Asm. Autumn R. Burke

This measure would provide that the Legislature stands in moral and legal objection to the ballot measure proposing to enact the Sodomite Suppression Act, and to any other ballot measure that seeks to inflict harm on innocent persons or diminish current civil rights protections. This measure also would provide that the Legislature calls upon the residents of the State of California to reject bigotry and hate speech.

This measure would encourage all California municipalities to reexamine regulations surrounding mandatory fire suppression ordinances.

This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to enact Senate Bill 664, known as the Foster Care Tax Credit Act, which would provide tax relief to short-term foster parents by helping to cover the actual costs of caring for a foster child.

This measure would declare the week of September 13, 2015, through September 19, 2015, and the third week of September every year thereafter, as provided, as Sierra Nevada Watershed Protection Week. The measure would applaud public schools that include watershed protection in the Sierra Nevada Region as part of their outdoor education curriculum whenever possible during the month of September. The measure would also commend state, federal, and local agencies, along with nongovernmental organizations for working cooperatively to achieve the goal of increasing the pace and scale of watershed and forest restoration in the region with the Sierra Nevada Conservancy playing a key role in the development of a plan and program to address these issues.

This measure would declare the month of August 2015 as Dropout Recovery Month, and would state that the Legislature intends to encourage the support of dropout recovery high schools with creative teaching strategies, alternative accountability metrics, and adequate resources.

This measure would designate the portion of Interstate 15 from Camino Del Norte to Scripps Poway Parkway/Mercy Road in the County of San Diego as the Tony Gwynn Memorial Freeway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

This measure would declare October 2, 2015, as California Manufacturing Day.

This measure would designate a specified portion of Interstate 405 in the County of Orange as the James Mitchell "Mitch" Waller Memorial Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the costs of erecting the appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

This measure would urge the Governor to proclaim the month of June 2015 as World War II Remembrance Month, and call upon all Californians to observe the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to prepare a State Highway Operation and Protection Program every other year for the expenditure of transportation capital improvement funds for projects that are necessary to preserve and protect the state highway system, excluding projects that add new traffic lanes. Existing law provides for the programming of transportation capital improvement funds for other objectives through the State Transportation Improvement Program administered by the California Transportation Commission, which includes projects recommended by regional transportation planning agencies through adoption of a regional transportation improvement program and projects recommended by the department through adoption of an interregional transportation improvement program, as specified. This bill, by January 1, 2017, would require the California Transportation Commission to establish a process whereby the department and local agencies receiving funding for highway capital improvements from the State Highway Operation and Protection Program or the State Transportation Improvement Program prioritize projects that provide meaningful benefits to the mobility and safety needs of disadvantaged community residents, as specified. (2) Existing law creates the Active Transportation Program in the Department of Transportation for the purpose of encouraging increased use of active modes of transportation, such as biking and walking, with specified available funds to be awarded to eligible projects by the California Transportation Commission and regional transportation agencies, as specified. This bill would specifically require $125,000,000 to be appropriated annually from the State Highway Account to the Active Transportation Program, with these additional funds to be used for network grants that prioritize projects in underserved areas, as specified.