The California Constitution establishes the Fish and Game Commission and provides for the delegation to the commission of powers relating to the protection and propagation of fish and game. Existing statutory law delegates to the commission the power to regulate the taking or possession of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, and reptiles in accordance with prescribed laws. Existing law excepts from that statutory delegation the power to regulate the taking, possessing, processing, or use of fish, amphibia, kelp, or other aquatic plants for commercial purposes. This bill would also except from that statutory delegation the power to impose an absolute, statewide, and permanent prohibition on hunting or taking game. The bill would not prohibit the commission, in accordance with the California Constitution, from imposing conditions necessary for the protection and propagation of game. Existing law establishes the Department of Fish and Game in the Natural Resources Agency, and generally charges the department with the administration and enforcement of the Fish and Game Code. Existing law requires the commission to formulate general policies for the conduct of the department. Existing law requires the Director of Fish and Game to be guided by those policies and requires the director to be responsible to the commission for the administration of the department in accordance with those policies. This bill would prohibit the policies of the department from including an absolute, statewide, and permanent prohibition on hunting or taking game.
Sponsored bills
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes taxes on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. That law provides various exemptions from those taxes. This bill would, until January 1, 2017, exempt from those taxes the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, specified tangible personal property purchased by a biomass energy facility, as defined, to be used primarily for the production of electrical energy from biomass materials, as defined, and to maintain and repair that property. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing law authorizes districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Exemptions from state sales and use taxes are incorporated in these laws. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes, transactions and use taxes, and state taxes from which revenues are deposited into the Local Public Safety Fund, the Local Revenue Fund, or the Fiscal Recovery Fund. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.
Existing property tax law requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenues to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, and generally requires that each jurisdiction be allocated an amount equal to the total of the amount of revenue allocated to that jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, subject to certain modifications, and that jurisdiction's portion of the annual tax increment, as defined. Existing law requires, for purposes of property tax revenue allocations for the 2011–12 and 2012–13 fiscal years, the county auditor for a county for which a negative sum was calculated pursuant to a specified former statute, in reducing the amount of property tax revenue otherwise allocated to the county by an amount attributable to that negative sum, to apply a reduction amount equal to the reduction amount determined for specified fiscal years. This bill would instead require, for the 2010–11 fiscal year, the county auditor for a county for which a negative sum was calculated as described above, to increase the total amount of ad valorem property tax revenues deemed allocated to the county in the immediately preceding fiscal year by an amount equal to the absolute value of the negative sum calculated for the county, and the proportional share of any growth in assessed valuations of property attributable to that negative sum through the 2009–10 fiscal year. This bill would also require, for the 2011–12 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, the amount of property tax revenue deemed allocated to a county in the immediately preceding fiscal year include the full amount of any increase implemented by the auditor, as so described, in that fiscal year, and would require that amount to be reduced from the total amount of ad valorem property tax revenue deemed allocated to the county's Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund. By imposing new duties in the annual allocation of ad valorem property tax revenues, 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, 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 these statutory provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is responsible for administering various programs and services for the benefit of veterans. This bill would appropriate the sum of $7,300,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide for specified veterans' services.
Existing law establishes the California Nursery Producers Commission to develop and manage a research, public education, and marketing program to benefit the state's nursery industry. Among other things, these provisions, subject to an implementation referendum vote by nursery producers, authorize the commission to impose specified assessments on nursery producers to defray operating costs of the commission. These assessments are determined pursuant to a specified formula based on gross sales of nursery products, as defined. Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to issue marketing orders to regulate the marketing of commodities. Existing law requires that any marketing order provide for the establishment of an advisory board to assist the secretary in the administration of the marketing order. Pursuant to that authority, the Department of Food and Agriculture has established the California Citrus Nursery Board and imposes an annual assessment on the invoiced sales price of citrus trees to defray expenditures of the board. Existing law also imposes an annual assessment of 1% on the gross sales of all deciduous pome and stone fruit trees, nut trees, and grapevines produced and sold within the state or produced within and shipped from the state by any licensed nursery dealer. This bill would exempt from the provisions relating to the California Nursery Producers Commission crops that are subject to assessments imposed upon gross sales of fruit trees, nut trees, and grapevines by licensed nursery dealers, as described above, or imposed for the support of the California Citrus Nursery Board.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various healing arts professions and vocations, including, but not limited to, marriage and family therapists, licensed educational psychologists, social workers, and licensed professional clinical counselors by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2015, prohibit a person from holding himself or herself out to be a behavior analyst or an assistant behavior analyst unless licensed by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. The bill would require the board to issue a license to a person who meets certain educational requirements and passes an examination administered by the board, the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, or another comparable accredited entity approved by the board, as specified, and is certified by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, a nonprofit corporation, or another comparable accredited entity approved by the board, as specified, and submits an application and pays fees established by the board. The bill would specify that a license shall expire no later than 24 months after its date of issue, as specified, and is subject to renewal upon the completion of various requirements, including the payment of a renewal fee and the completion of continuing education hours. The bill would describe the services that may be provided by a licensed behavior analyst and a licensed assistant behavior analyst, subject to specified supervision. The bill would authorize the board to regulate these licensees and to enforce these provisions.
Existing law establishes in the California Environmental Protection Agency the State Air Resources Board, which is responsible for control of emissions from motor vehicles and is designated the air pollution control agency for all purposes set forth in federal law. Existing law requires the state board to identify toxic air contaminants that are emitted into the ambient air of the state, and requires the state board to designate those substances listed as hazardous air pollutants pursuant to federal law. Existing law requires the state board, not later than December 31, 1989, to identify each air basin, or subregion thereof, in which transported air pollutants from upwind areas outside the air basin, or subregion thereof, cause or contribute to a violation of the state ambient air quality standard for ozone, and to identify the district of origin of the transported air pollutants based upon the preponderance of available evidence. Existing law requires the state board, in cooperation with the districts, to assess the relative contribution of upwind emissions to downwind ozone ambient air pollutant levels to the extent permitted by available data, and to establish mitigation requirements commensurate with the level of contribution. This bill would require the state board to identify each air basin, or subregion of an air basin, in which transported air pollutants from upwind areas outside the air basin, or subregion of an air basin, cause or contribute to a violation of a state or federal ambient air quality standard in a downwind district, and to identify the district of origin of the transported air pollutants. The bill would require the state board to assess the relative contribution of upwind emissions to downwind ambient air pollutant levels to the extent permitted by available data, and to establish cost reimbursement for a downwind district commensurate with the level of contribution by the district of origin, including, but not limited to, cost reimbursement for mitigation and any state or federal fine imposed on a downwind district for a violation of state or federal ambient air quality standards.
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, operative until June 30, 2011, also imposes an additional tax to the vehicle license fee equal to 0.15% of the market value of specified vehicles, as determined by the Department of Motor Vehicles, to be deposited in the General Fund and transferred to the Local Safety and Protection Account, a continuously appropriated fund. This bill would appropriate $506,400,000 from the General Fund to be deposited in the Local Safety and Protection Account, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
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 it 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 confers standing on a person satisfying specified requirements to file and maintain an action or proceeding alleging that an EIR was not prepared and certified in compliance with CEQA. This bill would enact the Jobs and Housing Act of 2011 and would limit the standing to file and maintain the above action or proceeding to the Attorney General. The bill would apply this limitation to those actions or proceedings that are pending as of January 1, 2012, and for which a final nonappealable judgment has not been entered before that date.
Existing law establishes various policies of the state relative to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This bill would make legislative findings relative to the importance of dredging in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and would require the State Water Resources Control Board to provide priority review for dredging permits in the Delta.