Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a day's work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed overtime compensation for additional hours worked. Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the Department of Industrial Relations for the enforcement of labor laws, including wage claims. Existing federal law provides for the allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states, with California's version of this program known as the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. Under the CalWORKs program, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals, and is prohibited from applying sanctions upon a recipient of CalWORKs for a failure or refusal to comply with program requirements for reasons related to employment, an offer of employment, an activity, or other training for employment for specified reasons, including, but not limited to, that the employment, offer of employment, or work activity does not provide workers' compensation insurance. Existing law establishes a statewide program to enable eligible low-income persons to receive food stamps under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, and requires counties to implement the program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to work hour scheduling for employees of food and general retail establishments. The bill would require a food and general retail establishment, as defined, to provide its employees with at least 2 weeks' notice of their schedules. The bill would require a food and general retail establishment to pay those employees additional pay, as specified, for each previously scheduled shift that the food and general retail establishment moves to another date or time or cancels and each previously unscheduled shift that the food and general retail establishment requires an employee to work, and would also require a food and general retail establishment to pay those employees a specified amount for each on-call shift for which the employee is required to be available but is not called in to work. The bill would specify that these provisions do not apply in certain circumstances, including, but not limited to, when operations cannot begin or continue due to causes not within the food and general retail establishment's control. The bill would also require a food and general retail establishment to allow an employee to, upon request, be absent from work without pay for up to 8 hours twice a year to attend any required appointments at the county human services agency, provided that the employee gives reasonable advance notice to the employer of his or her intention to take time off, unless advance notice is not feasible. The bill would prohibit an employer from taking any action against an employee when an unscheduled absence occurs due to a required appointment at the county human services agency if that employee provides specified documentation from the county human services agency. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to promulgate all regulations and rules of practice and procedure necessary to carry out these provisions. The bill would also prohibit sanctions from being applied upon a recipient of CalWORKs for failure or refusal to comply with CalWORKs program requirements if the employment or offer of employment fails to comply with these provisions. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill.
Sponsored bills
This measure would proclaim January 26, 2016, as India Republic Day, and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating India Republic Day.
Under existing law, there are programs providing assistance for, among other things, emergency housing, multifamily housing, farmworker housing, homeownership for very low and low-income households, and downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Existing law also authorizes the issuance of bonds in specified amounts pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law. Existing law requires that proceeds from the sale of these bonds be used to finance various existing housing programs, capital outlay related to infill development, brownfield cleanup that promotes infill development, and housing-related parks. This bill would enact the Building Homes and Jobs Act. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the need for establishing permanent, ongoing sources of funding dedicated to affordable housing development. The bill would impose a fee, except as provided, of $75 to be paid at the time of the recording of every real estate instrument, paper, or notice required or permitted by law to be recorded, per each single transaction per single parcel of real property, not to exceed $225. By imposing new duties on counties with respect to the imposition of the recording fee, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would require that revenues from this fee, after deduction of any actual and necessary administrative costs incurred by the county recorder, be sent quarterly to the Department of Housing and Community Development for deposit in the Building Homes and Jobs Fund, which the bill would create within the State Treasury. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require that 20% of the moneys in the fund be expended for affordable owner-occupied workforce housing, 10% of the moneys for housing purposes related to agricultural workers and their families, and would authorize the remainder of the moneys in the fund to be expended to support affordable housing, homeownership opportunities, and other housing-related programs, as specified. The bill would impose certain auditing and reporting requirements and would establish the Building Homes and Jobs Trust Fund Governing Board that would, among other things, review and approve recommendations made by the Department of Housing and Community Development for the distribution of moneys from the fund. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would create the Secretary of Housing within state government to oversee all activities related to housing in the state. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, on or before January 1, 2010, and biennially thereafter, in consultation with the Independent System Operator and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to study, and submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on, the impacts of distributed energy generation on the state's distribution and transmission grid. This bill would instead require the report to be submitted annually to the Legislature. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the California Workforce Investment Board and the Employment Training Panel, to include in the report an evaluation of the current use of, and opportunities for, green workforce training programs relating to the deployment of distributed energy resources.
Existing law establishes the Department of Technology, within the Government Operations Agency, headed by the Director of Technology, who is also known as the State Chief Information Officer. The department is responsible for the approval and oversight of information technology projects in state government by, among other things, consulting with agencies during initial project planning to ensure that project proposals are based on well-defined programmatic needs and consider feasible alternatives to address the identified needs and benefits consistent with statewide strategies, policies, and procedures. This bill would enact the California Open Data Act and create the position of the Chief Data Officer, who would be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the Governor, and report to the Secretary of Government Operations. This bill would require the Chief Data Officer to establish the California Open Data Standard, as specified, and require state agencies to make public data, as defined, available on an Internet Web portal pursuant to that standard. This bill would authorize a local government to adopt that standard. This bill would require the Chief Data Officer to create a Data Working Group, composed of data coordinators from specific state agencies and 2 individuals with expertise in open data information technology, who are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of, the Chief Data Officer. This bill would further require each state agency, on or before July 1, 2016, to submit a strategic plan and a strategic enterprise application plan, as specified, to the Chief Data Officer and to post the reports on the Internet Web portal. This bill would also require specified legal policies for public data to be posted on the Internet Web portal. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to this act.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to implement the Alternative and Renewable Fuel Vehicle Technology Program to provide financial assistance to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies. Existing law includes within the program alternative and renewable fuel infrastructure, fueling stations, and equipment. This bill would specify that alternative and renewable fuel infrastructure includes electric vehicle charging infrastructure in disadvantaged communities.
This measure would proclaim the month of January 2016 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month, encourage all Californians to become educated about human trafficking and work to eradicate these criminal practices within and beyond our borders, and encourage Members of the Legislature, as well as organizations, businesses, and individuals, to host or sponsor and attend community events in order to bring visibility and support to efforts made by nongovernmental organizations to recognize and combat human trafficking.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2017, and before January 1, 2022, would allow a tax credit under both laws in an amount equal to 30% of the qualified costs paid or incurred by a qualified taxpayer for any seismic retrofit construction on a qualified building, as provided. The bill would require a taxpayer, in order to be eligible for the credit, to obtain 2 certifications from the appropriate jurisdiction with authority for building code enforcement of the area in which the building is located: one prior to seismic retrofit construction that certifies that the building is an at-risk property, and a second subsequent to construction that certifies that the completed construction is seismic retrofit construction, as defined, and specifies a dollar amount of qualified costs. The bill would further require the taxpayer to provide the second certification to and apply for allocation of the credit with the Franchise Tax Board, and would require the board to allocate credits on a first-come-first-served basis. The bill would provide that the credit would have an aggregate cap under both laws of $12,000,000 for each calendar year, as provided. Existing law requires a bill that would authorize a new credit against the tax imposed by the Personal Income Tax Law or the Corporation Tax Law to contain specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the new credit will achieve and detailed performance indicators and data collection requirements for determining whether the new credit achieves these goals, purposes, and objectives. This bill would make findings specifying the goals, purposes, and objectives of the above-described tax credits and detailing the performance indicators and data collection requirements for determining whether the credits meet these goals, purposes, and objectives. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to include, among other subjects, the social sciences. Existing law requires the State Board of Education, with the assistance of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to establish a list of textbooks and other instructional materials that highlight the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States. This bill would require the Superintendent to oversee the development of, and the state board to adopt, a model curriculum to ensure quality courses in ethnic studies. The bill would require the Superintendent to establish an Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee and would require the committee to advise, assist, and make recommendations to the Superintendent regarding the development of the model curriculum. The bill would, beginning the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum, authorize each school district maintaining any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer, as an elective in the social sciences, a course of study in ethnic studies based on the model curriculum.