Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department (department) to administer the federal-state unemployment insurance program and provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law establishes procedures for the filing, determination, and payment of benefit claims, and those benefits are payable from the Unemployment Fund. Existing law requires the department to promptly pay benefits if it finds the claimant is eligible and to promptly deny benefits if it finds the claimant is ineligible for benefits. Existing law requires the department to consider facts submitted by an employer in making this determination and also provides for the department to audit claims, as specified. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2021, require the department, as part of its process for determining eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits, cross-check all claimant information with state and county correctional facility inmate data in an effort to detect fraudulent applications. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal law, generally disallows passive activity loss and passive activity credits for any taxable year in computing taxable income. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028, would provide that the limitations on passive activity losses and credits do not apply to forest management costs, as defined, of up to $25,000, as provided. The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to comply with the additional information requirement for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages and the granting of licenses for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages within the state. Existing law limits the amount of on-sale general licenses that may be issued by the department based on the population of the county in which the licensed premises are located. Existing law provides an exception to this limitation for the County of Inyo, allowing a total of 5 extra new licenses to be issued between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2019. This bill would recast those provisions to allow a total of 5 extra new licenses to be issued between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2025. The bill would also authorize an additional 5 extra new licenses to be issued between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2025. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for County of Inyo.
Existing law establishes the California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program to address the special needs of disabled veterans seeking rehabilitation and training through entrepreneurship and to recognize the sacrifices of Californians disabled during military service. Existing law requires that contracts awarded by a state agency, department, officer, or other state governmental entity for specified services have statewide participation goals of not less than 3% for disabled veteran business enterprises. Existing law defines a disabled veteran for purposes of this program as a veteran of the military, naval, or air service of the United States, as specified, who has at least a 10% service-connected disability and who is domiciled in the state. This bill would expand the definition of a disabled veteran for purposes of this program by additionally including a veteran who is doing business in the state, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department, administered by the Director of Employment Development, within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth its powers and duties related to the administration of the state unemployment and disability compensation programs. This bill would require the department to establish, upon appropriation by the Legislature, an advisory committee to advise the department on matters within the department's jurisdiction, including, but not limited to, unemployment insurance. The bill would require the committee to include members representing a diverse spectrum of private and public employers and employees impacted by programs overseen by the department, as provided. The bill would require the committee to hold open and public meetings in compliance with the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act at least once a quarter. The bill would require, commencing on January 1, 2023, the committee to prepare and publicly publish an annual report describing its activities, including, but not limited to, recommendations made by the advisory committee and the department's response to those recommendations. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
Existing law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to a person, other than that driver, or in the death of a person to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident and provide specified personal information to the injured person or the occupants of the other vehicle and to any traffic or police officer at the scene of the accident. Under existing law, if a vehicle accident results in permanent, serious injury or death, a person who violates the requirement to stop is subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, or by a specified fine, or both the imprisonment and fine. Existing law authorizes the court, in the interests of justice and for other reasons stated in the record, to reduce or eliminate the minimum imprisonment or fine requirements. This bill would instead make a person who fails to immediately stop, as required, at the scene of an accident that resulted in a permanent, serious injury subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, and a specified fine, and if the accident resulted in death, the violation of those requirements would be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 3, 4, or 6 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, and a specified fine.
Existing law requires the Department of Technology to improve the governance and implementation of information technology by standardizing reporting relationships, roles, and responsibilities for setting information technology priorities. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to develop, implement, and administer the California Advanced Services Fund program to encourage deployment of high-quality advanced communications services to all Californians. Existing law provides that the goal of the program is to, no later than December 31, 2022, approve funding for infrastructure projects that will provide broadband access to no less than 98% of California households, as provided. This bill would enact the Broadband for All Act of 2022, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to support the 2022 Broadband for All Program that would be administered by the department for purposes of providing financial assistance for projects to deploy broadband infrastructure and broadband internet access services. The bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 8, 2022, statewide general election.
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. Existing law requires those fines to be doubled if the waste matter placed, deposited, or dumped was used tires. This bill would also require those fines to be doubled if the waste matter placed, deposited, or dumped was a livestock carcass.
Existing law defines a disabled veteran to include a person who, as a result of injury or disease suffered while on active service with the Armed Forces of the United States, has a disability that has been rated at 100% by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the military service from which the veteran was discharged, due to a diagnosed disease or disorder that substantially impairs or interferes with mobility. Existing law exempts a disabled veteran from the payment of vehicle registration fees, as specified. This bill would extend a prorated discount on vehicle registration fees, as specified, to a partially disabled veteran, as defined.
Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention activities, as defined, in the state. Existing law requires the department to prioritize, to the extent feasible, projects that are multiyear efforts. Existing law authorizes the department to consider the fire risk of an area, among other things, when awarding local assistance grants. This bill would expand the definition of "fire prevention activities" to include the removal of hazardous dead trees, creation of fuel breaks and community defensible spaces, and creation of ingress and egress corridors. The bill would also require the department to prioritize projects that have a completed, or nearly completed, environmental review document, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to consider and evaluate the wildfire risk within the proposed project area, as well as the socioeconomic characteristics of communities that the various education and mitigation projects are intended to protect, when awarding local assistance grants. Existing law requires the department to provide a report to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature on or before July 1, 2022, that includes a summary of specified findings relating to fire prevention activities and the local assistance grant program. This bill would also require the report to include, but not be limited to, the total amount of acreage treated by an awarded grant recipient, whether the project was awarded funding for vegetation management activities, the number of communities protected by an awarded project, and the total number of population receiving a benefit of the project.