(1) Existing law states that the theft of a firearm is grand theft, punishable as a felony by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, enacted by Proposition 47, as approved by the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, notwithstanding these provisions, instead requires the theft of property that does not exceed $950 to be considered petty theft, and makes the crime punishable as a misdemeanor, except in cases when the defendant has previously been convicted of one or more specified serious or violent felonies or an offense requiring registration as a sex offender. This bill would make the theft of a firearm grand theft in all cases, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. (2) Under existing law, every person who buys or receives any property that has been stolen, knowing the property to be stolen, is guilty of a misdemeanor or a felony, except that if the value of the property does not exceed $950, Proposition 47 makes the offense punishable as a misdemeanor if the defendant has not previously been convicted of one or more specified serious or violent felonies or an offense requiring registration as a sex offender. This bill would make buying or receiving a stolen firearm a misdemeanor or a felony. (3) The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to amend or repeal an initiative statute by another statute that becomes effective when approved by the electors. This bill would provide that it would become effective only upon approval of the voters, and would provide for the submission of this measure to the voters for approval at the next statewide general election.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, inoperative due to a pending referendum election, would otherwise, as of July 1, 2015, prohibit stores that have a specified amount of sales in dollars or retail floor space from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer, with specified exceptions. That law would also prohibit those stores from selling or distributing a recycled paper bag at the point of sale unless the store makes that bag available for purchase for not less than $0.10 and would allow those stores to distribute compostable bags at the point of sale only in jurisdictions that meet specified requirements and at a cost of not less than $0.10. This same law, on and after July 1, 2016, would additionally impose these prohibitions and requirements on convenience food stores, foodmarts, and entities that are engaged in the sale of a limited line of goods, or goods intended to be consumed off premises, and that hold a specified license with regard to alcoholic beverages. This inoperative law would require, on and after July 1, 2015, a reusable grocery bag sold by certain stores to a customer at the point of sale to be made by a certified reusable grocery bag producer and to meet specified requirements with regard to the bag's durability, material, labeling, heavy metal content, and, with regard to reusable grocery bags made from plastic film on and after January 1, 2016, recycled material content. Existing law, included in the bill that enacted the provisions currently inoperative due to the pending referendum election, but not included in the referendum election, and thus operative, appropriates $2,000,000 from the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Account to the department for the purposes of providing loans for the creation and retention of jobs and economic activity in California for the manufacture and recycling of plastic reusable grocery bags that use recycled content. Existing law, subject to the referendum election, requires the department, no later than March 1, 2018, to provide a status report to the Legislature on the implementation of all of these provisions. This bill would repeal the above provisions and related provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to require through its groundwater sustainability plan that the use of every groundwater extraction facility within the management area of the groundwater sustainablity agency be measured by a water-measuring device, but provides that these provisions do not apply to de minimis extractors. Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to impose fees but prohibits a groundwater sustainability agency from imposing a fee to fund the costs of a groundwater sustainability program on a de minimis extractor unless the agency has regulated the users pursuant to the act. Existing law generally excepts a de minimis extractor from the requirement that a person who extracts groundwater from a probationary basin, as prescribed, or extracts groundwater on or after July 1, 2017, in an area within a basin that is not within the management area of a groundwater sustainability agency and where the county does not assume responsibility to be the groundwater sustainability agency has to file a report of groundwater extraction by December 15 of each year for extractions made in the preceding water year with the State Water Resources Control Board. Existing law defines a de minimis extractor for these purposes as a person who extracts, for domestic purposes, 2 acre-feet or less per year. This bill would define a de minimis extractor for the purposes of these provisions as a person who extracts, for domestic purposes, 10 acre-feet or less per year.
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, whenever 25% of the Members of the Assembly or Senate transmit to the Governor their written declaration of opposition to a proposed regulation, would require a majority vote of the Assembly and Senate to adopt that regulation.
Existing law governing the state acquisition of telecommunication services and goods, generally requires contracts for the acquisition of those goods and services, whether by lease or purchase, to be made by, or be made under the supervision of, the Department of Technology. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2016, require any contract for the acquisition of telecommunications services, or any renewal of a contract for telecommunications services, for a state agency, as defined, that interacts with, or receives inquiries from, the general public to provide for a queue callback feature, as described.
Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when income is derived directly from real property acquired and operated by the state as a wildlife management area, as defined, to pay annually to the county in which the property is located an amount equal to the county taxes levied upon the property at the time title to the property was transferred to the state, and any assessments levied upon the property by any irrigation, drainage, or reclamation district. This bill would appropriate $19,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties for unpaid amounts under these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would allow a deduction in computing adjusted gross income for those amounts contributed to a Coverdell education savings account, up to $750 per taxable year, as provided. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
(1) Existing law requires the State Board of Education to develop guidelines that school districts may use in the development of teacher evaluation procedures, and distribute such guidelines to every school district. This bill would require the state board to revise, update, and adopt guidelines that school districts may use in the development of teacher evaluation procedures by July 1, 2016. The bill would also require that the updated guidelines include a determination of a teacher's overall performance, as specified. (2) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district or a county board of education, as specified, after a public hearing on the matter, to request the state board to waive all or part of any section of the Education Code or any regulation adopted by the state board that implements a provision of the Education Code that may be waived, except for specified provisions. This bill would prohibit the state board from granting any waiver request by a governing board of a school district if the state board finds that the governing board of the school district is out of compliance with specified requirements relating to teacher evaluation. (3) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that governing boards of school districts establish a uniform system of evaluation and assessment of the performance of all certificated personnel within each school district of the state. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to establish standards of expected pupil achievement at each grade level in each area of study and to evaluate and assess certificated employee performance on a continuing basis as it reasonably relates to the progress of pupils toward the established standards and, if applicable, the state adopted academic content standards as measured by state adopted criterion referenced assessments, the instructional techniques and strategies used by the employee, the employee's adherence to curricular objectives, and the establishment and maintenance of a suitable learning environment, within the scope of the employee's responsibilities. Existing law authorizes school district governing boards to develop and adopt additional evaluation and assessment guidelines or criteria. This bill would encourage the governing board of a school district to use peer observation and surveys of parents and pupils as part of the evaluation and assessment guidelines and criteria. (4) Existing law requires that an evaluation and assessment of the performance of a certificated employee be made on a continuing basis, as provided. This bill would instead require an annual evaluation and assessment of the performance of a certificated employee. The bill would require the evaluation and assessment to include a determination of the teacher's performance, as specified. By requiring school districts to perform additional duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that, to the extent these provisions conflict with any provision of a collective bargaining agreement entered into before January 1, 2016, by a public school employer and an exclusive bargaining representative, the provisions shall not apply to the school district until the expiration or renewal of that collective bargaining agreement. (5) This bill would update cross-references and would make other nonsubstantive changes. (6) 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.
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 state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing state board regulations require specified entities to comply with a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, and require additional specified entities to comply with that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015. This bill would instead exempt those categories of persons or entities that did not have a compliance obligation, as defined, under a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, from being subject to that market-based compliance mechanism through December 31, 2020. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate transitional housing placement providers. Existing law requires transitional housing providers to provide supervised transitional housing services to foster children who are at least 16 years of age and not more than 18 years of age, nonminor dependents, or both. Existing law provides that transitional housing includes, among others, programs in which a participant lives independently in certain types of housing owned or leased by the provider either with an adult employee of the provider or in a building in which one or more adult employees of the provider reside and provide supervision. Transitional housing may, if the State Department of Social Services provides approval, include programs in which a participant lives independently in certain types of housing owned or leased by provider under the supervision of the provider. This bill would delete the requirement that the housing be owned or leased by the provider and would instead require that a provider be responsible for the payment of any contracted rental fees and any penalties for late payment to the property owner. The bill would also, with regards to the latter program described above, delete the requirement that the department provide approval for the program and delete the requirement that participants live under the supervision of the provider.