Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain a statewide telecommunications system of communication for the use of law enforcement agencies. This bill would make a technical, nonsusbtantive change in that law.
Existing law governing levee maintenance in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta requires the Department of Water Resources to develop and submit to the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, for adoption by the board, criteria for the maintenance and improvement of levees that are not project facilities under the State Water Resources Law of 1945, known as nonproject levees, as prescribed. If the department finds that the annual routine maintenance work specified in the plans approved by the board is not being performed in accordance with the agreement entered into between the local agency and the board, the department is authorized to establish a maintenance area and thereafter annually maintain the nonproject levee in accordance with those plans and subject to specified provisions of law. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that authorization.
This resolution would respectfully request that the International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, adopt the North American Emission Control Area, as proposed by the United States, Canada, and France at the 60th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee, scheduled for March 2010.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development with duties that include overseeing various programs to promote economic and community development throughout the state. This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2016, the department to designate, based on specific factors, a Research and Development Tax Credit Area located within an Innovation Hub or a city, as respectively defined. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, by reference to a specified federal statute, allow a credit against taxes imposed by those laws for increasing research activities. The amount of the credit under both laws is equal to 15% of the excess of the qualified research expenses, as defined, for the taxable year over the base amount, as defined, and, in addition, under the Corporation Tax Law, 24% of the basic research payments, as defined. This bill would, under both laws, in lieu of that credit, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2011, and before January 1, 2016, provide to a qualified taxpayer, as defined, a tax credit for research and development, as defined, for expenses equal to 20% of the research and development expenses relating to the development of alternative energy sources and advanced transportation technologies, as those terms are defined, conducted in California in a research and development tax area, as described. The bill would further require the Legislative Analyst's Office to report to the Legislature on the effectiveness of the tax credit program established by this act. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
This measure would declare February 19, 2010, as a Day of Remembrance in order to increase public awareness of the events surrounding the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. Existing law requires specified transportation planning agencies to prepare and adopt a regional transportation plan directed at achieving a coordinated and balanced regional transportation system. This bill would authorize a lead agency, in adopting a regional transportation plan for a region in which a residential or mixed-use residential project is located, to use a threshold of significance for greenhouse gas emissions adopted for the residential or mixed-use residential project by the air pollution control district or air quality management district within which the project is located to determine whether the project may have a significant effect on the environment due to the emission of greenhouse gases.
Existing law generally provides for the licensure of health facilities, including rural general acute care hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department to provide expert technical assistance to strategically located, high-risk rural hospitals, as defined, to assist the hospitals in carrying out an assessment of potential business and diversification of service opportunities. Existing law also requires the department to continue to provide regulatory relief when appropriate through program flexibility for such items as staffing, space, and physical plant requirements. This bill would, until January 1, 2020, establish a demonstration project authorizing a rural hospital, as defined, that meets specified conditions, to employ up to 10 physicians and surgeons at one time, except as provided, to provide medical services at the rural hospital or other health facility that the rural hospital owns or operates, and to retain all or part of the income generated by the physicians and surgeons for medical services billed and collected by the rural hospital if the physician and surgeon in whose name the charges are made approves the charges. The bill would require a rural hospital that employs a physician and surgeon pursuant to those provisions to develop and implement a policy regarding the independent medical judgment of the physician and surgeon. The bill would require these physicians and surgeons to biennially sign a specified statement. The bill would impose various duties on the department and the Medical Board of California including, not later than January 1, 2019, a requirement that the board deliver a report to the Legislature regarding the demonstration project.
This measure would memorialize the President and the Congress of the United States to enact the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which would make supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and state and local fiscal stabilization.
This measure would recognize February 2010 as Black History Month, urge all citizens to join in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans during Black History Month, and encourage the people of California to recognize the many talents, achievements, and contributions that African Americans make to their communities.
Existing law regulates investments made by public pension and retirement systems and defines the term "placement agent" to mean a person or entity hired, engaged, or retained by an external manager, as defined, to raise money or investment from a public retirement system in California. Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, provides for the comprehensive regulation of the lobbying industry, including defining the term "lobbyist" and regulating the conduct of lobbyists. Among its provisions, the act requires lobbyists to register with the Secretary of State and to file periodic disclosure reports, and it prohibits lobbyists from engaging in certain activities, including accepting or agreeing to accept any payment in any way contingent upon the defeat, enactment, or outcome of any proposed legislative or administrative action, as defined. This bill would amend the existing definition of "placement agent" to mean a person, as defined, hired, engaged, or retained by, or serving for the benefit of or on behalf of, an external manager, as defined, to act as a finder, solicitor, marketer, consultant, broker, or other intermediary in connection with the offer or sale of the securities, assets, or services of an external manager to a public retirement system in California for compensation, and would exclude from that definition an employee, officer, director, equityholder, partner, member, or trustee of an external manager who spends 13 or more of his or her time, during a calendar year, managing the securities or assets owned, controlled, invested, or held by the external manager. The bill would define "placement agent" in a similar way for purposes of the Political Reform Act of 1974, except that the definition would be limited to an individual acting in connection with the offer or sale of the securities, assets, or services of an external manager to a state public retirement system in California and would not include employees, officers, or directors of specified external managers or of affiliates of those external managers. In addition, the bill would prohibit a person from acting as a placement agent in connection with any potential system investment made by a state public retirement system unless that person is registered as a lobbyist and is in full compliance with the Political Reform Act of 1974 as that act applies to lobbyists. The bill would also require a person acting as a placement agent in connection with any potential system investment made by a local public retirement system to file any applicable reports with a local government agency that requires lobbyists to register and file reports and to comply with any applicable requirements imposed by a local government agency. The bill would provide that an individual acting as a placement agent is a lobbyist for purposes of the Political Reform Act of 1974 and is thereby required to comply with all regulations and restrictions imposed on lobbyists by the act, and the bill would further expand the definition of "administrative action" for purposes of the act to include, with regard only to placement agents, the decision by any state agency to enter into a contract to invest state public retirement system assets on behalf of a state public retirement system. The bill would specify that a placement agent who is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is permitted to receive a payment of fees for contractual services provided to an investment manager, except to the extent that payment of fees is prohibited by the proscription on contingency payments to placement agents. Additionally, the bill would require the Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System to each provide to the Legislature, not later than August 1, 2012, a report on the use of placement agents in connection with investments made by those retirement systems. 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.
