Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce employment safety laws. Existing law authorizes the division to conduct hearings, inspections, and investigations regarding alleged violations of employment safety laws and to issue a citation for a violation of those laws, including violations that regulations adopted by the division classify as serious, repeat, or willful violations. Existing law authorizes the division to propose appropriate modifications concerning the characterization of violations and corresponding modifications to civil penalties for violations. Existing law requires the division, if a serious violation is not abated at the time of the initial or subsequent inspection, to require the employer to submit a signed statement under penalty of perjury that he or she has complied with the abatement terms within the period fixed for abatement of the violation. Existing law establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board in the department, and prescribes procedures for the appeals board to hear and decide appeals of a citation. Regulations adopted by the appeals board generally stay the abatement period of a citation until the conclusion of the appeal. This bill would prohibit the division from granting, for serious violations, a proposed modification to civil penalties for abatement or credit for abatement unless the employer has abated the violation, as specified, or has submitted a statement to the division in accordance with existing law, and would additionally require supporting evidence with the statement where necessary. The bill would authorize the division to grant such a modification only if the violation has been abated, as specified, or the signed statement and supporting evidence is received within 10 working days after the end of the period fixed for abatement. The bill would generally prohibit the stay or suspension of a requirement to abate the hazards affirmed by the decision or order during the pendency before the appeals board of a petition for reconsideration of a citation for a violation that is classified as a serious violation, repeat serious violation, or willful serious violation. The bill would authorize the appeals board to stay or suspend an abatement, upon petition by the employer, only if the employer demonstrates that a stay or suspension will not adversely affect the health and safety of employees.
Sponsored bills
The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a state body, as defined, be open and public and all persons be permitted to attend any meeting of a state body. The act defines various terms for its purposes, including "action taken," which means a collective decision made by the members of a state body, a collective commitment or promise by the members of the state body to make a positive or negative decision, or an actual vote by the members of a state body when sitting as a body or entity upon a motion, proposal, resolution, order, or similar action. This bill would require a state body to publicly report any action taken and the vote or abstention on that action of each member present for the action.
The California Building Standards Law establishes the California Building Standards Commission and requires the commission to appoint an executive director. The law authorizes the commission to appoint advisory panels from the design professions, the building and construction industry, the affected general public, and interested governmental agencies to advise the commission and its staff. This bill would authorize the commission to also appoint individuals from the energy and resource efficiency professions to an advisory panel. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would promote the creation of energy and resource efficient homes in California.
The Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act requires each state agency to conduct a survey, related to its bilingual services, of each of its local offices every 2 years to determine specified information, and to report results and any additional information requested to the Department of Human Resources. The act requires each agency that serves a substantial number of non-English-speaking people who comprise 5% or more of the people served to develop an implementation plan, as specified, in every odd-numbered year, and to submit the implementation plan to the department for its review. The act authorizes the department, if it determines that a state agency has not made reasonable progress toward complying with the act, to issue orders that it deems appropriate to effectuate the purposes of the act. This bill would instead require the department, if it determines that a state agency has not made reasonable progress toward complying with the act, to issue orders that it deems appropriate to effectuate the purposes of the act. The bill would require specified state agencies, by January 1, 2015, to translate and make accessible on the homepage of their Internet Web sites, forms and processes for submitting complaints of alleged violations of these provisions, and to make translated copies of these forms available, as provided. The bill would also require each state agency to conduct a survey, related to its bilingual services, of each of its statewide offices to determine specified information.
Existing law, the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, governs the licensing and operation of family day care homes and requires the State Department of Social Services to administer these provisions. Among other things, the act prohibits the smoking of tobacco in a private residence that is licensed as a family day care home during the hours of operation as a family day care home. A person who willfully or repeatedly violates a provision of the act is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would prohibit the smoking of tobacco in a private residence that is licensed as a family day care home without regard to whether the act occurs during the hours of operation of the home. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also make a conforming change. 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 Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit against those taxes for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in an amount equal to an applicable percentage of either 20% or 25%, respectively, of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture is a television series that relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law imposes specified duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits, including a requirement to allocate the tax credits until July 1, 2017, and limits the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated to qualified motion pictures in any fiscal year to $100,000,000 through the 2016–17 fiscal year. Existing law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, also allows a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. Existing law provides for a tentative minimum tax and further provides that, except for specified credits, no other credit shall reduce the tax imposed below the tentative minimum tax. This bill would establish similar credits under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, to be allocated by the California Film Commission on or after July 1, 2015, and before July 1, 2020. This bill would, as compared to the existing tax credits, extend the scope of the credits for a qualified motion picture to the applicable percentage of qualified expenditures up to $100,000,000, would extend the credit to qualified expenditures for television pilot episodes, and would determine an applicable percentage of 25% or 20% for qualified expenditures, with an additional credit amount available, as specified. This bill would limit the aggregate amount of these new credits to be allocated in each fiscal year to up to $330 million, and would, subject to a computation and ranking of applicants based on the jobs ratio, as defined, require the California Film Commission to allocate credit amounts subject to specified categories of qualified motion pictures. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, allow a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. This bill would also require the Legislative Analyst's Office to prepare reports related to the effectiveness and administration of the qualified motion picture credit under the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, and the Corporation Tax Law. This bill would, for taxable years, beginning on or after January 1, 2016, additionally allow the credit under the Corporation Tax Law for qualified expenditures for the production of qualified motion pictures to reduce the tentative minimum tax. This bill would also make findings and declarations related to the entertainment industry, and would urge the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to investigate and impose sanctions on specified motion picture productions and elements of production to combat unfair and illegal competition. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The bill would state that its provisions are severable. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 23036 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, proposed by AB 2754, to be operative only if AB 2754 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law requires the Board of Registered Nursing, the Physician Assistant Board, the Respiratory Care Board of California, and the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians of the State of California to regulate and oversee the practice of healing arts within their respective jurisdictions. This bill would require these boards to collect and report specific demographic data relating to its licensees, subject to a licensee's discretion to report his or her race or ethnicity, to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. The bill would require these boards to collect this data at least biennially, at the times of both issuing an initial license and issuing a renewal license.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, which consists of 16 voting members and one nonvoting member, as specified. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to establish minimum conditions entitling a community college district to receive state aid for the support of the community colleges. This bill would require the board of governors, in determining whether a community college district satisfies those minimum conditions, to review the accreditation status of the community colleges within that district. Under its existing regulatory authority, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges requires each community college to be accredited and has designated the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges as the accrediting agency. This bill would require the accrediting agency of the community colleges to report to the appropriate subcommittees of the Legislature upon the agency's issuance of a decision that affects the accreditation status of a community college and, on a biannual basis, any accreditation policy changes that affect the accreditation process or status for a community college.
Existing law provides that the California Workforce Investment Board is responsible for assisting the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system. Existing law requires the board to assist the Governor in targeting resources to specified industry sectors and providing guidance to ensure that services reflect the needs of those sectors. This bill would additionally require the board to assist the Governor in the development of an annual workforce metrics dashboard that measures the state's human capital investments in workforce development and that provides, among other things, a status report on credential attainment, training completion, degree attainment, and participant earnings from workforce education and training programs. The bill would also authorize the State Department of Education to collect the social security numbers of adults participating in adult education programs for these purposes, as specified. This bill would also require the Employment Development Department, among other things, to aggregate data, which the bill would require to be provided by participating workforce program partners, and to report this data to the board to assist the board in producing the annual workforce metrics dashboard, as specified.
Existing law authorizes an individual to contribute amounts in excess of his or her income tax liability for the support of specified funds. This bill would additionally allow an individual to designate on his or her tax return that a specified amount in excess of his or her tax liability be transferred to the Habitat for Humanity Fund, which would be created by this bill. The bill would prohibit a voluntary contribution designation for this fund from being added until another designation is removed or space is available, whichever occurs first. The bill would require moneys in the Habitat for Humanity Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board, the Controller, and the Department of Housing and Community Development for reimbursement of costs, as provided, and the balance to the Department of Housing and Community Development to distribute grants to Habitat for Humanity affiliates in California that meet certain requirements, including having a specified tax-exempt status. The bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to award grants through a competitive, project-specific grant process and be responsible for overseeing that grant program. The bill would prohibit a Habitat for Humanity affiliate from using a grant award for administrative expenses or for any purposes outside of California. The bill would provide that these provisions would remain in effect only until January 1 of the 5th taxable year following the first appearance of the Habitat for Humanity Fund on the tax return or January 1, 2021, whichever occurs first, but would further provide for an earlier repeal if the Franchise Tax Board determines that the amount of contributions estimated to be received during a calendar year will not at least equal the minimum contribution amount, as defined, for that calendar year, in which case these provisions would be repealed on December 1 of that year.