Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department, when an applicant for a general acute care hospital license meets the applicable requirements of licensure, to issue a single consolidated general acute care hospital license that includes more than one physical plant maintained and operated on separate premises or that has multiple licenses for a single health facility on the same premises, if any of certain criteria are met. One of these criteria is that the physical plants maintained and operated by the licensee that are to be covered by the single consolidated license are located not more than 15 miles apart. This bill would, until January 1, 2015, require the department to issue a single consolidated license to certain general acute care hospitals that include more than one physical plant maintained and operated on separate premises, if one of the physical plants is used as a freestanding emergency department that provides service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and other specified conditions are met. The bill would authorize the transfer of ownership of a freestanding emergency department if specified conditions are met. The bill would require, on or before May 1, 2014, the department to prepare and provide a report to the Legislature on the implementation of this bill and its effect upon the quality of emergency health care services provided to the community served by the freestanding emergency departments. It would also require the department to establish a committee to evaluate the quality and efficiency of services and improvement in patient access provided by freestanding emergency departments and provide a specified report to the Legislature and the Governor. Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, which governs local emergency medical service systems, establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) , which is responsible for the coordination and integration of all state agencies concerning emergency medical services. This bill would, until January 1, 2015, require the authority, in conjunction with the department and local emergency medical services (EMS) agencies, to develop and adopt triage criteria for the transportation of patients to freestanding emergency departments, as specified, and would require each local EMS agency to prepare and submit to the authority triage protocols to ensure that the use of a freestanding emergency department is in the best interests of patient care, consistent with the local plan. By increasing the duties of local officials, 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, 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.
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This measure would proclaim California as a Purple Heart State, honoring the service and sacrifices of our nation's men and women in uniform wounded or killed by the enemy while serving to protect the freedoms enjoyed by all Americans.
This measure would proclaim April 15 through April 22, 2012, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
Article XVI of the California Constitution requires a general obligation bond act to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds, and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and by a majority of the voters. Article XVI authorizes the Legislature, at any time after the approval of a general obligation bond act by the voters, to reduce the amount of the indebtedness authorized by the act to an amount not less than the amount contracted at the time of the reduction or to repeal the act if no debt has been contracted. Existing law, pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, statewide general election, provides for the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail and related rail purposes. Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority with specified powers and duties related to the development and implementation of a high-speed train system. This bill would provide that no further bonds shall be sold for high-speed rail and related rail purposes pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century. The bill would amend the bond act to authorize redirection of the net proceeds received from outstanding bonds issued and sold prior to the effective date of this act, upon appropriation by the Legislature, from those high-speed rail purposes to retiring the debt incurred from the issuance and sale of those outstanding bonds. This bill would provide that, pursuant to Article XVI of the California Constitution, these provisions shall become effective only upon approval by the voters at the next statewide general election. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) The Administrative Procedure Act governs the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. This bill would also require state agencies to submit these regulatory actions to the Joint Rules Committee of the Legislature, which would be authorized to submit a regulatory action to the appropriate policy committee in each house for review. The bill would authorize the policy committee to either make recommendations to the agency or to send the action to the floor of either house, which could reject the regulatory action by a resolution, as specified. (2) Existing law provides for the establishment of the California Travel and Tourism Commission as a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation, as specified. This bill would provide for the establishment of 6 regional innovation and job creation boards as nonprofit mutual benefit corporations, to perform certain functions, and would require the Lieutenant Governor to appoint 12 members to each board, as specified. The bill would require that the staff of each board be employees solely of the commission. (3) The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax 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. On and after January 1, 2013, this bill would exempt from those taxes the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, tangible personal property, as defined, purchased for use by a qualified person, as defined, primarily in any stage of manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of tangible personal property, as specified. (4) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit for certain research and development expenses, as provided. This bill would, for taxable years commencing on and after January 1, 2013, increase the credit for research and development expenses, as provided, and would require taxpayers utilizing these credits on or after that date to report specified information to the Franchise Tax Board. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013, allow a credit against those taxes for a qualified taxpayer, as defined, of 40% of the amount of a qualified contribution, as defined, made in that taxable year by a business entity to a postsecondary educational institution for curriculum or research leading to job opportunities in the private sector, or consultation services associated with the establishment of curriculum or research leading to job opportunities in the private sector, where the business entity and the postsecondary educational institution agree that there is a substantial potential for the future employment of students as a result of the contribution. (5) This bill would provide that the provisions of this bill are severable. (6) 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 into these laws. Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code provides that the state will reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill.
Existing law provides that a felony is a crime that is punishable by death, by imprisonment in the state prison, or notwithstanding any other provision of law, by imprisonment in a county jail for more than one year. Existing law provides generally that felonies are punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. Existing law provides exceptions to imprisonment in a county jail for a variety of felonies, including serious and violent felonies, as defined. Existing law makes it a felony to import into the state, or transport or distribute within the state, controlled substances, as defined, unless upon the prescription of a specified medical professional, including a physician or dentist. Existing law prescribes the punishment for a violation of these provisions as imprisonment in a county jail for a specified term. This bill would instead require imprisonment in the state prison for a violation of these provisions relating to controlled substances.
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practices Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber harvesting operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection pursuant to the act. Existing law authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from all or some of the requirements of the act a person engaged in certain limited forest management activities, including, until January 1, 2013, the harvesting of trees that eliminate the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns, for the purpose of reducing the rate of fire spread, duration and intensity, fuel ignitability, or ignition of tree crowns. This bill would extend that exemption until January 1, 2014.