The California Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) , among other things, establishes new retirement formulas, which are generally applicable to employees first employed on or after January 1, 2013, and which a public employer offering a defined benefit pension plan is prohibited from exceeding. PEPRA excepts certain public employees from its provisions, including certain transit workers whose interests are protected by specified federal law until a federal district court ruled that a United States Department of Labor determination that the application of PEPRA to these workers violated federal law was in error, or until January 1, 2016, as specified. A district court ruling to this effect occurred on December 31, 2014. This bill would except transit workers hired before January 1, 2016, from PEPRA by removing the federal district court contingency language from the provision excepting certain transit workers from PEPRA, as described above.
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Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health, which, among other things, administers various programs to prevent disease and promote health. Existing law also regulates certain advertising and promotion practices related to specific products, including by prohibiting the nonsale distribution of smokeless tobacco or cigarettes in designated places and the giving away of premiums, gifts, or free goods in connection with the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages, except as specified. This bill would regulate promotion and marketing activities related to sugar-sweetened beverages, as defined, by prohibiting a beverage company, as defined, manufacturer, or distributor, as defined, from giving or offering incentives or other financial support to compensate distributors or retailers for the cost of promotional offers, coupons, or other incentives offered to consumers for branded products of the beverage company. The bill would exempt from that prohibition contracts between a beverage company, manufacturer, or distributor and a theme or amusement park, zoo, other attraction, or professional sports stadium that include nonfood promotions. The bill would authorize local governments and the Attorney General to impose civil penalties for a violation of the prohibition, as specified. The bill would state that these provisions do not preempt or prohibit the adoption and implementation of local ordinances related to promotional and marketing activities for sugar-sweetened beverages that are not inconsistent with these requirements, including ordinances that impose additional or more restrictive requirements on those activities.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, and additionally amended by statute, imposes duties on the Bureau of Cannabis Control in the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the State Department of Public Health with respect to the creation, issuance, denial, suspension and revocation of commercial cannabis licenses, and imposes an excise tax commencing January 1, 2018, on the purchase of cannabis and cannabis products at the rate of 15% of the average market price of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer. Commencing January 1, 2018, AUMA also imposes a cultivation tax upon all cultivators on all harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market, at specified rates per dry-weight ounce of cannabis flowers and leaves. Existing law requires the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to administer those taxes, and requires the revenues from those taxes to be deposited into the California Cannabis Tax Fund and to be continuously appropriated for specified purposes pursuant to a specified schedule. AUMA requires the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2020, with recommendations for adjustments to the tax rate to achieve the goals of undercutting illicit market prices and discouraging use by persons younger than 21 years of age while ensuring sufficient revenues are generated for specified programs. AUMA authorizes the Legislature to amend its provisions with a 23 vote of both houses to further its purposes and intent. This bill would reduce that excise tax rate to 11% on and after the operative date of this bill until July 1, 2022, at which time the excise tax rate would revert back to 15%. The bill would suspend the imposition of the cultivation tax on and after the operative date of this bill until July 1, 2022. The bill would require the bureau, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide the Legislature with reports measuring the success of this bill, as specified. This bill would make specified findings and declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the AUMA. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law prohibits an electrical corporation from recovering from ratepayers any annual salary, bonus, benefits, or other consideration of any value paid to an officer of the electrical corporation, and requires that compensation to instead be funded solely by shareholders of the electrical corporation. Existing law authorizes the commission, upon application by an electrical corporation and in specified circumstances, to issue financing orders to support the issuance of recovery bonds to finance costs in excess of insurance proceeds incurred, or that are expected to be incurred, by an electrical corporation, excluding fines and penalties, related to wildfires. This bill would condition electrical corporation recovery from its ratepayers of the costs incurred due to the liability of the electrical corporation for damages to third parties from a wildfire or any other safety-related failure, if those costs are not determined by the commission to be just and reasonable, on the negotiation of an executive compensation structure that meets prescribed principles. The bill would require the Governor to appoint a special master for executive compensation to engage in this negotiation with the electrical corporation and its executive officers. The bill would require the special master to submit to the commission for approval the executive compensation structure. The bill would require the commission to approve the executive compensation structure, contemporaneous with the approval of recovery of those costs from the electrical corporation's ratepayers, if it determines that the executive compensation structure meets those specified principles. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of the approved executive compensation structure would be a violation of an order or decision of the commission, which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.
This measure would name the public street, circle, and plaza at 914 and 915 Capitol Mall in the City of Sacramento as the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Circle and Plaza. The measure would request the Department of General Services to determine the cost of erecting the appropriate signage commemorating this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources, to cover that cost to erect that signage.
(1) Existing law, the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, requires every beverage container sold or offered for sale in this state to have a minimum refund value. Under the act, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery is required to calculate a processing fee for each beverage container with a specified scrap value, which is required to be paid by beverage manufacturers for each beverage container sold or transferred to a distributor or dealer. The department is required to calculate the processing fee in a specified manner so that the actual processing fee generally equals 65% of the processing payment that the department is required to pay to processors if the scrap value of the container having a refund value pursuant to the act is less than the cost of recycling. Existing law provides that a violation of the act or a regulation adopted pursuant to the act is a crime. This bill, on and after January 1, 2021, would require the total number of plastic beverage containers filled with a beverage by a beverage manufacturer, as specified, to contain, on average, specified amounts of postconsumer recycled plastic content per year pursuant to a tiered plan that would require the total number of plastic beverage containers to contain, on average, no less than 50% postconsumer recycled plastic content per year on and after January 1, 2030, except as specified. The bill would impose civil penalties, in specified amounts, on a beverage manufacturer for a violation of these requirements, except as specified. The bill would authorize the department to enforce these provisions and would authorize the department to conduct audits and investigations of a beverage manufacturer for the purpose of ensuring compliance. The bill would exempt from the California Public Records Act information resulting from those audits and investigations. The bill would require penalties collected to be deposited in the Recycling Enhancement Penalty Account, which the bill would create. The bill would require moneys in the Recycling Enhancement Penalty Account to be expended upon appropriation for the sole purpose of supporting the recycling, infrastructure, collection, and processing of plastic beverage containers in this state. The bill would require the department to contract with a research university for a specified study and would authorize the department to allocate moneys from the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, upon appropriation, for the study. The bill would require the study to be completed by May 1, 2025. The bill would prohibit a city, county, or other local government jurisdiction from adopting an ordinance regulating the minimum recycled plastic content requirements for plastic beverage containers. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The act requires the department to pay a market development payment to a reclaimer, as defined, for empty plastic beverage containers that have been collected for recycling in the state, and that the reclaimer washes and processes into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is then usable as input for the manufacture of new plastic products, as defined, by product manufacturers in the state. The act also requires the department to pay a market development payment to a product manufacturer, as defined, for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer and used by that product manufacturer to manufacture a plastic product in the state. The act makes these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2022. This bill, for when the department is determining which entity to make a market development payment to, would require the department to prioritize allocations that increase the collection, production, procurement, and usage of beverage-grade recycling plastic in beverage containers, as specified. (3) Existing law requires a manufacturer of a beverage sold in a plastic beverage container subject to the California Redemption Value, as specified, to annually report to the department the amount of virgin plastic and postconsumer recycled plastic used by the manufacturer for plastic beverage containers subject to the California Redemption Value for sale in the state in the previous calendar year. This bill would require, beginning March 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, a plastic material reclaimer to report to the department, under penalty of perjury, the number of empty plastic beverage containers, as specified, that the plastic material reclaimer has collected and sold in the previous calendar year. The bill also would require, beginning March 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, a manufacturer of postconsumer recycled plastic to report to the department, under penalty of perjury, the amount in pounds of "food-grade" flake, pellet, sheet, fines, or other forms that were sold in the previous calendar year and their capacity to produce "food-grade" material, as specified. By requiring that the information be submitted under penalty of perjury, this bill would expand the crime of perjury and impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department to post on its internet website, beginning July 1, 2020, a specified summary annually, and, beginning September 1, 2020, a specified analysis biennially. (4) Existing law requires all rigid plastic bottles and rigid plastic containers sold in the state to be labeled with a code indicating the resin used to produce the rigid plastic bottle or rigid plastic container. This bill would specify that the above labeling requirement does not apply to rigid plastic containers or rigid plastic bottles that are medical devices, medical products that are required to be sterile, prescription medicine, and packaging used for those products. (5) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 dissolved redevelopment agencies and community development agencies as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation of successor agencies that are required to wind down the affairs of the dissolved redevelopment agencies. Existing law requires the Department of Finance to issue a finding of completion to a successor agency upon confirmation by the county auditor-controller that specified payments have been fully made by the successor agency. Existing law requires any successor agency that has been issued a finding of completion to use bond proceeds derived from bonds issued on or after January 1, 2011, in excess of the amounts needed to satisfy approved enforceable obligations, in a manner consistent with the original bond covenants, subject to certain requirements, including a requirement that no more than 5% of the proceeds derived from the bonds be expended, unless the successor agency has an approved Last and Final Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule, in which case the agency is authorized to expend no more than 20% of the proceeds derived from the bonds, subject to specified adjustments. Existing law requires remaining bond proceeds that cannot be spent pursuant to those requirements to be used at the earliest possible date to defease the bonds or to purchase those same outstanding bonds on the open market for cancellation. This bill, notwithstanding the requirement that the remaining bond proceeds be used to defease the bonds or to purchase those same outstanding bonds on the open market for cancellation, would authorize the City of Santa Cruz to use the remaining bond proceeds for the purposes of increasing, improving, and preserving affordable housing, as defined, and facilities for homeless persons, so long as those proceeds are used in a manner consistent with any original bond covenant. The bill would authorize the use of up to 10% of these bond proceeds for affordable housing for persons and families of moderate income, as defined, and require that the remainder be expended in accordance with specified provisions regarding the use of housing funds of a former redevelopment agency. The bill, if the City of Santa Cruz uses the remaining bond proceeds for these purposes, would require the Last and Final Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule to be adjusted to allow for the allocation of revenues from the Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund to the Santa Cruz Successor Agency for purposes of paying the remaining principal and interest on the bonds. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 34191.4 of the Health and Safety Code made by SB 532 that would become operative if both this bill and SB 532 are enacted and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Santa Cruz.
This measure would recognize September 2020 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month and encourage the Legislature to appropriate funds for research, treatment, and monitoring of sickle cell disease, and for related education and outreach.