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. Under existing law, regional centers purchase needed services for individuals with developmental disabilities through approved service providers or arrange for those services through other publicly funded agencies. Existing law establishes specified rates and wages to be paid to certain service providers and the rates to be paid for certain developmental services. Existing law requires that rates to be paid to other developmental service providers either be set by the department or negotiated between the regional center and the service provider. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments to be reduced, as specified. This bill would appropriate a specified sum to the State Department of Developmental Services to, commencing July 1, 2016, among other things, increase rates and wages for certain developmental services providers and fund incentive payments for competitive integrated employment opportunities and internships for individuals with developmental disabilities. The bill would require the department to submit a rate study to specified committees of the Legislature on or before March 1, 2019, regarding community-based services for individuals with developmental disabilities. The bill would require each regional center to report specified information to the department regarding increased funding for regional center operations. The bill would, for dates of service on or after August 1, 2016, increase the payment rates for intermediate care facilities and skilled nursing facilities that provide services to developmentally disabled individuals under the Medi-Cal program, as specified. The bill would also prohibit the State Department of Health Care Services from seeking to retroactively implement certain Medi-Cal provider payment reductions and limitations with regards to reimbursements for services provided by skilled nursing facilities that are distinct parts of general acute care hospitals for dates of service on or after June 1, 2011, and on or before September 30, 2013, and from seeking to recoup overpayments, as specified. Existing law requires the department and regional centers to annually collaborate to compile specified data relating to purchase of service authorization, utilization, and expenditure by each regional center. Existing law requires each regional center to annually report to the department regarding the regional center's implementation of these requirements, including whether the data indicates a need to reduce disparities in the purchase of services among consumers in the regional center's catchment area and the regional center's recommendations and plan to promote equity, and reduce disparities, in the purchase of services. Existing law requires the department to consult with specified stakeholders to review the data, develop recommendations to help reduce disparities in purchase of service expenditures, and encourage development and expansion of culturally appropriate services, among other things, and to report the status of its efforts during the 2016–17 legislative budget subcommittee hearing process. The bill would also require the department, subject to available funding, to allocate funding to regional centers to assist in implementing specified recommendations and plans, including the recommendations and plans of the regional centers to promote equity, and reduce disparities, in the purchase of services. Existing law requires an entity that receives payments between $250,000 and $500,000 per year from one or more regional centers to obtain either an independent audit or an independent review report of its financial statements, and requires an entity that receives payments that are equal to or more than $500,000 per year to obtain an independent audit. This bill would instead require an entity that receives payments between $500,000 and $2,000,000 from one or more regional centers to obtain an independent review report of its financial statements, and would authorize these entities to apply for, and require the regional center to grant, a 2-year exemption from this requirement if the regional center does not find issues in the independent review report that have an impact on regional center services. The bill would require an entity that receives payments from one or more regional centers that are equal to or more than $2,000,000 to obtain an independent audit and would authorize these entities to apply for, and require the regional center to grant, a 2-year exemption from the audit requirement if the audit resulted in an unmodified opinion, an unmodified opinion with additional communication, or a qualified opinion with issues that are not material. The bill would require a regional center to annually report to the State Department of Developmental Services any exemptions granted pursuant to these provisions.
Sponsored bills
This measure would declare the month of January 2016 as Pet Care Education Month and would request Californians to observe the month by ensuring that their companion animals receive the proper preventative care by establishing a financial plan for pet health emergencies and by contributing to charitable organizations that provide low-cost spay and neuter services and vaccinations or funds to help low-income individuals pay for veterinary care.
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 state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act makes various findings and declarations. The act defines various terms, including "statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit," for purposes of the act. This bill would make changes to those findings and declarations. The bill would revise the definition of "statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit."
Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. This bill, commencing with the 2016–17 fiscal year, would establish the California DREAM Work-Study Program under the administration of the California State University and University of California to provide financial aid for students meeting its requirements. These requirements would include: enrollment, or acceptance for enrollment, at a campus of the California State University or the University of California; exemption from nonresident tuition pursuant to a specified provision of existing law or an equivalent provision adopted by the Regents of the University of California; making a timely application for financial aid using a designated application; qualification under applicable income and need standards applied to work-study programs at the institution at which the student is enrolled or accepted for enrollment; and meeting additional eligibility requirements as may be deemed appropriate by the institution at which the student is enrolled or accepted for enrollment. The bill would deem a student who participates in other work-study programs ineligible to receive financial aid under the California Dream Work-Study Program. To participate in the program, the bill would require, upon verification that a student is eligible for financial aid under this program, that the California State University and the University of California match 100% of the cost of the work-study grant of a student whose work under the program is accomplished on a campus of the respective university or at a campus or other facility of a school district or community college district, or 50% of the cost of the work-study grant of a student whose work under the program is accomplished at any other location.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , on a biennial basis, to conduct assessments and forecasts of all aspects of energy industry supply, production, transportation, delivery, and distribution. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, beginning November 1, 2003, and biennially thereafter, to adopt an integrated energy policy report containing an overview of major energy trends and issues facing the state. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory jurisdiction over the public utilities, including electrical corporations. This bill would require the Energy Commission, in collaboration with the Public Utilities Commission, to conduct an analysis of plug-in equipment electricity consumption, as specified, and set statewide, long-term energy efficiency targets to reduce the amount of electricity consumed by plug-in equipment. The bill would require the Energy Commission, in collaboration with the Public Utilities Commission, to develop, track the progress of, revise, and update an implementation plan to achieve those targets, as specified. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, in collaboration with the Energy Commission, to work with stakeholders to address challenges to the achievement of those targets.
The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is required to reduce, recycle, and reuse solid waste generated in the state to the maximum extent feasible in an efficient and cost-effective manner to conserve water, energy, and other natural resources. Existing law requires a pharmaceutical manufacturer selling or distributing medication that is intended to be self-injected at home to submit, on an annual basis, to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a plan supporting the safe collection and proper disposal of specified waste devices. Existing law leaves in operation Department of Toxic Substances Control regulations, adopted until January 1, 2008, to exempt a hazardous waste management activity, including management of hazardous waste batteries, from certain statutory requirements related to hazardous waste management if specified conditions for exemption are met, including that the regulations identify the waste as a universal waste. This bill would establish the Product Stewardship Pilot Program and, until January 1, 2024, would require producers and product stewardship organizations of covered products, defined to mean a consumer product that is used or discarded in this state and is either home-generated sharps waste or household batteries, to develop and implement a product stewardship plan, as specified. This bill would require, by July 1, 2017, a producer of a covered product, individually or through a product stewardship organization, to submit a product stewardship plan to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. The bill would require the product stewardship plan to include specified elements, including strategies to achieve performance standards and a funding mechanism that provides sufficient funding to carry out the plan. The department would be required to review and determine whether the plan is complete and, if complete, determine whether to approve or not approve the plan. The bill would require the department to notify the submitter of its decision to approve or not approve the plan, and, if the department does not approve the plan, would require the department to describe the reasons for its disapproval. The bill would authorize the submitter to revise and resubmit the plan and would specify that a plan not approved by January 1, 2018, is out of compliance. The bill would require a producer or product stewardship organization implementing a product stewardship plan to prepare and submit to the department an annual report describing the activities carried out pursuant to the product stewardship plan, including whether the producer or product stewardship organization, in implementing the plan, attained the performance standards for the covered product, and if the performance standards were not met, what actions the producer or product stewardship organization will be taking to attain those performance standards. A producer or product stewardship organization submitting a product stewardship plan would be required to pay the department an annual administrative fee, as determined by the department. The bill would require the fee be set at an amount that, when paid by every product stewardship organization that submits a product stewardship plan, is adequate to cover the department's full costs of administering and enforcing the program. The bill would provide for the imposition of administrative civil penalties upon a person who violates the bill and would provide that a plan submitter whose plan is not approved by the department by July 1, 2018, is subject to those penalties until the plan is approved. The bill would establish the Product Stewardship Account in the Integrated Waste Management Fund and would require the fees collected by the department to be deposited in that account, for expenditure by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the department's cost to implement the bill's provisions. The bill would also establish the Product Stewardship Penalty Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Fund and would require that the civil penalties collected by the department pursuant to the bill's provisions be deposited in that subaccount, for expenditure by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the department's costs to implement the bill's provisions. The bill would provide that certain actions of a product stewardship organization or its members are not violations of the Cartwright Act or certain provisions regulating unfair business practices or unfair competition. The bill would require the department, by January 1, 2017, to adopt regulations to implement these provisions, including setting performance standards for each covered product, which would include a minimum collection rate and appropriate geographic coverage, and procedures for product stewardship plan submittal. By March 1, 2017, the department would also be required to appoint a stakeholder advisory committee for each covered product to provide technical feedback to a product stewardship organization. The bill would also require the advisory committee to annually report to the department on the progress of the product stewardship organizations' implementation of the bill's provisions. The bill would require the department, by July 1, 2023, to report, for each covered product, specified information to the appropriate committees of the Legislature, including, the department's evaluation of each product stewardship organization, product stewardship organization evaluations of the department and stakeholder advisory committee, stakeholder advisory committee reports, and audited financials of each product stewardship organization. The bill would authorize the department to impose additional reporting requirements on product stewardship organizations and the stakeholder advisory committees to meet the department's reporting requirements to the Legislature.
This measure would proclaim January 26, 2016, as India Republic Day, and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating India Republic Day.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with this program. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the requirement that the state board adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with the program.