The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes a credit against the taxes imposed by that law in an amount equal to the lesser of 5% of the purchase price or $10,000 in the case of the purchase of a qualified principal residence on and after March 1, 2009, and before March 1, 2010, but not to exceed an aggregate limitation of $100,000,000 for all credits allowable. Existing law requires a certification that the residence has never been occupied be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the sale of the qualified principal residence. This bill would limit the credit to taxpayers who purchased a qualified principal residence on and after March 1, 2009, and before July 3, 2009, and on and after the effective date of this bill and before March 1, 2010. This bill would also require the aggregate limitation of credits to be reduced by a specified amount per certification received by the Franchise Tax Board. (2) The bill would appropriate the sum of $44,000 from the General Fund to the Franchise Tax Board, in augmentation of a specified appropriation made in the 2009-10 Budget Act. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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The Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) creates the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) , which provides a defined benefit to its employees based on age at retirement, service credit, and final or highest compensation paid to the employee. In the case of an employee who has been employed by one or more contracting public agencies, retirement benefits distributed to that employee is the obligation of all of contracting public agency employers and is prorated to each of the contracting public agencies based upon the number of years that the employee worked for each of those agencies. This bill would provide that the obligations for retirement benefits that are attributable to excess compensation earned by a nonrepresented employee who was employed by one or more public agencies shall be the sole obligation of the subsequent contracting agency that paid the excess compensation. This bill would define "excess compensation" as the final compensation of an employee of a contracting agency who previously worked for another contracting agency to the extent the final compensation received from the current contracting agency is in excess of 15% of the salary paid by the prior contracting agency, as adjusted for actuarial increases in that salary.
The California Constitution provides that the right to water shall be limited to that amount of water that is reasonably required for the beneficial use to be served. Existing law declares that the use of potable domestic water for cooling towers is a waste or an unreasonable use of water if recycled water is available and other requirements are met. The existing renewables portfolio standard program requires that a retail seller of electricity, including electrical corporations, community choice aggregators, and electric service providers, but not including local publicly owned electric utilities, purchase a specified minimum percentage of electricity generated by eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, in any given year as a specified percentage of total kilowatthours sold to retail end-use customers each calendar year. This bill would declare that the use of potable domestic water for cooling towers that are part of a generating system that is an eligible renewable energy resource is a reasonable use of water if certain requirements are met.
(1) The Administrative Procedure Act generally sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. An agency that is considering adopting, amending, or repealing a regulation is authorized to consult with interested persons before initiating regulatory action, and requires an agency to do so when the regulation involves complex or numerous proposals. This bill would require the agency, if it does not, or is unable to, consult with these parties to inform in writing the Office of Small Business Advocate and the Department of Finance of its decision and the reasons for not consulting the impacted businesses. (2) The act requires every state agency subject to the act to submit, with the notice of the proposed adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation, an initial statement of reasons for proposing the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation, which is required to include, among other things, a description of any reasonable alternatives that would lessen any adverse impact on small business and the agency's reasons for rejecting those reasonable alternatives. The act specifies the agency is not required, in this initial statement, to artificially construct alternatives, describe unreasonable alternatives, or justify why it has not described alternatives. This bill would require the agency to describe the agency's reasons for rejecting each specific alternative, and would delete the specification that an agency is not required to artificially construct alternatives, describe unreasonable alternatives, or justify why it has not described alternatives. (3) The act requires a state agency to assess the potential of a proposal to adopt, amend, or repeal a regulation to adversely affect business enterprises and individuals. This bill would also require an agency to submit an economic impact statement that makes that assessment and would also require an agency, before submitting a proposal, to prepare a small business economic impact statement that contains specified information. (4) Under the act, the agency must issue a notice of proposed action that includes prescribed information, including, if a state agency makes an initial determination that the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation will not have a significant statewide adverse economic impact directly affecting business, a declaration of that determination. This bill would delete that requirement and instead require, if an agency declares that it is not aware of any cost impact, that the notice of proposed action include a statement describing how a private person or business could comply with the proposed regulation without incurring a cost. This bill would also require that the notice of proposed action include the small business economic impact statement that this bill requires an agency to prepare. (5) The act also requires the Department of Finance to adopt and update, as necessary, instructions for inclusion in the State Administrative Manual prescribing the methods that any agency is required to use in making the determinations relating to mandates on local agencies or school districts, as specified. This bill would also require the Department of Finance to adopt and update, as necessary, instructions prescribing the methods that any agency is required to use in making the determinations relating to significant, statewide adverse economic impacts directly affecting business, as specified. (6) The act requires the Office of Administrative Law to review and approve regulations that are adopted, amended, or repealed, using prescribed standards. The act requires that the office reject a proposed regulation in specified circumstances. This bill would require that the office reject a proposed regulation if the adopting agency does not provide specified information relating to the small business economic impact statement. (7) The act authorizes any interested person to obtain a judicial declaration as to the validity of specified regulations or orders of repeal, by bringing an action for declaratory relief in the superior court in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure. This bill would specify that an interested person includes, but is not limited to, a small business or an organization or trade association that represents small businesses and whose members are affected by the regulation. (8) The bill would also make conforming changes to the act.
This measure would proclaim the month of May to be Women Veterans Recognition Month.
Existing law prescribes the procedures for contracting by local public agencies, including water agencies. Existing law authorizes the Castaic Lake Water Agency to prescribe methods for the construction of works and for the letting of contracts for the construction of works, structures, or equipment, or the performance or furnishing of labor, materials, or supplies, for carrying out specified provisions, subject to certain limits. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.
Existing law provides that no handgun ammunition vendor, as defined, shall sell, offer for sale, or display for sale, any handgun ammunition in a manner that allows that ammunition to be accessible to a purchaser without the assistance of the vendor or employee thereof. This bill would repeal those provisions. Existing law requires, subject to exceptions, commencing February 1, 2011, that handgun ammunition vendors obtain a thumbprint and other information from ammunition purchasers, as specified. Existing law provides, subject to exceptions, that commencing February 1, 2011, the delivery or transfer of ownership of handgun ammunition may only occur in a face-to-face transaction, with the deliverer or transferor being provided bona fide evidence of identity of the purchaser or other transferee. Violations of any of the above provisions are misdemeanors, some with specified penalties. This bill would repeal those provisions.
The California Constitution provides that the electors may propose statutes or amendments to the state constitution through the initiative process by presenting to the Secretary of State a petition that sets forth the text of the proposed statute or amendment to the Constitution and is certified to have been signed by a certain number of electors. This measure would prohibit an initiative measure that would result in a net increase in state or local government costs other than costs attributable to the issuance, sale, or repayment of bonds, from being submitted to the electors or having any effect unless and until the Legislative Analyst and the Director of Finance jointly determine that the initiative measure provides for additional revenues in an amount that meets or exceeds the net increase in costs.
Existing law requires the Department of Parks and Recreation to develop, operate, and maintain units of the state park system. This bill would require the Director of Parks and Recreation, not later than January 1, 2012, to establish the Santa Susana State Park Advisory Committee, which would be responsible for assisting the department, in an advisory capacity, to plan for interim and permanent land uses and facilities through the general planning process for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in Ventura County. The bill would also require the department to take specified actions with respect to the development of a state park at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site.
This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to consider the removal of commercial, economic, and financial restrictions relating to agricultural sales to Cuba.