Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the federal Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (state act) . The state act, with certain exceptions, imposes a mandatory minimum penalty of $3,000 for each serious waste discharge violation or for certain other described violations if those violations occur 4 or more times in any period of 6 consecutive months. This bill would provide a publicly owned treatment works with the option of using an automatic composite sampler, in lieu of grab samples, to collect representative samples for monitoring constituents that are subject to the mandatory minimum penalties.
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(1) 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. Certain entities within a designated enterprise zone may receive regulatory, tax, and other incentives for private investment and employment. Existing law provides that no more than 42 enterprise zones be designated at any one time pursuant to the act. Upon the expiration or termination of a designation, existing law authorizes the department to designate another enterprise zone to maintain a total of 42 enterprise zones. This bill would authorize the department to designate one special enterprise zone within the City of Fremont consisting of a geographical area encompassing a facility that manufactures automobiles and to designate, until 90 days after the act takes effect, an additional 10 special enterprise zones limited to one nonrenewable 15-year term. The bill would exclude these enterprise zones from the calculation of the overall number of enterprise zones authorized under the act. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute. (2) The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority Act established the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority. The authority is authorized to do all things necessary and convenient to carry out the purposes of the act. The authority is also required to establish a renewable energy program to provide financial assistance, as defined, to certain entities for projects to generate new and renewable energy sources, develop clean and efficient distributed generation, and demonstrate the economic feasibility of new technologies. Existing law provides that the transfer of title of tangible personal property constituting a project under the act to the authority by a participating party or the lease or transfer of tangible personal property constituting a project under the act by the authority to a participating party pursuant to the act is not a "sale" or "purchase" for the purposes of the Sales and Use Tax Law. This bill would include as a project, machinery, or equipment that is utilized for the design, technology transfer, manufacture, production, assembly, distribution, or service of an alternative source component. The bill would include as "financial assistance" for the purposes of the act purchases, sales, or lease arrangements that qualify for exclusion from the Sales and Use Tax Law. The bill would require the authority to consider specified criteria in approving a project for which the purchase, sale, or lease of tangible personal property qualifies for the sales and use tax exclusion. The bill would require, when the sales and use tax exclusion for projects approved by the authority exceed $100,000,000 annually, the authority to provide a 20-day notice to the Legislature for additional project approval.
Existing law provides that no handgun ammunition vendor, as defined, shall sell, offer for sale, or display for sale, any handgun ammunition in a manner that allows that ammunition to be accessible to a purchaser without the assistance of the vendor or employee thereof. This bill would repeal those provisions. Existing law requires, subject to exceptions, commencing February 1, 2011, that handgun ammunition vendors obtain a thumbprint and other information from ammunition purchasers, as specified. Existing law provides, subject to exceptions, that commencing February 1, 2011, the delivery or transfer of ownership of handgun ammunition may only occur in a face-to-face transaction, with the deliverer or transferor being provided bona fide evidence of identity of the purchaser or other transferee. Violations of any of the above provisions are misdemeanors, some with specified penalties. This bill would repeal those provisions.
(1) Existing law classifies controlled substances into 5 schedules, with the most restrictive limitations placed on controlled substances classified in Schedule I, and the least restrictive limitations placed on controlled substances classified in Schedule V. A controlled substance in any of the schedules may be possessed or dispensed only upon a lawful prescription, as specified. Existing law does not classify ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine within any of these 5 schedules, but provides that it is a crime, punishable as specified, for a person in this state who engages in specified transactions involving those drugs to fail to submit a report to the Department of Justice of all of those transactions, or to fail to submit an application to, and obtain a permit for the conduct of that business from, the Department of Justice, as specified. Existing law prohibits the sale of more than 3 packages or 9 grams of a nonprescription product containing ephedrine or the other drugs, as specified. This bill would instead provide that it is a misdemeanor, punishable as specified, for any retail distributor, except pursuant to a valid prescription from a licensed practitioner with prescriptive authority, to sell or distribute to a person specified amounts of nonprescription products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine within specified time limits, to sell or distribute any of those substances to a person whose information has generated an alert, or, except under specified conditions, to sell or distribute to any purchaser a nonprescription product containing any amount of those substances. The bill would contain provisions requiring the secure storage of products containing any amount of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine and providing for the creation of an electronic authorization and monitoring system for the collection of, access to, and sharing of information regarding these transactions, as specified. The bill would provide that the information in the system may not be used for any purpose other than to meet the requirements of, or comply with, this act or a certain federal act, as specified. The bill would specify legislative findings, declarations, and intent. The bill's provisions would remain in effect only until January 1, 2017. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) 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, 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.
The State Teacher's Retirement Law credits service performed by a member within the scheduled school year to the Defined Benefit Program under the State Teachers' Retirement System. That law generally provides that any additional service performed by a member in excess of the service scheduled for a school year is credited to the Defined Benefit Supplement Program under that system. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision.
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 provides that, in the case of certain officers and employees of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and each security officer employed at the Atascadero State Hospital, the term "injury" includes heart trouble that develops or manifests itself during a period while the officer or employee is in the service of the department or hospital, and establishes a disputable presumption that heart trouble that so develops or manifests itself arose out of and in the course of the employment. Existing law establishes state hospital peace officers, as specified, and defines their authority as peace officers. This bill would delete the reference in the above-described provisions to officers at the Atascadero State Hospital as security officers, and instead, refer to those officers as peace officers. The bill would also add peace officers employed at other hospitals, developmental centers, and community centers, as specified, to the list of persons to whom the above-described injury presumption applies.
(1) Existing law establishes the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, which, among other things, provides for student protections and regulatory oversight of private postsecondary schools in the state. Existing law establishes the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education to regulate private postsecondary institutions through the powers granted, and the duties imposed, by the act. This bill would prohibit the bureau, for the period July 1, 2010, to July 1, 2011, inclusive, from enforcing the act against institutions that offer flight instruction or institutions that offer Federal Aviation Administration certified educational programs in aircraft maintenance. The bill would also require those institutions to notify the bureau if they operate during that period. (2) The act prohibits institutions, as defined, from performing various actions. This bill would prohibit an institution from offering an unaccredited doctoral degree program without disclosing to prospective students that the degree program is unaccredited, and any known limitation of the unaccredited degree, including, but not limited to, whether the degree is recognized for licensure or certification in other states. (3) The act prohibits an ability-to-benefit student, defined as a student who does not have a certificate of graduation from a school providing secondary education, or a recognized equivalent of that certificate, from enrolling in an institution unless the student achieves a specified score on an independently administered examination from a specified list of examinations prescribed by the United States Department of Education that demonstrates that the student may benefit from the education and training being offered. This bill would authorize the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education to publish its own list of acceptable examinations if the United States Department of Education does not have a list of relevant examinations that pertain to the intended occupational training. (4) The act requires specified private postsecondary institutions to refund 100% of the amount paid for institutional charges, less specified expenses, if notice of cancellation is made through attendance at the first class session, or the 7th class day after enrollment, whichever is later. This bill would change the 2nd deadline for notice of cancellation from the 7th class day after enrollment to the 7th day after enrollment. (5) Existing law defines "graduates employed in the field," for purposes of the act, as graduates who are gainfully employed within 6 months of graduation in a position for which the skills obtained through the education and training provided by the institution are required or provided a significant advantage to the graduate in obtaining the position. This bill would revise this definition to remove skills obtained that have provided a significant advantage to the graduate in obtaining the position, and include skills that are utilized to perform the purpose or objective of the position or the major responsibilities of the position. (6) Existing law appropriates $580,000 from the Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Administration Fund to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, for the purpose of funding 5 private postsecondary education specialist and senior specialist positions. This bill would require those positions to be permanent, full-time positions to perform work in conformity with the classification specifications as directed by the bureau chief. (7) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would designate the first week of March of each year as Cuss Free Week.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2009, in the amount of $3,000 for each full-time employee hired by a qualified employer. Those laws define "qualified employer" as a taxpayer that employed 20 or fewer employees as of the last day of the preceding taxable year. This bill would, under both laws, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, expand the definition of "qualified employer" to mean a taxpayer that employed 50 or fewer employees as of the last day of the preceding taxable year. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.