Asm. Cheryl R. Brown

The Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act creates a state medical contract program to increase the number of students and residents receiving quality education and training in specified primary care specialties or in nursing, and to maximize the delivery of primary care and family physician services to specific areas of California where there is a recognized unmet priority need for those services. The act requires the Director of Statewide Health Planning and Development to, among other things, contract with accredited medical schools, teaching health centers, training programs, hospitals, and other health care delivery systems for those purposes, based on recommendations of the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission and in conformity with the contract criteria and program standards established by the commission. This bill would appropriate $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the director for the purpose of funding new and existing graduate medical education physician residency positions, and supporting training faculty, pursuant to the act, for expenditure as specified. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.

The Roberti-Z'berg-Harris Urban Open-Space and Recreation Program Act requires annual grants to be made to cities, counties, and districts for recreational purposes, open-space purposes, or both, on the basis of population and need, as specified. The act defines certain terms for these purposes. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these definitions.

Existing law requires the Strategic Growth Council to develop and administer the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through projects that implement land use, housing, transportation, and agricultural land preservation practices to support infill and compact development and that support other related and coordinated public policy objectives. Existing law requires a project eligible for funding pursuant to the program to be encouraged to promote specified objectives and economic growth, reduce public fiscal costs, support civic partnerships and stakeholder engagement, and integrate and leverage existing housing, transportation, and land use programs and resources. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

This measure would declare the month of January 2016 as Pet Care Education Month and would request Californians to observe the month by ensuring that their companion animals receive the proper preventative care by establishing a financial plan for pet health emergencies and by contributing to charitable organizations that provide low-cost spay and neuter services and vaccinations or funds to help low-income individuals pay for veterinary care.

Existing law imposes various requirements to be satisfied prior to exercising a power of sale under a mortgage or deed of trust. Existing law defines a mortgage servicer as a person or entity who directly services a loan, or is responsible for interacting with the borrower, and managing the loan account on a daily basis, as specified. Existing law defines a borrower, for purposes of specified provisions relating to mortgages and deeds of trust, as a natural person who is a mortgagor or trustor who is potentially eligible for any federal, state, or proprietary foreclosure prevention alternative program offered by, or through, his or her mortgage servicer. This bill would include a successor in interest in the definition of a borrower for purposes of the eligibility provisions described above. The bill would define a successor in interest for these purposes as a natural person who provides the mortgage servicer with notification of the death of the mortgagor or trustor and reasonable documentation, as specified, showing that the person is a surviving spouse, as specified.

Existing law provides for the State Supplementary Program for the Aged, Blind and Disabled (SSP) , which requires the State Department of Social Services to contract with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to make payments to SSP recipients to supplement Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments made available pursuant to the federal Social Security Act. Under existing law, benefit payments under the SSP are calculated by establishing the maximum level of nonexempt income and federal SSI and state SSP benefits for each category of eligible recipient. The state SSP payment is the amount, when added to the nonexempt income and SSI benefits available to the recipient, which would be required to provide the maximum benefit payment. This bill, for the 2015–16 fiscal year, and annually thereafter, would require the state maximum SSP grant for individuals to be readjusted and increased so that the state SSP payment and federal SSI payment, when combined, equal 112% of the federal poverty level. By increasing the amount of SSP payments, which are expended from a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to license any kind of business not prohibited by law transacted and carried out within the city, county, or city and county, as specified. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would create a statewide small business certification system.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to issue a high school equivalency certificate and an official score report, or an official score report only, to a person who has not completed high school and who has taken all or a portion of a general educational development test that has been approved by the State Board of Education and that is administered by a testing center approved by the State Department of Education, with a score determined by the state board to be equal to the standard of performance expected from a high school graduate, and as otherwise specified. Existing law also authorizes the Superintendent to charge a one-time fee, established by the state board, to be submitted by an examinee when registering for the general educational development test, as specified. Notwithstanding these provisions, this bill would require the state board to adopt a rule or regulation granting a waiver of the general educational development examination fee for low-income persons, as defined.