Asm. Linda Halderman

This measure would designate March 2012 as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

This measure would recognize the month of February 2012 as American Heart Month in California and recognize February 3, 2012, as Wear Red Day in California.

Existing law establishes the Medical Marijuana Program to exempt certain qualified patients who hold an identification card issued pursuant to the program, and the caregivers of those persons, from certain state criminal sanctions related to the possession, cultivation, transportation, processing, or use of limited amounts of marijuana, as specified. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would require the Department of Pesticide Regulation to develop guidelines to enforce state pesticide regulations on medical marijuana cultivation.

This resolution would recognize the month of January 2012, and each following January, as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and it would recognize February 1, 2012, and each following February 1, as California's Free From Slavery Day.

Existing law, applicable to residences originally sold on or after January 1, 2003, specifies the rights and requirements of a homeowner to bring an action for construction defects. Existing law also requires an association that manages a common interest development to follow a certain procedure when filing a claim for defects in the design or construction of the development, as specified. Existing law requires sellers of real property to disclose certain facts concerning the property. This bill would require an attorney who solicits or consults with a client or potential client for purposes of filing a residential construction defect action to provide certain written information to the client, including a description of a seller's duty to disclose certain facts concerning real property, as specified. The bill would specify that a failure to comply with this requirement constitutes cause for professional discipline.

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 July 1, 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. Existing law provides that money in the account shall be allocated for various public safety programs, as provided. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2011, and each July 1 thereafter for a transfer $500,000,000 from the General Fund to the account total of 5 years, as provided. By transferring funds to a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would authorize a credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2012, and before January 1, 2017, in an amount equal to 25% of the value of emergency medical services, as defined, personally provided by a physician and surgeon, as specified, during the taxable year. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

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 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.