Existing law provides that the public shall not be admitted to a juvenile court hearing in a dependency proceeding, unless requested by a parent or guardian and consented to or requested by the minor concerning whom the petition has been filed. Existing law permits the judge or referee to admit those persons as he or she deems to have a direct and legitimate interest in the particular case or the work of the court. This bill would require, contingent upon the securing of private funding, the Judicial Council to establish a 4-year pilot project in 3 counties to create a presumption that juvenile court hearings in juvenile dependency cases be open to the public, unless the court finds that admitting the public would not be in a child's best interest, as provided. The bill would require the Judicial Council to contract with an independent organization to conduct an evaluation and prepare a report to the Legislature regarding the results of the pilot project, as specified. The bill would also include a related statement of legislative findings and declarations.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides for the enforcement and collection of certain licensing fees, taxes, and charges levied by the state, and defines various terms for these purposes. Existing law authorizes an officer, as defined, to bring suit on behalf of the state against certain taxpayers to collect certain licensing fees, taxes, and charges owed to the state. This bill would modify the definition of officer to include secretary.
Existing law provides for the creation of various programs to provide health care services to persons who have limited incomes and meet various eligibility requirements. These programs include the Healthy Families Program administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, and the Medi‑Cal program administered by the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Commencing January 1, 2014, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires every individual to be covered under minimum essential coverage, as specified, and requires every health insurance issuer issuing individual or group health insurance coverage to accept every employer and individual who applies for coverage. Existing law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans through the Exchange by qualified individuals and small employers by January 1, 2014. This bill would establish the California Healthcare System to be administered by the newly created California Healthcare Agency under the control of a Healthcare Commissioner appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate. The bill would make all California residents eligible for specified health care benefits under the California Healthcare System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services. The bill would require the commissioner to seek all necessary waivers, exemptions, agreements, or legislation to allow various existing federal, state, and local health care payments to be paid to the California Healthcare System, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds. The bill would create the Healthcare Policy Board to establish policy on medical issues and various other matters relating to the system. The bill would create the Office of Patient Advocacy within the agency to represent the interests of health care consumers relative to the system. The bill would create within the agency the Office of Health Planning to plan for the health care needs of the population, and the Office of Health Care Quality, headed by a chief medical officer, to support the delivery of high-quality care and promote provider and patient satisfaction. The bill would create the Office of Inspector General for the California Healthcare System within the Attorney General's office, which would have various oversight powers. The bill would prohibit health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies from being issued for services covered by the California Healthcare System, subject to appropriation by the Legislature, and would authorize the collection of penalty moneys for deposit into the Healthcare Fund, which the bill would create. The bill would create the Payments Board to administer the finances of the California Healthcare System. The bill would create the California Healthcare Premium Commission (Premium Commission) to determine the cost of the California Healthcare System and to develop a premium structure for the system that complies with specified standards. The bill would require the Premium Commission to recommend a premium structure to the Governor and the Legislature on or before January 1, 2014, and to make a draft recommendation to the Governor, the Legislature, and the public 90 days before submitting its final premium structure recommendation. The bill would specify that only its provisions relating to the Premium Commission would become operative on January 1, 2013, with its remaining provisions becoming operative on the earlier of the date the Secretary of California Health and Human Services notifies the Legislature, as specified, that sufficient funding exists to implement the California Healthcare System and the date the secretary receives the necessary federal waiver under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The bill would extend the application of certain insurance fraud laws to providers of services and products under the system, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by revising the definition of a crime. The bill would enact other related provisions relative to budgeting, regional entities, federal preemption, subrogation, collective bargaining agreements, compensation of health care providers, conflict of interest, patient grievances, and independent medical review. 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.
Existing law requires that child care be provided in 3 stages to recipients of benefits under the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. The first stage of child care begins upon the entry of a person into the CalWORKs program. The 2nd stage of child care begins when a county determines that the work or approved work activity of the recipient is stable or when a recipient is making the transition off of aid and child care is available through a local stage 2 program. The 3rd stage of child care, which is administered by programs contracting with the State Department of Education, begins when a funded child care space becomes available for the child or children of the eligible CalWORKs recipient. This bill would reappropriate $60,000,000 in unobligated balances appropriated in the Budget Act of 2009 to the State Department of Education for CalWORKs Stage 3 child care services. The bill would also require the State Department of Education to use those funds for families that were receiving, or would have been eligible to receive, CalWORKs Stage 3 child care services, before, on, or after October 31, 2010. The bill would declare that it makes appropriations for the usual and current expenses of the state, thereby taking immediate effect.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 regulates mass mailings, known as slate mailers, that support or oppose multiple candidates or ballot measures for an election. The act requires that each slate mailer identify the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer, and to contain other specified information in specified formatting. The act requires that each candidate and each ballot measure that has paid to appear in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk. This bill would instead require that a candidate or ballot measure appearing in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk if the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer has received payment to include the candidate or ballot measure in the slate mailer. The bill would also recast the language of the prescribed notice to voters that must be included on a slate mailer. The act also regulates advertisements, which are defined as any general or public advertisement that is authorized and paid for by a person or committee for the purpose supporting or opposing a candidate for elective office or a ballot measure or ballot measures. The act places certain disclosure requirements on advertisements for or against any ballot measure, including that the advertisement disclose any person who has made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more, as prescribed. The act places more specific disclosure requirements on broadcast or mass mailing advertisements that are paid for by independent expenditures that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. This bill would repeal provisions relating to disclosures for advertisements paid for by an independent expenditure and required disclosures of persons who have made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more. This bill would, instead, impose specified disclosure requirements on radio, television, and video advertisements, and certain mass mailing and print advertisements that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure or solicit contributions in support of those purposes. The bill would require advertisements that are authorized by a candidate or agent of the candidate to include a statement in which the candidate identifies himself or herself and states that he or she approves the message. The bill would require advertisements that are not authorized by a candidate or an agent of the candidate to disclose, in a prescribed format, the 3 largest identifiable contributors, as defined, of the committee that paid for the advertisement. The bill would require mass mailings or print advertisements that are paid for by certain persons who are not committees to disclose the name of that person as the funder of the mass mailing or print advertisement. The bill would also require that certain committees establish and maintain a committee disclosure Internet Web site, as defined, which discloses the top 5 identifiable contributors and provides a link to the Internet Web site maintained by the Secretary of State for campaign finance disclosures of the committee. The bill would require these advertisements to identify the address for the committee disclosure Internet Web site. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating additional crimes. 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. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by those laws. Both laws allow a deduction for ordinary and necessary business expenses, including a deduction for amounts paid or incurred for specified types of punitive damages. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2012, would, under both laws, disallow the deduction for amounts paid or incurred for punitive damages, as provided. This bill would constitute a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
This bill would urge the United States Patent and Trademark Office to place a satellite office in California.
This measure would designate that January 16, 2012, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America.
Existing law requires the Governor to submit to the Legislature, within the first 10 days of each calendar year, a budget for the ensuing fiscal year. Under existing law, the budget is required to contain a complete plan and itemized statements of all proposed expenditures and all estimated revenues of the state for the ensuing fiscal year, together with a comparison with the actual revenues and expenditures for the last completed fiscal year, the estimated revenues and expenditures for the existing fiscal year, and the budgeted revenues and expenditures for the next fiscal year. Existing law further requires the Director of Finance to provide to the Legislature, on or before May 14 of each year, an estimate of General Fund revenues for the current fiscal year and the ensuing fiscal year, any proposals to reduce expenditures to reflect updated revenue estimates, and specified proposed adjustments to the Governor's Budget. This bill would require the Director of Finance to submit, at the time of the submission of the budget by the Governor, or as soon thereafter as feasible, total recommended state General Fund expenditures and estimated state revenues, which include (1) an estimate of total General Fund resources, including any proposed resources, available for state General Fund expenditures for the budget year and the succeeding 3 fiscal years, (2) a 5-year capital infrastructure plan, (3) a projection of anticipated state expenditures for the budget year and the succeeding 3 fiscal years, and (4) to the extent possible, projections applicable to the budget year from the previous 4 enacted Budget Act projections. The bill would require specified parts of this information to be updated, as soon as feasible, within specified times.
Existing law generally regulates the transfer of firearms and provides for retaining specified information regarding firearm transfers by the Department of Justice. Existing law establishes different requirements regarding reportable information for handguns and firearms that are not handguns. Under existing law, the Department of Justice requires firearms dealers to keep a register or record of electronic or telephonic transfers of information pertaining to firearms transactions, as specified. Existing law exempts from these requirements certain transactions involving firearms that are not handguns. This bill would conform those provisions so that the transfers and information reporting and retention requirements for handguns and firearms other than handguns are the same. This bill would provide that those exemptions become inoperative on January 1, 2014. Existing law, subject to specified exceptions, prohibits peace officers, Department of Justice employees, and the Attorney General from retaining or compiling certain information relating to transactions regarding firearms that are not handguns, as specified. A violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. This bill would provide that those provisions are repealed on January 1, 2014, and thereafter would require those peace officers to retain and compile information regarding firearms that are not handguns, as specified. Existing law requires a personal handgun importer to report certain information relative to bringing a handgun into the state, as specified. Violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2014, apply these reporting requirements instead to a "personal firearm importer," as defined, and would expand the reporting requirements to apply to the importation of firearms that are not handguns. The bill would further prohibit a personal firearm importer from importing a firearm that is a .50 BMG rifle or a destructive device. By expanding these provisions, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate changes to Section 27590 of the Penal Code made by AB 109, which is chaptered but not yet operative. The bill would make additional conforming changes and would make additional technical, nonsubstantive changes. 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.