(1) The California Constitution requires the Legislature to convene in regular biennial session at noon on the first Monday in December of each even-numbered year to consider legislation and the Budget Bill. This measure would require the Legislature to convene in regular biennial session, but would require, commencing on December 6, 2010, that the sessions held in odd-numbered years be budget sessions, and sessions held in even-numbered years be general sessions. The measure would require the Legislature in the budget session to adopt Budget Bills for each of the 2 subsequent fiscal years. The measure would require the Legislature, during a budget session, to meet only to conduct oversight and review of the revenues and expenditures of the state and to consider Budget Bills, budget implementation bills, as defined, and related revenue bills, except the Legislature could consider urgency statutes. (2) The California Constitution requires that a budget be submitted by the Governor, and that the Legislature pass a Budget Act on or before June 15. Funds may be expended from the State Treasury for support of the state government only through an appropriation made by the Legislature. This measure would require, in each odd-numbered calendar year, commencing in 2011, that the Governor submit to the Legislature 2 proposed budgets for the 2 subsequent fiscal years, respectively. (3) The California Constitution permits revenues from taxes imposed by the state on motor vehicle fuels and funds in the Public Transportation Account in the State Transportation Fund to be loaned to the General Fund. That loan is required to be repaid in full either during the same fiscal year in which the loan was made or within 3 fiscal years from the date on which the loan was made if specified conditions apply. If the loan is to be repaid in full during the same fiscal year, the repayment may be delayed until a date not more than 30 days after the date of enactment of the Budget Bill for the subsequent fiscal year. The measure would provide that the repayment may be delayed until a date not more than 30 days after the date of enactment of the Budget Bill for the subsequent fiscal year, or July 31 of that subsequent fiscal year, whichever is later.
Sponsored bills
Under the California Constitution, whenever the Legislature or a state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service on any local government, the state is required to provide a subvention of funds to reimburse the local government. With regard to a mandate imposed on a city, county, city and county, or special district, the Legislature is required either to appropriate, in the annual Budget Act, the full payable amount of the mandate, determined as specified, or to suspend the operation of the mandate for the fiscal year. The California Constitution provides that the Legislature is not required to appropriate funds for certain specified mandates. This measure would apply the existing requirement that the Legislature either appropriate the full payable amount of a mandate or suspend the mandate only through the 2010–11 fiscal year. The measure would instead prohibit the Legislature or a state agency from mandating a new program or higher level of service on any local government, except as specified, unless the local government is paid for the costs of that new program or higher level of service. The measure would require, on or after July 1, 2010, that if the Legislature adopts a statute that mandates a new program or higher level of service on any local government, the mandate would not become operative until the operative date of an appropriation, for that purpose, of funds to pay all affected local governments for the costs of the new program or higher level of service for the remainder of the fiscal year in which the mandate becomes operative. The measure would impose parallel requirements with regard to a regulation mandating a new program or higher level of service. On and after July 1, 2011, for a mandate that became operative in a prior fiscal year, the measure would render the mandate inoperative if the Legislature fails to fund the mandate in the current fiscal year. The measure would add, as an additional exemption from the mandates for which the Legislature is required to appropriate funds, a mandate for which the governing body of the local government has express statutory authority to impose a fee, assessment, or other charge that pays for the costs of the program or increased level of service and that is paid to the local government by the person or entity that is subject to, is regulated by, or otherwise benefits from, the new program or higher level of service. The measure would allow a local government to file an action in superior court if the Legislature or a state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service and the amount of the funds appropriated to the local government for that new program or higher level of service does not meet the costs of that new program or higher level of service. The measure would require the superior court to include, within an order upholding a challenge brought by the local government, an order setting the amount the court determines is reasonably necessary to pay the local government for the costs of the new program or higher level of service.
The Administrative Procedure Act generally sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. This bill would additionally require a state agency to review and report on regulations that it adopts or amends on and after January 1, 2011, 5 years after adoption, as specified. The bill would require that the review and report include 10 specified factors, including a summary of the written criticisms of the regulation received by the agency within the immediately preceding 5 years and the estimated economic, small business, and consumer impact of the regulation. The bill would require the Office of Administrative Law to make the review and report available on the office's Internet Web site.
This measure would recognize the week of April 18, 2010, through April 24, 2010, as Crime Victims' Rights Week.
Existing workers' compensation law generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment. Existing law authorizes a medical provider to file a lien claim with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board for certain expenses incurred by the provider. Existing law prohibits lien claims for expenses incurred by or on behalf of the injured employee, as provided, and, to the extent that the employee is entitled to reimbursement, as specified, for medical-legal expenses, from being filed after 6 months from the date on which the appeals board or workers' compensation administrative law judge issues a final decision, findings, order, or award on the merits of the claim, after 5 years from the date of the injury for which the services were provided, or after one year from the date the services were provided, whichever is later. This bill would require employers or employers' insurance carriers to include a benefit notice with any objection to a bill for medical services or an explanation of benefits that advises the provider of those services or benefits of the above-described deadline for filing lien claims and the consequences of failing to meet that deadline.
(1) Existing law authorizes various conservancies to acquire, manage, direct the management of, and conserve public lands in the state. Existing law requires the State Coastal Conservancy, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, to submit a report, at specified times, to the Legislature. This bill would require the California Tahoe Conservancy, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy, the San Joaquin River Conservancy, the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, the San Diego River Conservancy, and the Coachella Valley Mountain Conservancy to submit biennial reports to the Legislature and to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency detailing their funding, land management costs, administrative costs, and a description of, and the amount of money expended for, all projects funded by the conservancy, a project schedule, and progress toward achieving specified purposes, among other things. The bill would also conform the dates for submitting the reports to when the existing reports are required to be submitted by the State Coastal Conservancy, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. (2) Existing law requires the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to transmit to the Governor and the Legislature a 2-part report with specified information, including, among other things, information in the 2nd part of the report regarding the disposition of the funds appropriated to the conservancy in the fiscal year preceding the year in which the report was made. This bill would instead require the 2nd part of the report to include information regarding the disposition of the funds appropriated to the conservancy in the 2 fiscal years preceding the year in which the report was made, among other things, including, but not limited to, information on state and nonstate funding sources.
This measure would proclaim the month of May to be Women Veterans Recognition Month.
The Enterprise Zone Act provides for the designation of enterprise zones by the Department of Community Housing and Development, based on the department's approval of applications from a city, county, or city and county with a geographic area meeting certain criteria. Existing law provides that specified entities within a designated enterprise zone may receive regulatory, tax, and other incentives for private investment and employment. Existing law prohibits the existence of more than 42 enterprise zones at any one time. This bill would make nonsubstantive, technical changes in these provisions.
Existing law appropriated to the office of the Attorney General in the Department of Justice the sum of $9,176,000 from the General Fund to the special account within the Special Deposit Fund, to be known as the Lake Davis Northern Pike Eradication Project Relief Account, to pay specified claims. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision.
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 on every limited partnership, limited liability partnership, and limited liability company registered, qualified to transact business, or doing business in this state, as specified. This bill would, for the first 10 taxable years of a corporation, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, and limited liability company that is a small business, as defined, and that first commences business operations on or after January 1, 2011, and before January 1, 2016, reduce that minimum tax, as provided. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.