Asm. Kevin McCarty

The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act of 1991 imposes a fee on manufacturers and other persons formerly, presently, or both formerly and presently engaged in the stream of commerce of lead or products containing lead, or who are otherwise responsible for identifiable sources of lead that have significantly contributed historically, currently contribute, or both have significantly contributed historically and contribute currently to environmental lead contamination. The act requires the collected fees to be deposited into the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Fund. The act requires the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation of the Legislature, to be expended for the prevention of childhood lead poisoning. This bill would impose a $2 charge on manufacturers of paint, as defined, for each gallon of paint sold in the state. The bill would require the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to collect the charges, as prescribed. The bill would, except as provided, require the collected charges to be deposited into the Lead-Based Paint Cleanup Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The bill would require moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be expended by the Department of Toxic Substances Control to provide grants to cities and counties for the investigation, abatement, or removal of lead-based paint from residences within their respective jurisdictions. The bill would become operative if a specified initiative is enacted and becomes operative. 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, but would become operative as specified.

(1) Existing federal law, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, regulates, among other things, the quality and packaging of foods introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce and generally prohibits the misbranding of food. Existing federal law, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, governs state and local labeling requirements, including those that characterize the relationship of any nutrient specified in the labeling of food to a disease or health-related condition. Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, generally regulates misbranded food and provides that any food is misbranded if its labeling does not conform with the requirements for nutrient content or health claims as set forth in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the regulations adopted pursuant to that federal act. Existing law requires that a food facility, as defined, make prescribed disclosures and warnings to consumers, as specified. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing state law, the Pupil Nutrition, Health, and Achievement Act of 2001, also requires the sale of only certain beverages to pupils at schools. The beverages that may be sold include fruit-based and vegetable-based drinks, drinking water with no added sweetener, milk, and in middle and high schools, an electrolyte replacement beverage if those beverages meet certain nutritional requirements. This bill would establish the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act, which would prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a sugar-sweetened beverage in a sealed beverage container, a multipack of sugar-sweetened beverages, or a concentrate, as those terms are defined, in this state unless the sealed beverage container, multipack, or packaging of the concentrate bears a safety warning, as prescribed. The bill also would require every person who owns, leases, or otherwise legally controls the premises where a vending machine or beverage dispensing machine is located, or where a sugar-sweetened beverage is sold in an unsealed container, to place a specified safety warning in certain locations, including on the exterior of any vending machine that includes a sugar-sweetened beverage for sale. (2) Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health, upon the request of a health officer, as defined, may authorize the local health department of a city, county, city and county, or local health district to enforce the provisions of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to assess a civil penalty against any person in an amount not to exceed $1,000 per day, except as specified. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General or any district attorney, on behalf of the State Department of Public Health, to bring an action in a superior court to grant a temporary or permanent injunction restraining a person from violating any provision of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. This bill, commencing July 1, 2019, would provide that any violation of the provisions described in (1) above, or regulations adopted pursuant to those provisions, is punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $50, but no greater than $500. This bill would also create the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Fund for the receipt of all moneys collected for violations of those provisions. The bill would allocate moneys in this fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the purpose of enforcing those provisions. (3) The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, obesity, and dental disease.

Existing law provides for the procedures by which a voter may apply for and receive a vote by mail ballot. Existing law requires the elections official to deliver to each qualified applicant the ballot for the precinct in which the applicant resides and all supplies necessary for the use and return of the ballot. Existing law prescribes the contents of an identification envelope and requires a voter to return his or her vote by mail ballot in the identification envelope, as specified. This bill would clarify that the elections official is required to deliver to each qualified applicant an identification envelope for the return of the vote by mail ballot and would require the identification envelope to have prepaid postage. By imposing additional duties on local elections officials, 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.

Under existing law, the California Horse Racing Board is authorized to permit a harness or quarter horse association conducting a horse race to accept wagers on the results of out-of-state, out-of-country, and other designated harness or quarter horse races, if specified conditions are met, including that the association conducts at least 7 live races and imports not more than 10 races on live racing days. A violation of the Horse Racing Law is a crime. This bill would also authorize wagering on a nightly program of out-of-country harness racing from a single racetrack, regardless of the number of those races, if specified conditions are met. By imposing new requirements under the Horse Racing Law, the violation of which would be a crime, the bill would create new crimes and would thereby create a state-mandated local program. Under existing law, revenues distributed to the state from horse racing are required to be deposited in the Fair and Exposition Fund and are continuously appropriated to the Secretary of Food and Agriculture for various regulatory and general governmental purposes. By providing for wagering on a nightly program of out-of-country harness racing, as provided, this bill would authorize additional wagering, and would increase the amount of continuously appropriated license fees, thereby making an appropriation. 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.

This measure would recognize June 12, 2018, as the 120th Anniversary of Philippine Independence and would call upon the people of the state to observe the month of June with appropriate ceremonies, programs, and activities.

Existing law defines a nuisance as one that affects at the same time an entire community or neighborhood, or any considerable number of persons, although the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon individuals may be unequal, and provides that a public nuisance may be remedied by an indictment or information, a civil action, or abatement. This bill would make any property owner, or agent thereof, who participates in a program to abate lead-based paint created as a result of a judgment or settlement in any public nuisance or similar litigation immune from liability in any lawsuit seeking to recover inspection, abatement, or any other costs associated with that abatement program and the activities conducted pursuant to that abatement program.

This measure would condemn the decision to end the Temporary Protected Status designation for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Sudan. The measure would also urge the United States Congress to enact a bipartisan permanent solution for Salvadorans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and Sudanese with Temporary Protected Status.

Existing provisions of the California Constitution establish the University of California as a public trust under the administration of the Regents of the University of California. The California Constitution grants to the regents all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of this public trust. Pursuant to the California Constitution, there are 7 ex officio members of the regents and 18 appointive members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, a majority of the membership concurring. The members of the regents appointed on and after March 1, 1976, serve 12-year terms. This measure would require, on or before October 1 of each year, the Office of the President of the University of California to submit a written report to the regents, the Governor, and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature specifying its receipts and expenditures for the immediately preceding fiscal year. The measure would also require that an appropriation for the Office of the President of the University of California be made only pursuant to an item in the annual Budget Bill relating solely to that office, as specified. The measure would also add the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to the regents as a voting ex officio member, and would provide that the President of the University of California would be a nonvoting, rather than a voting, ex officio member. The measure would prohibit the appointment of members of the regents appointed to the board before March 4, 2020, to additional terms after that date, and would further require that members of the regents appointed on and after March 4, 2020, would serve 4-year terms, with the exception of 5 appointive positions on the board that would be filled, through appointments by the Governor, by faculty, students, and classified employees of the university for 2-year terms, as specified. The measure would specify the qualifications required of these faculty, student, and classified employee appointees to the board, whose 2-year terms would commence with the expiration of 12-year terms on March 1 of 2020, 2021, and 2022, as prescribed. The measure would repeal, on March 4, 2020, the authority of the members of the board to appoint a member of the faculty of the university or a student of the university, or both, to the board. The measure would prohibit any officer or employee of the university, other than a member of the faculty, from receiving a compensation, as defined, that exceeds $200,000 per year unless that compensation is approved by a vote of the regents in a public meeting.