Existing law requires school districts to comply with General Accounting Office standards for financial and compliance audits, as specified, and prohibits an independent auditor from engaging in financial compliance audits unless, within 3 years of commencing the first of the audits, and every 3 years thereafter, the auditor completes a quality control review in accordance with General Accounting Office standards. This bill would require local agencies, defined to include cities, counties, a city and county, special districts, authorities, or public agencies, to comply with General Accounting Office standards for financial and compliance audits and would prohibit an independent auditor from engaging in financial compliance audits unless, within 3 years of commencing the first of the audits, and every 3 years thereafter, the auditor completes a quality control review in accordance with General Accounting Office standards.
Sponsored bills
The Political Reform Act of 1974 regulates mass mailings, known as slate mailers, that support or oppose multiple candidates or ballot measures for an election. The act requires that each slate mailer identify the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer, and to contain other specified information in specified formatting. The act requires that each candidate and each ballot measure that has paid to appear in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk. This bill would instead require that a candidate or ballot measure appearing in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk if the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer has received payment to include the candidate or ballot measure in the slate mailer. The bill would also recast the language of the prescribed notice to voters that must be included on a slate mailer. The act also regulates advertisements, which are defined as any general or public advertisement that is authorized and paid for by a person or committee for the purpose supporting or opposing a candidate for elective office or a ballot measure or ballot measures. The act places certain disclosure requirements on advertisements for or against any ballot measure, including that the advertisement disclose any person who has made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more, as prescribed. The act places more specific disclosure requirements on broadcast or mass mailing advertisements that are paid for by independent expenditures that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. This bill would repeal provisions relating to disclosures for advertisements paid for by an independent expenditure and required disclosures of persons who have made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more. This bill would, instead, impose specified disclosure requirements on radio, television, and video advertisements, and certain mass mailing and print advertisements that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure or solicit contributions in support of those purposes. The bill would require advertisements that are authorized by a candidate or agent of the candidate to include a statement in which the candidate identifies himself or herself and states that he or she approves the message. The bill would require advertisements that are not authorized by a candidate or an agent of the candidate to disclose, in a prescribed format, the 3 largest identifiable contributors, as defined, of the committee that paid for the advertisement. The bill would require mass mailings or print advertisements that are paid for by certain persons who are not committees to disclose the name of that person as the funder of the mass mailing or print advertisement. The bill would also require that certain committees establish and maintain a committee disclosure Internet Web site, as defined, which discloses the top 5 identifiable contributors and provides a link to the Internet Web site maintained by the Secretary of State for campaign finance disclosures of the committee. The bill would require these advertisements to identify the address for the committee disclosure Internet Web site. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating additional crimes. 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 Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
This bill would urge the United States Patent and Trademark Office to place a satellite office in California.
This measure would designate that January 16, 2012, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 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.
Existing law requires the Governor to submit to the Legislature, within the first 10 days of each calendar year, a budget for the ensuing fiscal year. Under existing law, the budget is required to contain a complete plan and itemized statements of all proposed expenditures and all estimated revenues of the state for the ensuing fiscal year, together with a comparison with the actual revenues and expenditures for the last completed fiscal year, the estimated revenues and expenditures for the existing fiscal year, and the budgeted revenues and expenditures for the next fiscal year. Existing law further requires the Director of Finance to provide to the Legislature, on or before May 14 of each year, an estimate of General Fund revenues for the current fiscal year and the ensuing fiscal year, any proposals to reduce expenditures to reflect updated revenue estimates, and specified proposed adjustments to the Governor's Budget. This bill would require the Director of Finance to submit, at the time of the submission of the budget by the Governor, or as soon thereafter as feasible, total recommended state General Fund expenditures and estimated state revenues, which include (1) an estimate of total General Fund resources, including any proposed resources, available for state General Fund expenditures for the budget year and the succeeding 3 fiscal years, (2) a 5-year capital infrastructure plan, (3) a projection of anticipated state expenditures for the budget year and the succeeding 3 fiscal years, and (4) to the extent possible, projections applicable to the budget year from the previous 4 enacted Budget Act projections. The bill would require specified parts of this information to be updated, as soon as feasible, within specified times.
(1) The California Constitution requires the State Board of Equalization to assess the property, other than franchises, of companies transmitting or selling gas or electricity. Existing property tax law provides for the valuation, as a unit, of properties of a state assessee that are operated as a unit as a primary function of that assessee, and for the allocation of the assessed value of the unit among various counties in which the state assessee's unitary property is located. Existing law also provides, pursuant to specified formulas, for the application in each county of specified tax rates to unitary assessed value, and for the allocation among jurisdictions in that county of the resulting revenues. This bill would, for the 2011–12 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, require that a specified amount of property tax revenues derived from applying a specified tax rate to qualified property, as defined, be allocated first to the county in which the qualified property is located and to all of the school entities located in that county, 2nd to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District, with the balance allocated to the City of Oakley. This bill would also require that a specified amount of property tax revenues derived from applying another specified tax rate to the qualified property be first allocated to taxing jurisdictions in those tax rate areas in the county in which the qualified property is located, with the balance allocated to taxing jurisdictions pursuant to a specified formula. The bill would require the City of Oakley to reimburse the county auditor for the actual and reasonable costs incurred by the county auditor in administering these allocations. The bill would also require the City of Oakley to develop one new housing unit for each 40 jobs created on real property within a specified area, as prescribed. By establishing new duties upon local county officials with respect to the annual allocation of property tax revenues derived from state‑assessed property, and by establishing new duties upon the City of Oakley with respect to the development of affordable housing, this bill would create a state‑mandated local program. (2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute. (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. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law, the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, establishes a program of cooperative federalism for the regulation of telecommunications to attain the goal of local competition, while implementing specific, predictable, and sufficient federal and state mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service, consistent with certain universal service principles. Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state, including telephone corporations. Existing law establishes 6 funds in the State Treasury through which the state's universal service programs are funded. Under existing law, moneys in the funds may only be expended for specified purposes and upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act or upon supplemental appropriation. This bill would require the commission to require interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers to collect and remit surcharges on their California intrastate revenues in support of the universal service funds. (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides that it is the policy of the state to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state, and that it is the purpose of existing law to prohibit acts that are contrary to that policy and to provide remedies therefor. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to develop a model handout, posted on appropriate department Internet Web sites, describing the rights and obligations set forth in these provisions and the policies addressing bias-related discrimination and harassment in schools. Existing law also requires the department to monitor adherence to these provisions and, as part of its regular monitoring and review of local educational agencies, to assess whether local educational agencies have adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination and harassment and a process for receiving and investigating complaints of discrimination and harassment, as specified. This bill would require the policy adopted by the local educational agencies to prohibit discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived characteristics, as specified. The bill also would require the process for receiving and investigating complaints to include complaints of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived characteristics, as specified, and to include a requirement that school personnel who witness such acts take immediate steps to intervene when safe to do so, a timeline to investigate and resolve complaints, and an appeal process, as specified. The bill would make other conforming changes. Because this bill would require local educational agencies to perform additional duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to post, and annually update, on his or her Internet Web site, and to provide to each school district, a list of statewide resources, including community-based organizations, that provide support to youth who have been subjected to school-based discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying, and their families. The bill would make its provisions operative on July 1, 2012. 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 these statutory provisions.
(1) Existing law provides for the creation of local publicly owned electric utilities, which include municipal corporations, municipal utility districts, public utility districts, and irrigation districts, that furnish electric services. This bill would require a local publicly owned electric utility to make appropriate space and capacity on and in their utility poles and support structures available for use by cable television corporations, video service providers, and telephone corporations. The bill would require fees adopted to cover the costs to provide this use, and terms and conditions of access, to meet specified requirements, and would specify the manner in which these fees and terms and conditions of access could be challenged. By imposing new duties on local utilities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) 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 requires the Department of Food and Agriculture, headed by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. This bill would, until July 1, 2017, create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative. It would require, by July 1, 2012, the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to prepare recommendations, to be presented upon request to the Legislature, regarding actions that need to be taken to promote food access in the state. The bill would establish the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Council and would require the council to implement the initiative, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish an advisory group, as specified. The bill would create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Fund in the State Treasury, to be comprised of federal, state, philanthropic, and private funds, for the purpose of expanding access to healthy foods in underserved communities and, to the extent practicable, to leverage other funding, as specified. Moneys in the fund would be expended upon appropriation by the Legislature.