Existing federal law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various health care coverage market reforms that took effect January 1, 2014. Among other things, PPACA required each state to establish an American Health Benefit Exchange to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers. Existing state law establishes the Council on Health Care Delivery Systems as an independent body to develop a plan that includes options for advancing progress toward achieving a health care delivery system in California that provides coverage and access through a unified financing system for all Californians. Existing law requires the council, on or before October 1, 2021, to submit to the Legislature and the Governor a plan with options that include a timeline of the benchmarks and steps necessary to implement health care delivery system changes, including steps necessary to achieve a unified financing system. This bill would also require the council to prepare an analysis and evaluation, known as a feasibility analysis, to determine the feasibility of a public health insurance plan option to increase competition and choice for health care consumers. The bill would require the feasibility analysis to contain, among other things, an actuarial and economic analysis of a public health insurance plan and an analysis of the extent to which a new public health insurance plan option could address the underlying factors that limit health plan choices in some regions. The bill would require the council to submit the feasibility analysis to the Legislature and the Governor on or before October 1, 2021.
Sponsored bills
A provision of the California Building Standards Law specifies that a local ordinance adding or modifying building standards for residential occupancies, published in the California Building Standards Code, applies only to an application for a building permit submitted after the effective date of the ordinance and to plans and specifications for, and the construction performed under, that permit, unless, among other reasons, the permit is subsequently deemed expired because the building or work authorized by the permit is not commenced within 180 days from the date of the permit, or the permittee has suspended or abandoned the work authorized by the permit at any time after the work is commenced. This bill would instead provide that a permit would remain valid for purposes of the California Building Standards Law if the work on the site authorized by that permit is commenced within 12 months after its issuance, unless the permittee has abandoned the work authorized by the permit. The bill would also authorize a permittee to request and the building official to grant, in writing, one or more extensions of time for periods of not more than 180 days per extension. The bill would require that the permittee request the extension in writing and demonstrate justifiable cause for the extension. The bill would also make conforming changes to the above-described provisions.
Under existing law, upon the proclamation of a state of emergency, as defined, declared by the President of the United States or the Governor, or upon the declaration of a local emergency, as defined, by the executive officer of any county, city, or city and county, and for a period of 30 days following that declaration, it is a misdemeanor with specified penalties for a person, contractor, business, or other entity to sell or offer to sell certain goods and services, including housing, for a price that exceeds by 10% the price charged by that person immediately prior to the proclamation of emergency, except as specified. Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, establishes the Office of Emergency Services and vests the office with responsibility for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies, as specified. This bill would additionally, upon the proclamation or declaration of an emergency as described above, make it a misdemeanor for a person, business, or other entity to increase the rental price, as defined, advertised, offered, or charged for housing to an existing or prospective tenant by more than 10%. The bill would extend the prohibition with regards to housing for any period that the proclamation or declaration is extended. The bill would additionally make it a misdemeanor for a person, business, or entity to evict a housing tenant after the proclamation of a state of emergency and then rent or offer to rent to another person at a rental price higher than the evicted tenant could be charged. By creating a new crime, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Office of Emergency Services, upon the proclamation of an emergency by the Governor, to include information about these provisions and guidance to property owners, as specified, on an appropriate Internet Web site. 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 defines the measure of indemnity for a loss under an open fire insurance policy and specifies time limits under which an insured must collect the full replacement cost of the loss. Existing law prohibits, in the event of a total loss of the insured structure, a fire insurance policy issued or delivered in the state from limiting or denying payment of the replacement cost of property if the insured decides to rebuild or replace the property at a location other than the insured premises. Existing law requires the measure of indemnity to be based upon the replacement cost of the insured property and prohibits it from being based upon the cost to repair, rebuild, or replace at a location other than the insured premises. This bill would instead prohibit, in the event of a total loss of an insured structure, a fire insurance policy issued or delivered in this state from containing a provision that limits or denies, on the basis that the insured has decided to rebuild at a new location or to purchase an already built home at a new location, payment of the building code upgrade cost or the replacement cost, including any extended replacement cost coverage, to the extent those costs are otherwise covered by the terms of the policy or any policy endorsement. The bill would prohibit the measure of indemnity from exceeding, rather than requiring it to be based upon, the replacement cost, as specified. The bill would require all policy forms issued or renewed on and after July 1, 2019, to contain these provisions. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 2051.5 of the Insurance Code proposed by AB 1772 and SB 894 to be operative only if this bill, AB 1772, and SB 894 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to implement various fire prevention programs intended to protect forest resources and prevent uncontrolled wildfires. Existing law establishes the forestry assistance program, to be conducted by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to encourage forest resource improvements and otherwise facilitate good forest land management through a program of financial, technical, and education assistance, as well as through applied research. Existing law authorizes the director of the department to enter into an agreement with an eligible landowner pursuant to which the landowner will undertake forest resource improvement work in return for an agreement by the director to share the cost of carrying out that work. Existing law authorizes the director to make various types of loans, including loans to cover all or part of the landowner's cost for the work. Existing law requires these loans to be made for a term not exceeding 20 years and bearing interest at the prevailing rate. This bill would instead authorize the director to enter into those agreements with small nonindustrial landowners, as defined. The bill would delete the term and interest rate requirements relating to these loans and instead require the director to establish reasonable terms relating to the length of, and the interest rate for, the loans. The bill would also authorize the director to provide the director's share of the costs described above in advance of any performed work if the eligible landowner agrees in writing to undertake the forest resource improvement work and agrees to the condition that any funds provided for uncompleted work shall constitute grounds for a claim and lien upon the real property owned by the landowner, as provided. The bill would require any money recovered from the lien to be deposited into the fund. This bill would also authorize the director to enter into an agreement with the owner or any other person who has legal control of any property, any public agency with regulatory or natural resource management authority over any property that is included within any wildland, or any nonprofit organization to conduct joint prescribed burning operations that serve the public interest and are beneficial to the state. The bill would require the agreement to adhere to specified requirements and would require each prescribed burn to be for one or more specified purposes. This bill would authorize the Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency to jointly develop and submit to the Legislature a specified plan for forest and watershed restoration investments in the drainages that supply the Oroville, Shasta, and Trinity Reservoirs, as prescribed. The bill would also authorize those agencies to jointly develop and propose to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature a pilot project for the coordinated, multiagency permitting of specified watershed restoration activities. The bill would establish the Headwaters Restoration Account in the General Fund and would authorize the deposit of funds into the account for use, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for those forest and watershed restoration purposes.
Existing law defines the measure of indemnity for a loss under an open fire insurance policy and specifies time limits under which an insured must collect the full replacement cost of the loss. In the event of a loss relating to a state of emergency, as defined, existing law establishes a minimum time limit of not less than 24 months from the date that the first payment toward the actual cash value is made during which the insured may collect the full replacement cost of the loss, subject to the policy limit, as specified. This bill would extend the minimum time limit during which an insured may collect the full replacement cost of a loss relating to a state of emergency to 36 months. The bill would require that additional extensions of 6 months be provided to policyholders for good cause under that circumstance. The bill would also require that policy forms issued by an insurer be in compliance with these changes on and after July 1, 2019. The bill would also make technical changes. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 2051.5 of the Insurance Code proposed by AB 1800 and SB 894 to be operative only if this bill, AB 1800, and SB 894 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to establish rules for all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law prohibits a gas corporation from recovering any fine or penalty in any rate approved by the commission. This bill would additionally prohibit an electrical corporation from recovering a fine or penalty through a rate approved by the commission and would make related nonsubstantive changes. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to ascertain and fix just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements, or service to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by specified public utilities, including all electrical corporations and gas corporations. If the commission finds, after a hearing, that the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the act requires that the commission determine and, by order or rule, fix the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed. This bill would prohibit an electrical corporation or gas corporation from recovering through a rate approved by the commission costs or expenses arising from damages caused by the electrical corporation's electric plant or the gas corporation's gas plant if the commission determines that the electrical or gas corporation, or its agent, did not reasonably construct, maintain, manage, control, or operate the plant and this unreasonable act or omission by the electrical or gas corporation, or its agent, increased the risk of the plant causing those damages. The bill would authorize the commission, for an electrical or gas corporation's rate application to recover costs or expenses, to authorize the recovery of those costs or expenses, in full or in part, and would specify that only those costs or expenses that are just and reasonable, which may comprise only a portion of those costs or expenses, are recoverable. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature and make legislative findings and declarations regarding the commission's rate recovery functions.
The California Emergency Services Act establishes the Office of Emergency Services (OES) in the office of the Governor and provides that OES is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies. The act also provides for systems for the public dissemination of alerts regarding missing children, attacks upon law enforcement officers, and missing persons who are 65 years of age or older, among others, and requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to activate these systems and issue alerts upon the request of a law enforcement agency if certain conditions are met. This bill, on or before July 1, 2019, would require OES, in consultation with specified entities, to develop voluntary guidelines for alerting and warning the public of an emergency. The bill would require OES to provide each city, county, and city and county with a copy of the guidelines. This bill would authorize OES to impose conditions upon application for voluntary grant funding that it administers requiring operation of alert and warning activities consistent with the guidelines. The bill would also require OES, within 6 months of making the statewide guidelines available and at least annually thereafter and through its California Specialized Training Institute, to develop an alert and warning training, as specified. This bill would authorize OES to adopt emergency regulations for these purposes, as specified.
Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance, including residential property insurance. Under existing law, the California FAIR (fair access to insurance requirements) Plan Association, a joint reinsurance association in which all insurers licensed to write basic property insurance participate, administers a program for the equitable apportionment of basic property insurance for persons who are unable to obtain that coverage through normal channels. Existing law requires the association to establish and maintain an Internet Web site and a toll-free telephone number through which a person may receive assistance in applying for basic property insurance. Existing law requires an insurer member of the plan to provide the Internet Web site address and toll-free telephone number to an applicant who is denied coverage. This bill would require the Department of Insurance to establish the California Home Insurance Finder on its Internet Web site to help homeowners connect with an insurance agent or broker for residential property insurance. The bill would require the department to annually survey agents, brokers, and insurers about inclusion in the finder, and post participants' names, addresses, phone numbers, and Internet Web sites, if available, to the finder on or before July 1, 2020. The bill would require the commissioner to use social media and other tools to promote the finder, and to create materials in the most common languages used in California. The bill would require an insurer to disclose specified information to an applicant who is denied coverage or a policyholder whose policy is canceled or not renewed, including, on or after July 1, 2020, information about the finder. The bill would require specified information, including the Internet Web site address of the department's Homeowners Coverage Comparison Tool, to be disclosed on or after July 1, 2020, upon an offer of a policy of residential property insurance if specified conditions are met. The bill would require a residential property insurer to notify the department on or before February 1 of each year of the amount of extended replacement cost coverage it offers in California, if the amount is different from that of the previous year, and would require the department to use this information to annually update the Homeowners Coverage Comparison Tool.
Existing law, until January 1, 2019, defines the offense of aggravated arson, and defines the aggravating factors for the offense as, the person has been previously convicted of arson on one or more occasions within the past 10 years, the fire caused property damage and other losses in excess of $7,000,000, or the fire caused damage to, or the destruction of, 5 or more inhabited structures. Existing law, commencing January 1, 2019, deletes the aggravating factor of property damage and other losses in excess of $7,000,000 from the definition of aggravated arson. This bill would extend the operation of the former aggravated arson offense until January 1, 2024, and would increase the threshold of property damage and other losses constituting an aggravating factor for aggravated arson to $8,300,000. The bill would delay operation of the latter aggravated arson offense that deletes the threshold dollar amount of property damages or losses as an aggravating factor until January 1, 2024. By extending the operation of law defining a crime, this bill 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.