(1) Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary schools operated by local educational agencies throughout the state. Existing law also establishes a system of public postsecondary education in this state that includes 3 segments: the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to establish a pilot program with the goal of creating a model of articulation and coordination among K–12 schools, community colleges, and campuses of the California State University that will allow students to earn a baccalaureate degree for a total cost as close as possible to $12,000. The bill would establish a Baccalaureate Degree Pilot Program that would include campuses of the California State University, community college districts, and county offices of education in up to 7 areas of the state, but would only include institutions that explicitly request inclusion in the program. The bill would require the public postsecondary educational institutions and local educational agencies participating in the pilot program to coordinate their efforts to expedite the progress of participating students from high school to community college to California State University. Because the bill would impose new duties on community college districts and county offices of education, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize participating high school students to earn an unlimited number of Advanced Placement course credits, and provide these students with priority enrollment at participating community colleges. The bill would impose grade point average and time requirements on participating students at the community college stage of the pilot program. The bill would require a participating California State University campus to accept a minimum of 60 semester units earned by a participating student at a high school or community college. The bill would require a participating student to receive priority enrollment status at a participating California State University, and would require the participating student to enroll at that California State University either in the summer term or the fall semester immediately succeeding the pupil's completion of the required community college coursework. This bill would limit bachelor's degrees awarded at the participating California State University to a participating student to baccalaureate degrees in one or more of specified fields of study. The bill would prohibit the mandatory systemwide fees and tuition and mandatory campus-based fees charged to a participating student from being increased during the first 2 academic years of his or her attendance at a California State University campus under the pilot program. The bill would authorize the institutions participating in the pilot program, in consultation with the appropriate private entities, to develop summer internships for participating students relating to their fields of study for academic credit. (2) 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.
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(1) Existing law, the Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2012, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $11,140,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a safe drinking water and water supply reliability program. Existing law provides for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. This bill would repeal these provisions. (2) Under existing law, various measures have been approved by the voters to provide funds for water supply and protection facilities and programs. This bill would enact the Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2014, which, if adopted by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $8,035,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a safe drinking water and water supply reliability program. This bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) The Franchise Tax Board administers the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law and the State Board of Equalization administers the Sales and Use Tax Law and various other tax and fee laws. Counties, cities, and districts, as specified, are authorized to impose local sales or transactions and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local laws. Those laws generally require a claim for refund to be filed within specified timeframes based on the date of overpayment or specified board action if any amount has been overpaid, as specified. Under those laws, the rule of res judicata, which provides that a matter that has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction may not be pursued further by the same parties is applicable only if the liability involved is for the same reporting period as was involved in the case previously determined. This bill would, notwithstanding existing law regarding the rule of res judicata, where a tax, fee, assessment, surcharge, or other amount levied or collected by the tax agency, which this bill would define to include the board and the Franchise Tax Board, has been determined to have been illegally levied or collected in a final and nonappealable decision of a court of competent jurisdiction, authorize any person who paid that tax, fee, assessment, surcharge, or other amount to file with the tax agency a claim for refund, within one year after the date of the final and nonappealable decision and would require the tax agency to refund the amount so paid. This bill would also require the tax agency to refund these amounts without the person filing a claim for refund when information in the tax agencies' records is sufficient to identify the person. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, allocate the amounts necessary to make these refunds to the applicable tax agency. (2) Existing law requires an action to recover property taxes levied on state-assessed property arising out of a dispute as to an assessment to be commenced only after payment of the taxes in issue and within 4 years after the latest of the dates that the State Board of Equalization mailed its decision or its written findings and conclusions, as provided. This bill would instead require, where the tax assessed or allocated has been determined to have been illegally assessed or allocated in a final and nonappealable decision of a court of competent jurisdiction, the action to commence no later than one year from the date the court rendered that decision. (3) This bill would make a legislative finding and declaration regarding the public purpose served by the bill.
Existing law, the Corporate Securities Law of 1968, defines a broker-dealer as, among other things, any person engaged in the business of effecting securities transactions in California for the account of others or his or her own account, and it specifies those persons or entities excluded from the definition. Pursuant to the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 2012 (GRP 2) , the regulation of corporations is transferred, effective July 1, 2013, from the Commissioner of Corporations to the Commissioner of Business Oversight. This bill would add to the persons excluded from the definition of a broker-dealer an individual who is a finder, as defined, who satisfied specified requirements, including, among other things, filing an initial statement of information with the Department of Business Oversight and paying a filing fee. The bill also would make technical changes to conform with the GRP 2.
Existing law provides for unemployment compensation benefits for eligible individuals in the state who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law requires an employer, as defined, to make quarterly contributions for unemployment insurance premiums, as specified. This bill would authorize an employer, with certain exceptions, to pay the quarterly employer contributions in an amount that is at least 25% of the estimated total annual contribution amount required. The bill would require, upon annual reconciliation, if an amount paid in a quarter was less than 25% of the actual annual employer contribution amount required, the penalty and interest incurred to apply only to the difference of 25% of the actual total annual employer contribution amount required and the amounts paid.
(1) Article XIX of the California Constitution restricts the use of fuel excise tax revenues imposed by the state on fuels used in motor vehicles upon public streets and highways to expenditure on highway and certain mass transit purposes. Existing law provides for the deposit of these revenues in the Highway Users Tax Account, and appropriates those revenues to various purposes. Existing law, with respect to the portion of these revenues that is derived from increases in the motor vehicle fuel excise tax beginning in 2010, requires an allocation to reimburse the State Highway Account for the amount of weight fee revenues that the State Highway Account is not receiving due to use of weight fee revenues to pay debt service on transportation general obligation bonds and to make certain loans, with the remaining amount of this portion of revenues allocated 44% to the State Transportation Improvement Program, 12% to the State Highway Operations and Protection Program, and 44% to city and county streets and roads. This bill would delete the provisions allocating revenues derived from the increased motor vehicle fuel excise tax to State Highway Account reimbursement, the State Transportation Improvement Program, and the State Highway Operations and Protection Program. The bill would instead provide for the Controller to apportion all of these revenues to cities and counties for local streets and roads pursuant to a specified formula, thereby making an appropriation. (2) Existing law, commencing with the 2013–14 fiscal year, requires certain revenues deposited in the State Highway Account that are not restricted as to expenditure by Article XIX of the California Constitution to be transferred to the Transportation Debt Service Fund in the State Transportation Fund for payment of current year debt service on certain transportation general obligation bonds. This bill would delete the transfer of these revenues to the Transportation Debt Service Fund, and would instead provide for appropriation in the annual Budget Act of 44% of these revenues to the State Transportation Improvement Program, 12% to the State Highway Operations and Protection Program, and 44% to city and county streets and roads pursuant to a specified formula.
Existing law designates area agencies on aging as local units on aging in California, which are financially supported by a variety of sources, including federal funding, state and local government assistance, the private sector, and individual contributions. Existing law also provides for independent living centers, for the purpose of assisting individuals with disabilities in their attempts to live fuller and freer lives outside institutions, and achieve social and economic independence. This bill would continuously appropriate from the Federal Trust Fund, in the absence of enactment of the annual Budget Act by July 1 of a fiscal year, (1) to the California Department of Aging, the amount of federal funds contained in the Federal Trust Fund necessary to pay area agencies on aging for the administration of programs under their jurisdiction, and (2) to the Department of Rehabilitation, the amount of federal funds contained in the Federal Trust Fund necessary to pay independent living centers for the administration of programs under their jurisdiction, pending enactment of the Budget Act. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to disburse funds, appropriated to the department for the purpose of supporting county veterans service officers pursuant to the annual Budget Act, on a pro rata basis, to counties that comply with certain conditions. This bill would authorize the department, in conjunction with the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers, no later than July 1, 2015, to develop an allocation formula based upon performance standards that encourage innovation and reward outstanding service by county veterans service officers, and, if that allocation formula is developed, the bill would require those moneys appropriated for support of county veterans service offices in the annual Budget Act to be allocated in accordance with that formula, as specified.
Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary schools operated by local educational agencies throughout the state. Existing law also establishes a system of public postsecondary education in this state that includes 3 segments: the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to establish a pilot program with the goal of establishing a coordinated curriculum that enables students, including, but not necessarily limited to, students who have earned college course credit through concurrent enrollment in high school and community college, to earn a baccalaureate degree from a participating University of California campus within 3 years of graduating from a secondary school, at a total cost to the student as close as possible to $25,000, excluding the cost of mandatory campus-based fees. The bill would authorize the University of California to establish a Baccalaureate Degree Pilot Program that includes any campus of the University of California, any campus of the California Community Colleges that volunteers to participate, and any secondary educational institution that volunteers to participate. The bill would place specified conditions on the operation of the pilot program, which would apply to the University of California only to the extent made applicable by action of the Regents of the University of California.
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.