Existing law provides for various programs that prevent disease and promote health. This bill would establish the California Community Health Fund in the State Treasury, and would require moneys in the fund to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to diminish the human and economic costs of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and dental disease, and to reduce inequitable disparities in health between population groups, in California. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2018, impose a tax, except as specified, on the sale or transfer of any sugar-sweetened beverage product, as defined, by the distributor of the product equal to $0.02 per fluid ounce and would deposit all fees, interest, penalties, and other amounts collected pursuant to these provisions into the fund. The bill would also require the State Department of Public Health to create an advisory committee to advise the state on the allocation of revenue and other issues related to this tax. This bill would include 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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to impose a transient occupancy tax upon occupancies of lodgings of no more than 30 days. This bill would require a city, county, or city and county that has imposed a transient occupancy tax to annually report to the State Board of Equalization, on or before March 1, on the amount of transient occupancy taxes collected by the city, county, or city and county for the previous calendar year.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. The act requires the state board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board, when adopting rules and regulations to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions beyond the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit and to protect the state's most impacted and disadvantaged communities, to follow specified requirements, consider the social costs of the emissions of greenhouse gases, and prioritize specified emission reduction rules and regulations. This bill would additionally require the state board to consider and account for the social costs of the emissions of greenhouse gases when adopting those rules and regulations. The bill would authorize the state board to adopt or amend regulations that establish a market-based compliance mechanism, applicable from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2030, to complement direct emissions reduction measures in ensuring that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The bill would authorize the state board to adopt no-trade zones or facility-specific declining greenhouse gas emissions limits where facilities' emissions contribute to a cumulative pollution burden that creates a significant health impact. This bill would require the state board, in consultation with affected air pollution control and air quality management districts, to adopt air pollutant emissions standards for emissions of criteria air pollutants and toxic air contaminants at industrial facilities that are subject to a market-based compliance mechanism. The bill would prohibit the state board from allocating allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to industrial facilities that do not meet the air pollutant emissions standards for criteria air pollutants and toxic air contaminants. This bill would require the state board, in ensuring that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030, to adopt the most effective and equitable mix of emissions reduction measures and ensure that emissions reduction measures collectively and individually support achieving air quality and other environmental and public health goals.
Existing law establishes the state transportation improvement program process, pursuant to which the California Transportation Commission generally programs and allocates available state and federal funds for transportation capital improvement projects, other than state highway rehabilitation and repair projects, over a multiyear period based on estimates of funds expected to be available. Existing law provides funding for these interregional and regional transportation capital improvement projects through the state transportation improvement program process, with 25% of funds available for interregional projects selected by the Department of Transportation through preparation of an interregional transportation improvement program and 75% for regional projects selected by transportation planning agencies through preparation of a regional transportation improvement program. Existing law requires each transportation planning agency, on a biennial basis, to prepare and submit to the commission a regional transportation improvement program containing transportation capital projects identified for funding through the next cycle of the 5-year state transportation improvement program. This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2020, each regional transportation improvement program to allocate a minimum of 25% of available funds to projects or programs that provide direct, meaningful, and assured benefits to low-income individuals who live in certain identified communities or to riders of transit service that connects low-income residents to critical amenities and services. The bill would require the department, in consultation with residents of low-income communities and specified state agencies, to adopt guidelines for this allocation no later than January 1, 2018, to define and map low-income communities that are disadvantaged with respect to transportation, to identify communities that would benefit from the allocation requirements, and to specify criteria for determining whether certain investments benefit low-income residents of the identified communities. The bill would require the department to provide financial support, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to low-income residents of low-income communities for specified purposes generally relating to enabling their participation in the development of these guidelines and the selection of transportation projects and programs.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. Existing law provides for various reforms and incentives intended to facilitate and expedite the construction of affordable housing. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, in consultation with each council of governments, to determine existing and projected needs for housing for each region and requires each council of governments or, for cities and counties without a council of governments, the department to adopt a final regional housing need plan that allocates a share of the regional housing need to each city, county, or city and county and is consistent with specified objectives. This bill would establish in each city, county, and city and county in the state an affordable housing zoning board and procedures by which a public agency or nonprofit organization proposing to build affordable housing units, as defined, or a developer proposing to build a housing project that meets specified affordability criteria, could submit to that board a single application for a comprehensive conditional use or other discretionary permit. The bill would require the board to conduct a public hearing, as provided, and issue a decision approving, approving with conditions, or denying the application and to issue a comprehensive permit if the application is approved or approved with conditions. The bill would require the board to consider the general plan and zoning ordinances of the affected local agency, the share of the regional housing needs of the affected local agency, whether the applicant has made specified certifications relating to the payment of prevailing wages and employment of a skilled and trained workforce, as provided, on the affordable housing units or housing project development, documents or other evidence presented at the hearing, and the recommendations of experts or consultants, if any, retained by the board. The bill would provide that the comprehensive permit would have the same force and effect as a conditional use or other discretionary permit issued by an affected local agency, but would prohibit the board from abrogating a provision of the general plan or zoning ordinances of the affected local agency except to grant a density bonus, as provided. The bill would make findings that encouraging and streamlining the development of affordable housing throughout the state is a matter of vital statewide concern and declare that its provisions would apply to all cities and counties, including charter cities. By imposing new duties on local agencies with respect to the issuance of comprehensive permits for affordable housing developments, this bill 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Proposition 117, an initiative measure approved by the voters at the June 5, 1990, statewide direct primary election, enacted the California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990. The act establishes that the mountain lion is a specially protected mammal under the laws of this state, and makes it unlawful to take, injure, possess, transport, import, or sell a mountain lion or a product of a mountain lion. The act authorizes a person whose livestock or other property is being or has been injured, damaged, or destroyed by a mountain lion to report that fact to the Department of Fish and Wildlife and request a permit to take the mountain lion. The act requires the department or a specifically authorized animal damage control officer to immediately confirm the reported depredation by a mountain lion, and then promptly issue a permit to take the mountain lion. This bill would authorize, rather than require, the issuance of a permit under these circumstances. The California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990 prohibits the Legislature from changing the act, with specified exceptions, except by a 45 vote of the membership of both houses of the Legislature and then only if consistent with, and in furtherance of, the purposes of the act. This bill would declare that it is consistent with, and furthers the purposes of, that act.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation and regional transportation agencies to enter into comprehensive development lease agreements with public and private entities, or consortia of those entities, for certain transportation projects that may charge certain users of those projects tolls and user fees, subject to various terms and requirements. These arrangements are commonly known as public-private partnerships. Existing law provides that a lease agreement may not be entered into under these provisions on or after January 1, 2017. This bill would extend this authorization indefinitely. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to these provisions by correcting obsolete cross-references.
Existing law, subject to exceptions, provides that a person riding a bicycle or operating a pedicab upon a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the laws applicable to the driver of a vehicle. This bill would authorize a city, by resolution, to implement a 5-year pilot program, commencing January 1, 2020, to allow a person who is operating a bicycle and approaching a stop sign, after slowing to a reasonable speed and yielding the right-of-way, to cautiously make a turn or proceed through the intersection without stopping, unless safety considerations require otherwise. The bill would authorize implementation of the pilot program in at least 3 cities that elect to participate, as specified. The bill would require a participating city to annually submit specified data to the CHP relating to the implementation of the program, and would require the CHP to report that data to the Legislature. The bill would require each participating city to create education and outreach materials to appropriately inform the public about the pilot program. The bill also would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to existing law.
The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prescribes statewide limits on the application of local rent control with regard to certain properties. This bill would repeal that act.
Existing law, commonly known as the Ellis Act, generally prohibits public entities from adopting any statute, ordinance, or regulation, or taking any administrative action, to compel the owner of residential real property to offer or to continue to offer accommodations, as defined, in the property for rent or lease. Existing law qualifies this prohibition by, among other things, permitting a public entity to require an owner to provide notice that he or she has initiated actions to terminate tenancies and, in this situation, the date of withdrawal of accommodations would be 120 days from the delivery of the notice. Existing law extends the term for the withdrawal of accommodations, in this context, to one year if the tenant or lessee is 62 years of age or older, or disabled, and other conditions are met. This bill would extend the term for withdrawal of accommodations to one year for all tenants and lessees without regard to age or disability. The bill also would make conforming and other changes to eliminate conditions linked with the one-year term exclusive to tenants or lessees that are at least 62 years of age or disabled.