Existing law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, requires employers to provide an employee, who works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment, with paid sick days for prescribed purposes, to be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked. Existing law authorizes an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick days to 24 hours or 3 days in each year of employment. This bill would require an employer to provide an employee, on or after January 1, 2022, who works in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment, with up to 60 hours of paid backup childcare benefits, to be accrued and used as provided. The bill would define "backup childcare" as childcare provided by a qualified backup childcare provider to the employee's child when the employee's regular childcare provider cannot be utilized, and "paid backup childcare" as an employee benefit consisting of the employer paying for a qualified backup childcare provider to provide backup childcare for an employee's child that is compensated at the state minimum wage or the federal minimum wage, whichever is higher. This bill would apply to employers with 1,000 or more employees, the state, political subdivisions of the state, and municipalities, including charter cities. The bill would require employers to keep records for at least 3 years documenting the hours worked and paid backup childcare benefits used by the employee and to allow the Labor Commissioner to access those records. The bill would provide that if an employer does not maintain adequate records, the employee is presumed to have accrued the maximum number of benefit hours accruable, unless the employer can prove otherwise by clear and convincing evidence. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
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Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to submit an annual report to the Governor and both houses of the Legislature on the operations and accomplishments during the previous fiscal year of the housing programs administered by the department. Existing law requires that the report include, among other things, the number of units assisted by those programs and the number of individuals and households served and their income level. This bill would require the department, by March 1 of each year, to develop an annual summary report that discloses the amount of state, federal, and private funding spent on the development of affordable housing within the state, each city, and each county in the preceding calendar year. The bill would require the department to post the annual summary report on its internet website and make the report available to the public by March 15 of each year.
The Early Childhood Development Act of 2020 sets forth legislative findings and declarations regarding the need for an integrated early childhood learning and care system to promote high-quality, affordable learning to comprehensively and effectively serve children and families and to address societal inequities and disproportionalities. This bill would make additional legislative findings and declarations regarding childcare supportive services. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to report on various topics related to early childhood supports in light of the COVID-19 pandemic by October 1, 2021. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The California State University comprises 23 institutions of higher education located throughout the state. Existing law authorizes the trustees to require the payment of fees, rents, deposits, and charges for services, facilities, or materials provided by the trustees. Existing law establishes the California Promise, which requires at least 20 individual campuses of the California State University to establish a California Promise program through which each campus would enter into a pledge with a student who satisfies specified criteria to support the student in earning a baccalaureate degree in limited time. Existing law establishes the California College Promise, under the administration of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, to provide funding, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to each community college meeting prescribed requirements. Existing law authorizes a community college to use that funding to waive some or all of the fees for 2 academic years for certain first-time students. This bill would prohibit the charging of tuition or mandatory systemwide fees for enrollment at a campus of the California State University for any academic year, for up to 2 academic years, to a California Community College resident transfer student who has completed an associate degree for transfer, has received a fee waiver pursuant to the California College Promise, and is at least 28 years of age, as specified. Upon the enactment of an appropriation for this purpose, the bill would require the Chancellor of the California State University to distribute funding to each California State University campus to offset the costs of waiving tuition and mandatory systemwide fees to transfer students pursuant to this bill. The bill would make implementation of its provisions contingent upon the enactment of an appropriation for its purposes.
The Personal Income Tax Law and California Constitution impose taxes based upon taxable income of individuals, estates, and trusts at specified rates. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, in addition to those taxes, would impose an additional tax of at the rates of 1%, 3%, and 3.5% on that portion of a taxpayer's taxable income over specified thresholds, as provided. 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. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law imposes various sentence enhancements, consisting of additional and consecutive terms of imprisonment, including, among others, enhancements for being armed with a firearm during the commission of a felony, being armed with a firearm during the commission of a street gang crime, as defined, being armed with ammunition designed to penetrate armor during the commission of a felony, furnishing a firearm to another for the purpose of aiding, abetting, or enabling that person to commit a felony, and using a firearm during the commission of a felony. This bill would repeal those enhancements and make conforming changes. Existing law imposes a sentence enhancement in the state prison of 10 years for personally using a firearm in the commission of specified felonies, 20 years for personally and intentionally discharging a firearm in the commission of those felonies, and 25 years to life for personally and intentionally discharging a firearm and causing great bodily injury or death to any other person during the commission of those felonies. This bill would reduce those enhancements to 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. Existing law imposes a sentence enhancement of 5, 6, or 10 years in the state prison for, with intent to inflict great bodily injury or death, discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle in the commission of a felony and inflicting great bodily injury or death in the commission of a felony. This bill would reduce that enhancement to 1, 2, or 3 years in the state prison. This bill would additionally authorize a person serving a term for those provisions as they read on or before December 31, 2021, to petition the court for a recall of sentence and to request resentencing in accordance with these changes.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to examine the causes of communicable diseases occurring, or likely to occur, in the state and grants the department certain powers to quarantine, isolate, and inspect persons or places, as necessary to protect or preserve the public health. Existing law sets forth the mechanisms for proclaiming a state of emergency by the Governor or declaring a health emergency by the State Public Health Officer. Existing law requires the department and the Office of Emergency Services (OES) , in coordination with other state agencies, to establish a personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpile, upon appropriation and as necessary. Existing law requires the department to establish guidelines for the procurement, management, and distribution of PPE, as specified. Existing law generally requires a health care employer to maintain an inventory of new, unexpired PPE for use in the event of a declared state of emergency or a local emergency for a pandemic or other health emergency. This bill would make findings and declarations relating to California's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill would, during a state of emergency or health emergency in response to a viral pandemic or any other health crisis, as specified, require the department to include federally qualified health centers in the organizational response structure established by OES. The bill would require the department and the California Health and Human Services Agency to, among other things, coordinate in maintaining an annual inventory of the PPE and all other related medical supplies that the state maintains in its stockpiles. The bill would require the department to ensure that all elements in the stockpiles are viable and can be activated and distributed within a reasonable timeframe to address the level of need established by any public health crisis, as specified. No later than December 1, 2023, and every 2 years thereafter, the bill would require the department and the agency to submit a report on the utilization of the equipment and supplies in the state stockpiles to the health and budget legislative committees. The bill would, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act, require the department to develop a statewide, comprehensive plan to conduct an outreach and education campaign relating to COVID-19. The bill would require the campaign to include components on preventing infections, encouraging vaccination, correcting false information efforts, and addressing health disparities among certain communities. Under the bill, the campaign would commence on November 1, 2023, and operate for at least 3 years.
Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to employ persons for positions not requiring certification qualifications. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to classify those employees and positions and requires that they be known as the classified service. Existing law requires, if specially funded positions are restricted to employment of persons in low-income groups, from designated impoverished areas, or other criteria which restricts the privilege of all citizens to compete for employment in the positions, these positions to be classified as "restricted." Existing law requires persons employed in restricted provisions to be classified employees for all purposes, except as provided. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to those provisions relating to restricted positions.
Existing law, the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , provides for the licensure and regulation of commercial cannabis activity. MAUCRSA prohibits the manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offering for sale of a cannabis product that is adulterated and defines "adulteration" for this purpose. This bill would impose testing and labeling requirements on products that are, or contain, one or more psychoactive or nonpsychoactive cannabinoids that are derived from a plant that is not cannabis, referred to as noncannabis cannabinoids or NCCs. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to review each noncannabis cannabinoid in use in products for sale in the state to determine whether the NCC is psychoactive and to determine the safety and efficacy of the substance. The bill would require the department to publish a list that categorizes NCCs as approved psychoactive, approved, nonpsychoactive, or not approved, as specified. Existing law imposes an excise tax upon purchasers of cannabis or cannabis products sold in this state at the rate of 15% of the average market price of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer, and a separate cultivation tax on harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market, as specified. Under existing law, those taxes are administered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and are deposited into the California Cannabis Tax Fund, which is continuously appropriated for specified purposes, including youth, education, prevention, and early intervention and treatment services, environmental restoration and protection, and law enforcement, pursuant to a specified schedule. This bill would impose an excise tax upon purchasers of noncannabis cannabinoids sold in this state at the rate of $0.01 per milligram of NCC and would prohibit noncannabis cannabinoids from being sold to a purchaser unless the excise tax is paid by the purchaser at the time of sale. The bill would require a manufacturer to report and remit the excise tax to the department, as provided, and to collect the tax from the retailer. The bill would establish the Noncannabis Cannabinoid Tax Fund and would require revenues from the excise tax on NCCs to be deposited into that fund. The bill would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund for specified purposes, including youth, education, prevention, and early intervention and treatment services, environmental restoration and protection, and social justice and equity programs, pursuant to a specified schedule. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. 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 XIII A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.
Existing law defines rape as an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person not the spouse of the perpetrator under certain circumstances, including where the victim is incapable of giving legal consent because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, where the victim is not aware of the essential characteristics of the act due to the perpetrator's fraudulent representation that the act serves a professional purpose, and where the victim submits to the act under the belief that the perpetrator is someone known to the victim other than the perpetrator, and the perpetrator intentionally and fraudulently induces that belief. Existing law separately defines rape of a spouse as an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with the spouse of the perpetrator under similar circumstances as nonspousal rape, except that spousal rape does not include acts of sexual intercourse accomplished under the specific circumstances described above. This bill would repeal the provisions relating to spousal rape and make conforming changes, thereby making an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a spouse punishable as rape if the act otherwise meets the definition of rape. By changing the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes an employer to request from the Department of Justice records of all convictions or any arrest pending adjudication for specified offenses for a person who applies for a license, employment, or volunteer position, in which the person would have supervisory or disciplinary power over a minor and requires the employer to notify the parent or guardian of a child if a person with specified convictions will have supervisory or disciplinary power over that child. Existing law exempts certain convictions, including spousal rape, from that notification requirement. This bill would remove the exemption for spousal rape or any other felony conviction and would instead exempt only misdemeanor convictions from that notification. The bill would make numerous conforming changes. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.