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 requires the department to implement managed mental health care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries through contracts with mental health plans, and requires mental health plans to be governed by various guidelines, including a requirement that a mental health plan assess the cultural competency needs of the program. Existing law requires mental health plan reviews to be conducted by an external quality review organization (EQRO) on an annual basis, and requires those reviews to include specific data for Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care, such as the number of Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care served each year. This bill would require each mental health plan to prepare a cultural competence plan to address specified matters, including mental health disparities in access, utilization, and outcomes by various categories, such as race, ethnicity, and immigration status. The bill would require a mental health plan to convene a committee for the purpose of reviewing and approving the cultural competence plan, to annually update its cultural competence plan and progress, to post this material on its internet website, and to submit its cultural competence plan to the department every 3 years for technical assistance and implementation feedback. The bill would require the department to develop at least 8 statewide mental health disparities reduction targets, to post the cultural competence plan submitted by each mental health plan to its internet website, and to consult with the Office of Health Equity to review and implement county assessments and statewide performance on mental health disparities reductions. The bill would require the department to direct the EQRO to develop a protocol for monitoring performance of each mental health plan, and to report on identified matters, including statewide progress related to the mental health disparities reduction targets. The bill would require the EQRO to publish specified information in the annual detailed technical report, such as recommendations for statewide strategies to reduce mental health disparities. The bill would require the mental health plan to meet specified mental health disparities reduction targets or make year-over-year improvements toward meeting the targets.
Sponsored bills
Existing law prohibits a local authority from enacting or enforcing an ordinance or resolution on matters covered by the Vehicle Code unless expressly authorized by the Vehicle Code. Existing law authorizes local authorities, for highways under their jurisdiction, to adopt rules and regulations by ordinance or resolution regarding specified matters, including, among others, prohibiting entry to, or exit from, or both entry to or exit from, any street by means of certain roadway design features to implement the circulation element of a general plan. Existing law prohibits a local agency from imposing a tax, permit fee, or other charge for the privilege of using its streets or highways, other than a permit fee for extra legal loads, after December 31, 1990, unless the local agency imposed the fee before June 1, 1989. This bill would authorize the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco by ordinance to conduct a reservation and pricing pilot program for vehicles that use the "Crooked Street," which the bill would define to mean the portion of Lombard Street located between Leavenworth Street and Hyde Street in the City and County of San Francisco. Before the board of supervisors adopts an ordinance to conduct the pilot program, the bill would require the board of supervisors to make certain findings and to conduct at least 2 public outreach meetings or hearings. The bill would require the board of supervisors to designate in the ordinance a program administrator and would require the program administrator to consult with specified entities and submit 2 reports to the Legislature. The bill would require the board of supervisors to include certain program requirements in the ordinance, including, among other things, congestion reduction objectives and goals, public involvement and consultation requirements, and performance monitoring requirements. The bill would authorize the board of supervisors to specify the powers and duties of the program administrator in the ordinance, including, among other powers, the authority to impose fees on vehicles for the use of the Crooked Street. The bill would make these provisions inoperative 7 years after the beginning of the pilot program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City and County of San Francisco.
This bill would make appropriations for the support of state government for the 2020–21 fiscal year. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a Budget Bill.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is established to promote beverage container recycling and provides for the payment, collection, and distribution of certain payments and fees based on minimum refund values established for beverage containers. Existing law provides for payment of at least that refund value to a party upon redemption of an empty beverage container. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2022, to make recommendations to the Legislature on how to improve the act to increase recycling of beverage container materials within the state and increase consumer redemption convenience.
This measure would recognize September 2020 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month and encourage the Legislature to appropriate funds for research, treatment, and monitoring of sickle cell disease, and for related education and outreach.
Existing law, including, but not limited to, property tax law, the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, the Corporation Tax Law, the Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law, the law governing the taxation of insurers, the Use Fuel Tax Law, and the Diesel Fuel Tax Law provide for tax expenditures, including exemptions, deductions, exclusions, and credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill would establish in state government the California Tax Expenditure Review Board as an independent advisory body to comprehensively assess major tax expenditures, as defined, and make recommendations to the Legislature. The bill would require the board to be composed of 5 members, as specified, who would serve without compensation. This bill would request the University of California, through a new or existing research center, to perform a comprehensive assessment of the major tax expenditures and to present a comprehensive, peer-reviewed assessment to the board by July 1, 2021, at a public hearing of the board. The bill, to the extent that the University of California needs access to taxpayer data and information, would require the Franchise Tax Board or the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to ensure relevant taxpayer data is made available and ensure appropriate levels of data security and protections are in place for transferred and sensitive data. This bill would set forth the scope of the comprehensive assessment, which would include certain specified information, including a brief description of the beneficiaries of the tax expenditure, and would require the board to post the comprehensive assessment on its internet website after receipt. The bill would require the board to make recommendations to the Legislature regarding the major tax expenditures, and to provide a report to the Legislature that compiles all of its recommendations regarding those tax expenditures, after a vote of the members of the board, by January 1, 2022, as specified. The bill would also require the board to submit the report to the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance, the Assembly Committee on Budget, and the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, and post it on its internet website. The bill would require the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance and the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, after receipt of the report by the Legislature, to hold a joint public hearing on the report by August 15 of the second year of the legislative session.
This measure would urge specified state departments and the Attorney General to use their authority to ensure that health care service plans and health insurers subject to their authority comply with the federal Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
Existing law, the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to annually designate convenience zones and requires that at least one certified recycling center that meets certain requirements be located within every convenience zone. The act requires dealers within a convenience zone where no recycling location has been established, or within a convenience zone that is unserved for 60 days and not exempt from convenience zone requirements, to submit an affidavit to the department stating that the dealer has met specified standards for redemption, including, among others, that the dealer is redeeming all empty beverage container types at all open cash registers or at one designated location on the dealer's premises, during all hours that the dealer is open for business. If the dealer does not submit that affidavit, existing law requires the dealer to pay $100 per day to the department, for deposit in the continuously appropriated California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, until a recycling location is established or until the dealer meets the standards for redemption specified in the affidavit provision. This bill, until March 1, 2020, would exempt from those duties dealers located in a convenience zone that was served by a recycling center that closed between August 1, 2019, and September 1, 2019, at the initiation of the recycler. The bill would also, until July 1, 2020, exempt from those duties a dealer located in an unserved convenience zone if a completed application for a recycling center located anywhere in the convenience zone is pending before the department and the dealer and the recycling center submit a letter to the department stating that the recycling center intends to serve that convenience zone. The bill, until July 1, 2020, would make such a recycling center eligible to receive handling fees for redeemed beverage containers once its application is approved. The act, until January 1, 2020, authorizes up to 5 limited-term recycling pilot projects, subject to department approval, that are designed to improve redemption opportunities in unserved convenience zones. The act subjects each pilot project to certain requirements, including, among others, that the pilot project not establish a redemption location outside of a convenience zone. This bill would extend the operation of that authorization until January 1, 2022, and would revise the pilot project requirements, including, among other revisions, prohibiting a pilot project from establishing a redemption location outside of the pilot project area rather than outside of a convenience zone. The bill would authorize the department, for the 2019–20 fiscal year to the 2021–22 fiscal year, inclusive, to expend up to a total of $5,000,000 from the fund to support the pilot projects. By authorizing expenditures from a continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would authorize the Director of Finance to approve the expenditure of up to $5,000,000 from the fund for supplemental payments to recycling centers if certain conditions are met, thereby making an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain a statewide telecommunications system for use by law enforcement agencies. Existing law also requires the Attorney General, upon the advice of an advisory committee, to adopt policies, practices and procedures, and conditions of qualification for connection to the system. Existing law, the California Values Act, generally prohibits, with exceptions, a California law enforcement agency from using its moneys or personnel to investigate, detain, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2020, consistent with the California Values Act, prohibit subscribers to the system from using information other than criminal history information transmitted through the system for immigration enforcement purposes, as defined. The bill would also prohibit subscribers to the system from using the system for purposes of investigating violations of a specified federal law if a violation of that federal law is the only criminal history in an individual's record. The bill would, commencing July 1, 2021, with exceptions, require any inquiry submitted through the statewide telecommunications system for information other than criminal history information to include a reason for the inquiry. The bill would also, commencing July 1, 2021, authorize the Attorney General, and personnel they so authorize, to conduct investigations, as provided, as the Attorney General deems appropriate to monitor compliance with these provisions.