Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the federal Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (state act) . The state act, with certain exceptions, imposes a mandatory minimum penalty of $3,000 for each serious waste discharge violation, as defined, and for certain other described violations if those violations occur 4 or more times in any period of 6 consecutive months. The state act authorizes the state board or a regional board, in lieu of assessing all or a portion of the mandatory minimum penalties against a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) that serves a small community, to elect to require that POTW to spend an equivalent amount toward the completion of a compliance project. The state act defines a POTW that serves a small community to mean, in pertinent part, a POTW serving a community of 10,000 persons or fewer or a rural county, as specified. This bill would expand that definition to include a POTW serving a community of 20,000 persons or fewer or a rural county, as specified.
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Existing law subjects violators of air pollution laws to specified civil and administrative penalties. Existing law imposes various duties on the State Air Resources Board relative to the reduction of air pollution. This bill would authorize the state board, in lieu of assessing penalties for a violation of an air pollution control law administered by the state board, to require a person who has violated that law to spend an amount equivalent to the amount that would have been assessed for the violation toward actions to comply with the air pollution control law that was violated or toward a supplemental environmental project, as defined.
Existing law requires the owner or operator of an underground petroleum storage tank, or other responsible party, to pay a specified maintenance fee for each gallon of petroleum placed in an underground storage tank that he or she owns, and to take corrective action, as defined, in response to an unauthorized release of petroleum from the tank. Existing law, the Underground Storage Tank Maintenance Fee Law, requires that the State Board of Equalization administer and collect those underground storage tank fees and prescribes procedures for the administration and collection of those fees. Existing law authorizes the board, if it is dissatisfied with a specified report file or the amount of fee paid to the board under those provisions, or if no report has been filed or no payment or payments of fees have been made to the state by any fee payer, to compute and determine the amount of fees to be paid, based on any information available to it. In the case of the failure to make a related report or return, existing law requires every notice of determination of an amount due to be given within 8 years after the date that the report or return was due. This bill would allow the board, if the board finds that a person failed to make a report or return because he or she was a qualified absentee owner of an underground storage tank, to reduce the period of liability for those fees from more than 12 quarters of liability within an 8-year period to 3 years, unless the board had contact with the owner, as specified. The bill would define the term "qualified absentee owner" for purposes of those provisions.
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.
Existing law, generally, imposes a minimum franchise tax of $800, except as provided, on every corporation incorporated in this state, qualified to transact intrastate business in this state, or doing business in this state, and an annual tax in an amount equal to the minimum franchise tax on every limited liability company registered, qualified to transact business, or doing business in this state, as specified. Existing law requires every limited liability company subject to that annual tax to pay annually to this state a fee equal to specified amounts based upon total income from all sources reportable to this state. This bill would repeal that fee. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law requires an employer engaged in the business of car washing and polishing to register annually with the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations. An employer who fails to register or renew his or her registration is subject to a specified civil fine. This bill would permit the Labor Commissioner to increase or decrease the amount of the civil fine, up to a specified maximum, if the failure to register was knowing or intentional and there are additional wage violations by the employer.
Existing law, 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. Existing law requires the Department of Finance to adopt and update, as necessary, instructions for inclusion in the State Administrative Manual that prescribe the methods that any agency shall use in making certain determinations relating to the impact of proposed regulations. Existing law also authorizes the department to review any estimate prepared pursuant to these provisions for content. This bill would additionally require the department to adopt and update instructions for inclusion in the State Administrative Manual that prescribe the methods that any agency shall use in making certain determinations, estimates, statements, and findings relating to the economic and cost impacts of a regulation on businesses and private individuals. The bill would require, instead of authorize, the department to review these determinations, estimates, statements, and findings for content. This bill would require the department, if it determines that an agency's determinations, estimates, statements, or findings are erroneous or otherwise inconsistent with the prescribed guidelines, criteria, or formats, to submit its determinations to the agency in the form of public comment to be considered by the agency, as specified.
Existing law, the Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various manufacturers, sellers, upholsterers, and sanitizers of home furnishings, such as furniture and bedding. The act is enforced by the Chief of the Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings, and Thermal Insulation. Existing law authorizes the chief or any inspector to open any article of upholstered furniture or bedding for the purpose of inspection and to take any part for analysis. Existing law also authorizes the bureau to condemn, withhold from sale, seize, or destroy any upholstered furniture or bedding or any filling material or insulation that is found to be in violation of the act. This bill would delete the provisions authorizing the chief or any inspector to take articles of upholstered furniture or bedding, or parts thereof, for the purposes of analysis and would instead authorize the bureau to purchase any article of upholstered furniture or bedding as may be necessary for analysis, as specified. The bill would require the bureau to adopt regulations to implement these provisions.
Existing law provides for the establishment of prisons for the confinement of males who have been convicted of a felony and are under the custody of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The primary purposes of prisons are to provide custody, care, industrial, vocational, and other training to persons confined therein. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.
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.