The California Constitution requires the Legislature to pass a budget bill by June 15 of each year for the fiscal year commencing on July 1. Existing law provides that no state officer or employee shall be deemed to have a break in service or to have terminated his or her employment, for any purpose, nor to have incurred any change in his or her authority, status, or jurisdiction or in his or her salary or other conditions of employment, solely because of the failure to enact a Budget Act for a fiscal year prior to the beginning of that fiscal year. Under the California Constitution, money may be drawn from the Treasury only through an appropriation made by law and upon a Controller's duly drawn warrant. This bill would continuously appropriate from the General Fund and other specified funds to the Controller an amount necessary for the payment of compensation and employee benefits to state employees, as defined, for work performed on or after July 1 of a fiscal year for which no budget has been enacted. This bill would specify, if a memorandum of understanding is in effect that has been approved by the Legislature, that the compensation and contribution for employee benefits for represented state employees be at a rate consistent with the memorandum of understanding and, for state employees excluded from collective bargaining, at the rate approved by the Department of Personnel Administration prior to the commencement of the fiscal year for which a Budget Act has not been enacted. The bill would require, if a memorandum of understanding is not in effect for represented state employees and the department has not approved a compensation package for state employees excluded from collective bargaining, that the compensation and contribution for employee benefits for represented state employees and state employees excluded from collective bargaining be at the rate in effect at the expiration of the last fiscal year for which a budget was enacted. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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Existing law establishes within the Health Professions Education Foundation, a nonprofit public benefit corporation, the Registered Nurse Education Program, which provides scholarships or loan repayment for registered nursing students who agree in writing prior to graduation to serve in an eligible county health facility, as defined, an eligible state-operated health facility, as defined, a health workforce shortage area, or a California nursing school, as specified. This bill would expand that program to include registered nursing students who agree to serve in a kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, school. The bill would also make nonsubstantive, technical changes.
Existing law provides that it is the duty of a home inspector, as defined, who is not licensed as a general contractor, structural pest control operator, or architect, or registered as a professional engineer, to conduct a home inspection with the degree of care that a reasonably prudent home inspector would exercise. Existing law provides that certain actions by a home inspector, a company that employs the inspector, or a company that is controlled by a company that also has a financial interest in a company employing a home inspector, constitute an unfair business practice. This bill would require any person who makes a home inspection on or after January 1, 2012, to be certified by a home inspection association, as defined, and to meet specified minimum experiential, training, examination, and continuing education requirements, with a specified exception. The bill would require the Office of Professional Examination Services of the Department of Consumer Affairs to approve by July 1, 2011, the examination that a home inspector association is required to accept for certification of a home inspector. The bill would also, on and after January 1, 2012, require a home inspector to make specified written disclosures to a client about his or her certification, experience, education, and insurance coverage and require a home inspection association to publish and maintain active rosters of all of the home inspectors certified by the association. The bill would provide that, on and after January 1, 2012, it is an unfair business practice to hold oneself out as being a home inspector or to issue a home inspection report, unless one is certified.
(1) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to establish a California High School Coaching Education and Training Program to be administered by local school districts and to emphasize, among other things, training and certification in CPR and first aid. Existing law requires each high school sports coach to complete a coaching education program developed by his or her school district or the California Interscholastic Federation that meets specified guidelines. Existing law makes a high school sports coach responsible for the costs of taking the prescribed course. This bill, commencing December 31, 2010, would require all coaches taking or renewing first aid certification to take training that includes a basic understanding of the signs, symptoms, and appropriate emergency action steps regarding potentially catastrophic injuries, including but not limited to: head and neck injuries, concussions, 2nd impact syndrome, asthma attacks, heatstroke, and cardiac arrest. By requiring high school coaches to complete this additional training, 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, 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.
Existing law requires a professional fiduciary, as defined, to be licensed by the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau within the Department of Consumer Affairs and prohibits a person from acting or holding himself or herself out as a professional fiduciary unless licensed. Existing law exempts from this requirement specified persons, including a certified public accountant acting within the scope of practice and a person enrolled as an agent to practice before the Internal Revenue Service acting within the scope of practice as specified in federal regulations. This bill would categorically exempt a licensed certified public accountant and an enrolled agent licensed by the United States Department of the Treasury from that requirement.
Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health administers provisions governing the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including hospitals. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law requires any hospital that provides emergency medical services to provide notice of any intended elimination or reduction of emergency services as soon as possible, but not later than 90 days prior to a planned elimination or reduction in services to the department, the local government agency in charge of health services, and specified entities under contract with the hospital to provide the services. Existing law requires a health facility that implements a downgrade or closure to make reasonable efforts to ensure that the community served by the facility is informed. This bill would, instead, require the notice to be provided 120 days prior to the planned reduction or elimination of the level of emergency medical services, and would require the notice to also be provided to all employees of the hospital. It would also require that the hospital provide public notice of, and hold a minimum of 3 public meetings on, the intended change in a manner that is likely to reach a significant number of residents of the community served by the facility. The bill would also require that any health facility implementing a downgrade or change hold a minimum of 3 public meetings, as specified, to inform and ensure that the community served by its facility is informed of the downgrade or closure. Existing law requires, with a certain exception, not less than 30 days prior to closing a general acute care or psychiatric hospital, eliminating a supplemental service, or relocating the provision of a supplemental service to a different campus, the hospital to provide certain notice regarding the proposed closure, elimination, or relocation to the public and the applicable administering department, in accordance with certain procedures. This bill would, instead, require the notice regarding the proposed closure, elimination, or relocation to be provided to the public and the applicable administering department, in accordance with certain procedures, 60 days prior to closing a general acute care or psychiatric hospital, eliminating a supplemental service, or relocating the provision of a supplemental service to a different campus. Because the bill creates a new crime, it 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 provides for the professional review of specified healing arts licentiates through a peer review process conducted by peer review bodies, as defined. This bill would encourage a peer review body to obtain external peer review, as defined, for the evaluation or investigation of an applicant, privilegeholder, or member of the medical staff in specified circumstances. This bill would require a peer review body to respond to the request of another peer review body and produce the records reasonably requested concerning a licentiate under review, as specified. The bill would specify that the records produced pursuant to this provision are not subject to discovery, as specified, and may only be used for peer review purposes. Existing law requires the governing body of acute care hospitals to give great weight to the actions of peer review bodies and authorizes the governing body to direct the peer review body to investigate in specified instances. Where the peer review body fails to take action in response to that direction, existing law authorizes the governing body to take action against a licentiate. This bill would prohibit a member of a medical or professional staff from being required to alter or surrender staff privileges, status, or membership solely due to the termination of a contract between that member and a health care facility, except as specified. The bill would specify that a peer review body is entitled to review and make timely recommendations to the governing body of a health care facility, and its designee, if applicable, regarding quality considerations relating to clinical services when the selection, performance evaluation, or any change in the retention or replacement of licensees with whom the facility has a contract occurs. The bill would require the governing body to give great weight to those recommendations. Existing law provides various due process rights for licentiates who are the subject of a final proposed disciplinary action of a peer review body, including authorizing a licensee to request a hearing concerning that action. Under existing law, the hearing must be held before either an arbitrator selected by a process mutually acceptable to the licensee and the peer review body or a panel of unbiased individuals, as specified. Existing law prohibits a hearing officer presiding at a hearing held before a panel from, among other things, gaining direct financial benefit from the outcome. This bill would additionally require the hearing officer to be an attorney licensed in California, except as specified, and to disclose all actual and potential conflicts of interest, as specified. The bill would specify that the hearing officer is entitled to determine the procedure for presenting evidence and argument and would give the hearing officer authority to make all rulings pertaining to law, procedure, or the admissibility of evidence. The bill would authorize the hearing officer to recommend termination of the hearing in certain circumstances. Existing law gives parties at the hearing certain rights, including the right to present and rebut evidence. Existing law requires the peer review body to adopt written provisions governing whether a licensee may be represented by an attorney and prohibits a peer review body from being represented by an attorney where a licensee is not so represented, except as specified. This bill would give both parties the right to be represented by an attorney but would prohibit a peer review body from being represented if the licensee notifies the peer review body within a specified period of time that he or she has elected to not be represented, except as specified. The bill would also provide that it shall become operative only if SB 820 is also enacted and becomes operative.
Existing law authorizes a city or county to create a transit village plan for a transit village development district. Existing law authorizes a city or county to prepare a transit village plan for a transit village development district that addresses specified characteristics. This bill would add the characteristic of other land uses, including educational facilities, that provide direct linkages for people traveling to and from primary and secondary education schools, community colleges, and universities, to the list of specified characteristics that a transit village plan may address. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 65460.2 of the Government Code proposed by AB 338, that would become operative only if AB 338 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. That law, with certain exceptions, defines a retailer as a seller who makes any retail sale of tangible personal property and as a person who makes more than 2 retail sales of tangible personal property during any 12-month period. A retail sale is a sale of tangible personal property for any purpose other than resale in the regular course of business. This bill would, until January 1, 2013, provide that a garment cleaner who received no more than 0.5% of his or her total gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property during the preceding calendar year is a consumer, not a retailer, of that tangible personal property sold, so the retail sale subject to tax is the sale to the garment cleaner. This bill would provide that a garment cleaner is a retailer if his or her sales of tangible personal property exceed 0.5% of his or her total gross receipts during the preceding calendar year, and sales tax would apply to the gross receipts from those sales. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and the Transactions and Use Tax Law authorizes districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law. Exemptions from state sales and use taxes are incorporated in these taxes. Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code provides that the state will reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.
Under existing law, unemployment compensation benefits are based on wages paid in a base period that is calculated according to the month within which the benefit year begins. This bill would, for new claims filed on or after January 1, 2010, for which a valid claim or benefit year cannot be established under the currently defined base periods, establish alternative base periods, as provided. This bill would also require a claimant to submit specified information regarding wages to the Employment Development Department via an affidavit, under specified conditions. Because this measure would increase the amount of unemployment compensation paid, it would make an additional amount payable from the Unemployment Fund, a continuously appropriated special fund, and thereby would make an appropriation. Because this measure would require specified information to be submitted to the Employment Development Department on an affidavit, the submission of which, if false, is a misdemeanor under existing law, it would impose a state-mandated 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. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 19, 2008. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution.