Asm. Felipe Fuentes

Existing law provides for the licensure of child day care centers, including centers that provide preschool services. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that all families have access to child care and development services, through resource and referral services, where appropriate, regardless of ethnic status, cultural background, or special needs. This bill would require the State Department of Education to post, by January 1, 2011, specified data relating to early childhood education on its DataQuest Internet Web site, and any successor system. This data would be required to be updated at least every 2 years.

Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to investigate employee complaints and to provide a hearing in any action to recover wages, penalties, and other demands for compensation. This bill would provide that, if the Labor Commissioner finds that a payroll record submitted in support of or opposition to a complaint was intentionally falsified, the person who submitted the payroll record shall be subject to a civil penalty.

Existing law requires an employer to provide a reasonable amount of break time for lactation purposes and specifies that the break time, if possible, shall run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. Under existing law, break time is unpaid if it does not run concurrently with the employee's authorized rest time. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to issue a citation for the violation of these provisions but exempts the violation from criminal prosecution. This bill would, instead, require an employer to provide a 20-minute paid rest period for lactation purposes during each 4-hour work period, immediately preceding or following the employee's rest period, and would specify that compliance with this requirement does not satisfy or affect an employer's separate obligation to provide a meal or rest period required by statute, an Industrial Welfare Commission order, or a collective bargaining agreement.

(1) Existing law provides that all persons and laborers of every class, except for an original contractor, performing labor upon, bestowing skill or other necessary services on, furnishing materials or leasing equipment to be used or consumed in, or furnishing appliances, teams, or power contributing to, a public work of improvement may serve a stop notice upon the public entity responsible for the public work, as specified. Existing law imposes a duty on a public entity to withhold money or bonds due or to become due to the original contractor in an amount sufficient to answer the claim stated in the stop notice and to provide for the public entity's reasonable cost of any litigation on the matter, as specified. This bill would qualify the requirement that the public entity withhold money or bonds sufficient to provide for reasonable litigation costs to make it applicable only if the original contractor fails to promptly accept a tender of defense of the public entity in the litigation. (2) Existing law requires that a 20-day public work preliminary bond notice be given under specified circumstances. If the notice is not given, a claimant may enforce a claim by giving written notice to the surety and the bond principal within 15 days after recordation of a notice of completion. If no notice of completion has been recorded, the time for giving written notice to the surety and the bond principal is extended to 75 days after completion of the work of improvement. This bill would provide, instead, if no notice is given, a claimant may enforce a claim by giving written notice to the surety and the bond principal prior to the completion of the project or recordation of a notice of completion. (3) Existing law imposes a penalty of 2% per month on funds that are improperly withheld in a contract dispute relating to public and private works of improvement, as specified. Existing law requires any person or corporation that has contracted to do business with a public utility to pay any subcontractor within 15 working days of receipt of each progress payment from the public utility, except as specified. Existing law also requires a state agency or an owner that fails to make any progress payment within 30 days after receipt of the payment request to pay interest at the rate of 10% per year. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to reconsider prompt payment statutes regarding public and private works of improvement to aid in their clarity and application. (4) Existing law provides that in a contract between the original contractor and a subcontractor, and in a contract between a subcontractor and any subcontractor thereunder, the percentage of retention proceeds withheld cannot exceed the percentage specified in the contract between the public entity and the original contractor. This bill would instead require that retention proceeds not exceed 5% of the payment, as specified, for all contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2010, between a public entity, as defined, and an original contractor, between an original contractor and a subcontractor, and between all subcontractors thereunder. (5) Existing law requires the Department of General Services to withhold not less than 5% of the contract price for a public work of improvement until final completion and acceptance of the project. This bill would require the Department of General Services to withhold not more than 5% of the contract price until final completion and acceptance of the project.

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 that act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires every health care service plan or health insurer that covers hospital, medical, or surgical expenses on a group basis to provide certain preventive health care benefits for children, including immunizations. Existing law specifies the reimbursement rate with respect to immunizations that are not part of the current contract between a health care service plan or physician group. This bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer that provides coverage for childhood and adolescent immunizations to reimburse a physician or physician group in an amount not less than the actual cost of acquiring the vaccine plus the cost of administration of the vaccine, as specified. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy providing coverage for childhood or adolescent immunizations from imposing a deductible, copayment, coinsurance, or other cost-sharing mechanism for the administration of a childhood or adolescent immunization or for related procedures. The bill would also prohibit those contracts or policies from containing a dollar limit provision for the administration of childhood and adolescent immunizations or including the cost of those immunizations in a dollar limit provision. Existing law prohibits a risk-based contract between a health care service plan and a physician or physician group from including a provision requiring the physician or physician group to assume financial risk for the acquisition costs of required immunizations for children. Existing law prohibits a plan from requiring a physician or physician group to assume financial risk for immunizations that are not part of the current contract. This bill would make those provisions apply to all contracts between plans and physicians or physician groups rather than just risk-based contracts. The bill would prohibit a plan from requiring a physician or physician group to assume financial risk for immunizations, whether or not those immunizations are part of the current contract. The bill would make other related changes. Existing law prohibits a health care service plan from including the acquisition costs associated with required immunizations for children in the capitation rate of a physician who is individually captitated. This bill would additionally prohibit a plan from including in that capitation rate the administration costs of those immunizations. 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. Existing law creates the Healthy Families Program, administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, to arrange for the provision of health, dental, and vision benefits to eligible children pursuant to a federal program, the State Children's Health Insurance Program. This bill would require a health plan participating in that program to reimburse a physician or physician group for immunizations administered to program subscribers in an amount not less than the actual cost of acquiring the vaccine plus the cost of administration of the vaccine, as specified. 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.

Under existing law and subject to an administrative hearing, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is required to immediately suspend the privilege of a person to operate a motor vehicle if the person was driving a motor vehicle when the person had 0.08% or more, by weight, of alcohol in his or her blood, the person was under 21 years of age and had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.01% or greater, as measured by a preliminary alcohol screening test, or other chemical test, or the person refused to submit to or failed to complete specified chemical or alcohol screening tests under specific circumstances. Existing law also requires the DMV to notify the person that he or she has within 10 days of the receipt of the notice of the order of suspension or revocation to request a hearing to contest the order of suspension or revocation. This bill would extend this period to 90 days.

The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit in an amount equal to 50% of specified adoption costs, not to exceed $2,500 per minor child who is a citizen or legal resident of the United States and who is in the custody of a public agency in this state. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2010, and before January 1, 2015, increase the credit limitation to a maximum of $5,000 with respect to the adoption of a minor child, as described, who is over 12 years of age or who was living in a group home or residential treatment facility, as defined, for a period of at least 6 months within 18 months prior to the time the adoption is completed. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is governed, in part, by federal Medicaid provisions. Existing law, commencing the later of January 1, 2010, or the date that all necessary federal approvals are obtained, requires, to the extent permitted under federal law, Medi-Cal benefits provided to an individual under 21 years of age who is an inmate of a public institution to be suspended, rather than terminated. Existing law requires county welfare departments to notify the department within 10 days of receiving information that an individual under 21 years of age on Medi-Cal in the county is or will be an inmate of a public institution. Existing law also requires, by a specified time period, the department, in consultation with the Chief Probation Officers of California and the County Welfare Directors Association, to establish the protocols and procedures necessary to implement these provisions. This bill would expand, with certain modifications, the above provisions, commencing the later of January 1, 2011, or the date that all necessary federal approvals are obtained, to the extent permitted under federal law, to an individual who is 21 years of age or older who is an inmate of a public institution. By expanding the duties of county welfare departments, this 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.

The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. The act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the act applicable. Existing law requires that a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is a person without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit relating to obtaining lawful immigration status, is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University. Existing law also requires the waiver of student fees charged by community college districts for students who demonstrate financial need or are otherwise eligible for the waiver. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to allocate, to community college districts for determining financial need and delivering student financial aid services, an amount based on the amount of fees waived. This bill would amend the Donahoe Higher Education Act to require the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and to request the Regents of the University of California, to establish procedures and forms that enable persons who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under that provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, to be eligible to receive institutional financial aid awards. The bill would define institutional financial aid as financial assistance offered by a campus of the California Community Colleges, California State University, or University of California, including grant, scholarship, workstudy, and loan programs. The bill would specify that institutional financial aid does not include a specified board of governors fee waiver. The bill would declare that it is a state law within the meaning of a federal statute that permits a state to provide an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States with eligibility for a state or local public benefit only through the enactment of a state law affirmatively providing for that eligibility. The bill would apply to the University of California only if the regents, by appropriate resolution, act to make it applicable.

The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, and provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would exempt from a specified portion of those taxes, for calendar years beginning on and after January 1, 2011, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, sustainable development equipment investments of tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person, as specified, and tangible personal property used primarily during the research and development process on qualified research. The bill would also exempt from a specified portion of those taxes, for calendar years beginning on and after January 1, 2013, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, tangible personal property purchased by a qualified person for use primarily in any stage of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of property, as specified, and tangible personal property purchased for use by a contractor purchasing that property for use in the performance of a construction contract for the qualified person who will use the property as an integral part of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling process, or as a storage facility for use in connection with the manufacturing process. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes or transactions and use taxes. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.