Asm. James Gallagher

This measure would declare the month of January 2016 as Pet Care Education Month and would request Californians to observe the month by ensuring that their companion animals receive the proper preventative care by establishing a financial plan for pet health emergencies and by contributing to charitable organizations that provide low-cost spay and neuter services and vaccinations or funds to help low-income individuals pay for veterinary care.

Existing law, the Milk and Milk Products Act of 1947, requires market milk distributors and persons engaged in operating a milk products plant or a plant in which products resembling milk products are manufactured to transmit to the Secretary of Food and Agriculture a full and accurate report of the amount of milk and milk products and products resembling milk products that the person produced, purchased, manufactured, or distributed during the preceding month. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to this provision.

(1) Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act (Jessica's Law) , approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, makes a defendant punisable by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense, any person kidnapped the victim, tortured the victim, or committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, as specified. Existing law also makes a defendant punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 15 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense any person, except as specified in the provisions above, kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense. Proposition 83 provides that the Legislature may amend the provisions of the act to expand the scope of their application or increase the punishment or penalties by a statute passed by a majority vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law makes a defendant punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, spousal rape or sexual penetration in concert, sexual penetration, sodomy, or oral copulation if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense any person kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense, or under other specified circumstances, and the crime was committed against a minor 14 years of age or older. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires that a person who commits certain enumerated crimes, including rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, against a person who is 65 years of age or older, or against a person who is blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, a paraplegic, or a quadriplegic, or against a person who is under 14 years of age, receive a one-year sentence enhancement and requires that any person having a prior conviction for any of the enumerated offenses receive a 2-year sentence enhancement. This bill would add to the enumerated list of crimes rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) 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 the state to have the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas, as defined. Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, by September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each habitable structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on July 1, 2013, and annually thereafter, to adjust the fire prevention fee, as specified. Existing law requires the fire prevention fee to be collected annually by the State Board of Equalization, in accordance with specified procedures, and specifies that the annual fee shall be due and payable 30 days from the date of assessment by the state board. Existing law authorizes a petition for redetermination of the fee to be filed within 30 days after service of a notice of determination, as specified. This bill would require the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, by July 1, 2016, to amend those emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $152.33 and would authorize the board, on July 1, 2017, and annually thereafter, to adjust the fire prevention fee, as specified. The bill would extend the time when the fire prevention fee is due and payable from 30 to 60 days from the date of assessment by the State Board of Equalization and would authorize the petition for redetermination to be filed within 60 days after service of the notice of determination, as specified.

Existing law requires the use of nonlead centerfire rifle and pistol ammunition, as determined by the Fish and Game Commission, when taking big game with a rifle or pistol, and when taking coyote, within the California condor range. Existing law further requires, as soon as is practicable, but by no later than July 1, 2019, the use of nonlead ammunition for the taking of all wildlife, including game mammals, game birds, nongame birds, and nongame mammals, with any firearm, and requires the commission to promulgate regulations by July 1, 2015, that phase in the requirements of these provisions. This bill would exempt the northern and north central regions from the requirement that nonlead ammunition be used for the taking of all wildlife. The bill would also require, no later than July 1, 2017, the Director of Fish and Wildlife to make findings regarding the commercial availability of each type of nonlead projectile and nonlead ammunition, as defined, and to publish these findings on the commission's Internet Web site. The bill would require, if a type of nonlead projectile or nonlead ammunition is not commercially available, the commission to exempt those types of lead projectiles and lead ammunition from those provisions and regulations adopted by the commission requiring the use of nonlead projectiles or nonlead ammunition for the taking of all wildlife.

Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee to be charged on each habitable structure, as defined, on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law requires that the fee be levied upon the owner of a habitable structure identified by the department as located within the state responsibility area, if that person owns the habitable structure on July 1 of the year for which the fee is due. Existing law authorizes the board to exempt from the fire prevention fee any habitable structure that is subsequently deemed inhabitable as a result of a natural disaster during the year the fee is due, if certain conditions are met. This bill would require the board to reduce the amount of the fee to be charged on a habitable structure by an amount equal to the amount paid by the owner of the structure to a local fire district for fire prevention services during the year for which the fee is due, if the owner of the structure provides the board with written documentation of the amount paid to the local fire district for those services. The bill would require the board to adopt guidelines to clarify the type of written documentation the owner of a structure is required to provide to the board to receive a fee reduction pursuant to those provisions.

Existing law permits 3 or more natural persons, a majority of whom are residents of this state, who are engaged in the production of certain products, including agricultural and farm products, to form a nonprofit cooperative association for prescribed purposes. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to this provision.

Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes 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, and provides various exemptions from those taxes. Existing law exempts from those taxes, on and after July 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2022, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, qualified tangible personal property purchased by a qualified person for use primarily in manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of property, as specified; qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a contractor for specified purposes, as provided; and qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person to be used primarily in research and development, as provided. Existing law defines a "qualified person" to be a person that is primarily engaged in specified lines of business. Existing law specifies that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes, transactions and use taxes, and specified state taxes from which revenues are deposited into the Local Public Safety Fund, the Education Protection Account, the Local Revenue Fund, the Fiscal Recovery Fund, or the Local Revenue Fund 2011. This bill would delete that repeal date, thereby extending the application of the exemption indefinitely. The bill, on or after January 1, 2023, would limit the exemption to a qualified person that is located in a county, city and county, or metropolitan statistical area that had an unemployment rate of 10% or more in the previous calendar quarter. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.