(1) The California Constitution allows the Legislature, by statute, to authorize cities and counties to provide for bingo games for charitable purposes. The California Remote Caller Bingo Act permits cities and counties to allow bingo games and remote caller bingo games, as defined, to be conducted by specified organizations for charitable purposes pursuant to an ordinance that allows those games to be conducted only in accordance with specified requirements. Existing law includes school districts among the organizations authorized to conduct bingo games, and includes charitable organizations affiliated with a school district among the organizations authorized to conduct remote caller bingo games. This bill would delete the reference to school districts in the provisions specifying the organizations that may conduct bingo games and would instead authorize charitable organizations affiliated with a school district to conduct bingo games. The bill would set forth a model ordinance to authorize remote caller bingo. The bill would make other conforming changes. (2) The act requires the California Gambling Control Commission, by May 1, 2009, to adopt emergency regulations concerning remote caller bingo and card-minding devices, effective for an initial period of 180 days, and permits one readoption of those emergency regulations for an additional period of 180 days. The commission is directed to complete the normal public notice and comment process, giving careful consideration to the comments of all interested parties. This bill, instead, would provide that all emergency regulations adopted by the commission pursuant to these provisions before July 1, 2009, shall remain in effect until December 31, 2011, except to the extent that the commission exercises its power to adopt, amend, or repeal those regulations in whole or in part. The bill would delete the requirement that the commission complete the normal public notice and comment process. (3) The act provides that an organization authorized to conduct a remote caller bingo game shall not have overhead costs, as defined, exceeding 20% of gross sales. This bill would provide that fees paid to financial institutions for the use and processing of credit card sales may be deducted from the amount of gross revenues awarded for prizes and not included in overhead costs, as provided. (4) The act requires an organization that conducts a remote caller bingo game to have the records pertaining to those games audited at least annually by an independent California certified public accountant and for copies of the audit report to be provided to the California Gambling Control Commission. This bill would provide that the audit report shall account for the annual amount of fees paid to financial institutions for the use and processing of credit card sales and the amount redirected from overhead costs, as provided. (5) The act requires the California Gambling Control Commission to establish reasonable criteria regulating, and to require the licensure and registration of, specified persons, including any person who provides services or equipment designed for use in the playing of remote caller bingo games by any nonprofit organization registered to conduct those bingo games. This bill would delete the requirement that the commission establish criteria for the registration of the persons described above. (6) The act requires the commission to establish reasonable criteria for, and to require the licensure and registration of, any person who provides card-minding devices or other equipment or services designed for use in the playing of bingo games by any nonprofit organization registered to conduct bingo games. This bill would delete the requirement that the commission establish criteria for the registration of the persons described above. (7) This bill would make various technical, nonsubstantive changes to the provisions governing remote caller bingo games. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes a voter claiming to be registered, to vote a provisional ballot if his or her qualification or entitlement to vote cannot be immediately established. Under existing law, once voted, the ballot is sealed in a provisional ballot envelope, and during the official canvass, the signature on the envelope is compared with the one on the voter's affidavit of registration, and the ballot is rejected if the 2 signatures do not compare. This bill would additionally require that the provisional ballot be rejected if the provisional ballot envelope is not signed. The bill would also require that elections officials retain voted provisional ballots and their envelopes for a specified period after the election. Because the bill would increase the duties of local elections officials, it 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.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor or a felony for a person to willfully manufacture, intentionally sell, or knowingly possess for sale any counterfeit registered trademark, as specified. Existing law also requires the court, in any action under those provisions resulting in a conviction or a plea of nolo contendere, to order the forfeiture and destruction of all of those marks and matter bearing the marks, and order the disposition of all devices for manufacturing, reproducing, transporting, or assembling those marks, used in connection thereof. This bill would authorize the court, upon law enforcement request and consent from the specific registrants, to consider a motion to have the goods, not including recordings or audiovisual works, as defined, donated to a nonprofit organization for the purpose of distributing the goods to persons living in poverty at no charge to the persons served by the organization.
The California Land Reuse and Revitalization Act of 2004 provides, among other things, that an innocent landowner, bona fide purchaser, or contiguous property owner, as defined, qualifies for immunity from liability from certain state laws for pollution conditions caused by a release or threatened release of a hazardous material if specified conditions are met. The act prohibits an agency, defined as the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the State Water Resources Control Board, or a California regional water quality control board, from requiring one of those persons to take a response action under certain state laws. The act also requires a bona fide ground tenant, as defined, who seeks to qualify for immunity to make all appropriate inquiries and enter into an agreement with an agency along with one or more specified entities that agree to take responsibility for implementation of a site assessment and response plan. The act is repealed on January 1, 2010, unless a later enacted statute deletes or extends that date. Existing law, which becomes operative on January 1, 2010, provides for the continued immunity of a person subject to the act before its repeal, after the repeal of the act, if the person continues to comply with the repealed act. This bill would extend the repeal date of the act to January 1, 2017. The bill would make the provisions providing for continued immunity after repeal of the act operative on January 1, 2017. The bill also would authorize a prospective purchaser who is in contract to acquire a site and who qualifies as a bona fide purchaser to enter into a specified agreement with an agency. The bill would prohibit a prospective purchaser who enters into an agreement from receiving immunity until the prospective purchaser acquires the site.
Existing law requires a person in a trade or business who negotiates specified contracts or agreements primarily in the languages of Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean to deliver to the other party, prior to execution of the contract or agreement, a translation of the contract or agreement in the applicable foreign language, except as specified. Under existing law, failure to comply with these provisions entitles the aggrieved party to rescind the contract or agreement. Under existing law, these provisions apply to specified loans or extensions of credit subject to the Industrial Loan Law and the California Finance Lenders Law. This bill would, in the alternative, require a supervised financial organization, as defined, that negotiates primarily in one of those languages in the course of entering into a contract or agreement for a loan or extension of credit secured by residential real property, to deliver, prior to the execution of the contract or agreement, and no later than 3 business days after receiving the written application, a specified form in that language summarizing the terms of the contract or agreement, as specified. The bill would provide that a supervised financial organization that complies with these provisions would be deemed to be in compliance with the translation requirement in existing law described above. The bill would also provide that a supervised financial organization that complies with the translation requirement in existing law would be in compliance with these provisions. The bill would provide for administrative penalties against specified licensed persons for violations of these provisions. The bill would require the Department of Corporations and the Department of Financial Institutions to create a new form for these purposes, as provided, and to make it available in each of the languages described above. The bill would authorize an action against a supervised financial organization for a violation of these provisions to be brought only by a licensing agency or by the Attorney General. These provisions would become operative beginning on July 1, 2010, or 90 days after issuance of a form as provided, whichever occurs later. The provisions of this bill would not affect the obligations of a real estate broker, as specified.
This measure would state the intent of the Legislature that the State of California generate sufficient funds for, and allocate sufficient funds to, education, so as to bring per-pupil spending up to or beyond the national average, and to a level that accounts for the actual cost of educating California's diverse pupil population.
Existing law allows taxpayers, until January 1, 2010, to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of the California Fund for Senior Citizens. Existing law repeals the contribution provisions for this fund either on the September 1 following the calendar year for which the Franchise Tax Board estimates that the minimum contribution amount will be less than a prescribed amount or on January 1, 2010, whichever occurs first. This bill would, under this latter limit, extend the operation of those contribution provisions until January 1, 2015.
This measure would urge the United States government to urge the Mexican government to extend the deadline for Mexican laborers, known as braceros, who worked in the United States beginning in 1942 as part of a labor importation program initiated by the United States to alleviate a labor shortage during World War II, to submit a claim to recover unpaid wages from a specified settlement fund. It would also urge the United States government to urge the Mexican government to accept a variety of documents as proof of a valid claim.
This measure would declare May 2009 to be "Senior Volunteer Month" to honor the contributions of California's senior volunteers.
This measure would proclaim April 20 through April 26, 2009, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.