Asm. Henry Perea

This measure would designate that January 20, 2014, be observed as the official memorial of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth and commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America. This measure would also recognize the anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington in connection with the advancement of civil rights.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, that generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment. Existing law provides certain methods for determining the amount of workers' compensation benefits payable to a worker or his or her dependents for purposes of temporary disability, permanent total disability, permanent partial disability, and in the case of death. Existing law provides that totally dependent minor children of the deceased worker shall receive death benefits until the youngest child attains 18 years of age, or until the death of a child physically or mentally incapacitated from earning, at a weekly rate of at least $224. Existing law conclusively presumes, for the purpose of determining the amount of workers' compensation benefits, that children under 18, or certain adult children, who were living with the employee-parent at the time of injury resulting in death, or for whose maintenance the employee-parent was legally liable at the time of the injury resulting in death, is wholly dependent for support on the deceased employee-parent if there is no surviving totally dependent parent. This bill would eliminate the requirement that, in order to conclusively presume that children under 18, or certain adult children, are wholly dependent for support on the deceased employee-parent, there not be a surviving totally dependent parent. This bill would also make conforming changes.

Existing law requires every person convicted of certain offenses, for the rest of his or her life while residing in California, or while attending school or working in California, as specified, to register with the chief of police of the city in which he or she is residing, or the sheriff of the county if he or she is residing in an unincorporated area or city that has no police department, and, additionally, with the chief of police of a campus of the University of California, the California State University, or community college if he or she is residing upon the campus or in any of its facilities, within 5 working days of coming into, or changing his or her residence within, any city, county, or city and county, or campus in which he or she temporarily resides, and to register thereafter as specified. Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of community care facilities, including group homes and foster family homes, by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law provides for the certification of foster homes by foster family agencies. This bill would, subject to exception, prohibit any person who is required to register as a sex offender, based upon the commission of an offense against a minor, from residing, working, or volunteering in specified foster homes or facilities, as provided. The bill would provide that violation of the prohibition is a misdemeanor. By creating a new crime, 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, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies to provide coverage for all generally medically accepted cancer screening tests and requires those contracts and policies to also provide coverage for the treatment of breast cancer. Existing law imposes various requirements on contracts and policies that cover prescription drug benefits. This bill would prohibit an individual or group health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2015, that provides coverage for prescribed, orally administered anticancer medications used to kill or slow the growth of cancerous cells from requiring an enrollee or insured to pay, notwithstanding any deductible, a total amount of copayments and coinsurance that exceeds $200 for an individual prescription of up to a 30-day supply of a prescribed orally administered anticancer medication. The bill would provide that for a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy that meets a specified federal definition of a high deductible health plan, this prohibition shall only apply once the enrollee's or insured's deductible has been satisfied for the year. The bill would authorize a health care service plan or health insurer, on January 1, 2016, and on January 1 of each year thereafter, to increase the $200 limit by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for that year. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2019. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the 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.

The Personal Income Tax Law allows taxpayers, until January 1, 2018, to designate on their tax returns that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be contributed to the California Breast Cancer Research Fund. The minimum contribution amount is adjusted each year to correct for inflation. This bill would specify that for calendar years 2014 and 2015 the minimum contribution shall be equal to the minimum contribution amount for the 2013 calendar year.

Existing law, the Veterans' Bond Act of 2008, as approved by the voters, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $900,000,000, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, for purposes of financing the Cal-Vet program for farm, home, and mobilehome purchase assistance for veterans. This bill would amend the Veterans' Bond Act of 2008 to reduce the amount of bonds that are authorized to be issued under the act from $900,000,000 to $300,000,000. The bill would enact the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2014 (the bond act) to authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $600,000,000, as specified, for expenditure by the California Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide multifamily housing to veterans pursuant to the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Act of 2014 (VHHPA) , also enacted by the bill. The bill would authorize the Legislature to amend the provisions of the bond act, by majority vote, for specified purposes. The bill would impose a specified reporting requirement on the Department of Housing and Community Development to evaluate, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs, any program established by the former pursuant to the VHHPA. The bill would authorize the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide specified assistance to veterans. The bill would provide for submission of a specified section to the voters at the June 3, 2014, statewide primary election, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law allows a person required to perform corrective action in response to an unauthorized release of petroleum from an underground storage tank to apply to the State Water Resources Control Board for payment of specified portions of the costs of corrective action. Existing law establishes the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund in the State Treasury and authorizes the money in the fund to be expended by the board, among other things, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to pay those claims, and requires, as a condition of eligibility for payment, that the claimant comply with the underground storage tank permit requirements. Existing law establishes until July 1, 2016, the School District Account in the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund for the payment of claims filed by a school district that takes corrective action to clean up an unauthorized release from a petroleum underground storage tank. This bill would require the board to waive the underground storage tank permit requirement for claims reimbursed from that account if the superintendent of the school district receiving the reimbursement certifies to the board that petroleum was not delivered on or after January 1, 2003, to the tank that is the subject of the claim or the tank was removed before January 1, 2003.

Existing workers' compensation law requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. Existing law provides that an injury may be either "specific," occurring as the result of one incident or exposure that causes disability or need for medical treatment, or "cumulative," occurring as repetitive mentally or physically traumatic activities extending over a period of time, the combined effect of which causes any disability or need for medical treatment. Existing law provides that an employee who has been hired outside of this state and his or her employer are exempt from these provisions while the employee is temporarily within this state doing work for his or her employer if the employer has furnished workers' compensation insurance coverage under the workers' compensation insurance or similar laws of a state other than California, as specified. This bill would exempt an employee hired outside of this state and his or her employer from the occupational disease and cumulative injury provisions of this state's workers' compensation laws if (1) the employee is a professional athlete, defined, for purposes of these provisions, to include an athlete who is employed at the minor or major league level in the sport of baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, or soccer, (2) that professional athlete is temporarily within this state doing work for his or her employer, and (3) the employer has furnished workers' compensation insurance under the laws of the state other than California that covers the professional athlete's employment while in this state, except as specified. This bill would deem a professional athlete to be temporarily within the state doing work for his or her employer if, during the 365 consecutive days immediately preceding the professional athlete's last day of work for the employer within the state, the professional athlete performs less than 20% of his or her duty days, as defined, in the state. The bill would also exempt a professional athlete and his or her employer from the occupational disease or cumulative injury provisions of this state's workers' compensation laws when all of the professional athlete's employers in his or her last year of work as a professional athlete are exempt from these provisions unless the professional athlete has, over the course of his or her professional athletic career, (1) worked for 2 or more seasons for a California-based team or teams, as defined, or worked 20% or more of his or her duty days in California or for a California-based team, and, (2) worked for fewer than 7 seasons for any team other than a California-based team. The bill would also state that it is the intent of the Legislature that the decision of the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board in Wesley Carroll v. Cincinnati Bengals, et al. (2013) 78 Cal.Comp.Cases ____ (ADJ2295331) (WCAB En Banc) be limited to professional athletes, and would include other specified statements of legislative intent. The bill would provide that these changes apply to all pending claims for benefits filed on or after September 15, 2013, as specified.

Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Department of Public Health to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. The department's duties include, but are not limited to, conducting research, studies, and demonstration programs relating to the provision of a dependable, safe supply of drinking water, enforcing the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, adopting and enforcing regulations, and conducting studies and investigations to assess the quality of water in domestic water supplies. Existing law establishes the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which is continuously appropriated to the department for grants and revolving fund loans for the design and construction of projects for public water systems that will enable suppliers to meet safe drinking water standards. Under existing law, a grant is authorized only to the extent the department finds the public agency or not-for-profit water company is unable to repay the full costs of a loan. This bill would limit loans and grants from the fund for planning and preliminary engineering studies, project design, and construction costs to those incurred by community and not-for-profit noncommunity public water systems and would specify that a small community water system or nontransient noncommunity water system that is owned by a public agency or a private not-for-profit water company and is serving a severely disadvantaged community, is deemed to have no ability to repay a loan. Under existing law, the maximum amount of a construction grant award to a public water system for a single project is $3 million or, for a public water system that serves a disadvantaged community, $10 million, as specified. This bill would authorize an applicant, subject to specified conditions, to receive up to the full cost of a project in the form of a loan.

Existing law, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act or the state act, establishes the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund program pursuant to which state and federal funds are continuously appropriated from the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund to the State Water Resources Control Board for loans and other financial assistance for the construction of publicly owned treatment works by a municipality, the implementation of a management program, the development and implementation of a conservation and management plan, and other related purposes in accordance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the state act. Existing law authorizes the board, until 2014, to assess a specified annual charge in connection with any financial assistance made pursuant to the revolving fund program in lieu of interest that otherwise would be charged and requires the proceeds generated from the imposition of that charge to be deposited in the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund Small Community Grant Fund or grant fund, along with any interest earned upon the moneys in the grant fund. Existing law provides that the charge remain unchanged until 2014, at which time it will terminate and be replaced by an identical interest rate, and prohibits the deposit of more than $50,000,000 into the grant fund. Existing law authorizes the board to expend the moneys in the grant fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for grants for eligible projects under the revolving fund program that serve small communities, as defined. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the charge remain unchanged until 2014 and instead would authorize the board to assess the charge without change unless the board makes a prescribed determination. This bill would require the board to replace the charge with an identical interest rate if the board ceases collecting the charge before the repayment is complete. This bill would eliminate the prohibition on the deposit of more than $50,000,000 collected by the charge into the grant fund. This bill would require the board to expend moneys appropriated from the grant fund within a period of 4 years from the date of encumbrance.