Rep. Sebastian Ridley-Thomas

The Personal Income Tax Law provides various exclusions from gross income in determining tax liability, including an exclusion for the amount of student loan indebtedness repaid or canceled pursuant to a specified federal law, relating to income-based repayment. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2017, and before January 1, 2022, revise this exclusion to include student loan indebtedness canceled, pursuant to federal law, that includes other repayment plans. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law authorizes an individual to contribute amounts in excess of his or her personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds. Existing law sets forth general administrative provisions applicable to voluntary contributions, which, among other things, provide for the disbursement of contributions following repeal of the fund provisions and require undesignated funds to be transferred to the General Fund. This bill would allow a taxpayer to designate an amount in excess of personal income tax liability to be deposited into the California Senior Citizen Advocacy Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, which the bill would create. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the tax return to include a space for this fund. The bill would require moneys transferred to the California Senior Citizen Advocacy Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund to be continuously appropriated and allocated to the Controller and the Franchise Tax Board, and to the California Senior Legislature for the purpose of funding the activities of the California Senior Legislature, as provided. The bill would require the California Senior Legislature's Internet Web site to report specified information, including all events the California Senior Citizen Advocacy Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund supports each year. This bill would require specified minimum contributions to be made in order for the fund to appear on the return for the following year. The bill would repeal these voluntary contribution provisions on January 1, 2025, or, if contributions made on returns are less than a specified minimum amount, by an earlier date as provided. By continuously appropriating these funds, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed by, and funded pursuant to, federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law restricts the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate for clinical laboratory or laboratory services, as specified. Existing law requires that laboratory service providers submit annual data reports to the department, as specified, for the purpose of establishing rates for clinical or laboratory services based on the lowest amounts other payers are paying providers for similar services. This bill would change the frequency for submitting those reports to every 3 years beginning in 2019, and would require the data in those reports to be based on the previous calendar year. The bill would provide that the reimbursement rates developed pursuant to these provisions shall become effective on July 1, 2020, and July 1 of every 3rd year thereafter.

Existing law provides for apprenticeship programs within the Division of Apprenticeship Standards, which is within the Department of Industrial Relations, sponsored by specific entities and employers, and requires the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards to perform various functions with respect to apprenticeship programs and the welfare of apprentices. This bill would require the Division of Apprenticeship Standards, in collaboration with the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee (CAL-JAC) , to develop a statewide firefighter preapprenticeship program designed to recruit candidates from underrepresented groups. This bill would require the preapprenticeship program to meet specified objectives. This bill would also require CAL-JAC to deliver the pilot classes established by the preapprenticeship program using existing facilities and training models. This bill would require CAL-JAC to provide the program model to fire protection agencies, and would authorize a fire protection agency to then use that model and related resources to establish a local preapprenticeship program for recruiting candidates from underrepresented groups. This bill would reference an appropriation made in the Budget Act of 2017–18 to the division to establish the preapprenticeship program and would require the division to use those funds for specified purposes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to not enact S. 446, H.R. 38, or any other similar "concealed carry reciprocity" legislation that would require the State of California to recognize the concealed carry standards of every other state.

This measure would recognize the importance of civic engagement across the State of California.

Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families block grant program, state, and county funds. Existing law requires families to be grouped into assistance units for purposes of determining eligibility and computing the amount of CalWORKs aid to be paid. Existing law establishes a 48-month lifetime limit of CalWORKs benefits for eligible adults, as specified. Under existing law, a recipient of CalWORKs is required to participate in certain welfare-to-work activities for a specified number of hours each week as a condition of eligibility for aid for 24 cumulative months, as specified, and to meet other federal requirements afterwards, as specified. Existing law exempts a person with a disability, as specified, from participation in welfare-to-work activities. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2018, recast these provisions and would clarify that an adult in an assistance unit that includes 2 adults, one of whom is disabled, is required to participate in welfare-to-work activities for the same number of hours per week as an adult in an assistance unit that includes only one adult. The bill would also provide that the hour requirement is an average of at least 20 hours per week during the month for a pregnant woman receiving CalWORKs benefits during the above-described 24 months, and an average of at least 30 hours per week during the month after the 24 months, if the assistance unit consists only of that pregnant woman. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to issue an all-county letter or similar instructions, and to adopt regulations to implement the provisions of the bill no later than July 1, 2020. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill.

This measure would proclaim the month of September 2017 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and state the commitment of the Legislature to support efforts to find cures for, and achieve prevention of, childhood cancer.

This measure would recognize October 20, 2017, as Arirang Day and would celebrate the culture and contributions of Korean Americans to California.

This measure would proclaim October 13, 2017, as Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day, and would request the citizens of California, on that day, to become informed and aware of metastatic breast cancer.