Asm. Mike Gatto

Existing law prohibits domestic insurers from acquiring foreign investments from or located in foreign jurisdictions designated as state sponsors of terrorism by the United States Secretary of State. This bill would prohibit a domestic insurer from acquiring any direct or indirect investment, as defined, in Iran. The bill would disallow and treat as a nonadmitted asset on the financial statements required to be filed with the Insurance Commissioner any direct or indirect investment of an admitted foreign insurer in Iran.

(1) Existing law, added by Proposition 6, an initiative measure enacted by voters at the June 8, 1982, statewide primary election (hereafter the initiative measure) , prohibits the imposition of any tax on or by reason of any transfer occurring by reason of death, but imposes a California estate tax, commonly referred to as the "pick up tax" equal to a certain portion of the maximum allowable amount of credit for state death taxes allowable under the applicable federal estate tax law. Due to changes in federal law, the pick up tax became inoperative as of January 1, 2005. Existing law, for the 2010–11 fiscal year, reduces an appropriation from the General Fund to the Controller for subvention payments to counties under the Williamson Act from $10,000,000 to zero. This bill would declare the Legislature's intent to propose an amendment to the initiative measure to provide a state sales and use tax exemption for purchases of manufacturing equipment used in the manufacturing process and to use the revenue generated from imposing a California estate tax to fully fund the Williamson Act subventions and to supplant the reduction of General Fund revenue resulting from the exemption for purchases of manufacturing equipment. The bill would propose to the voters of the state a repeal of the provision of the initiative measure prohibiting the imposition of a tax on or by reason of any transfer occurring by reason of death. The proposed amendment to the initiative measure would impose an estate tax upon the transfer of property of every decedent with an estate valued at more than $1,000,000, in accordance with specified criteria and procedures, during the timeframe for which the California pick up tax provisions are inoperative. The proposed amendment would also require the Controller to administer and collect the tax imposed, and would require the personal representative of every estate subject to the tax to file with the Controller a return and to pay the tax in the form prescribed by the Controller. The proposed amendment would make the personal representative of a decedent's estate personally liable for payment of the estate tax, and would provide that any personal representative failing to perform these duties shall forfeit any right to payment for settling the estate. The tax imposed by the proposed amendment would be a special lien upon the gross estate of a decedent, extinguishable as specified. Pursuant to those provisions, no tax would be imposed for any period for which a federal estate tax is payable to the United States and federal tax laws allow a credit for state death taxes in an amount that would otherwise be imposed. (2) Existing law establishes the Estate Tax Fund and continuously appropriates the moneys in the fund to pay refunds for estate taxes and generation skipping transfer taxes, as specified, with the balance of the money in that fund being transferred to the unappropriated surplus in the General Fund, upon order of the Controller. This bill would propose to the voters an amendment of the initiative measure to reallocate the moneys in the Estate Tax Fund, whereby those moneys would be continuously appropriated to pay refunds for estate taxes, including those imposed upon estates valued at $1,000,000 or more, and generation skipping transfer taxes. The amendment to the initiative measure would further provide that after payment of refunds, those moneys shall be continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal year, to make subvention payments to counties under the Williamson Act, and the remaining balance of the moneys in the fund shall be transferred to the unappropriated surplus in the General Fund. The amendment to the initiative measure would additionally propose to exempt from the estate tax the value of specified agricultural real property and agricultural personal property, if certain conditions are met. (3) 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. The bill would propose an amendment to the initiative measure to exempt from those sales and use taxes the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, tangible personal property, as defined, purchased for use by a qualified person, as defined, to be used in manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, recycling of property, or other specified processes, and tangible personal property purchased for use by a contractor for specified purposes, as provided. This amendment would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes, transactions and use taxes, and specified state sales and use taxes. The amendment would permit its provisions to be amended by a bill passed by a 23 vote of the membership of both houses of the Legislature and signed by the Governor. (4) Existing law prohibits amendment of the initiative measure by the Legislature unless the amendment is approved by the voters. This bill would call a special election to be consolidated with the next statewide general election. It would condition the amendment of the initiative measure upon voter approval, and would require the Secretary of State to submit the provisions of the bill that amend the initiative statute to the voters for their approval at the next consolidated statewide election. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an act calling an election.

Existing law requires members of the public to obtain license, permits, or to register with state agencies prior to undertaking certain types of tasks. This bill would require the Governor to establish a Internet Web site, known as the California Licensing and Permit Center (CLPC) , to assist the public with licensing, permitting, and registration requirements of state agencies. This bill would require the Governor to operate, via both e-mail and telephone methods, a help center to assist applicants with licensing, permitting, and registration requirements. This bill would require state agencies that the Governor determines has licensing authority to cooperate with this program by providing accurate updated information about their licensing requirements. This bill would create the California License and Permit Fund in the State Treasury, and require state agencies that are required to participate in the CLPC to reallocate a portion of their operating budget, as specified, to pay for the operating cost of the CLPC. This bill would state that upon appropriation by the Legislature, revenues from the fund will be used only for purposes of the bill. This bill would require the CLPC to be provided to the public free of charge.

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.

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.

This measure would designate the week of April 18 to 24, 2012, as "California Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923," and would memorialize the Congress and the President of the United States to observe the California Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide by participating in the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Project.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit against those taxes for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in an amount equal to a specified percentage of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture has relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law requires the California Film Commission to allocate the tax credits until July 1, 2014, and limits the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated to qualified motion pictures in any fiscal year to $100,000,000, through the 2013–14 fiscal year. This bill, under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, would extend the California Film Commission's requirement to allocate the tax credits one additional year, until July 1, 2015. This bill would also extend the limit on the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated through the 2014–15 fiscal year. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law requires, subject to specific exemptions, public records to be open to public inspection. This bill would require the California Technology Agency to create and maintain a Reporting Transparency in Government Internet Web site, as prescribed. It would require, subject to specific exemptions, state agencies to post specified audits to that Internet Web site for a period of 3 years, and would require the Department of General Services, the California Technology Agency, and other state agencies to post specified summary data regarding contracts awarded by the state to that Internet Web site, for the length of the contract. The bill would exempt certain state officers from the requirement of posting the information to the Reporting Transparency in Government Internet Web site, if that officer posts the required information to his or her official Internet Web site, as specified. This bill would specify that the Reporting Transparency in Government Internet Web site shall only remain in operation until the Financial Information System for California (FISCal) is operative and available for public use.

Existing law provides that it is the policy of the state to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state, and that it is the purpose of existing law to prohibit acts that are contrary to that policy and to provide remedies therefor. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to develop a model handout, posted on appropriate department Internet Web sites, describing the rights and obligations set forth in these provisions and the policies addressing bias-related discrimination and harassment in schools. Existing law also requires the department to monitor adherence to these provisions and, as part of its regular monitoring and review of local educational agencies, to assess whether local educational agencies have adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination and harassment and a process for receiving and investigating complaints of discrimination and harassment, as specified. This bill would require the policy adopted by the local educational agencies to prohibit discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived characteristics, as specified. The bill also would require the process for receiving and investigating complaints to include complaints of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived characteristics, as specified, and to include a requirement that school personnel who witness such acts take immediate steps to intervene when safe to do so, a timeline to investigate and resolve complaints, and an appeal process, as specified. The bill would make other conforming changes. Because this bill would require local educational agencies to perform additional duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to post, and annually update, on his or her Internet Web site, and to provide to each school district, a list of statewide resources, including community-based organizations, that provide support to youth who have been subjected to school-based discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying, and their families. The bill would make its provisions operative on July 1, 2012. 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.