Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders and brokers by the Commissioner of Corporations and makes a willful violation of its provisions a crime. Existing law regulates the charges a licensee may impose or receive on loans it makes, and authorizes a licensee to contract for and receive specified alternative charges and administrative and delinquency fees. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2015, the Pilot Program for Affordable Credit-Building Opportunities for the purpose of increasing the availability of credit-building opportunities to underbanked individuals seeking low-dollar-value loans. Under the program, licensees must file an application with, and pay a fee to, the Commissioner of Corporations to participate in the program. Existing law authorizes a licensee approved by the commissioner to participate in the program to impose specified alternative interest rates and charges, including an administrative fee and delinquency fees, on loans of at least $250 and less than $2,500, subject to certain requirements. Existing law also authorizes licensees in the program to use the services of finders, defined as entities who, at the finder's physical location for business, bring licensees and prospective borrowers together for the purpose of negotiating loan contracts at the finder's location, subject to a written agreement meeting specified requirements. The Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 2 of the 2011–12 Regular Session provides that, on and after July 1, 2013, certain responsibilities of the Department of Corporations and the Commissioner of Corporations will be transferred to the Department of Business Oversight and the Commissioner of Business Oversight will be the head of the Department of Business Oversight. This bill would abolish the Pilot Program for Affordable Credit-Building Opportunities. The bill would, until January 1, 2018, establish the Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans for the purpose of allowing greater access for responsible installment loans in principal amounts of at least $300 and less than $2,500. The bill would require licensees and other entities to file an application and pay a specified fee to the Commissioner of Business Oversight to participate in the program. The bill would authorize a licensee approved by the commissioner to participate in the program to impose specified alternative interest rates and charges, including an administrative fee and delinquency fees, on loans of at least $300 and less than $2,500, subject to certain requirements. This bill would also authorize a licensee in the program to use the services of finders, defined as entities who, at the finder's physical location for business, bring licensees and prospective borrowers together for the purpose of negotiating loan contracts, subject to a written agreement meeting specified requirements. The bill would establish the services a finder is authorized and required to perform, and would require a finder to comply with the laws applicable to the licensee relative to information security. The bill would require a licensee to notify the commissioner within 15 days of entering into a contract with a finder, would require a licensee to pay an annual finder registration fee to the commissioner, and would require a licensee to submit an annual report to the commissioner on the licensee's relationship and business arrangements with a finder, as specified. The bill would authorize the commissioner to examine the operations of a licensee and a finder to ensure that the activities of the licensee and the finder are in compliance with these provisions. The bill would make a licensee that uses a finder responsible for a violation of these provisions by a finder or a finder's employee, and would authorize the commissioner to impose administrative penalties against a finder for a violation of these provisions. The bill would authorize the commissioner, upon a violation of these provisions, to disqualify a finder from performing services, bar a finder from performing services at one or more specific locations of the finder, terminate a written agreement between a licensee and a finder, and, under specified circumstances, prohibit the use of the finder by all licensees. The bill would authorize a licensee participating in the program to appoint one or more branch managers with responsibility for multiple branch locations, subject to approval by the commissioner. This bill would require the commissioner to examine the performance of each licensee in the program at least once every 24 months, and would require the costs of examination to be paid by the licensee to the commissioner, as specified. The bill would also require the commissioner to conduct a random sample survey of borrowers under the program. The bill would require the commissioner to post a report on the commissioner's Internet Web site by July 1, 2015, and once again by January 1, 2017, summarizing utilization of the Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans, as specified. This bill would make licensees of the abolished Pilot Program for Affordable Credit-Building Opportunities subject to the newly established Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans. The bill would continue in existence any outstanding loans made under the abolished pilot program and the loans would remain subject to the terms and conditions that existed at the time the loan was made. Because a willful violation of these provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would also make a clarifying change to the California Finance Lenders Law. 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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law creates the Monterey-Salinas Transit District and the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District with various powers and duties relative to the operation of public transit in those counties. Existing law generally requires vehicles to be driven upon the right half of a roadway, defined to include only that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. Existing law generally prohibits the driver of a vehicle from overtaking and passing another vehicle by driving off the paved or main-traveled portion of the roadway. This bill would authorize the Monterey-Salinas Transit District and the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District to conduct a transit bus-only program using the shoulders of certain state highways as transit bus-only traffic corridors, subject to approval by the department and the Department of the California Highway Patrol. The highway segments to be used for the program would be jointly determined by the districts, the department, and the Department of the California Highway Patrol, as provided. The bill would thereby authorize the operation of transit buses on the shoulder of a segment of a state highway designated under the program within the areas served by the transit districts. The bill would require the districts to actively work with the department and the Department of the California Highway Patrol to develop guidelines that ensure driver and vehicle safety and the integrity of the infrastructure. The bill would require monitoring of the state of repair of the highway shoulders used in the program, and would require the districts to be responsible for all costs attributable to the program, including costs related to repairs attributable to the operation of transit buses on shoulders.
(1) Existing law, the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to enter into 10-year contracts with owners of land devoted to agricultural use, whereby the owners agree to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation. Existing law authorizes the parties to a Williamson Act contract to mutually agree to rescind a contract under the act in order to simultaneously enter into an open-space easement for a certain period of years. This bill would enact the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act and would authorize, under specified conditions and until January 1, 2019, a city, county, or city and county and a landowner to enter into a contract to enforceably restrict the use of vacant, unimproved, or otherwise blighted lands for small-scale production of agricultural crops and animal husbandry. The bill would require a contract entered into pursuant to these provisions to, among other things, be for a term of no less than 5 years and to enforceably restrict property that is at least 0.10 acres in size. (2) Existing law requires the county assessor to consider, when valuing real property for property taxation purposes, the effect of any enforceable restrictions to which the use of the land may be subjected. Under existing law these restrictions include, but are not limited to, zoning, recorded contracts with governmental agencies, and various other restrictions imposed by governments. This bill would require the county assessor to value property that is enforceably restricted by a contract entered into pursuant to the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act at the rate based on the average per-acre value of irrigated cropland in California, adjusted proportionally to reflect the acreage of the property under contract, as most recently published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. The bill would also require the State Board of Equalization to post the per-acre land value as published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the United States Department of Agriculture on its Internet Web site within 30 days of publication, and to provide the rate to county assessors no later than January 1 of each assessment year.
This measure would honor the California Council on Science and Technology for 25 years of service and unbiased advice to the State of California.
This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to enact President Barack Obama's budget proposal to increase funding for preschool and early learning. This measure would also urge the Superintendent of Public Instruction to prepare a plan for making California competitive for future increases in federal funding to preschool and early learning programs.
This measure would recognize September 2013 as Hmong History Month, urge all citizens to join in celebrating the accomplishments of the Hmong people during Hmong History Month, and encourage the people of California to recognize the many talents, achievements, and contributions that the Hmong people make to their communities.
This measure would formally endorse the invaluable work of California's Africana studies programs, and their faculty, staff, and students. The measure would recognize the leadership provided by the beneficiaries of those programs, and would support the continuation of Africana studies programs in California's institutions of higher education.
This measure would designate September 22, 2013, and September 22, 2014, as "California Business Women's Day" and would encourage all Californians to celebrate the occasion with appropriate activities.
This measure would name the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Bridge. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for erecting appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
This measure would recognize the month of October 2013 as Filipino American History Month and the 426th anniversary of the first presence of Filipinos in the continental United States.