Asm. Juan Alanis

The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit for qualified renters in the amount of $120 for spouses filing joint returns, heads of household, and surviving spouses if adjusted gross income is $50,000, as adjusted, or less, and in the amount of $60 for other individuals if adjusted gross income is $25,000, as adjusted, or less. Existing law requires the Franchise Tax Board to annually adjust for inflation these adjusted gross income amounts. For 2021, the adjusted gross income limit is $87,066 and $43,533, respectively. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account in the General Fund and provides that payments required to be made to taxpayers or other persons from the Personal Income Tax Fund are to be paid from that account. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1 of the taxable year that includes the date on which funding is first authorized for purposes of this bill and for the succeeding 4 taxable years, and only when specified in a bill relating to the Budget Act, would increase the credit amount to $2,000 for spouses filing joint returns, heads of households, and surviving spouses and $1,000 for other individuals. In the event the increased credit amount is not specified in a bill relating to the Budget Act, the existing credit amounts, as described above, would be the credit amounts for that taxable year. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to annually recompute the credit amounts for inflation for taxable years following the first year in which the increased credit is operative, except as provided. The bill, for credits allowable for taxable years in which the above-described increased credit is operative, would provide that the credit amount in excess of the qualified renter's liability would be refundable and paid from the Tax Relief and Refund Account to the qualified renter upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax credit to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill would provide findings and declarations relating to the goals, purposes, and objectives of this credit. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services, which is required to, among other things, allocate and award funds to communities developing and providing ongoing citizen involvement and crime resistance programs. This bill would require the office, to the extent funds are available for this purpose and until January 1, 2028, to allocate and award funds to up to 11 district attorney offices that employ a vertical prosecution methodology for the prosecution of human trafficking crimes and that meet other specified criteria, including minimum staffing levels for the program. The bill would require the office, on or before January 1, 2026, to submit to the Legislature and the Governor's office a report that describes the counties that received funding pursuant to this program, the number of prosecutions for human trafficking cases filed by the counties receiving funding, the number of human trafficking convictions obtained by those counties, and the sentences imposed for human trafficking crimes in those counties. The bill would be operative only to the extent that funding is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute for the purposes of the bill.

Existing law finds and declares that voluntary water transfers between water users can result in a more efficient use of water, benefiting both the buyer and the seller. Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to implement the various state laws that pertain to water transfers and to prepare a water transfer guide that includes, among other things, a review of existing and appropriate state and federal laws that pertain to water transfers, water markets, or water rights. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2025, the Legislative Analyst, in collaboration with the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, and other state agencies, as described, to prepare and submit to the Legislature a report analyzing the water market, including background information regarding the sale of water and water rights, trends in the water market, barriers to entering the water market or effectively trading in the market, and proposals for improving the regulatory framework to make the water market more market friendly and to encourage growth.

Existing law establishes the California Cadet Corps and requires the Adjutant General to fulfill specified responsibilities in overseeing the corps, including providing suitable training regulations and providing for the recreation of cadets. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

Existing law makes it a crime for a person, while operating a motor vehicle with the intent to evade, to willfully flee or otherwise attempt to evade a pursuing peace officer's motor vehicle or bicycle if specified conditions exist. Existing law makes it a crime to drive a vehicle upon a highway in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property. Existing law authorizes a magistrate to issue a warrant or order authorizing a peace officer to immediately seize and cause the removal of a vehicle if presented with a peace officer's affidavit establishing reasonable cause to believe that the vehicle was an instrumentality used in the peace officer's presence in violation of an offense described above. Existing law makes it a crime for a person to engage in a motor vehicle speed contest or a motor vehicle exhibition of speed, as specified. This bill would include this crime in the list of offenses for which a peace officer may impound a vehicle pursuant to a warrant or order issued by a magistrate. The bill would additionally allow a peace officer to submit an affidavit establishing reasonable cause that the violation occurred if they viewed or captured the violation using video surveillance that is under the sole control of a law enforcement agency.

Existing law directs the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to establish training and guidelines for law enforcement officers, as defined, in the handling of domestic violence complaints, such as how to respond to domestic violence incidents, the legal duties imposed on law enforcement officers to make arrests and offer assistance, and techniques to promote the safety of the victim, as specified. Existing law requires law enforcement agencies to develop and implement written policies for officer responses to domestic violence incidents, including furnishing written notice to victims at the scene in the form of a Victims of Domestic Violence card that contains, among other information, telephone numbers for local hotlines, shelters, and counseling centers. This bill would add the issuance of Victims of Domestic Violence cards as a topic in the course of instruction for the training of law enforcement officers. This bill would additionally require the Victims of Domestic Violence card to be a different color than other cards issued by officers, to include a disclaimer, to be available in languages other than English, and to include various information such as the definition of domestic violence and the statute of limitations for domestic violence. This bill would make these changes operative on January 1, 2025. Because this bill would expand an existing local program, it would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services and makes it responsible for providing assistance such as financial, technical, and educational support, as specified, on the topic of domestic violence to local entities including domestic violence support centers and law enforcement. This bill, commencing January 1, 2025, would require the office to develop a model Victims of Domestic Violence card that can be modified by cities and counties. The bill would also require the office to publish on an internet website maintained by the office specified information and resources to assist victims of domestic violence, including, among other things, a summary of state mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence crimes. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law provides that all property has an owner, whether that owner is the state, and the property is public, or the owner is an individual, and the property is private. Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, establishes the Office of Emergency Services, which is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or man-made disasters and emergencies, among other duties. This bill would prohibit a foreign government from purchasing, acquiring, leasing, or holding a controlling interest, as defined, in agricultural land within the State of California. The bill would exempt land held by foreign governments before January 1, 2024, from that prohibition. The bill would provide that land transferred in violation of these provisions would be subject to divestiture, as specified. Existing federal law requires any foreign person, defined to include foreign governments, who acquires or transfers any interest, other than a security interest, in agricultural land to submit to the United States Secretary of Agriculture a report containing specified information relating to, among other things, the type of interest the foreign person acquired or transferred and their legal name, address, and citizenship or country in which they are created or organized. Existing federal law requires the secretary every 6 months to transmit to each state department of agriculture a copy of each report that was submitted to the secretary in the most recent 6-month period and that involved agricultural land located in that state. This bill would require the Office of Emergency Services, in consultation with the appropriate boards or departments and based on the above-described reports from the United States Secretary of Agriculture, and other information the office deems appropriate, to compile an annual report containing, among other information, the total amount of agricultural land that is under foreign ownership, how that land is currently being put to use, and any legislative, regulatory, or administrative policy recommendations in light of the information from the annual report. The bill would require the office to publish the inaugural annual report on its website by December 31, 2024, and by March 31 every year thereafter. The bill would require the office to deliver copies of any recommendations for legislative policy changes contained in the report to the Governor and the Assembly and Senate Committees on Agriculture. The bill would require the office to be reimbursed for costs incurred for compiling data, printing, and mailing the report, as specified. The bill would make its provisions operative upon appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. That law, in modified conformity to federal income tax law, authorizes a credit for household and dependent care expenses necessary for gainful employment, as provided. This bill would allow a credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2025, and before January 1, 2030, in an amount equal to childcare costs, as defined, paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer in this state. The bill would limit the total credit for each taxable year, as specified. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure, as defined, to include tax credits, to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include findings and reporting requirements in compliance with this requirement. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021 authorizes the Governor, until January 1, 2024, to certify environmental leadership development projects that meet specified requirements for certain streamlining benefits related to CEQA. The act, among other things, requires a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings for an environmental leadership development project, as provided, and to include a specified notice in the draft EIR and final EIR. The act is repealed by its own term on January 1, 2026. This bill would extend the application of the act to water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects that provide public benefits and drought preparedness. The bill would authorize the Governor, until January 1, 2025, to certify water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects as environmental leadership development projects. The bill would make other conforming changes. Because a lead agency would be required to prepare the record of proceedings for water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects pursuant to the act, 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.

Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for a person to publish personal account information, as specified, with the intent to avoid payment of a lawful charge, or with intent to defraud or aid another in defrauding, on specified means of communication, including by writing, telephone, television, or a computer network. This bill would expand that crime to include publication on a social media platform or a public or semipublic internet-based service or application. By expanding the scope of a crime, the 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.