Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to administer various grant programs, including a program to provide incentives for liquid fuels fermented from biomass and biomass-derived resources. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms to achieve its goals. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would require the commission to develop and implement the Biosolids to Clean Energy Grant Program to provide 50% matching funds to local wastewater agencies for biosolids to clean energy capital projects. Beginning with the 2016–17 fiscal year, the bill would continuously appropriate $20,000,000 annually from the fund to the commission for purposes of the program.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to provide for the transportation of pupils to and from school whenever in the judgment of the board the transportation is advisable and good reasons exist to do so. This bill would entitle a pupil who attends a public, noncharter school that receives Title 1 federal funding to free transportation to and from school if certain conditions are met. The bill would require a school district not currently providing transportation to all pupils attending schools that receive Title 1 federal funding to implement a plan developed, in consultation with specified stakeholders, to ensure that all pupils entitled to free transportation receive the transportation. The bill would authorize school districts to contract with a municipally owned transit system to transport pupils if certain conditions are met. By imposing new duties on a local educational agency, the bill would constitute a state-mandated local program. This bill would create the Transportation and Access to Public School Fund and require the Superintendent of Public Instruction, upon appropriation to this fund by the Legislature, to allocate moneys from this fund to school districts, county offices of education, entities providing services under a school transportation joint powers agreement, or regional occupational centers or programs that provide pupil transportation an amount equal to the actual costs of the entitled transportation pursuant to this bill. The bill would provide that these provisions shall become operative only to the extent that funding is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute. 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.
Existing law, the After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002, enacted by initiative statute, establishes the After School Education and Safety Program to serve pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 9, inclusive, at participating public elementary, middle, junior high, and charter schools. The existing act provides that each school establishing a program pursuant to the act is eligible to receive a renewable 3-year grant for before or after school programs, as provided, and a grant for operating a program beyond 180 regular schooldays or during summer, weekend, intersession, or vacation periods, as provided, and specifies the maximum grant amount and related amounts for each of these grants. The existing act provides a formula for determining an amount to be continuously appropriated from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of the program and authorizes the Legislature to appropriate additional funds for purposes of the program. For the 2016–17 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, this bill would continuously appropriate $73,260,000 more to the State Department of Education for purposes of the program. The bill would, commencing with the 2017–18 fiscal year, require the Department of Finance to annually adjust that amount using a specified calculation, provided that adjustment does not result in a reduction. The bill would require the State Department of Education to adjust the maximum grant amounts and related amounts in accordance with the amount provided in the Budget Act for the 2016–17 fiscal year. The bill would, commencing with the 2017–18 fiscal year, require the State Department of Education to annually adjust those amounts to reflect the percentage change in the California Consumer Price Index, provided that adjustment does not result in a reduction. The bill also would provide that funds appropriated by the bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
This measure would commend Muslim Americans for their economic, political, and cultural impact on California and the United States. This measure would call upon Members of the United States Congress to respect the First Amendment, and to speak out against and reject efforts to monitor mosques, efforts to police and profile Muslim Americans, and efforts to prohibit Muslims from immigrating to the United States, and to speak out against and reject any efforts to pursue an immigration policy based on religion.
This measure would declare the month of April 2016 as Financial Aid and Literacy Month, with the theme of "Prosperity Through Education," to raise public awareness about the continuing need for increased financial literacy.
This measure would recognize May 2016 as National Mental Health Awareness Month in California to enhance public awareness of mental illness.
The measure would urge the Members of Congress to work to recognize Mexican American families' needs to visit family members in Mexico and increase commerce between our nations by reducing border delays through a more open border and to speak out against and to reject efforts to build a wall along the United States-Mexico border.
This measure would recognize Nowrūz, the Persian New Year celebration.