The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, an initiative statute approved by the voters as Proposition 84 at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, makes approximately $5.4 billion in bond funds available for safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, natural resource protection, and park improvements. The initiative bond act makes $60,000,000 available to the State Water Resources Control Board for the purpose of loans and grants for projects to prevent or reduce contamination of groundwater that serves as a source of drinking water and requires repayment for costs that are subsequently recovered from parties responsible for the contamination. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the Department of Toxic Substances Control and the state board, to develop and adopt regulations governing the repayment of costs that are subsequently recovered from parties responsible for the contamination of groundwater. This bill would eliminate the requirement to develop and adopt regulations and instead would require that costs subsequently recovered from a party responsible for the contamination, as defined, be repaid to the state board and deposited, and separately accounted for, in the Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund, which this bill would create in the State Treasury. This bill would require moneys in the fund to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the state board for a grant to the grantee that received a grant to prevent or reduce contamination of groundwater pursuant to Proposition 84 and subsequently recovered costs from a responsible party and repaid those costs to the state. This bill would require the state board to disburse the funds upon the approval of an expenditure plan submitted by the grantee. This bill would prohibit the total amount of a grant from the fund and a grant received to prevent or reduce contamination of groundwater pursuant to Proposition 84 from exceeding the grantee's total costs to cleanup contaminated groundwater or prevent the contamination of groundwater. This bill would require moneys recovered from a responsible party in excess of the amount that may be awarded as a grant to be available from the fund to the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for expenditure on orphan groundwater contamination cleanup projects and would require the state board to consult with the Department of Toxic Substances Control when considering expenditures on orphan groundwater contamination cleanup projects. The bill would authorize the state board, upon appropriation, to use moneys in the fund for its administrative costs and for directly recovering moneys from a party responsible for contamination of groundwater addressed by a grant or loan under Proposition 84, and would require that if moneys from the fund are used for legal costs in directly recovering moneys, the moneys recovered by the judgment in favor of the state board be deposited into the fund.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue specialty license plates, including environmental license plates and specified special environmental design license plates. Under existing law, a state agency is authorized to apply to the DMV to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and the DMV is required to issue those license plates if the agency meets certain requirements. The DMV is required to charge specified fees for certain services related to the issuance of those plates. Existing law establishes the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund, and requires that funds in that account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated for the provision of early breast cancer detection services for uninsured and underinsured women. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to apply to sponsor a breast cancer awareness license plate program, and would require the DMV to issue the license plates if the State Department of Health Care Services meets certain requirements. The bill would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services to accept and use donated artwork from California artists for the license plate. The bill would require the revenue generated from the license plates, as specified, to be deposited in the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Proposition 187, which was approved by the voters at the November 8, 1994, statewide general election, made illegal aliens ineligible for specified public social services, public health care services, and public school education at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. Among other things, the proposition also required various state and local agencies to report suspected illegal aliens, as specified, and required the Attorney General to perform certain tasks in connection with transmitting and retaining those reports. These provisions of Proposition 187 were rendered unenforceable after a federal court found them to be preempted by the United States Constitution and other federal law. This bill would repeal the unenforceable provisions of Proposition 187, as described above.
This measure would declare November 8, 2014, as California Solar Professionals Day.
This measure would urge the National Football League (NFL) to join with the Legislature and numerous organizations in calling for a name change for the Washington, D.C. NFL team, and calls upon the owners of NFL teams based in California to urge the owner of the Washington, D.C. NFL team and the NFL Commissioner to change the team mascot.
This measure would declare November 2014 as Diabetes Awareness Month.
This measure would recognize the month of October 2014 as Filipino American History Month and the 427th anniversary of the first presence of Filipinos in the continental United States.
This measure would proclaim October 23 to October 31, 2014, as Red Ribbon Week, and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and participate in drug prevention activities.
This measure would request that the President of the United States encourage, and that the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services adopt, policies that repeal the current donor suitability policies of the federal Food and Drug Administration regarding the donation of blood by men who have had sex with another man.
This measure would declare September 2014 as Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Awareness Month.