Existing law directs the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to establish training and guidelines for law enforcement officers, as defined, in the handling of domestic violence complaints, such as how to respond to domestic violence incidents, the legal duties imposed on law enforcement officers to make arrests and offer assistance, and techniques to promote the safety of the victim, as specified. Existing law requires law enforcement agencies to develop and implement written policies for officer responses to domestic violence incidents, including furnishing written notice to victims at the scene in the form of a Victims of Domestic Violence card that contains, among other information, telephone numbers for local hotlines, shelters, and counseling centers. This bill would add the issuance of Victims of Domestic Violence cards as a topic in the course of instruction for the training of law enforcement officers. This bill would additionally require the Victims of Domestic Violence card to be a different color than other cards issued by officers, to include a disclaimer, to be available in languages other than English, and to include various information such as the definition of domestic violence and the statute of limitations for domestic violence. This bill would make these changes operative on January 1, 2025. Because this bill would expand an existing local program, it would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services and makes it responsible for providing assistance such as financial, technical, and educational support, as specified, on the topic of domestic violence to local entities including domestic violence support centers and law enforcement. This bill, commencing January 1, 2025, would require the office to develop a model Victims of Domestic Violence card that can be modified by cities and counties. The bill would also require the office to publish on an internet website maintained by the office specified information and resources to assist victims of domestic violence, including, among other things, a summary of state mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence crimes. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
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Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act (CESA) , among other things, authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency in an area affected by or likely to be affected thereby, if specified conditions exist and either specified local officials request the Governor to make that proclamation, or the Governor determines that local authority is inadequate to cope with, the emergency. During a state of emergency, existing law confers on the Governor, to the extent the Governor deems necessary, complete authority over all agencies of the state government and the right to exercise within the area designated all police power vested in the state by the Constitution and laws of the state to effectuate the purposes of the CESA. This bill would, instead, authorize the Governor to exercise within the area designated all executive power vested in the state by the Constitution and laws of the state to effectuate the purposes of the CESA. The bill would also make various nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. Existing law requires the Governor to proclaim the termination of a state emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant. Existing law requires all of the powers granted to the Governor by the CESA with respect to a state of emergency to terminate when the state of emergency has been terminated by proclamation of the Governor or by concurrent resolution of the Legislature declaring it at an end. This bill would instead require that a state of emergency automatically terminate 60 days after the Governor's proclamation unless the Legislature extends it by a concurrent resolution, as specified. The bill would prohibit a concurrent resolution from extending a state of emergency by more than 30 days, as specified.
Existing law, the Parent's Accountability and Child Protection Act, requires a person or business that conducts business in California and that seeks to sell specified products or services to take reasonable steps to ensure that the purchaser is of legal age at the time of purchase or delivery, including verifying the age of the purchaser. Existing law prohibits a person or business that is required to comply with these provisions from retaining, using, or disclosing any information it receives in an effort to verify age from a purchaser or recipient for any other purpose, except as specified, and subjects a business or person that violates these provisions to a civil penalty. This bill would require a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes sexually explicit material on the internet from a sexually explicit website to use an age verification method that prevents minors from accessing sexually explicit material. The bill would make a commercial entity that violates these provisions liable to the parent or legal guardian of a minor who accessed the sexually explicit material, as specified. The bill would prohibit a commercial entity or third party that performs age verification required by these provisions from retaining any identifying information of an individual after age verification has been accomplished. The bill would make a commercial entity that knowingly retains the identifying information of an individual in violation of these provisions liable, as specified. The bill would provide specified exceptions to these provisions, including for a bona fide news or public interest broadcast, website video, report, or event. The bill would define several terms for purposes of these provisions.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. That law, in modified conformity to federal income tax law, authorizes a credit for household and dependent care expenses necessary for gainful employment, as provided. This bill would allow a credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2025, and before January 1, 2030, in an amount equal to childcare costs, as defined, paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer in this state. The bill would limit the total credit for each taxable year, as specified. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure, as defined, to include tax credits, to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include findings and reporting requirements in compliance with this requirement. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021 authorizes the Governor, until January 1, 2024, to certify environmental leadership development projects that meet specified requirements for certain streamlining benefits related to CEQA. The act, among other things, requires a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings for an environmental leadership development project, as provided, and to include a specified notice in the draft EIR and final EIR. The act is repealed by its own term on January 1, 2026. This bill would extend the application of the act to water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects that provide public benefits and drought preparedness. The bill would authorize the Governor, until January 1, 2025, to certify water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects as environmental leadership development projects. The bill would make other conforming changes. Because a lead agency would be required to prepare the record of proceedings for water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects pursuant to the act, 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 generally regulates the sale and transfer of firearms, including, among other things, requiring transactions of firearms to be completed through a licensed firearms dealer. Existing law generally makes a violation of the requirements relating to the sale, lease, or transfer of a firearm a misdemeanor. Existing law, except as specifically exempted, prohibits an officer, employee, operator, lessee, or licensee of the 32nd District Agricultural Association, as defined, from contracting for, authorizing, or allowing the sale of any firearm, firearm precursor part, or ammunition on the property or in the buildings that comprise the OC Fair and Event Center, as specified. Existing law, except as exempted, prohibits a state officer or employee, or operator, lessee, or licensee of any state-owned property, from contracting for, authorizing, or allowing the sale of any firearm, firearm precursor part, or ammunition on state property, as specified. This bill would additionally exempt events hosted by a youth sport shooting organization, a youth hunting organization, or a nonprofit conservation organization.
Existing law makes it a crime to possess for sale or purchase for purpose of sale, transport, sell, furnish, administer, give away, manufacture, compound, convert, produce, derive, process, or prepare various controlled substances, including, among others, fentanyl, peyote, and various other opiates and narcotics. This bill would require a person who is convicted of, or who pleads guilty or no contest to, the above crimes to receive a written advisory of the danger of manufacturing or distribution of controlled substances and that, if a person dies as a result of that action, the manufacturer or distributor can be charged with voluntary manslaughter or murder. The bill would require that the fact the advisory was given be on the record and recorded on the abstract of the conviction.
The California Oil Refinery Cost Disclosure Act requires operators of refineries in the state that produce gasoline meeting California specifications, within 30 days of the end of each calendar month, to submit a report to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission containing certain information regarding its refining activities related to the production of gasoline that month. Existing law requires the commission to post the reported data, in aggregate, on its internet website within 45 calendar days of the end of each calendar month. This bill would require the commission to post and regularly update a dashboard on its internet website that includes the difference in average gasoline prices in California compared to national average gasoline prices, the identification of California-specific taxes, fees, regulations, and policies and their individual contribution to gasoline prices in the state, and any substantiated evidence of price gouging or other anticompetitive behavior within the petroleum industry and its contribution to the price differential.
Existing law provides for the civil commitment of a person who is determined to be a sexually violent predator. Existing law establishes a procedure by which a person committed as a sexually violent predator may petition for conditional release and requires the court, if it makes a specified determination, to place the person on conditional release. Existing law generally requires that a person released on conditional release pursuant to these provisions be placed in the person's county of domicile prior to their incarceration unless extraordinary circumstances exist requiring placement outside the county, as specified. Existing law also prohibits the placement of a person released on conditional release within 14 mile of any public or private school, as specified. This bill would prohibit the placement of a person released on conditional release within 5 miles of federal land, as defined. Existing law defines a sexually violent predator as a person who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense and has a diagnosed mental disorder that makes the person a danger to others in that they are likely to engage in sexually violent criminal behavior. Existing law requires the State Department of State Hospitals to notify the sheriff or chief of police, or both, the district attorney, or the county's designated counsel under specific circumstances, including when it makes a recommendation to the court for community outpatient treatment for a person committed as a sexually violent predator. This bill, the Sexually Violent Predator Accountability, Fairness, and Enforcement Act, would require the State Department of State Hospitals to take specified actions regarding the placement of sexually violent predators in communities, including notifying the county's executive officer of the placement location, as specified, and preparing an annual report on, among other things, the number and location of sexually violent predators under department supervision. The bill would require the State Department of State Hospitals, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to report to the Governor and the Legislature the status of quarters available for placement of sexually violent predators, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the Natural Resources Agency, composed of departments, boards, conservancies, and commissions responsible for the restoration, protection, and management of the state's natural and cultural resources. Existing law establishes in the agency the Department of Water Resources, which manages and undertakes planning with regard to water resources in the state. This bill would require the agency, on or before June 1, 2024, to post on its publicly available internet website information tracking the progress to increase statewide water storage, and to keep that information updated.