Asm. Sharon Quirk-Silva

The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit for qualified renters in the amount of $120 for spouses filing joint returns, heads of household, and surviving spouses if adjusted gross income is $50,000, as adjusted, or less, and in the amount of $60 for other individuals if adjusted gross income is $25,000, as adjusted, or less. Existing law requires the Franchise Tax Board to annually adjust for inflation these adjusted gross income amounts. For 2018, the adjusted gross income limit is $83,282 and $41,641, respectively. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax credit to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account in the General Fund and provides that payments required to be made to taxpayers or other persons from the Personal Income Tax Fund are to be paid from that account, including any amount allowable as an earned income tax credit in excess of any tax liabilities. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, and only when specified in a bill relating to the Budget Act, would increase the credit amount for a qualified renter to $220 and $434, as provided. In the event the increased credit amount is not specified in a bill relating to the Budget Act, the existing credit amounts of $120 and $60, as described above, respectively, would be the credit amounts for that taxable year. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to annually recompute for inflation the credit amount for taxable years on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2025, unless otherwise provided. The bill would provide findings and declarations relating to the goals, purposes, and objectives of this credit. The bill, for credits allowable for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, would provide that the credit amount in excess of the qualified renter's liability would be refundable and paid from the Tax Relief and Refund Account to the qualified renter upon appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

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 (TANF) block grant program, state, and county funds. Existing law establishes the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which counties provide to foster care providers a per-child, per-month rate, established by the State Department of Social Services, for the care and supervision of the child or nonminor dependent placed with the provider. Existing law also requires counties to provide payment to an emergency caregiver who is not yet a foster care provider on behalf of a child or nonminor dependent placed in the home of the caregiver that is equivalent to that per-child, per-month rate. This bill would additionally require a county to provide to those emergency caregivers a payment to cover the cost of reasonable travel for the child to remain in the school in which the child or nonminor dependent is enrolled at the time of placement. The bill would also require a county, at the time of placement, or within 3 business days after identifying the school in which the child or nonminor dependent is enrolled, to notify an emergency caregiver if a child or nonminor dependent is eligible for that reasonable travel reimbursement, as specified, or notify a foster care provider if the provider is eligible to receive transportation reimbursement in addition to the basic rate. By expanding the duties of, and imposing new requirements on, counties, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

(1) Under the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 1986, the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 1988, and the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of June 1992, the issuance, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, of bonds in an amount not to exceed $400,000,000, $600,000,000, and $900,000,000, respectively, and the expenditure of the revenues therefrom, were authorized for the purpose of aid to the University of California and the California State University for, among other things, the construction and equipping of educational facilities, as specified. Existing law establishes the Higher Education Facilities Finance Committee to administer those acts, and to authorize the issuance and sale of bonds to the extent necessary to fund the education facilities construction apportionments expressly authorized by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act. More recently, the Class Size Reduction Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 1998, the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2002, the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2004, and the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 authorized the issuance of bonds and the expenditure of revenues therefrom for the University of California and the California State University, as well as for the California Community Colleges and public elementary and secondary schools. This bill would enact the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 2020, which, upon approval by the state electorate, would authorize the issuance of state general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $8,000,000,000, with one-half of the amount designated for the University of California and the Hastings College of the Law and the other half designated for the California State University, for purposes similar to those specified in the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 1986, the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 1988, and the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of June 1992, to be issued and sold in a manner similar to that provided under those acts. The bill would require that any request for funds from the bonds issued pursuant to the bond act enacted by this bill be accompanied by the 5-year capital outlay plan of the particular university or college and include a schedule that prioritizes the seismic retrofitting needed to significantly reduce seismic hazards in buildings identified as high priority by the university or college, as specified. (2) This bill would provide for the submission of the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act of 2020 to the voters at the March 3, 2020, statewide primary election, as specified.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and 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 federal law authorizes a state to provide in its Medicaid state plan that in determining eligibility under the federal Medicaid program for a child, the state is authorized to rely on a finding made within a reasonable period from an Express Lane agency, as defined, when it determines whether a child satisfies one or more components of eligibility for medical assistance under the federal Medicaid program. Existing law establishes the California Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC Program) , which is administered by the State Department of Public Health and counties and under which nutrition and other assistance are provided to eligible low-income pregnant women, low-income postpartum and lactating women, and low-income infants and children under 5 years of age, who have been determined to be at nutritional risk. Existing law requires the former Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board and former State Department of Health Services, in collaboration with program offices for the WIC Program and other designated entities, to design, promulgate, and implement policies and procedures for an automated enrollment gateway system, subject to appropriation, allowing children applying to the WIC Program to obtain presumptive eligibility for, and to facilitate application for enrollment in, the Medi-Cal program or the former Healthy Families Program, to the extent federal financial participation is available, as specified. This bill would delete the above-described provisions relating to the automated enrollment gateway system and would instead require the State Department of Health Care Services, in collaboration with the same designated entities, to design, promulgate, and implement policies and procedures for an automated enrollment pathway, designating the WIC Program and its local WIC agencies as Express Lane agencies and using WIC eligibility determinations to meet Medi-Cal eligibility requirements. The bill would require the pathway to perform specified functions to streamline Medi-Cal enrollment and maximize health care coverage. The bill would require that benefits for applicants enrolling in the Medi-Cal program using the pathway be provided immediately through accelerated enrollment for children and presumptive eligibility for pregnant women. The bill would also require the pathway to modify the existing WIC enrollment system and Medi-Cal eligibility and enrollment systems to electronically transfer to the WIC Program the Medi-Cal eligibility determinations and contact information of Medi-Cal enrollees who are eligible for the WIC Program for the purpose of local WIC agencies contacting prospective WIC enrollees to complete their enrollment in the WIC Program. The bill would, while the automated enrollment pathway is being developed, require the department, in coordination with the WIC Program and local WIC agencies to, among other things, conduct regular data matches to identify which WIC recipients are not enrolled in the Medi-Cal program and which Medi-Cal beneficiaries are eligible for, but not enrolled in, the WIC Program, and to provide specified notices about program eligibility to those persons. The bill would require the department to seek approval of any amendments to the state plan necessary to implement these provisions, and would condition their implementation on the department obtaining all necessary federal approvals. The bill would also require the department to complete the project approval lifecycle process, as specified, for the automated enrollment pathway prior to implementing these provisions. Because counties are responsible for making eligibility determinations under the Medi-Cal program, by revising eligibility requirements, 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.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Education, under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and assigns to the department numerous duties relating to the financing, governance, and guidance of the public elementary and secondary schools in this state. Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, among other duties, to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. This bill would establish the Computer Science Access Initiative, to be administered by the department, in consultation with the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The bill would require the department to award grants, on or before July 1, 2020, to eligible entities for the purpose of increasing the number of teachers authorized and trained to instruct pupils in computer science, as specified. The bill would require a grant recipient to submit to the department, in a form and manner determined by the department, a report containing certain information measuring the results of the use of grant funds. The bill would provide that the operation of these provisions is contingent on an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes.

Existing law establishes the California Emergency Solutions and Housing Program, under the administration of the Department of Housing and Community Development and requires the department to, among other things, provide rental assistance and housing relocation and stabilization services to ensure housing affordability to people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness. This bill would require the department to develop and administer a program to award grants to qualified homeless shelters, as described, for the provision of shelter, food, and basic veterinary services for pets owned by people experiencing homelessness.

This measure would recognize June 12, 2019, as the 121st 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.

This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to enact legislation to provide permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for immigrant youths and individuals with Deferred Enforced Departure and Temporary Protected Status.