The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, defined to mean the cutting or removal, or both, of timber or other solid wood forest products from timberlands for commercial purposes, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted for the operations to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act provides an exception from its provisions for timber operations that involve the removal of trees less than 16 inches in diameter at breast height from a firebreak or fuelbreak if the removal meets specified requirements, including the requirement that the removed trees will not be processed into logs or lumber. 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 act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to develop and implement a fuels transportation program that provides competitive grants or other financial incentives for projects in eligible communities to offset the costs of transporting fuels to an eligible biomass facility, an innovative forest products facility, or a mass timber facility, as specified. The bill would authorize the agency to allocate moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund consistent with the purposes of the fund.
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The California Emergency Services Act creates within the office of the Governor the Office of Emergency Services, which is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services, as specified. The Public Safety Communication Act of 2002, among other things, requires the Public Safety Radio Strategic Planning Committee to develop and implement a statewide integrated public safety communication system that facilitates interoperability among state public safety departments and other first response agencies and coordinate other shared uses of the public safety spectrum consistent with decisions and regulations of the Federal Communications Commission. This bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to establish and operate a grant program, upon appropriation of adequate funds by the Legislature, to provide assistance in obtaining, retrofitting, purchasing, and maintaining interoperability systems in K–12 school, community college, and California State University campuses, and University of California campuses, and to enable local fire agencies to enable their systems of communications to be connected to, and coordinated with, communications and security technology systems installed and operating on K–12 school, community college, and California State University campuses, and University of California campuses, as specified.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the tax imposed by that law, including, in conformity with federal income tax law, a deduction for amounts paid, not to exceed $50 per month, by a taxpayer to maintain an individual, who is not a dependent or a relative, as a member of the taxpayer's household during the period that the individual is a full-time pupil or student in elementary or secondary grades at specified educational organizations. Existing law does not allow this deduction where the taxpayer receives compensation or reimbursement for maintaining the individual, as provided. This bill, for each taxable year beginning on and after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, would increase the authorized deduction, not to exceed $500 per month, for individuals described above whose permanent place of residence is not the United States and would allow the deduction to taxpayers who receive compensation or reimbursement for maintaining that individual. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law establishes the Board of Behavioral Sciences within the Department of Consumer Affairs, and requires the board to regulate various registrants and licensees under the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act, the Educational Psychologist Practice Act, the Clinical Social Worker Practice Act, and the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act. This bill would require the board to offer every applicant for an initial registration number or license and every applicant for renewal of a registration number or license under the board's jurisdiction the option to elect to have the applicant's home address be kept confidential.
Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Motor Vehicles implement procedures to ensure, to the fullest extent permitted by the resources made available to it, that a person who is requesting certain services will not be required under normal circumstances to wait in any one line for service longer than 12 hour during the department's published or posted hours of operation. This bill would instead require the department to implement those procedures. The bill would also require every office of the department to post information relating to wait times and would require the department to make that wait time information available on the department's Internet Web site and by telephone.
Existing law creates the State Department of Public Health and provides that the head of that department is the State Registrar of Vital Statistics. Existing law requires the state registrar to establish registration districts within the state for the purpose of registering births and deaths. Existing law requires that a death be registered with the local registrar of births and deaths in the district in which the death was officially pronounced or the body was found, within 8 calendar days after death. Existing law requires the department to implement an electronic death registration system for the creation, storage, and transfer of death registration information. Existing state and federal law define and regulate credit reporting agencies, which provide reports bearing on a consumer's creditworthiness. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to negotiate with a credit reporting agency, as defined, that wishes to receive notices of death from the department. If the department and agency reach a mutually acceptable agreement in this regard, the bill would require the department, within 14 days of a death registration with the electronic death registration system, to provide notice of an individual's death to the credit reporting agency for the purpose of placing a warning in the decedent's credit report, as specified. The bill would require the department to furnish the necessary information in its possession to properly identify the individual. The bill would authorize the department to provide the notification in the manner it deems most economical and efficient, including electronically.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish contracts for electronic programs that allow qualified private industry partners to provide services that include processing and payment programs for vehicle registration and titling transactions. Existing law authorizes the department to enter into a partnership with an interstate carrier partner to provide electronic vehicle registration services and to enter into contractual agreements with interstate carrier partners, if certain criteria are met. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to explore ways to increase its partnerships with motor clubs, qualified private industry partners, and others to provide services traditionally provided by the department and would authorize those partners to provide specified services. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature every 2 years beginning January 1, 2022, on its progress to expand and increase those partnerships.
Existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, requires the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with stakeholders, to develop an alternative service delivery model that provides an Individual Choice Budget and suspends a regional center's authority to purchase certain services, including, camping services and associated travel expenses, social recreation activities, educational services, and nonmedical therapies, as specified, pending implementation of the Individual Choice Budget and certification that the Individual Choice Budget has been implemented and will result in state budget savings, as specified. This bill would repeal the above-described suspension of a regional center's authority to purchase camping services and associated travel expenses, or social recreation activities.
Existing law prohibits dumping waste matter in or upon a public or private highway or road, in or upon private property into or upon which the public is admitted by easement or license, upon private property without the consent of the owner, or in or upon a public park or other public property. A violation of these provisions is an infraction punishable by a fine between $250 and $1,000 for a first conviction, between $500 and $1,500 for a 2nd conviction, and between $750 and $3,000 for a 3rd or subsequent conviction. This bill would make dumping waste matter on private property, including on any private road or highways, without the consent of the owner, punishable by a fine between $250 and $1,000 for a first conviction, between $500 and $1,500 for a 2nd conviction, and between $750 and $3,000 for a 3rd conviction. The bill would make a 4th or subsequent conviction a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 30 days and by a fine of not less than $750 nor more than $3,000. The bill would also require the fine to be doubled for the 4th or subsequent violation if the prosecuting attorney pleads and proves, or, in an infraction case, if the court finds, that the waste placed, deposited, or dumped includes used tires. By changing the definition of 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.
Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to implement various fire protection programs intended to protect forest resources and prevent uncontrolled wildfires. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency, to prepare and submit to the Legislature and the appropriate legislative policy and budget committees, on or before January 1, 2021, and by January 1 of each year thereafter, until January 1, 2024, a report on the progress made with regard to the implementation of a specified forest carbon plan, as described, and the policies and resources needed to meet the objectives of the plan.