Existing law prohibits a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains personal information about that individual, including, but not limited to, the individual's social security number, telephone number, driver's license number, or credit card account number, unless that personal information is contained within sealed correspondence and cannot be viewed from the outside of that sealed correspondence. This bill would prohibit a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail that contains an individual's social security number unless the number is truncated to its last 4 digits or in specified circumstances, including when federal law requires inclusion of the social security number or when documents are mailed to a current or prospective state employee. The bill would require each state agency that mails an individual's full or truncated part of a social security number to that individual to report to the Legislature, on or before September 1, 2021, regarding when and why it does so. The bill would require a state agency that, in its own estimation, is unable to comply with the restrictions on mailing social security numbers that have not been truncated to submit an annual corrective action plan to the Legislature until it is in compliance. The bill would make the reports, action plans, and related correspondence confidential and would prohibit their public disclosure. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Sponsored bills
This measure would designate a specified portion of State Route 50 in the County of El Dorado as the Deputy Sheriff Brian "Ish" Ishmael Memorial Highway. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.
The Insurance Rate Reduction and Reform Act of 1988, an initiative measure enacted by Proposition 103, as approved by the voters at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, prohibits specified insurance rates from being approved or remaining in effect that are excessive, inadequate, unfairly discriminatory, or otherwise in violation of the act. The act requires an insurer that wishes to change a rate to file a complete rate application with the Insurance Commissioner, as specified. This bill would require the commissioner to investigate, study, and prepare a report that addresses specific issues relating to ratemaking for residential property insurance policies in high fire risk areas. The bill would require the study to address the extent to which the commissioner may use its authority to create one or more market assistance plans to ensure that residential property insurance is fair, available, and affordable in high fire risk communities, the costs and benefits of authorizing insurers to include the cost of reinsurance as part of the rate for residential property insurance, and the extent to which the establishment of a public wildfire catastrophe model would be appropriate for use in residential property insurance ratemaking. The bill would require the commissioner, on or before July 1, 2022, to submit the report to the Chairpersons of the Assembly and Senate Committees on Insurance, the Speaker of the Assembly, the President pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Governor. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025.
Existing law creates the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, and prescribes the commissioner's powers and duties. Existing law requires the commissioner to conduct or commission various studies and prepare various reports relating to the business of insurance. This bill would require the commissioner, on or before July 1, 2022, to complete a study on wildfire risk and insurance, including market-based approaches.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to award and administer, on a competitive basis, grants for projects directed at the prevention of tobacco-related diseases. Existing law requires a local lead agency, as defined, to implement specified health education against tobacco use. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to provide leadership for the successful implementation of tobacco use prevention programs administered by local public and private schools, school districts, and county offices of education. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to conduct statewide surveillance of tobacco-related behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes, evaluate local and state tobacco control programs, evaluate the effectiveness of specified tobacco use prevention education directed at schools, and implement a tobacco use prevention media campaign, as specified. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to conduct a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Provider Awareness Campaign to increase awareness of COPD, as specified, and to target the COPD Provider Awareness Campaign to, among others, primary care providers and family care providers. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Existing law prohibits a person or entity from providing the operation of a voice recognition feature of a connected television within the state without prominently informing the specified user of the connected television during the initial setup or installation. Existing law prohibits any actual recordings of spoken word collected for a specified purpose through the operation of a voice recognition feature by the manufacturer of a connected television, or a contracting third party, from being sold or used for any advertising purpose. Existing law prohibits a person or entity from compelling a manufacturer or other entity providing the operation of a voice recognition feature to build specific features for the purpose of allowing an investigative or law enforcement officer to monitor communications through that feature. Existing law limits the liability of a manufacturer to functionality provided at the time of the original sale of a connected television and specifically excludes liability for functionality provided by applications the user chooses to use in the cloud or that are downloaded and installed by a user. Existing law prohibits a waiver of these prohibitions and authorizes their enforcement by injunction or civil penalty in a court of competent jurisdiction by the Attorney General or a district attorney. Existing law defines terms for these purposes. This bill would include smart speaker devices, as defined, in those provisions, thereby prohibiting, among other things, a person or entity from providing the operation of a voice recognition feature within the state without prominently informing the user during the initial setup or installation of a smart speaker device. The bill would prohibit any actual recordings or transcriptions collected or retained through the operation of a voice recognition feature by the manufacturer of a connected television or smart speaker device, that qualify as personal information or that are not deidentified, from being used for any advertising purpose, or being shared with, or sold to, a third party, unless the user has provided affirmative written consent, as defined. The bill would also prohibit them from being retained by the manufacturer, as specified, unless the user opts in to having that recording retained by the manufacturer either during installation or at a later time in the device settings. The bill would revise existing definitions and define additional terms for its purposes.
The California Endangered Species Act requires the Fish and Game Commission to establish a list of endangered species and a list of threatened species and to add a species to, or remove a species from, either list if it finds, upon the receipt of sufficient scientific information, and based solely upon the best available scientific information, that the action is warranted. The act requires a petition for the listing or delisting of a species to include, at a minimum, sufficient scientific information that the petitioned action may be warranted, including information regarding the population trend, range, distribution, abundance, and life history of the species, the factors affecting the ability of the population to survive and reproduce, and the degree and immediacy of the threat. The act requires the commission to accept a petition for consideration if the commission finds that the petition provides sufficient information to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted. If a petition accepted for consideration proposes to add a species to either list, the act requires the commission to publish a notice that the species is a candidate species. The act establishes procedures and timelines for the review of an accepted petition for a candidate species. Under the act, the commission may authorize the taking of any candidate species, subject to terms and conditions it prescribes and based on the best available scientific information, if the take is consistent with the act. This bill would require the commission to accept a petition for consideration concurrent with a taking if the commission finds that the petition provides sufficient information to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted, but the geographic proliferation of the species may lead to significant economic hardship or an impact on critical infrastructure during the above-described review of an accepted petition, and if a preponderance of the evidence presented in the petition shows there is no direct threat to the species that would lead to its decline during that period. The bill would also make conforming changes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Under existing law, price, fitness, and quality being equal, any body, officer, or other person charged with the purchase, or permitted or authorized to purchase supplies for the use of the state, or of any of its institutions or offices, or for the use of any county or city, is required to always prefer supplies that are manufactured or produced in the state, and is required to next prefer supplies partially manufactured or produced in the state. Existing law requires all California state-owned or state-run institutions, except public universities and colleges and school districts, to purchase an agricultural product grown in California when the bid or price of the California-grown agricultural product does not exceed by more than 5% the lowest bid or price for an agricultural product produced outside the state and the quality of the California-grown agricultural product is comparable. Existing law also requires the institutions, when they solicit or intend to accept a bid or price for agricultural products grown outside the state, to accept the bid or price from a vendor that packs or processes these agricultural products in the state before accepting a bid or price from a vendor that packs or processes these agricultural products outside of the state when specified conditions are met, including that the bid or price of the agricultural product grown outside the state and packed or processed in the state does not exceed by more than 5% the lowest bid or price for the agricultural product packed or processed outside the state. Existing law requires a school district that solicits bids for the purchase of an agricultural product to accept a bid or price for that agricultural product when it is grown in California before accepting a bid or price for an agricultural product that is grown outside the state when the bid or price of the California-grown agricultural product does not exceed the lowest bid or price for an agricultural product produced outside the state and the quality of the California-grown agricultural product is comparable. Under existing law, these provisions only apply to a contract to purchase agricultural products for a value that is less than the value of the threshold for supplies and services for which California has obligated itself under the Agreement on Government Procurement of the World Trade Organization. This bill would instead require all California state-owned or state-run institutions, including public universities and colleges and school districts, that purchase agricultural products to only purchase an agricultural product grown in California unless the agricultural product is not available from an in-state source or is not grown in the state. The bill would eliminate the above-described preference for in-state vendors. The bill would eliminate the provision that limits the application of these preferences to contracts to purchase agricultural products for a value that is less than the value of the above-described threshold. The bill would exempt agricultural products provided to a California state-owned or state-run institution by the United States Department of Agriculture through the Foods in Schools program from these preferences. The bill would define "agricultural product" for purposes of these provisions as fruits, tree nuts, peanuts, vegetables, melons, potatoes, meat from livestock, eggs, or dairy products. The bill would require the California State Auditor to investigate violations of these provisions. By creating new duties for school districts and community college districts, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
The California Constitution limits the amount of ad valorem taxes on real property to 1% of the full cash value of that property, defined as the county assessor's valuation of real property as shown on the 1975–76 tax bill and, thereafter, the appraised value of the property when purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership occurs after the 1975 assessment, subject to an annual inflation adjustment not to exceed 2%. The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to authorize a person over 55 years of age or any severely and permanently disabled person residing in property eligible for the homeowner's exemption to transfer the base year value of that property to a replacement dwelling of equal or lesser value located in the same county, or another county that has adopted an ordinance allowing base years value transfers from other counties, as provided. The California Constitution also provides that the purchase or transfer of the principal residence, and the first $1,000,000 of other real property, of a transferor in the case of a transfer between parents and their children, or between grandparents and their grandchildren if all the parents of those grandchildren are deceased, is not a "purchase" or "change in ownership" for purposes of determining the "full cash value" of property for taxation. This measure, beginning on and after April 1, 2021, would authorize an owner of a primary residence who is over 55 years of age, severely disabled, or a victim of a wildfire or natural disaster, as defined, to transfer the taxable value, defined as the base year value plus inflation adjustments, of their primary residence to a replacement primary residence located anywhere in the state, regardless of the location or value of the replacement primary residence, that is purchased or newly constructed as that person's principal residence within 2 years of the sale of the original primary residence. The measure would limit a person who is over 55 years of age or severely disabled to 3 transfers under these provisions. The measure, beginning on and after February 16, 2021, would exclude from the terms "purchase" and "change in ownership" for purposes of determining the "full cash value" of property the purchase or transfer of a family home or family farm, as those terms are defined, of the transferor in the case of a transfer between parents and their children, or between grandparents and their grandchildren if all the parents of those grandchildren are deceased. In the case of a transfer of a family home, the measure would require that the property continue as the family home of the transferee. The measure would require that the taxable value of the property be determined as provided. In the case of property tax benefits provided to a family home under these provisions, the bill would require the transferee to claim the homeowner's or disabled veteran's exemption within one year of the transfer. The measure would specify that the above-described provisions relating to transfers between parents or grandparents and children or grandchildren would apply to transfers occurring on or before February 15, 2021. The measure would establish the California Fire Response Fund in the State Treasury. The measure would require the Controller to annually transfer a specified amount, based on calculations by the Director of Finance, of the additional revenues and savings that accrued to the state from the implementation of this measure's provisions from the General Fund to that fund. However, the measure would provide that, if the amount required to be transferred to the California Fire Response Fund exceeds the amount transferred for the previous fiscal year by more than 10%, that excess amount would not be transferred to the California Fire Response Fund. The measure would require the Legislature to appropriate moneys in the fund solely for the purpose of funding fire suppression staffing by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and underfunded special districts that provide fire protection services, as provided. The measure would also establish the County Revenue Protection Fund and continuously appropriate moneys in that fund for the purpose of reimbursing eligible local agencies, as provided. The measure would require the Controller to annually transfer a specified amount, based on the above-described calculations by the Director of Finance, from the General Fund to that fund. The measure would require each county to annually determine the gain of the county and any local agency within the county resulting from the implementation of this measure and, if that amount of gain is negative, provide that specified eligible local agencies may receive a reimbursement from the County Revenue Protection Fund. The measure would require the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide a reimbursement to each eligible local agency that has a negative gain, determined every 3 years based on the aggregate gain of the eligible local agency, as provided, and require the Controller to transfer any remaining balance in the County Revenue Protection Fund to the General Fund at the end of each 3-year period, to be available for appropriation for any purpose.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires the PUC and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to undertake specified actions to advance the state's clean energy and pollution reduction objectives, including, where feasible, cost effective, and consistent with other state policy objectives, to increase the use of large- and small-scale energy storage with a variety of technologies, including green electrolytic hydrogen, targeted energy efficiency, demand response, eligible renewable energy resources or other renewable and nonrenewable technologies with zero or lowest feasible emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants onsite to protect system reliability. For these purposes, "green electrolytic hydrogen" is defined as hydrogen gas produced through electrolysis and not from fossil fuel. Existing law requires the PUC, State Air Resources Board (state board) , and Energy Commission to consider green electrolytic hydrogen as an eligible form of energy storage, and to consider other potential uses of green electrolytic hydrogen. This bill would include use of green electrolytic hydrogen as an alternative transportation fuel as another potential use for these purposes. The Charge Ahead California Initiative, administered by the State Air Resources Board (state board) , among other things, requires the state board to identify and adopt appropriate policies, rules, or regulations to remove regulatory disincentives preventing certain retail sellers of electricity from facilitating the achievement of greenhouse gas emission reductions in nonelectrical industry sectors through increased investments in transportation electrification. Existing law, enacted as part of the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015, requires the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission and state board, to direct electrical corporations to file applications for programs and investments to accelerate widespread transportation electrification, as defined, to achieve specified results. The PUC is required to approve, or modify and approve, programs and investments in transportation electrification, including those that deploy charging infrastructure, through a reasonable cost recovery mechanism, if they meet specified requirements. This bill would revise the definition of "transportation electrification" for this purpose to include the use of renewable hydrogen when used directly as a transportation fuel in fuel cell electric vehicles, if the hydrogen meets specified renewable content requirements. The bill would require the PUC, in consultation with the state board and the Energy Commission, to authorize gas corporations to file applications for investments in programs to accelerate widespread transportation electrification to advance specified environmental objectives. The bill would require the PUC to approve, or modify and approve, programs and investments in transportation electrification, including hydrogen and hydrogen-related distribution, pipelines, and make-ready infrastructure for hydrogen, utilizing a reasonable cost recovery mechanism if they are consistent with the specified environmental objectives, do not unfairly compete with nonutility enterprises, include performance accountability measures, and are in the interest of ratepayers, as defined. Existing law generally designates the state board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution and requires the state board, in partnership with the Energy Commission and in conjunction with other state agencies, to develop and adopt a state plan to increase the use of alternative fuels, as defined. Existing law requires the state board to adopt regulations that will ensure that, in any year immediately following a 12-month period in which the mass of hydrogen fuel dispensed for transportation purposes in California exceeds 3,500 metric tons, no less than 33.3% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be made from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined. This bill would require those regulations to require that, on a statewide basis, not less than 33.3% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be renewable hydrogen, as defined. The bill would require that the renewable hydrogen percentage be increased to 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, 60% by December 31, 2030, and would require that by December 31, 2045, 100% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be either renewable hydrogen or clean hydrogen produced using zero-carbon resources. Existing law requires that the governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility with an annual electrical demand exceeding 700 gigawatthours adopt an integrated resource plan and a process for updating the plan at least once every 5 years to ensure the utility achieves specified objectives. Existing law requires that the integrated resource plan address procurement of, among other things, transportation electrification and a diversified procurement portfolio consisting of both short-term and long-term electricity, electricity-related, and demand response products. By expanding the definition of transportation electrification the bill would expand the matter that a local publicly owned electric utility must consider when updating an integrated resource plan, thereby imposing 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.