Asm. Kevin Kiley

This measure would recognize February 2020 as Black History Month, urge all citizens to join in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans during Black History Month, encourage the people of California to recognize the many talents of African Americans and the achievements and contributions they make to their communities to create equity and equality for education, economics, and social justice, and recognize the significance in protecting citizens' right to vote and remedying racial discrimination in voting.

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 in its regulation of those emissions the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain purposes. This bill would suspend the appropriation to the High-Speed Rail Authority for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 fiscal years and would require the transfer of those amounts from moneys collected by the state board to the General Fund. The bill would specify that the transferred amounts shall be available, upon appropriation, to support K–12 education and to offset any funding reduction for K–12 education. This bill would require the transfer of a sum of $2,400,000,000, as a loan, from the unencumbered moneys appropriated to the authority before the 2020-21 fiscal year from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the General Fund. The bill would specify that the transferred moneys, upon appropriation, are available to support K–12 education and to offset any funding reductions for K–12 education in the 2020–21 Budget Act. The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, statewide general election, provides for the issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $9,000,000,000 for high-speed rail purposes and $950,000,000 for other related rail purposes. The act requires bonds issued and sold pursuant to the act to be deposited in the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund. The California High-Speed Rail Act creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed rail system in the state, with specified powers and duties. This bill would require the authority to commission an independent assessment by the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies of the high-speed rail project's cost and benefits compared to other emerging transportation technologies to achieve the objectives for high-speed rail, as provided. This bill would appropriate $2,400,000,000 from the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund to the authority for the sole purpose of completing the minimum scope of work necessary to meet federal grant requirements and satisfy existing regional commitments, as described in the 2020 High-Speed Rail Authority Draft Business Plan, thereby making an appropriation.

This measure would proclaim March 15, 2020, to March 22, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Awareness Week and March 21, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Day, and would encourage all Californians to support and participate in related activities.

This measure, in accordance with specified law, would declare that the state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor on March 4, 2020, is at an end and terminate the emergency powers granted to the Governor as a result of that proclamation.

Existing employment law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a day's work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed overtime compensation for additional hours worked. Existing law authorizes the adoption by 23 of employees in a work unit of alternative workweek schedules providing for workdays no longer than 10 hours within a 40-hour workweek. This bill would permit an individual nonexempt employee to work an employee-selected flexible work schedule, without any obligation on the part of the employer to pay an overtime rate of compensation, if the employee requests this schedule and the employer approves the request. The bill would not apply to employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement or public employees. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, governs, among other things, the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. Existing law requires a state agency proposing to adopt, amend, or repeal specific administrative regulations to assess the potential for adverse economic impact on California business enterprises and individuals. This bill would require the head of each state agency to conduct a review of the regulations the state agency has adopted to identify which regulations impose the greatest costs and barriers to small businesses in this state by April 1, 2021. The bill would authorize the head of the state agency, based on the findings of a review pursuant to the bill, to temporarily suspend any identified regulation, to the extent consistent with statute, until small businesses recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill would require a state agency to notify the office of suspended regulations and to post suspended regulations on the agency's internet website.

Under existing law, when a vacancy occurs in the office of Representative to Congress, or in either house of the Legislature, the Governor is required, within 14 calendar days after the occurrence of the vacancy, to call an election to fill the vacancy, as specified. With regard to a vacancy in the office of United States Senator, however, existing law authorizes the Governor to appoint a person to fill the vacancy, as specified. This bill would instead require that a vacancy in the office of United States Senator be filled in the same manner as a vacancy in a congressional representative or state legislative office. The bill would make conforming and technical changes.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally defines "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provides various exclusions from gross income. Existing federal law, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) , among other things, authorizes forgiveness of indebtedness for eligible recipients with covered loans, as defined, in an amount equal to the sum of the recipient's payroll costs, interest on mortgage obligations, rent obligations, and utility payments, subject to specified conditions and during a specified time period. Existing federal law excludes any amounts of covered loans forgiven under the CARES Act from gross income for federal income tax purposes. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, would exclude from gross income, for state income tax purposes, any covered loan amount forgiven pursuant to the federal CARES Act. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allow various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by those laws, including a deduction for a net operating loss, as specified. Existing law, the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) , among other things, authorizes, with respect to a taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2021, a net operating loss carryback to each of the 5 taxable years preceding the taxable year of that loss. This bill would, under both laws, conform to the provision of the CARES Act described above and would authorize a taxpayer to file a return for the first six months of a taxable year if that return includes a claim for a net operating loss carryback pursuant to that provision. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations regarding the public purpose served by the bill. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill also would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes procedures and requirements by which an action or proceeding can be brought challenging a public agency's action on the grounds of noncompliance with CEQA. CEQA limits the judicial inquiry in that action or proceeding to whether there was a prejudicial abuse of discretion. CEQA prohibits an action or proceeding from being brought unless the alleged grounds for noncompliance were presented to the public agency orally or in writing during the public comment period on the project provided pursuant to CEQA or before the close of the public hearing on the project before the issuance of the notice of determination. This bill would, for an action or proceeding challenging a public agency's action for a project for the development of new housing units brought pursuant to CEQA, specify that prejudicial abuse of discretion occurred if the court finds that the grounds of noncompliance with CEQA likely affected the decision of the public agency to approve the project and significantly affected the general public's ability to evaluate the project's overall impacts, and would prohibit such action or proceeding unless the alleged grounds for noncompliance with CEQA were presented to the public agency by any person during the public comment period provided pursuant to CEQA in connection with the version of the EIR in which the alleged grounds first appeared. Existing law authorizes an appeal to the court of appeal from a final judgment of a superior court. This bill would, for an action or proceeding challenging a public agency's action for a project for the development of new housing units brought pursuant to CEQA, require a party seeking review of a judgment of the superior court to file a petition for a peremptory writ of mandate with the court of appeal within 60 days of the service of the notice of entry of judgment. The bill would require the court of appeal to issue an alternative writ or order to show cause only with respect to a ground for noncompliance with CEQA in which the party seeking review has at least a 50% chance of prevailing.