The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act contains various provisions regulating the application for, the issuance of, the suspension of, and the conditions imposed upon, alcoholic beverage licenses by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Existing law provides for various annual fees for the issuance of alcoholic beverage licenses depending upon the type of license issued. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act provides that a violation of its provisions is a misdemeanor, unless otherwise specified. This bill would authorize the department to issue a limited off-sale retail wine license that would allow the licenseholder to sell wine if certain conditions are met and would grant specified privileges to the licenseholder, as provided. The bill would impose an original fee and an annual renewal fee for the license, which would be deposited in the Alcohol Beverage Control Fund. Because the violation of a provision of the license is punishable as a misdemeanor, the bill expands the definition of an existing crime, thereby creating 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.
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The Personal Income Tax Law allows individual taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of specified funds. This bill would, until January 1, 2016, allow a taxpayer to designate on a tax return that a specified amount in excess of his or her tax liability be deposited into the General Fund. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. Governor Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 6, 2010. Governor Brown issued a proclamation on January 20, 2011, declaring and reaffirming that a fiscal emergency exists and stating that his proclamation supersedes the earlier proclamation for purposes of that constitutional provision. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared and reaffirmed by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 20, 2011, pursuant to the California Constitution.
The Vehicle License Fee Law, in lieu of any ad valorem property tax upon vehicles, imposes an annual license fee for any vehicle subject to registration in this state in the amount of 1% of the market value of that vehicle, as provided, for a specified amount of time. Existing law also, until June 30, 2011, imposes an additional tax equal to 0.15% of the market value of specified vehicles, as determined by the Department of Motor Vehicles, to the vehicle license fee, to be deposited in the General Fund and transferred to the Local Safety and Protection Account, a continuously appropriated fund. This bill would repeal the provision relating to the sunset date and repeal of the additional 0.15% tax, thereby depositing additional moneys into a continuously appropriated fund. This bill would constitute a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.
This measure would proclaim October 22 to October 30, 2011, as including Red Ribbon Week, and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and participate in drug prevention activities.
The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 establishes an integrated waste management program administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. The act requires a local jurisdiction to adopt an ordinance requiring the provision of adequate areas for collecting and loading recyclable materials in development projects, including residential buildings having 5 or more living units. A local agency is prohibited from issuing a building permit to a development project, unless the project provides adequate areas for collecting and loading recyclable materials. This bill would enact the Renters' Right to Recycle Act, to require an owner of a multifamily dwelling, defined as a residential facility that consists of 5 or more living units, to arrange for recycling services that are appropriate and available for the multifamily dwelling, consistent with state or local laws or requirements applicable to the collection, handling, or recycling of solid waste, except as provided. This bill would provide that it would become operative only if AB 341 of the 2011–12 Regular Session is not enacted and does not become effective on or before January 1, 2012.
(1) Existing law authorizes specified entities, including, among others, local agencies managing a groundwater basin or subbasin pursuant to existing law relating to groundwater management plans or integrated regional water management plans, to assume responsibility for monitoring and reporting groundwater elevations in all or a part of a groundwater basin or subbasin. Existing law requires an entity seeking to assume those functions to notify the Department of Water Resources, and requires the department to determine which entities will perform monitoring functions. Existing law requires monitoring entities to commence monitoring and reporting groundwater elevations on or before January 1, 2012. This bill would add to the list of entities that may assume responsibility for monitoring and reporting groundwater elevations, a local agency that has been collecting and reporting groundwater elevations and that does not have a groundwater management plan, if the local agency adopts a groundwater management plan in accordance with specified provisions of existing law by January 1, 2014. The bill would permit the department to authorize the local agency to conduct monitoring and reporting of groundwater elevations on an interim basis, until the local agency adopts a groundwater management plan or until January 1, 2014, whichever occurs first. The bill would authorize a monitoring entity to report groundwater elevations using specified alternate monitoring techniques for certain groundwater basins and subbasins meeting prescribed conditions. The bill would condition this authorization upon submission of a report to the department and a determination by the department that the monitoring entity may use the alternate monitoring techniques. The bill would require a monitoring entity, every 3 years, to submit to the department information establishing its continued eligibility to use the alternate monitoring techniques. (2) Existing law requires the department to identify the extent of monitoring of groundwater elevations that is being undertaken within specified groundwater basins and subbasins. If the department determines that all or part of a basin or subbasin is not being monitored, the department is required to attempt to contact all well owners within the area not being monitored and determine if there is an interest in establishing a specified groundwater management plan, integrated regional water management plan, or voluntary groundwater monitoring association. If the department determines that there is insufficient interest in establishing a plan or association, and the county decides not to perform groundwater monitoring and reporting functions, the department is required to determine whether existing monitoring wells provide sufficient information to demonstrate seasonal and long-term trends in groundwater elevations. If the department determines that the monitoring wells provide insufficient information to demonstrate those trends, and the State Mining and Geology Board concurs with that determination, the department is required to perform groundwater monitoring functions. This bill would delete the requirement that the State Mining and Geology Board concur with the department's determination regarding the sufficiency of information provided by existing monitoring wells for purposes of the department's performance of groundwater monitoring functions.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law provide for the carryover to specified taxable years of specified losses sustained as a result of certain disasters occurring in California in an area determined by the President of the United States to warrant specified federal assistance, or proclaimed by the Governor to be in a state of emergency. This bill would extend these provisions to losses sustained in the County of Mendocino as a result of the tsunami that occurred in March 2011. This bill would authorize a taxpayer to make an election to claim a deduction for those losses on the tax return for the preceding year. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires a person taking steelhead trout in inland waters, in addition to a valid California sport fishing license and any applicable sport license stamp, to have in his or her possession a valid nontransferable steelhead trout fishing report-restoration card issued by the Department of Fish and Game. Under existing law, the base fee for the card was $5 for the 2004 license year, and is authorized to be adjusted annually pursuant to a specified index. Existing law requires revenues to be deposited in the Fish and Game Preservation Fund and to be available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to monitor, restore, or enhance steelhead trout resources consistent with specified law, and to administer the fishing report-restoration card program. Existing law requires the department to report to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2007, regarding the steelhead trout fishing report-restoration card program's projects undertaken using revenues derived pursuant to that program, the benefits derived, and its recommendations for revising the fishing report-restoration card requirement, if any. These provisions become inoperative as of July 1, 2012, and are repealed as of January 1, 2013. This bill would extend the operation of those provisions to July 1, 2017, to be repealed as of January 1, 2018. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature regarding the card program's projects by July 1, 2016. Because this bill would extend the operation of the report-restoration card requirements, the violation of which would be a crime, it 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.
This measure would proclaim the month of March of every year as Read Across California Month and request that public and private stakeholders work together to raise awareness of the importance of reading to young children and the importance of independent reading among our pupils and citizens of California by encouraging everyone to read for 30 minutes for 30 days during the month of March of every year, in conjunction with the Read Across America campaign held annually on March 2.
Existing law authorizes 2 or more public agencies, as defined, to enter into an agreement to exercise common powers. Existing law also permits certain federally recognized Indian tribes to enter into joint powers agreements with particular parties and for limited purposes. This bill would include a federally recognized Indian tribe as a public agency that may enter into a joint powers agreement. This bill would also make conforming changes by conforming related code sections. This bill would also prohibit any joint powers authority that includes a federally recognized Indian tribe from authorizing or issuing bonds pursuant to the Marks-Roos Local Bond Pooling Act of 1985 unless the public improvements to be funded by the bonds will be owned and maintained by the authority or one or more of its public agency members, and the revenue streams pledged to repay the bonds derive from the authority, one or more of its public agency members, or any governmental or public fund or account, as defined, the proceeds of which may be used for that purpose. This bill would state that this bill does not affect, modify, or repeal any existing joint powers authority formed prior to this bill, including a joint powers authority that includes a federally recognized Indian tribe as a party or cooperating agency. This bill would state that this bill continues any authority granted by any prior law for a federally recognized Indian tribe to enter into a joint powers agreement.