Asm. Sandré Swanson

This measure would designate the month of September of every year as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month throughout the State of California, and would encourage and promote efforts to educate the people and the health care practitioners of the state regarding ovarian cancer and its early detection and prevention, the risk factors involved in its development, and the early warning symptoms and signs.

This measure would proclaim May 2 through May 9, 2011, as Cinco de Mayo Week, and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

(1) The Community Redevelopment Law authorizes the establishment of redevelopment agencies in communities to address the effects of blight, as defined, in blighted areas in those communities known as project areas. Existing law requires redevelopment agencies in specified years to remit to the county auditor an amount of revenue, determined in accordance with specified calculations made by the Director of Finance and based on a specified report of the Controller, for deposit in the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund or Supplemental Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund in each county for allocation to school entities, as prescribed. This bill would authorize a redevelopment agency to make a voluntary payment to local educational agencies, as defined, from property tax revenues allocated pursuant to a specified provision of existing law for the 2011–12 fiscal year, in an amount as prescribed. The bill would authorize an agency electing to make the voluntary payment to amend and extend specified redevelopment plan time limitations, as prescribed. The bill would also authorize certain joint powers authorities to issue bonds, notes, or other evidence of indebtedness and loan the net proceeds to an agency, as prescribed, for purposes of making certain of the above-described voluntary payments to local educational agencies, as specified. The bill would require that a first lien be placed upon the property tax revenues allocated to the legislative body that established the agency, which, in the event that the agency fails to timely repay the loan, the county auditor would be required to reallocate for the payment of any past due amount of the agency's loan. (2) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to apportion to each school district in the county a revenue amount each fiscal year less a sum that includes amounts received under specified provisions of the Community Redevelopment Law. The bill would include in the above-described sum the amount of voluntary agency payments by the agencies to the local educational agencies, as specified. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. (4) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. Governor Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 6, 2010. Governor Brown issued a proclamation on January 20, 2011, declaring and reaffirming that a fiscal emergency exists and stating that his proclamation supersedes the earlier proclamation for purposes of that constitutional provision. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared and reaffirmed by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 20, 2011, pursuant to the California Constitution.

Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to develop and implement a source reduction and recycling program for school districts that is designed to assist school districts in establishing and implementing source reduction and recycling programs and to complement and further prescribed educational goals and the integrated waste management issues addressed within the science curriculum framework developed by the State Board of Education. Existing law authorizes and encourages school districts to establish and maintain a paper recycling program in all classrooms, administrative offices, and other areas owned or leased by the school district where a significant quantity of wastepaper is generated or collected. The Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery, in conjunction with the State Department of Education, is required to coordinate the implementation of this program by providing materials, technical assistance, and other resources that it deems necessary to aid and encourage educational agencies to establish paper recycling programs. This bill would authorize a school district to provide recycling and composting bins on the campus of each public elementary and secondary school. The bill would authorize a school district to determine the number of bins to be located on a campus on the basis of the size of both the pupil population and the surface area of that campus.

This measure would proclaim October 22 to October 30, 2011, as including Red Ribbon Week, and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and participate in drug prevention activities.

This measure would proclaim the month of March of every year as Read Across California Month and request that public and private stakeholders work together to raise awareness of the importance of reading to young children and the importance of independent reading among our pupils and citizens of California by encouraging everyone to read for 30 minutes for 30 days during the month of March of every year, in conjunction with the Read Across America campaign held annually on March 2.

This measure would recognize June 19, 2011, as Veterans of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Day, in memory of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for freedom and democracy and the victims of the Vietnam War, and in honor of the survivors, activists, and freedom fighters of that war.

This measure would recognize March 31, 2011, as the anniversary of the birth of César Chávez, and would call upon all Californians to participate in appropriate observances to remember César Chávez as a symbol of hope and justice to all persons.

This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to continue to provide resources to increase the supply of physicians in California and to consider solutions that would increase the number of graduate medical education residency positions.

This measure would continue designation and observance of the month of October as Italian American Heritage Month. This measure would also encourage the Legislature to continue the Italian American Legislator Project and welcome the exhibit "The Italian American Legislator Project of 2011: A Legacy of Service to the California Legislature" to the State Capitol Building in October 2011 and encourage all Californians, through the K–12 curriculum and otherwise, to learn about the history, role, and contributions of Italian Americans to the State of California.