This measure would call upon all Californians to observe César Chávez's birthday, March 31, as a day of public service, to recognize the hard work and self-sacrifice that farmworkers go through to feed all the families in our state, and to learn from César Chávez's life and his mission of nonviolence, social justice, and selfless service to others.
Existing law requires the State Department of Education to ensure that the nutrition levels of meals served to schoolage children pursuant to the federal National School Lunch Act be of the highest quality and greatest nutritional value possible. This bill would establish the Farm to School Program within the Department of Food and Agriculture, to provide for the allocation of grants and technical assistance to school districts and county offices of education for specified purposes, including serving healthy meals in school cafeterias. The bill would authorize the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to distribute grants of up to $5,000 per schoolsite to eligible school districts and county offices of education for specified purposes, including, among others, food literacy education. The bill would require a school district or county office of education that receives a grant pursuant to those provisions to comply with specified reporting requirements. The bill would require the secretary to convene an interagency working group on increasing the provision of fresh and nutritious school meals to pupils that includes representatives of the Department of Food and Agriculture, the State Department of Education, and the State Department of Public Health. The bill would make the implementation of the Farm to School Program contingent upon appropriation by the Legislature for those purposes.
(1) Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, provides for the planning and regulation of a development and requires any person undertaking development in the coastal zone to obtain a coastal development permit issued by the California Coastal Commission in accordance with prescribed procedures. This bill would require a city or county, including a charter city or charter county, to apply for a coastal development permit to remove or restrict the use of a beach fire ring, as defined, and would require that application to include specified information. The bill would not affect the applicability of a specified provision relating to ambient air quality standards, emission standards, or air pollution control programs or facilities established by the State Air Resources Board or an air pollution control or air quality management district. The bill would not prohibit the City of Newport Beach from distributing charcoal free of charge for use in a beach fire ring within 700 feet of a residence. By increasing the duties of local officials with respect to the California Coastal Act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The bill would declare these provisions to be declaratory of existing law. (3) 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 these statutory provisions.
(1) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding, and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition. The bill would revise the definition of modernization under the act to include the replacement of facilities on a site containing a permanent structure that is at least 25 years old or, in the case of a portable classroom, that is at least 20 years old, as specified. The bill would reduce the minimum amount that an applicant school district under the act must set aside for ongoing and major maintenance of school buildings from 3% to 2% of the total general fund expenditures of that district in a fiscal year. This bill would delete a provision requiring the State Allocation Board to conduct an evaluation of the cost of new construction and modernization of small high schools in conjunction with a specified pilot program. The bill would require each school district that elects to participate in a new construction or modernization program funded by the proceeds of any bond approved by the voters after November 1, 2014, to reestablish eligibility, as specified, and to conduct an inventory of existing facilities for purposes of maintaining a statewide school facilities inventory. The bill would authorize a grant for new construction or modernization under the act to be used for seismic mitigation purposes and for related design, study, and testing costs, and require the State Allocation Board, in the development of guidelines and regulations, to provide a school district with maximum flexibility in the design, modernization, and new construction of school facilities. The bill would require the Office of Public School Construction to recommend regulations to the board to provide school districts with flexibility in designing instruction facilities. The bill would require the State Department of Education, the Division of the State Architect, the Office of Public School Construction, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control to convene for the purposes of developing an interagency plan to streamline the school facility construction application, review, and audit processes in order to reduce the time and improve the efficiency of the school facility construction process. The bill would require that this interagency plan be submitted to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2015. (2) Existing law, the California Constitution, prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (a) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (b) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the members elected to each house of the Legislature, (c) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (d) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would enact the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2014 to authorize $4,300,000,000 of state general obligation bonds, as scheduled, to provide aid to school districts, county superintendents of schools, county boards of education, charter schools, the California Community Colleges, the University of California, the Hastings College of the Law, and the California State University to construct and modernize education facilities. The proceeds of these bonds would be deposited in the continuously appropriated 2014 State School Facilities Fund, which this bill would establish, thereby making an appropriation. The proposed bond act would become operative only if approved by the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, and the bill would provide for its submission to the voters at that election. The bill would require the Secretary of State to publish, and separately mail, a supplemental ballot pamphlet regarding the proposed bond act if it is not possible to include information regarding this proposed bond act in the ballot pamphlet for the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. The bill would provide for public examination of the translations of the ballot title and condensed statement of the ballot title of the proposed bond act, as specified. (3) This bill would specify that certain of its provisions would become operative only if the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2014 is approved by the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. (4) The bill would make conforming changes in related provisions of existing law. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law imposes penalties when a taxpayer fails to timely file an income tax return or fails to timely pay the tax due as shown on, or as required to be shown on, the tax return, unless it is shown that the failure is due to reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board, upon request of a qualified taxpayer, as defined, to abate a failure-to-file or failure-to-pay timeliness penalty when specified circumstances are met, including where the qualified taxpayer has paid, or is in a current arrangement to pay, all tax currently due and the Franchise Tax Board has not imposed a timeliness penalty in the year of the request or prior 4 years. The bill would make a continuous appropriation from the General Fund to the Franchise Tax Board in those amounts necessary to make payments to those qualified taxpayers who have paid the penalty that is being abated before the effective date of this bill. The bill would make a legislative finding and declaration regarding the public purpose served by the bill.
Existing law requires the State Office of Child Abuse Prevention to develop and disseminate information to all school districts and district school personnel regarding the detection of child abuse. Existing law, the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, designates certain persons, including teachers, as mandated reporters. Existing law requires a mandated reporter to make a report if the person has knowledge of or observes a child whom the person knows or reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse or neglect. Existing law also provides that the California School for the Blind and the California School for the Deaf are under the administration of the State Department of Education. This bill would require the governing board of each school district and county office of education, the governing body of each charter school, and, for purposes of the California School for the Blind and the California School for the Deaf, the department, to adopt a policy on the reporting of child abuse and the responsibilities of mandated reporters. The bill would require each school district, charter school, and county office of education, the California School for the Blind, and the California School for the Deaf to, at minimum, review the mandated reporting requirements of school employees with all school personnel within the first 6 weeks of each school year, at a regularly scheduled staff meeting. By expanding the duty of school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education, 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, 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law, the Orange County Water District Act, prescribes the powers of the Orange County Water District. Existing law grants the district the power to perform actions useful or necessary to replenish the underground water basin within the district, or to augment and protect the quality of the common water supplies of the district. The act authorizes the district to conduct any investigations of the quality of the surface and groundwaters within the district that the district determines to be necessary and appropriate to determine whether those waters are contaminated or polluted. The act authorizes the district to expend available funds to perform any cleanup, abatement, or remedial work required under the circumstances which, in the determination of the board of directors, is required by the magnitude of the endeavor or the urgency of prompt action needed to prevent, abate, or contain any threatened or existing contamination of, or pollution to, the surface or groundwaters of the district, and requires the person causing or threatening to cause that contamination or pollution to be liable to the district to the extent of the reasonable costs actually incurred. This bill would require the district, when cleaning up or containing contamination or pollution, abating the effects of the contamination or pollution, or, in the case of threatened contamination or pollution, taking other removal or remedial action described above, to provide prior notice of the action to a regional water quality control board and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, to meet and confer with agencies and any responsible party, as provided, and to comply with the requirements of the National Contingency Plan, as prescribed. Among other things, bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the district adopt a policy to address the process for groundwater remediation projects and that the district enter into a memorandum of understanding between it, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Santa Ana region, and the Orange County Health Care Agency to establish a process of review of the district's proposed groundwater remediation projects. The bill would declare that a special law is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution. 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law establishes the Franchise Tax Board and prescribes its various powers and duties regarding, among other things, the administration of state personal income taxes. Existing law provides that it is a misdemeanor for the Franchise Tax Board or specified state employees to disclose or make known any information in a return, report, or document filed under the Administration of Franchise and Income Tax Laws, but authorizes the Franchise Tax Board to disclose this information to specified agencies for specified purposes. Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. This bill would authorize the board to revise the form of the personal income tax return to include a space labeled "Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Eligibility" to allow a low-Â or moderate-income person who is the parent or legal guardian of a pupil between 16 and 18 years of age, inclusive, and a low-Â or moderate-income person between 18 and 25 years of age, inclusive, to designate on the tax return that the board may disclose specified tax information to the commission. If the specified person designates that the board may disclose this tax information, the bill would authorize the board to release this information to the commission, as specified. The bill would authorize the commission to use this tax information to determine if a person is potentially eligible for financial assistance under the Cal Grant Program, the federal Pell Grant program, and the Middle Class Scholarship Program, and to notify the potentially eligible person that the person may be eligible for these financial assistance awards, as specified. By expanding the scope of a crime, 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.
The Economic Revitalization Act establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as "GO-Biz," to 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. Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act establishes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank within GO-Biz to, among other things, assist in the promotion of economic development throughout the state. This bill would enact the Small Business Technical Assistance Act of 2014, within the bank under the direction of GO-Biz to, among other things, serve as the lead state entity for overseeing the state's participation with the federal California Small Business Development Center Program, the Women's Business Center program, the Veteran Business Outreach Center program, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) , and the Procurement Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreement program. This act would also recognize those federal programs. This act would authorize GO-Biz or any other state entity to contract with a federal small business technical assistance center. This act would require the State Chair of the California Small Business Development Center Leadership Council, established under the federal program, or the contract lead for any of the other federal small business technical assistance centers, to report specific information to GO-Biz relating to any year that state funds are appropriated to support the California Small Business Development Center Program or any of the other federal small business technical assistance center programs, and would, in turn, require the director of GO-Biz or the contract lead for any of the other small business technical assistance centers to provide that report to the Legislature and post the report on the GO-Biz's Internet Web site. This bill would also require the state chair, as a condition of accepting state funds, to allow access to other information about those programs under certain conditions. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations in this regard.
The California Infrastructure Planning Act requires the Governor to submit annually to the Legislature, in conjunction with the Governor's Budget, a proposed 5-year infrastructure plan containing prescribed information. Existing law requires the plan to identify state infrastructure needs and set out priorities for funding. The plan defines the term "infrastructure" to mean real property, including land and improvements to the land, structures, and equipment integral to the operation of structures, easements, rights-of-way, and other forms of interest in property, roadways, and water conveyances. This bill would additionally require the plan to set out priorities for coordination of investment and include an analysis of investment coordination opportunities for capital outlay related to infill and transit-oriented development. The bill would expand the definition of infrastructure to include housing. Existing law creates the Strategic Growth Council consisting of various state agencies, with certain powers and duties relative to the identification and review of activities and funding programs of those agencies in order to improve air and water quality, improve natural resource protection, increase the availability of affordable housing, improve transportation, meet the goals of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, encourage sustainable land use planning, and revitalize urban and community centers in a sustainable manner. Existing law requires the council to review and comment on the infrastructure plan submitted by the Governor. This bill would require the Governor to submit the plan with the assistance of the Strategic Growth Council.
