(1) 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 that health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies provide coverage for certain services and treatments, including emergency medical transportation services. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2020, to provide that if an enrollee, insured, or subscriber (individual) receives covered services from a noncontracting air ambulance provider, the individual shall pay no more than the same cost sharing that the individual would pay for the same covered services received from a contracting air ambulance provider, referred to as the in-network cost-sharing amount. The bill would provide that an individual would not owe the noncontracting provider more than the in-network cost-sharing amount for services. The bill would authorize a noncontracting provider to advance to collections only the in-network cost-sharing amount that the individual has failed to pay. The bill would authorize a health care service plan, health insurer, or provider to seek relief in any court for the purpose of resolving a payment dispute, and would not prohibit a provider from using a health care service plan's or health insurer's existing dispute resolution processes. 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. (2) Existing law, the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, effective until January 1, 2022, imposes a penalty of $4 until January 1, 2020, upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. The act requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to that act to the Treasurer for deposit into the Emergency Medical Air Transportation and Children's Coverage Fund. Under the act, moneys in the fund are made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Health Care Services for children's health care coverage and administrative costs relating to emergency medical air transportation provider payments. Existing law requires the assessed penalty to continue to be collected, administered, and distributed until exhausted or until June 30, 2021, whichever occurs first, and requires any remaining unexpended and unencumbered moneys in the fund to be transferred to the General Fund, to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes, including funding children's health care coverage. This bill would impose the penalty until July 1, 2020, and would extend the above-specified dates by six months. (3) 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.
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Existing law provides for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , administered in California as CalFresh, under which each county distributes nutrition assistance benefits provided by the federal government to eligible households. Existing law requires each county human services agency to carry out the local administrative responsibilities of this program, subject to the supervision of the State Department of Social Services and to rules and regulations adopted by the department. Existing law requires current and future CalFresh benefits to be reduced, as specified, to recover a benefit overissuance caused by administrative error. If a household is no longer receiving CalFresh benefits, existing law prohibits the establishment or collection of a CalFresh overissuance caused by administrative error if the overissuance is less than $125 or the minimum statewide cost-effective threshold established by the state, whichever is greater, and existing law requires collection if the overissuance is caused by inadvertent household error and the overissuance is $35 or more. This bill would increase those threshold overissuance claim amounts to $400 for a household that is no longer receiving CalFresh benefits. The bill would require the department to develop and implement a policy for compromising administrative error claims, in whole or in part, for households that include at least one elderly or disabled member, as specified. The bill would authorize its provisions to be implemented through an all-county letter no later than January 1, 2021.
Existing federal law provides for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law requires each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide for each needy pupil one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, as specified. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. Existing law provides for the establishment of a statewide electronic benefits transfer system, administered by the State Department of Social Services, for the purpose of providing financial and food assistance benefits. This bill would require the State Department of Education, the State Department of Health Care Services, and the State Department of Social Services to work together with specified stakeholders to develop a proposed statewide process for using data collected for purposes of the CalFresh program, Medi-Cal, free and reduced-price school meals programs, and the electronic benefits transfer system to increase enrollment in the CalFresh program, as provided. The bill would require those departments to submit recommendations on that process and related issues to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature on or before August 31, 2020.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2017, and before January 1, 2022, a credit for qualified taxpayers, defined as the person responsible for planting a crop, managing the crop, and harvesting the crop from the land, in an amount equal to 15% of the qualified value of fresh fruits or vegetables donated to a food bank. This bill, under both laws, would expand the credit to apply to the donation of qualified donation items, defined as raw agricultural products or processed foods. The bill would expand the definition of qualified taxpayer to include the person responsible for growing or raising a qualified donation item, or harvesting, packing, or processing a qualified donation item but would exclude a retailer, as defined, from that expanded definition. The bill would apply these provisions to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law, the Mosquito Abatement and Vector Control District Law, provides for the formation of mosquito abatement and vector control districts and specifies the powers and duties of the district boards. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to provide examinations to certify government agency employees and vector control technicians. This bill would create the California Mosquito Surveillance and Research Program, to be administered by the University of California, and would require the University to maintain an interactive internet website for management and dissemination of data on mosquitoborne virus and surveillance control and coordinate with the department, among other functions, to the extent the program receives federal, state, or private funding for those purposes. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
The hazardous waste control laws require the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the handling and management of hazardous waste and hazardous materials. A violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime. Existing law, as part of the hazardous waste control laws, prohibits a person from manufacturing, shipping, selling, or offering for sale or promotional purposes jewelry, as defined, for retail sale in the state, unless the jewelry is made entirely from specified materials that do not exceed specified lead and cadmium content limits. Existing law provides that, for jewelry that is not children's jewelry or body piercing jewelry, the content limits for electroplated metal, unplated metal, plastic or rubber, and dye or surface coating are 6%, 1.5%, 0.02%, and 0.06% of lead by weight, respectively. Existing law imposes separate content requirements for children's jewelry, as provided. Existing law defines "children" for purposes of these provisions to mean children 6 years of age and younger. Existing law requires a manufacturer or supplier of jewelry that is sold, offered for sale, or offered for promotional purposes to prepare a certification that attests that the jewelry does not contain a level of lead or cadmium in excess of the provided limits. Existing law provides test methods and procedures for testing jewelry for purposes of these provisions. This bill would revise and recast the provisions relating to the materials authorized to be used to make jewelry and children's jewelry, but with certain provisions not to become operative until June 1, 2020. The bill would, on and after June 1, 2020, reduce the lead content limits for electroplated metal, unplated metal, and a dye or surface coating to 0.05% of lead by weight, and would reduce the lead content limit for plastic or rubber to 0.02% of lead by weight. The bill would reduce the lead content limit for children's jewelry to 0.009% of lead by weight for surface coatings and 0.01% of lead by weight for all other components, and would reduce the cadmium limit for surface coatings on children's jewelry to 0.0075% of soluble cadmium by weight, as provided. The bill would revise the definition of "children" to mean persons under 15 years of age. The bill would require the manufacturer or supplier certification to include additional detail about the jewelry covered by the certification, including, among other things, the date or dates on which, and the location or locations where, the jewelry was tested for purposes of certification. Because a violation of these additional certification requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also authorize the use of additional specified test methods to determine compliance with the standards for lead in children's jewelry. 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 establishes the Pierce's Disease Control Program in the Department of Food and Agriculture and requires the Governor to appoint a statewide coordinator. Existing law establishes the Pierce's Disease Management Account in the Food and Agriculture Fund and allows certain money in this account to be expended to combat Pierce's disease and its vectors, including the glassy-winged sharpshooter, and for purposes relating to other designated pests and diseases, as provided. Existing law makes these provisions inoperative on March 1, 2021, and repeals them on January 1, 2022. This bill would extend to March 1, 2026, the date on which the above provisions become inoperative, and would repeal those provisions on January 1, 2027. The bill would require the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to appoint a statewide coordinator. By extending the operative date for a partially continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. Existing law creates in the department the Pierce's Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board, which consists of specified members, and prescribes the functions and duties of the board with respect to implementation of the Pierce's disease program. Existing law provides for an annual assessment to be paid by grape processors, as defined, into the Food and Agriculture Fund and continuously appropriates the collected funds for the purposes of, among other things, research and other activities related to the Pierce's disease program. Existing law repeals these provisions on March 1, 2021. This bill would extend the repeal date of these provisions to March 1, 2026, and would make related conforming changes. By extending the date until which the assessments are collected, the bill would make an appropriation.
The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act requires a person who discharges waste into the waters of the state in violation of waste discharge requirements or other order or prohibition issued by a California regional water quality control board or the State Water Resources Control Board to clean up the waste or to abate the effects of the waste. The act authorizes the state board or a regional board to issue a cleanup or abatement order that may require, among other things, the provision of, or payment for, uninterrupted replacement water service to each affected public water supplier or private well owner. The act, to the extent that funding is made available, authorizes the state board to provide grants to a county or qualified nonprofit organization that would award grants or loans, or both, to eligible applicants for specified purposes relating to drinking water and wastewater treatment. This bill would authorize the state board to provide grants to eligible applicants to be used to provide interim relief, as specified, to households in which a private water well has gone dry, or has been destroyed, due to drought, wildfire, or other natural disaster, subject to an appropriation of funds for that purpose by the Legislature. The bill would authorize the board to provide up to 10% of the funds appropriated for these purposes to eligible applicants for planning related to permanent solutions for private water wells that have gone dry, or have been destroyed, due to drought, wildfire, or other natural disaster.
This measure would proclaim September 29, 2019, as Gold Star Mothers' and Families' Day in California.
This measure would designate October 20, 2019, and each 20th day of October thereafter, as Leyte Landing Commemoration Day in recognition of the significance of the Leyte landing in liberating the Philippines from Japanese occupation and would also honor the significant contributions to California made by generations of Filipino Americans since that time.