise money for specified purposes. Existing law requires the bonds to bear a rate of interest that does not exceed 8% per annum and requires the number of years the whole or any part of the bonds are to run to not exceed 25 years. This bill would require the ratio of total debt service to principal for each bond series to not exceed 4 to one. The bill would require each bond, as defined, that allows for the compounding of interest, including, but not limited to, a capital appreciation bond, maturing more than 10 years after its date of issuance to be subject to redemption before its fixed maturity date, as specified, beginning no later than the 10th anniversary of the date the bond was issued. The bill would authorize a school district or community college district with a note issued before December 31, 2013, to seek from the State Board of Education or the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, as applicable, a one-time waiver from certain requirements of this bill if 2 specified conditions are satisfied. (2) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district or community college district, before the sale of bonds, to adopt a resolution as an agenda item at a public meeting that includes specified information. This bill would require, if the sale includes bonds that allow for the compounding of interest, including, but not limited to, capital appreciation bonds, the agenda item to identify that bonds that allow for the compounding of interest are proposed and require the governing board of the school district or community college district to be presented with specified information concerning the bonds. The bill would require the resolution to be publicly noticed on at least 2 consecutive meeting agendas, first as an information item and 2nd as an action item. (3) Additionally and alternatively to the authority described above, existing law authorizes the legislative body of an issuer, by resolution, to provide for the issuance of bonds or refunding bonds. This bill would provide that bonds issued pursuant to this authority by a school district or community college district that do not allow for the compounding of interest may have a maturity that is greater than 30 years, but not greater than 40 years, if certain requirements are satisfied. The bill would require a school district or community college district that intends to issue bonds that allow for the compounding of interest, including, but not limited to, capital appreciation bonds, pursuant to this authority to conform the bond issuance to certain requirements otherwise applicable to bonds issued by a school district or community college district pursuant to the authority specified in (1) , above.

This measure would honor the California Council on Science and Technology for 25 years of service and unbiased advice to the State of California.

This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to enact President Barack Obama's budget proposal to increase funding for preschool and early learning. This measure would also urge the Superintendent of Public Instruction to prepare a plan for making California competitive for future increases in federal funding to preschool and early learning programs.