(1) Existing law establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Natural Resources Agency. Existing law provides that a thriving in-state forest products sector provides public benefits, including employment opportunities in both rural and urban areas, and economic development for rural communities. This bill would require the department to develop the California Wood Innovations Small Grants Program to provide grants and low-interest loans or loan guarantees, upon appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, to entities that expand the use of wood products and increase in-state wood product processing and manufacturing for projects to improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as provided. (2) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms in regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as "GO-Biz," in state government within the Governor's office. Existing law requires GO-Biz to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. This bill would provide that up to $20,000,000 may be available, upon appropriation, to GO-Biz for purposes of providing grants, loans, and loan guarantees for projects, approved by the department and the State Air Resources Board, that add capacity for the in-state processing and production of wood products from forest and vegetation management activities that are intended to reduce the risk and intensity of wildfires.
Sponsored bills
Existing provisions of the California Constitution provide that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and require that the university be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. These provisions require that corporation to have all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of its trust. This bill would request the regents to establish the California Institute for Water Innovation and Technology in order to achieve specified goals, including developing California's next generation of water professionals and technicians and growing the state's economy by creating new opportunities for jobs in water research, management, and technology. The bill would request the regents to locate the institute at a satellite campus within the City of Oroville, or in the County of Butte downstream of Lake Oroville. The bill would provide that if the regents act on this request to establish the institute within that location, the regents will post a notice of that decision on its Internet Web site, and submit that notice to the Legislature for publication in the daily journals of both houses. The Corporation Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including allowing a hiring credit for taxpayers within the specified areas. This bill would, for five consecutive taxable years beginning on or after the date that the regents establish the institute and post the notice in the journal to establish the institute, allow a credit against the taxes imposed by the Corporation Tax Law to qualified taxpayers, as defined, located in a water technology and innovation zone for qualified wages paid to qualified employees during the taxable year, as provided. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Oroville.
Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority, which is responsible for the coordination and integration of all state agencies concerning emergency medical services. Among other duties, the authority is required to develop planning and implementation guidelines for emergency medical services systems, provide technical assistance to existing agencies, counties, and cities for the purpose of developing the components of emergency medical services systems, and receive plans for the implementation of emergency medical services and trauma care systems from local EMS agencies. The act also authorizes each county to develop an emergency medical services program and requires local EMS agencies to plan, implement, and evaluate an emergency medical services system. Existing law requires local EMS agencies to be responsible for the implementation of advanced life support systems, limited advanced life support systems, and for the monitoring of specified training programs for emergency personnel. Existing law defines advanced life support as special services designed to provide definitive prehospital emergency medical care, as specified, at the scene of an emergency, during transport to an acute care hospital, during interfacility transfer, and while in the emergency department of an acute care hospital until responsibility is assumed by that hospital. Existing law makes it a crime to violate the act, or the rules or regulations adopted under the act. This bill would authorize a local emergency medical services agency to submit, as part of its emergency medical services plan, a plan to transport specified patients who meet triage criteria to a behavioral health facility or a sobering center, as defined. The bill would make conforming changes to the definition of advanced life support to include prehospital emergency care provided during transport to a behavioral health facility or a sobering center. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to designate, and contract with, a sobering center to receive patients, and would establish standards that apply to sobering centers, as specified. This bill would also require the authority to adopt guidelines for the triage criteria and assessment procedures by July 1, 2020, and would require the authority to annually analyze the administration of the local plans and to issue certain reports, as specified. By expanding an existing crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires a court to consider issuing a protective order restraining the defendant from contact with a percipient witness in all cases in which a criminal defendant has been convicted of a crime involving domestic violence, rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, participation in a criminal street gang, or any crime requiring registration as a sex offender, if it can be established by clear and convincing evidence that the witness has been harassed by the defendant. Existing law makes a violation of a protective order punishable as contempt, a misdemeanor. This bill would additionally require the court to consider issuing an order restraining a criminal defendant who has been convicted of a crime involving domestic violence from any contact with a minor who is a witness, as defined. The bill would allow the order to include an order authorizing a family or juvenile court to make a subsequent order for safe and appropriate visitation with the defendant's minor child who is a witness, as provided, and would require this order to have precedence in enforcement over a civil court order against the defendant, except as provided. Because a violation of the protective order would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The Personal Income Tax Law imposes a tax on individual taxpayers measured by the taxpayer's taxable income for the taxable year, but excludes certain items of income from the computation of tax, including an exclusion for combat-related special compensation. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2028, would exclude from gross income retirement pay received by a taxpayer from the federal government for service performed in the uniformed services, as defined. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
This measure would declare the support of the Legislature for the expansion of sensory-friendly movie screenings and similar programs for people with autism, and would encourage families to attend a sensory-friendly movie screening during April 2018, which is National Autism Awareness Month.
This measure would, among other things, designate the year 2018 as "State of California Year of Commemoration of the Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923," would designate April 24, 2018, as "State of California Day of Commemoration of the 103rd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923," and would call upon the President of the United States and the United States Congress to formally and consistently reaffirm the historical truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted genocide.
This measure would proclaim April 16, 2018, as California Holocaust Memorial Day and would urge all Californians to observe this day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to implement revised dam safety and inspection requirements, with specified components, for all federally operated and regulated dams and reservoirs for the purpose of ensuring public safety.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 establishes certain limits on the amount of contributions that a person or group can make to a candidate for elective state office, or to a committee. Existing law prohibits a person from making a contribution to a committee or candidate that is earmarked unless the contribution is disclosed in compliance with the requirements for contributions made by an intermediary. Dues, assessments, fees, and similar payments made to a membership organization or its sponsored committee in an amount less than $500 per calendar year from a single source for the purpose of making contributions or expenditures are not considered earmarked. This bill would reduce this exception for payments to a membership organization or its sponsored committee to $100. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.