Rep. Brian Nestande

Existing law provides that any person who feloniously steals, takes, or carries away the personal property of another, or who fraudulently appropriates property that has been entrusted to him or her, is guilty of theft. Existing law also provides that a person who, being a dealer in or collector of junk, metals, or secondhand materials, buys or receives any wire, cable, copper, lead, solder, mercury, iron, or brass that he or she knows or reasonably should know is ordinarily used by, or ordinarily belongs to, a railroad or other transportation, telephone, telegraph, gas, water, or electric light company or county, city, or city and county without using due diligence to ascertain that the person selling or delivering the same has a legal right to do so, is guilty of criminally receiving that property. Existing law establishes the Department of Justice, which is headed by the Attorney General and tasked with, among other things, representing California in criminal cases. This bill, until January 1, 2020, would require the Department of Justice to establish a Metal Theft Task Force Program designed to enhance the capacity of the department to serve as the lead law enforcement agency in the investigation and prosecution of illegal recycling operations, and metal theft and related recycling crimes, and would authorize the department to enter into partnerships, as defined, with local law enforcement agencies, regional task forces, and district attorneys for the purpose of achieving the goals of the program. The bill would authorize the department to enter into an agreement with any state agency for the purpose of administering the program. The bill would establish the Metal Theft Task Force Fund, to be administered by the Department of Justice, and would continuously appropriate all moneys in that fund to the department for the purposes of the program, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the Department of Justice to submit a comprehensive report to the Legislature, no later than December 31, 2018, on the status and progress, since the year 2016, of the program in deterring, investigating, and prosecuting illegal recycling operations, and metal theft and related recycling crimes. The bill would specify that the program would not be implemented until the Department of Justice determines that sufficient moneys have been deposited in the fund to implement the program. Existing law requires, until January 1, 2019, a weighmaster who is a junk dealer or recycler to pay an additional annual fee of $500 to the Department of Food and Agriculture for each location at which the weighmaster operates, as specified, for the administration and enforcement of specified provisions. The bill would extend the operation of the above provisions until January 1, 2020, and would additionally require a weighmaster who is a junk dealer or recycler, as defined, to pay a specified additional license fee to be deposited into the Metal Theft Task Force Fund and to be expended by the Department of Justice for the purpose of administering the Metal Theft Task Force Program. The bill would prohibit the proceeds of this fee from exceeding an aggregate total of $2,000,000 per year.

Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when income is derived directly from real property acquired and operated by the state as a wildlife management area, as defined, to pay annually to the county in which the property is located an amount equal to the county taxes levied upon the property at the time title to the property was transferred to the state, and any assessments levied upon the property by any irrigation, drainage, or reclamation district. This bill would appropriate $19,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties for unpaid amounts under these provisions. The bill would also appropriate $2,000,000 annually, beginning with the 2014–15 fiscal year, from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties under these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

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. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law specifies the benefits provided pursuant to the program, including the purchase of prescribed drugs that are covered subject to utilization controls. Utilization controls include a requirement that the treatment provider obtain prior authorization for providing medical treatment, as specified. This bill would, to the extent permitted by federal law, provide that drugs in specified therapeutic drug classes that are prescribed by a Medi-Cal beneficiary's treating provider are covered Medi-Cal benefits. The bill would require, except as specified, that a Medi-Cal managed care plan cover the drug upon demonstration by the provider that the drug is medically necessary and consistent with federal rules and regulations for labeling and use, as specified.

Existing provisions of the California Constitution prohibit the Legislature from sending to the Governor for consideration, and prohibit the Governor from signing, a Budget Bill that would appropriate from the General Fund a total amount that, when combined with specified appropriations and transfers, exceeds General Fund revenues for that fiscal year estimated as of the date of the Budget Bill's passage. This measure would require that the estimate of the General Fund revenues described above be made by the Controller. The measure would require the Controller, within 3 days after a Budget Bill is submitted to the Governor, to certify whether the Budget Bill meets the above requirement regarding appropriations from the General Fund. The Governor would be prohibited from signing a Budget Bill that the Controller certifies as not meeting that requirement unless the Governor reduces or eliminates items of appropriation in the bill and the Controller certifies that the bill, as adjusted, meets that requirement. This measure would prohibit either house of the Legislature from adjourning for a recess after sending a Budget Bill to the Governor until the Controller has provided the certification described above.

This measure would designate a 5-mile portion of Interstate 10 as the CAL FIRE Firefighter Christopher Lee Douglas Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

Existing law imposes an annual minimum franchise tax, except as provided, on every corporation incorporated in this state, qualified to transact intrastate business in this state, or doing business in this state. Existing law exempts a corporation that incorporates or qualifies to do business in this state from the payment of the minimum franchise tax in its first taxable year. Existing law imposes an annual tax in an amount equal to the minimum franchise tax on every limited liability company doing business in this state. In addition, existing law requires every limited liability company if the articles of organization have been accepted by, or a certificate of registration has been issued by, the Secretary of State to pay an annual tax in an amount equal to the minimum franchise tax. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2015, and before January 1, 2018, reduce that minimum franchise tax for a corporation and that annual tax for a limited liability company, as provided, that is a new veteran-owned small business, as defined, and would eliminate the tax if the business operates at a loss or ceases operation. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to allow pupils whom the district has determined would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work to attend community college as special part-time or full-time students, subject to parental permission. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, required credit to be awarded to these pupils, as specified, made the authority of a school principal to recommend a pupil for community college summer session contingent upon a determination that the pupil met various criteria, and prohibited the principal from recommending more than 5% of the total number of pupils from any particular grade level who completed that grade immediately before the time of recommendation for summer session attendance, except as specified. This bill would reinstate these provisions until January 1, 2017. The bill would, until July 1, 2020, authorize the governing board of a school district to enter into a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement with a community college district located within its immediate service area to allow pupils to attend community college. The bill would require a community college district and a school district, as a condition of, and before adopting, a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement, to take testimony from the public and approve or disapprove the proposed agreement at a regularly scheduled open public hearing of its respective governing board after having presented the agreement at a prior open public hearing. The bill would require the concurrent enrollment partnership agreement to outline the terms of the partnership, as specified. The bill would prohibit a school district from receiving a state allowance or apportionment for an instructional activity for which a community college district has been, or will be, paid an allowance or apportionment under a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement. The bill would authorize a participating high school to monitor the progress of its pupils attending a community college and to obtain the pupils' records from a community college district to do so. The bill would require, for each concurrent enrollment partnership agreement entered into under the bill, the affected community college district and school district to file an annual report, containing specified data, with the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. The bill would also authorize the governing board of a community college district to enter into a partnership with the governing board of a school district located within its service area with the goal of developing seamless pathways from high school to community college for career technical education or preparation for transfer. The bill would require the partnership agreement to outline the terms of the partnership, as specified, and would require copies of the partnership agreement to be filed with the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The bill would authorize a community college district to limit enrollment in a community college course to solely high school pupils under specified circumstances. The bill would authorize specified high school pupils to enroll in up to 15 units if those units are required for these pupils' partnership programs and specified circumstances are satisfied, and would authorize a community college district to exempt special part-time and full-time students taking up to a maximum of 15 units per term from specified fee requirements. The bill would prohibit a community college district from receiving a state allowance or apportionment for an instructional activity for which a school district has been, or will be, paid an allowance or apportionment under a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement. The bill would require, for each partnership agreement entered into under the bill, the affected community college district and school district to file an annual report, containing specified data, with the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. The bill would also make related and conforming changes.

(1) Existing law establishes the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program, which requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to award a grant, for the purpose of purchasing or leasing agricultural career technical education equipment, to an applicant school district that operates an agricultural career technical education program and that meets specified requirements. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to annually adopt or update a local control and accountability plan that contains specified information. This bill would continuously appropriate the sum of $4,134,000 in each fiscal year beginning with the 2015–16 fiscal year from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of funding the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program. The bill would require the Superintendent to award a grant to a school district that, in addition to meeting the existing requirements, demonstrates how the expenditure of the grant funds will be consistent with its adopted local control and accountability plan. The bill would also express various findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to agricultural career technical education. (2) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.

The Corporation Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2015, and before January 1, 2020, would allow a credit against the taxes imposed under that law for 50% of monetary contributions to qualified K-College education scholarship organizations, as defined, to fund qualified K-College education scholarships, as defined. The bill would provide that the credit would not exceed $200,000 per taxpayer, that the credit would be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, and that the credit would have an aggregate cap of $10,000,000 for each calendar year. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board and the State Department of Education to administer the credit, as specified. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.