Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing, including requiring the reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures and imposing other reporting and recordkeeping requirements on campaign committees. Existing law additionally imposes disclosure statement requirements with respect to advertisements supporting or opposing a candidate or ballot measure paid for by donors making contributions of specified amounts or by independent expenditures and defines several terms and phrases for these purposes. 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 repeal and recast several definitions. The bill would modify a committee identification requirement and a disclosure statement requirement relating to advertisements for or against any ballot measure paid for by a committee. The bill would impose new disclosure statement requirements for political advertisements regarding a ballot measure that are radio advertisements, prerecorded telephonic messages, television or video advertisements, or mass mailing or print advertisements that would require the identification of identifiable contributors, ballot measures, and other funding details, as specified. By introducing new disclosure requirements, the violation of which would be a misdemeanor, the bill would create a new crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. Existing law creates the Fair Political Practices Commission, and gives it primary responsibility for the impartial, effective administration and implementation of the Political Reform Act of 1974. The bill would require the Fair Political Practices Commission to promulgate regulations related to identifying and reporting persons who are the original sources of funds transferred through committees or other persons to determine identifiable contributors by January 1, 2016. The bill would require the Commission to promulgate regulations prohibiting a recipient of funds transferred by an identifiable contributor from depositing the funds until required applicable reports have been received by the recipient. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 84511 of the Government Code proposed by A.B. 510, that would become operative only if A.B. 510 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. 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.
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The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including certain credits that are allowed in modified conformity to credits allowed by federal income tax laws. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2015, and before January 1, 2026, allow a credit based upon earned income that is equal to 15% of the earned income tax credit allowed by federal law. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to report to the Legislature regarding the utilization of the tax credit, as provided. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law makes certain findings and declarations regarding the social obligation of private nonprofit hospitals to provide community benefits in the public interest, and requires these hospitals, among other responsibilities, to adopt and update a community benefits plan for providing community benefits either alone, in conjunction with other health care providers, or through other organizational arrangements. Existing law requires each private nonprofit hospital, as defined, to complete a community needs assessment, as defined, and to thereafter update the community needs assessment at least once every 3 years. Existing law also requires the hospital to file a report on its community benefits plan and the activities undertaken to address community needs with the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Existing law requires the statewide office to make the plans available to the public. Existing law requires that each hospital include in its community benefits plan measurable objectives and specific benefits. This bill would declare the necessity of establishing uniform standards for reporting the amount of charity care and community benefits a facility provides to ensure that private nonprofit hospitals and nonprofit multispecialty clinics actually meet the social obligations for which they receive favorable tax treatment, among other findings and declarations. This bill would require a private nonprofit hospital and nonprofit multispecialty clinic, as defined, to provide community benefits to the public by allocating available community benefit moneys to charity health care, as defined, and community building activities, as specified. The bill would, by January 1, 2017, require a private nonprofit hospital or nonprofit multispecialty clinic to develop, in collaboration with the community benefits planning committee, as established, a community health needs assessment that evaluates the health needs and resources of the community. The bill would also require these entities, prior to completing the needs assessment, to develop a community benefits statement and a description of the process for approval of the community benefits plan by the hospital's or clinic's governing board, as specified. The bill would authorize the hospital or clinic to create a community benefits advisory committee for the purpose of soliciting community input. This bill would require the hospital or clinic to make available to the public a copy of the assessment, file the assessment with the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and update the assessment at least every 3 years. This bill would also require a private nonprofit hospital and nonprofit multispecialty clinic, by April 1, 2017, to develop a community benefits plan that includes a summary of the needs assessment and a statement of the community health care needs that will be addressed by the plan, and list the services, as provided, that the hospital or clinic intends to provide in the following year to address community health needs identified in the community health needs assessments. The bill would require the hospital or clinic to make its community health needs assessment and community benefits plan or community health plan available to the public on its Internet Web site and would require that a copy of the assessment and plan be given free of charge to any person upon request. This bill would require a private nonprofit hospital or nonprofit multispecialty clinic, after April 1, 2017, every 2 years to submit a community benefits plan to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, as specified, and would allow a hospital or clinic under the common control of a single corporation or other entity to file a consolidated plan, as provided. The bill would require that the governing board of each hospital or clinic adopt the community benefits plan and make it available to the public, as specified. This bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to develop and adopt regulations to prescribe a standardized format for community benefits plans, as provided, to provide technical assistance to help private nonprofit hospitals and nonprofit multispecialty clinics exempt from licensure comply with the community benefits provisions, to make public each community health needs assessment and community benefits plan and any comments received regarding those assessments and plans, to maintain a public calendar of community benefit plan adoption meetings, and to calculate and make public the total value of community benefits provided by hospitals, as specified. This bill would authorize the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to assess a civil penalty, as provided, against any hospital or clinic that fails to comply with these provisions. This bill would make conforming changes.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law prohibits a requirement of in-person contact between a health care provider and patient under the Medi-Cal program for any service otherwise covered by the Medi-Cal program when the service is appropriately provided by telehealth, as defined. Existing law, for purposes of payment of covered treatment or services provided through telehealth, prohibits the department from limiting the type of setting where services are provided for the patient or by the health care provider. This bill would require, effective July 1, 2015, in order for a health care provider that is not located in California to be enrolled in Medi-Cal for the purpose of providing health care services by way of telehealth for beneficiaries receiving care in California, the provider to meet specified conditions and criteria, including that the provider be enrolled and in good standing in the Medicaid program for the state where the provider is located, be enrolled in good standing in Medicare, or be enrolled in good standing in both programs, and that the provider not be located outside the United States of America.
This measure would call upon all Californians to observe César Chávez's birthday, March 31, as a day of public service, to recognize the hard work and self-sacrifice that farmworkers go through to feed all the families in our state, and to learn from César Chávez's life and his mission of nonviolence, social justice, and selfless service to others.
Existing law requires the custodian of a will, within 30 days after having knowledge of the death of the testator, unless a petition for probate of the will is earlier filed, to deliver the will to the clerk of the superior court of the county in which the estate of the decedent may be administered and to mail a copy of the will to the executor or a beneficiary, as specified. Existing law imposes a fee for delivering a will to the clerk of the superior court and requires reimbursement of this fee from the estate if an estate is commenced for the decedent named in the will. This bill would revise the above-described delivery provisions to require the original custodian of a will to either deliver the will to a named executor or beneficiary, as specified, or deliver the will to the clerk and mail a copy to the executor or beneficiary. The bill would require the named executor or beneficiary who receives a will from the original custodian with a specified notification to, within 30 days of receipt, deliver the will to the clerk and, if the recipient of the will is a beneficiary, mail a copy of the will to the named executor, if the whereabouts of the executor is known.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to develop and implement a program funded by the California Teleconnect Fund Administrative Committee Fund to advance universal service by providing discounted rates to qualifying schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, community colleges, libraries, hospitals, health clinics, and community organizations. This bill would specify that discounted rates are available to qualifying schools maintaining preschools and transitional kindergartens. The bill would require the commission to develop and implement an outreach plan to preschools and transitional kindergartens to increase awareness of services available to these schools under the program described above. This bill would require the commission to revise the program described above to give priority for advanced communications services as the commission deems appropriate. The bill would require the commission to ensure that the program described above does not favor a particular technology used to provide advanced communications services to qualifying entities. The bill would require the commission to open or amend an existing proceeding to develop a plan on the feasibility and expense associated with establishing and maintaining a database of communication services purchased by qualifying entities receiving financial support from the program and the prices paid for those communication services. The bill would require the commission to report the plan findings or progress on the plan to the Legislature and to specified committees of the Legislature no later than March 1, 2016.
Existing law establishes the California Library Literacy and English Acquisition Services Program within the California State Library to reduce illiteracy among children and adults by providing English language literacy instruction and related services to native and nonnative English speaking youth and adults residing in California. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to literacy rate improvement in California.
(1) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding, and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition. The bill would revise the definition of modernization under the act to include the replacement of facilities on a site containing a permanent structure that is at least 25 years old or, in the case of a portable classroom, that is at least 20 years old, as specified. The bill would reduce the minimum amount that an applicant school district under the act must set aside for ongoing and major maintenance of school buildings from 3% to 2% of the total general fund expenditures of that district in a fiscal year. This bill would delete a provision requiring the State Allocation Board to conduct an evaluation of the cost of new construction and modernization of small high schools in conjunction with a specified pilot program. The bill would require each school district that elects to participate in a new construction or modernization program funded by the proceeds of any bond approved by the voters after November 1, 2014, to reestablish eligibility, as specified, and to conduct an inventory of existing facilities for purposes of maintaining a statewide school facilities inventory. The bill would authorize a grant for new construction or modernization under the act to be used for seismic mitigation purposes and for related design, study, and testing costs, and require the State Allocation Board, in the development of guidelines and regulations, to provide a school district with maximum flexibility in the design, modernization, and new construction of school facilities. The bill would require the Office of Public School Construction to recommend regulations to the board to provide school districts with flexibility in designing instruction facilities. The bill would require the State Department of Education, the Division of the State Architect, the Office of Public School Construction, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control to convene for the purposes of developing an interagency plan to streamline the school facility construction application, review, and audit processes in order to reduce the time and improve the efficiency of the school facility construction process. The bill would require that this interagency plan be submitted to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2015. (2) Existing law, the California Constitution, prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (a) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (b) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the members elected to each house of the Legislature, (c) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (d) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would enact the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2014 to authorize $4,300,000,000 of state general obligation bonds, as scheduled, to provide aid to school districts, county superintendents of schools, county boards of education, charter schools, the California Community Colleges, the University of California, the Hastings College of the Law, and the California State University to construct and modernize education facilities. The proceeds of these bonds would be deposited in the continuously appropriated 2014 State School Facilities Fund, which this bill would establish, thereby making an appropriation. The proposed bond act would become operative only if approved by the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, and the bill would provide for its submission to the voters at that election. The bill would require the Secretary of State to publish, and separately mail, a supplemental ballot pamphlet regarding the proposed bond act if it is not possible to include information regarding this proposed bond act in the ballot pamphlet for the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. The bill would provide for public examination of the translations of the ballot title and condensed statement of the ballot title of the proposed bond act, as specified. (3) This bill would specify that certain of its provisions would become operative only if the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2014 is approved by the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. (4) The bill would make conforming changes in related provisions of existing law. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to classify personal property for differential taxation or for exemption by means of a statute approved by a 23 vote of the membership of each house. Under the Private Railroad Car Tax Law, the State Board of Equalization assesses and taxes private railroad cars operated upon railroads in this state by class based on the owner's acquisition cost, less depreciation, as provided. In making an assessment, the board is required to determine the average number of each class of private railroad cars physically present in the state in the calendar year immediately preceding the fiscal year in which the tax is imposed upon the basis of car days. This bill would instead require the board, in making the assessment, to determine the physical presence of private railroad cars in the state in the calendar year immediately preceding the fiscal year in which the tax is imposed upon the basis of mileage. Existing law also requires the board, in making the above assessment, to value the cars by class based on the owner's acquisition cost, less depreciation, and sets forth the manner in which depreciation is calculated for each class of cars, as specified. This bill would instead require the board, in making the assessment, to value the cars based on the owner's acquisition cost, including additions and betterments, less depreciation, and would revise the manner in which the depreciation is calculated, as specified. Existing law requires the board to exclude from the California factor car mileage, car days, or other data that occurs while cars are not qualified for revenue service and are in a repair facility in the state, as specified. Existing law defines the term "class of private railroad cars" for these purposes. This bill would delete the definition of the term "class of private railroad cars" and would eliminate the requirement that the board exclude from the California factor car mileage, car days, or other data that occurs while cars are not qualified for revenue service and are in a repair facility in the state.