(1) Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, prohibits a person from selling or otherwise furnishing tobacco products, as defined, to a person under 21 years of age. The STAKE Act requires a person engaged in the retail sale of tobacco products to check the identification of a tobacco purchaser to establish the purchaser's age if the purchaser reasonably appears to be under 21 years of age. This bill would, among other things, require a person engaged in the retail sale of tobacco products to use age verification software or an age verification device to establish the age of a tobacco purchaser. The act requires the State Department of Public Health to, among other things, establish and develop a program to reduce the availability of tobacco products to persons under 21 years of age through enforcement activities, and conduct random, onsite sting inspections at retail sites. The act authorizes the department to also conduct onsite sting inspections in response to public complaints or at retail sites where violations have previously occurred. This bill would, among other things, instead require the department to conduct random, onsite sting inspections at retail sites of at least 20% of the total number of licensed tobacco retailers, and in the event of a violation at a retail site, would require the department to conduct a 2nd sting inspection at that retail site within 6 months of the first violation, and a 3rd sting inspection within 12 months of the first violation. The act imposes specified civil penalties for the furnishing of tobacco products to a person under 21 years of age. Existing law imposes additional civil penalties in the amount of $250 for a 3rd, 4th, and 5th violation, requires a 45-day suspension of the license to sell tobacco or cigarettes for a 3rd violation at the same location within a 5-year period, a similar 90-day suspension of the license for a 4th violation, and a revocation of the license for a 5th violation. This bill would decrease the 5-year period for calculating the civil penalties and license suspensions and revocations for violations to a 36-month period and increase the penalty amount for a first, 2nd, and 3rd or subsequent violation imposed by an enforcement agency, as specified. The bill would instead impose the additional $250 civil penalty and the license suspensions and revocation for the first, 2nd, and 3rd violations in a 36-month period, and would require a 60-day suspension of the license for the first violation, except as specified, a 90-day suspension for the 2nd violation, and a revocation of the license for a 3rd violation. The bill would also prohibit anyone under 21 years of age from entering a tobacco store, as defined, except for active duty military personnel who are 18 years of age or older, as specified. (2) Existing law, the California Cigarette and Tobacco Products Licensing Act of 2003, provides for the licensure by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration of manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers, and retailers of cigarette or tobacco products that are engaged in business in California. The act prohibits retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers from distributing or selling those cigarette and tobacco products unless they are licensed. The act authorizes the board to suspend or revoke the license of any manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler, importer, or retailer of tobacco products that is in violation of the act's provisions. Existing law makes a violation of the act a misdemeanor. This bill, commencing 90 days after the effective date of the bill, would prohibit a licensed retailer from selling a non-tobacco-flavored vapor product, as specified, or a single-use electronic cigarette, as defined. The bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health to assess specified civil penalties for each violation. (3) Existing law makes every person, firm, or corporation that knowingly or under circumstances in which it has knowledge, or should otherwise have grounds for knowledge, sells, gives, or in any way furnishes to another person who is under 21 years of age any tobacco, cigarette, cigarette papers, or blunt wraps, or any other preparation of tobacco, or any other instrument or paraphernalia that is designed for the smoking or ingestion of tobacco, tobacco products, or any controlled substance, subject to either a criminal action for a misdemeanor or a civil action, punishable by a fine, as specified. This bill would instead subject a person described above to that criminal or civil fine, specified community service, or the criminal or civil fine and community service. (4) Existing law requires that cartridges for electronic cigarettes and solutions for filling or refilling an electronic cigarette be in child-resistant packaging, as defined. This bill would create various advertising, promoting, packaging, and selling prohibitions on electronic cigarettes, including, among others, prohibiting an electronic cigarette manufacturer from advertising, promoting, or packaging the electronic cigarette in a manner that is attractive to persons under 21 years of age, as specified, or is intended to encourage persons under 21 years of age to use the device, prohibiting a person from displaying on an electronic cigarette, or on its packaging, an indication or illustration that could cause a person to believe that the product is flavored if there is reasonable belief that the indication or illustration could be appealing to persons under 21 years of age. The bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health to assess specified civil penalties for each violation. (5) Existing law, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , approved by the voters as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, regulates the cultivation, distribution, transport, storage, manufacturing, testing, processing, sale, and use of cannabis for nonmedical purposes by people 21 years of age and older. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities. This bill would amend AUMA by, among other things, commencing 90 days after the effective date of the bill, prohibiting a licensed retailer from selling an artificially-flavored vapor product, as defined. The bill would also prohibit the use of flavors not derived from the cannabis plant or other natural botanical sources or flavors derived or synthesized from tobacco in the production of cannabis products that can be used to deliver cannabis to a person in aerosolized or vaporized form. The bill would authorize the licensing authority to issue a citation for each violation. AUMA authorizes the Legislature to amend the act to further the purposes and intent of the act with a 23 vote of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would declare that its provisions further specified purposes and the intent of AUMA. (6) The Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Law, the violation of which is a crime, imposes a tax on distributors of cigarettes at the rate of $2.87 per package of 20 cigarettes and a tax on distributors of tobacco products, based on wholesale cost, at a rate determined annually that is equivalent to the combined rate of all taxes imposed on cigarettes plus an additional rate equivalent to $0.50 per package of 20 cigarettes. These taxes are inclusive of the taxes imposed under the Tobacco Tax and Health Protection Act of 1988, the California Families and Children Act of 1998, and the California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016. The California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016 (Proposition 56) , an initiative measure approved at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, revised the definition of tobacco products to include electronic cigarettes, thereby extending the taxes on distributors of tobacco products to distributors of electronic cigarettes, which is based on the wholesale cost of these products. Proposition 56 requires the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to adopt regulations providing for the implementation of the equivalent tax on electronic cigarettes and the methods for collection of the tax. This bill would impose, commencing January 1, 2021, an additional tax on electronic cigarettes at a rate of $2.40 per every 40 milligrams of base product nicotine contained in the electronic cigarette, as specified. The bill, commencing January 1, 2021, would require a manufacturer of any electronic cigarette offered for sale in this state to include, on its sales invoice, the amount of base product nicotine contained in the product that is clearly identified by the milligrams. The bill would require, commencing January 1, 2021, on or before the 25th day of each month, every wholesaler of electronic cigarettes to file a report in the form, as prescribed by the department, which may include, but not be limited to, electronic media respecting the wholesaler's inventory, purchases, and sales of electronic cigarettes during the preceding month. The bill would require the revenues, interest, and penalties derived from the tax imposed above to be deposited into a newly created fund, the California Healthy Families Health Care Access Fund, which would be continuously appropriated for specified health-related purposes. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. By imposing new requirements in the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Law, the violation of which is a crime, the bill would also impose a state-mandated local program. (7) 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. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
The Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2000 (the Villaraigosa-Keeley Act) authorizes the issuance of bonds for the purpose of financing a program for the acquisition, development, improvement, rehabilitation, restoration, enhancement, and protection of park, recreational, cultural, historical, fish and wildlife, lake, riparian, reservoir, river, and coastal resources, as specified. That bond act prohibits the use of the grant funds unless the applicant has agreed to certain conditions, including, but not limited to, using the property only for the purposes for which the grant was made and making no other use or sale or other disposition of the property, except as authorized by a specific act of the Legislature. This bill would authorize the City of Modesto to dispose of all or a portion of Beard Brook Park acquired, developed, or improved with grant moneys from the bond act described above, subject to the acquisition of replacement park property, as approved by the Department of Parks and Recreation, and at no cost to the state, as provided.
Under existing law, the Department of Consumer Affairs, under the control of the Director of Consumer Affairs, is comprised of various boards that license and regulate various professions and vocations. Existing law requires an applicant seeking a license from a board within the department to meet specified requirements and to pay certain licensing fees. Existing law requires a board within the department to issue, after appropriate investigation, certain types of temporary licenses to an applicant if the applicant meets specified requirements, including that the applicant supplies evidence satisfactory to the board that the applicant is married to, or in a domestic partnership or other legal union with, an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the United States who is assigned to a duty station in this state under official active duty military orders and the applicant holds a current, active, and unrestricted license that confers upon the applicant the authority to practice, in another state, district, or territory of the United States, the profession or vocation for which the applicant seeks a temporary license from the board. Existing law requires these temporary licenses to expire 12 months after issuance. Under existing law, some of the funds within the jurisdiction of a board consist of revenue from fees that are continuously appropriated. This bill would require boards not subject to the temporary licensing provisions described above to issue licenses to an applicant if the applicant meets specified requirements, including that the applicant supplies evidence satisfactory to the board that the applicant is an honorably discharged veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States or is married to, or in a domestic partnership or other legal union with, an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the United States, as provided. The bill would require an application for a license to include a signed affidavit attesting to the fact that the applicant meets all requirements for a license. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill's expansion of the requirement to issue licenses would result in revenues from fees for certain licenses being deposited into continuously appropriated funds. By establishing a new source of revenue for those continuously appropriated funds, the bill would make an appropriation. 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 California Constitution limits the amount of ad valorem taxes on real property to 1% of the full cash value of that property, defined as the county assessor's valuation of real property as shown on the 1975–76 tax bill and, thereafter, the appraised value of the property when purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership occurs after the 1975 assessment, subject to an annual inflation adjustment not to exceed 2%. The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to authorize a person over 55 years of age or any severely and permanently disabled person residing in property eligible for the homeowner's exemption to transfer the base year value of that property to a replacement dwelling of equal or lesser value located in the same county, or another county that has adopted an ordinance allowing base years value transfers from other counties, as provided. The California Constitution also provides that the purchase or transfer of the principal residence, and the first $1,000,000 of other real property, of a transferor in the case of a transfer between parents and their children, or between grandparents and their grandchildren if all the parents of those grandchildren are deceased, is not a "purchase" or "change in ownership" for purposes of determining the "full cash value" of property for taxation. This measure, beginning on and after April 1, 2021, would authorize an owner of a primary residence who is over 55 years of age, severely disabled, or a victim of a wildfire or natural disaster, as defined, to transfer the taxable value, defined as the base year value plus inflation adjustments, of their primary residence to a replacement primary residence located anywhere in the state, regardless of the location or value of the replacement primary residence, that is purchased or newly constructed as that person's principal residence within 2 years of the sale of the original primary residence. The measure would limit a person who is over 55 years of age or severely disabled to 3 transfers under these provisions. The measure, beginning on and after February 16, 2021, would exclude from the terms "purchase" and "change in ownership" for purposes of determining the "full cash value" of property the purchase or transfer of a family home or family farm, as those terms are defined, of the transferor in the case of a transfer between parents and their children, or between grandparents and their grandchildren if all the parents of those grandchildren are deceased. In the case of a transfer of a family home, the measure would require that the property continue as the family home of the transferee. The measure would require that the taxable value of the property be determined as provided. In the case of property tax benefits provided to a family home under these provisions, the bill would require the transferee to claim the homeowner's or disabled veteran's exemption within one year of the transfer. The measure would specify that the above-described provisions relating to transfers between parents or grandparents and children or grandchildren would apply to transfers occurring on or before February 15, 2021. The measure would establish the California Fire Response Fund in the State Treasury. The measure would require the Controller to annually transfer a specified amount, based on calculations by the Director of Finance, of the additional revenues and savings that accrued to the state from the implementation of this measure's provisions from the General Fund to that fund. However, the measure would provide that, if the amount required to be transferred to the California Fire Response Fund exceeds the amount transferred for the previous fiscal year by more than 10%, that excess amount would not be transferred to the California Fire Response Fund. The measure would require the Legislature to appropriate moneys in the fund solely for the purpose of funding fire suppression staffing by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and underfunded special districts that provide fire protection services, as provided. The measure would also establish the County Revenue Protection Fund and continuously appropriate moneys in that fund for the purpose of reimbursing eligible local agencies, as provided. The measure would require the Controller to annually transfer a specified amount, based on the above-described calculations by the Director of Finance, from the General Fund to that fund. The measure would require each county to annually determine the gain of the county and any local agency within the county resulting from the implementation of this measure and, if that amount of gain is negative, provide that specified eligible local agencies may receive a reimbursement from the County Revenue Protection Fund. The measure would require the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide a reimbursement to each eligible local agency that has a negative gain, determined every 3 years based on the aggregate gain of the eligible local agency, as provided, and require the Controller to transfer any remaining balance in the County Revenue Protection Fund to the General Fund at the end of each 3-year period, to be available for appropriation for any purpose.
This measure would proclaim March 2, 2020, to March 6, 2020, inclusive, as School Breakfast Week.
The Horse Racing Law authorizes a thoroughbred racing association or fair to distribute the audiovisual signal and accept wagers on the results of out-of-state thoroughbred races conducted in the United States during the calendar period the association or fair is conducting a race meeting, including days on which there is no live racing being conducted by the association or fair, without the consent of the organization that represents horsemen and horsewomen participating in the race meeting and without regard to the amount of purses. Under that law, the total number of thoroughbred races imported by associations or fairs on a statewide basis under these provisions are required to not exceed 50 per day on days when live thoroughbred or fair racing is being conducted in the state, with the exception of prescribed races. This bill would exempt from the 50 imported race per day limitation races imported that are part of the race card of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational.
(1) Existing law authorizes the California Horse Racing Board to approve an additional 15 minisatellite wagering sites in each zone under certain conditions, including that no site is within 20 miles of a racetrack, a satellite wagering facility, or a tribal casino that has a satellite wagering facility. Existing law provides that if the proposed facility is within 20 miles of one of the above-referenced satellite facilities, then the consent of each facility within a 20-mile radius must be given before the proposed facility may be approved by the board. Existing law provided that until January 1, 2013, if the proposed minisatellite wagering site is in the northern zone in a fair district where the fair has operated a satellite wagering facility for the previous 5 years, the approval of the fair must be obtained even if the proposed location is more than 20 miles from the existing satellite wagering facility operated by the fair. This bill would delete this obsolete provision. (2) Existing law also requires that the organization that will operate the minisatellite wagering facility execute a specified agreement approved by the board with the association conducting a racing meeting and the minisatellite wagering facility that specifies, among other things, the components of its racing program, including live, out-of-zone, out-of-state, and out-of-country races, that an association or fair will make available to the site. This bill would clarify that live also includes live in-state races as part of the organization's racing program.
The California Constitution prohibits various gaming activities within the state, including casino-style gambling, but authorizes the Governor, subject to ratification by the Legislature, to negotiate and conclude compacts for the operation of slot machines and the conduct of lottery games and banking and percentage card games by federally recognized Indian tribes on Indian lands in California in accordance with federal law. The California Constitution also authorizes the Legislature to provide for the regulation of horse racing, charitable bingo games, the California State Lottery, and charitable raffles. This measure would authorize regulated and taxed sports wagering, including online or mobile sports wagering, operated by horse race tracks and federally recognized Indian tribes, as specified. This measure would also authorize the Governor to negotiate and conclude compacts for sports wagering and for all banking and percentage games by federally recognized Indian tribes on Indian lands in California, which would include dice and roulette games. Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. This measure would incorporate into the California Constitution the authority of a licensed gambling establishment to offer games played onsite with cards or tiles in which participants wager against each other, including games in which a participant known as the player-dealer wagers against the other participants, and would clarify that games played in this manner at a licensed gambling establishment are not banking or percentage games.
This measure would declare the week of February 17 to February 21, 2020, inclusive, as California Fitness Week, and would encourage Californians to enrich their lives through proper nutrition and exercise.
This measure would proclaim February 20, 2020, as Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.