Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to maintain a program for seasonal agricultural and migratory workers and their families that includes technical and financial assistance to local agencies concerned with the health of seasonal agricultural and migratory workers and their families in coordination with similar programs of the federal government, other states, and voluntary agencies, and to grant funds to eligible private, nonprofit, community-based primary care clinics for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a health services program for seasonal agricultural and migratory workers and their families. Existing federal law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various health care coverage market reforms that take effect January 1, 2014. This bill would establish the Uncovered Worker Health Trust Fund for the purpose of providing comprehensive primary health care services to workers ineligible for health care coverage under federal and state programs, including the PPACA. This bill would authorize voluntary contributions to be deposited into the trust. This bill would require that trust moneys, as specified, be distributed by the Primary, Rural, and Indian Health Division of the department through the authority of the Rural Health Clinic Program. Because the bill would create a continuously appropriated fund, it would make an appropriation. The bill would also require the department to provide employers contributing to the trust with a list of nonprofit community health centers, as defined, accessible to uncovered workers. This bill would require the department, on or before March 1, 2015, to prepare and make available an application form, as specified, for nonprofit community health centers to use to apply for moneys from the trust. The bill would require a nonprofit community health center applying for trust moneys to submit the application to the department. The bill would also require the department to distribute trust moneys according to specified criteria, and would authorize nonprofit community health centers to utilize mobile medical units and provide transportation to uncovered workers who reside or are employed in geographical areas that make access to clinic sites difficult. This bill would require that the costs to the department of administering the trust be provided from the trust, and would prohibit administrative costs from exceeding 10% of the total trust moneys.
Sponsored bills
Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. That law provides various exemptions from those taxes. The bill would exempt from those taxes, on and after January 1, 2014, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, qualified tangible personal property purchased by a qualified person for use primarily in manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of property, as specified, qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a contractor for specified purposes, as provided, and tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person to be used primarily in research and development, as provided. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing law authorizes districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in conformity with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Exemptions from state sales and use taxes are incorporated into these laws. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes, transactions and use taxes, and specified state taxes from which revenues are deposited into the Local Public Safety Fund, the Education Protection Account, and the Local Revenue Fund. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The Employee Housing Act requires a person operating employee housing to obtain a permit to operate that housing from the agency that enforces the act, which can either be the Department of Housing and Community Development or a city, county, or city and county that assumes responsibility for enforcing the act. The act designates any employee housing consisting of no more than 36 beds in a group quarters or 12 units of spaces designed for use by a single family or household as an agricultural land use, and exempts that housing from specified land use regulations of a local government and specified taxes and fees. This bill would designate as an agricultural land use any employee housing consisting of no more than 36 beds in a group quarters, 12 units or spaces designed for use by single families or households, or 48 units or spaces operated by a governmental or nonprofit agency and designed for use by single families or households.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a sales tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state under the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from any retailer for storage, use. or other consumption in this state. For purposes of that law, a "retail sale" or "sale at retail" means a sale for any purpose other than resale in the regular course of business in the form of tangible personal property. This bill would provide that "retail sale" or "sale at retail" and "storage" or "use" also includes any sale of tangible personal property with a counterfeit mark on, or in connection with, that sale or any sale of tangible personal property that is pirated intellectual property, regardless of whether the sale is for resale in the regular course of business, 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.
The Enterprise Zone Act provides for the designation and oversight by the Department of Housing and Community Development of various types of economic development areas throughout the state, including enterprise zones, targeted tax areas, and manufacturing enhancement areas, collectively known as geographically targeted economic development areas, or G-TEDAs. Pursuant to these provisions, qualifying entities in those areas may receive certain tax and regulatory incentives. This bill would revise various definitions for purposes of the act and modify specified requirements for designating and administering enterprise zones and G-TEDAs, collectively. The bill would impose new requirements on the Department of Housing and Community Development with respect to the enterprise zone program and modify department and Franchise Tax Board reporting requirements. Existing law, the Enterprise Zone Act, authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to assess a fee of not more than $15 on each enterprise zone and manufacturing enhancement area for each application for issuance of a certificate pursuant to specified tax credit provisions. This bill would instead authorize the department to charge a fee for those applications not to exceed the reasonable cost of administering the Enterprise Zone Act, but not to exceed $20. The bill would require any increase in the fee higher than the amount that was charged by the department as of January 1, 2014, to be adopted by regulation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Medi-Cal Act establishes 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 and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments to be reduced by 1% or 5%, and provider payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 1%, for dates of service on and after March 1, 2009, and until June 1, 2011. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments and payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 10% for dates of service on and after June 1, 2011. This bill would instead require that, to the extent permitted by federal law, this payment reduction not apply to skilled nursing facilities or subacute care units that are a distinct part of a general acute care hospital, intermediate care or other specified facilities serving developmentally disabled individuals, or specified Medi-Cal provider payments for fee-for-service benefits, including payments to pharmacies, for dates of service on or after June 1, 2011. The bill would also provide that this payment reduction shall not apply to managed health care plans for dates of service after the effective date of the bill. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) The Economic Revitalization Act establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as "GO-Biz," to, among other duties, serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. Existing law establishes the California Economic Development Fund holding funds that, upon appropriation by the Legislature, GO-Biz may use for economic development purposes, as specified. This bill would create the California Innovation Hub Program (iHub Program) within GO-Biz to create regional offices that would provide specialized counseling, training, and networking services to assist entrepreneurs establish and grow businesses for local and in-state job retention, creation, and future expansion. This bill would authorize GO-Biz, in collaboration with the Department of General Services, to identify unoccupied and underutilized real property owned or leased by the state, and use that real property to support the iHub Program, as specified. This bill would modify the California Economic Development Fund to be a continuously appropriated fund for the economic development purposes of GO-Biz, and in doing so, would make an appropriation. (2) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit for certain research and development expenses, as provided. This bill would, for taxable years commencing on and after January 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2019, increase the credit for research and development expenses, as provided. (3) This bill would provide that the provisions of this bill are severable. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes a net energy metering program that is available to an eligible fuel cell customer-generator, which is defined as a customer of an electrical corporation and, among other things, uses a fuel cell electrical generating facility with capacity of not more than one megawatt. Existing law requires that the net metering calculation be made by measuring the difference between the electricity supplied to the eligible fuel cell customer-generator and the electricity generated by the eligible fuel cell customer-generator and fed back to the electrical grid over a 12-month period. Existing law requires that an electrical corporation determine if the eligible fuel cell customer-generator was a net consumer or producer of electricity during the 12-month period. For purposes of making this determination, existing law requires that the electrical corporation aggregate the electrical load of the eligible fuel cell customer-generator under the same ownership. This bill would increase the capacity of a fuel cell electrical generating facility to not more than 3 megawatts. The bill would prohibit the net rate at which electricity fed back to the electrical grid by an eligible fuel cell customer-generator using a fuel cell electrical generating facility with a capacity of more than one megawatt from exceeding one megawatt. Existing law provides that a net energy metering contract or tariff must be identical, as specified, to the contract or tariff to which a customer would be assigned if the customer was not an eligible fuel cell customer-generator, and that any charge that would increase an eligible fuel cell customer-generator's costs beyond those of other customers in the rate class to which the eligible fuel cell customer-generator would otherwise be assigned, including an interconnection charge, may not form a part of net energy metering tariffs. The Public Utilities Commission's Electric Rule 21 establishes a tariff that describes the interconnection, operating, and metering requirements for generation facilities to be connected with an electrical corporation's distribution system. This bill would provide that fuel cell projects with a capacity of not more than one megawatt would not be exempt from reasonable interconnection charges established pursuant to Electric Rule 21. The bill would also require the commission, when revising Electric Rule 21, to consider the ratepayer and system benefits of larger baseload fuel cell projects. Because the bill would require an expansion of the above-described net energy metering programs and would require an order or decision of the commission to implement, a violation of which is a crime, these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. 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.
Existing law creates in the State Treasury the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund and the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund for the receipt and deposit of moneys received by the state from certain Indian tribes pursuant to the terms of tribal-state gaming compacts, and authorizes moneys in those funds to be used for specified purposes, including making distributions to noncompact tribes. Existing law requires, for specified fiscal years, that the California Gambling Control Commission determine the anticipated total amount of shortfalls in payments likely to occur in the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund for the upcoming fiscal year and provide that figure to the Senate and Assembly for the purpose of establishing an estimate of the amount needed to transfer from the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund to backfill the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund. Existing law requires the Legislature to transfer moneys from the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund to the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund an amount sufficient for each eligible recipient tribe to receive a total not to exceed $275,000 for each quarter the tribe is eligible to receive moneys. If the transfer is insufficient the commission is required to submit a request for a budget augmentation. This bill would require the commission, if it is determined that there is an insufficient amount in the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund in a fiscal year to distribute the quarterly payments pursuant to these provisions to each eligible recipient Indian tribe, to direct a portion of a specified revenue contribution pursuant to certain tribal-state gaming compacts that would otherwise be deposited into the General Fund, to instead be deposited into the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund to increase the revenue contribution to that fund in an amount sufficient to ensure the fund has sufficient resources for each eligible recipient Indian tribe to receive the full $275,000 quarterly payments. This bill would conform these provisions to changes made by the Governor's Reorganization Plan 2.
The Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act authorizes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, governed by a board of directors, to make loans and provide other assistance to public and private entities for various types of economic development projects, among other things. The activities of the bank under these provisions are funded from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Fund, which is continuously appropriated for these purposes. This bill would authorize the board of directors to enter into development and financing agreements for projects within the California-Mexico border region, as defined. The bill would authorize the bank to establish and participate in a binational financing authority to facilitate and support the economic development of communities within the border region. The bill would require the bank to develop guidelines for the selection, review, and approval of border region projects and authorize the bank to issue bonds, the proceeds of which would be deposited in the Binational Development Account, which the bill would create within the fund. By expanding the purposes for which a continuously appropriated fund may be used, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would state that certain provisions of this bill shall become operative only if the Executive Director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank determines that there are sufficient funds available to implement those provisions and submits a letter to the Legislature to that effect.