This measure would recognize the importance of celebrating the birth and independence of Mexico and honoring and invigorating the spirit of friendship, understanding, and cooperation that characterizes the California-Mexico relationship.
Existing law provides state financing for construction of county jails, subject to matching funds from counties, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Corrections Standards Authority to give funding preference for those purposes to counties that assist the state in siting reentry facilities, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Corrections Standards Authority to give coequal funding preference to counties that assist the state in either siting reentry facilities or providing existing beds and program space in county jails for use as reentry facilities. The bill would provide that a county interested in providing reentry services to state inmates shall be required to enter into a long-term agreement with the department to provide those services and that the department shall certify that the proposed reentry services meet its approval.
Existing law does not provide a system of universal health care coverage for California residents. Existing law provides for the creation of various programs to provide health care services to persons who have limited incomes and meet various eligibility requirements. These programs include the Healthy Families Program administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, and the Medi‑Cal program administered by the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and health insurers by the Department of Insurance. This bill would establish the California Healthcare System to be administered by the newly created California Healthcare Agency under the control of a Healthcare Commissioner appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate. The bill would make all California residents eligible for specified health care benefits under the California Healthcare System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services. The bill would provide that a resident of the state with a household income, as specified, at or below 200% of the federal poverty level would be eligible for the type of benefits provided under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require the commissioner to seek all necessary waivers, exemptions, agreements, or legislation to allow various existing federal, state, and local health care payments to be paid to the California Healthcare System, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds. The bill would create the Healthcare Policy Board to establish policy on medical issues and various other matters relating to the system. The bill would create the Office of Patient Advocacy within the agency to represent the interests of health care consumers relative to the system. The bill would create within the agency the Office of Health Planning to plan for the health care needs of the population, and the Office of Health Care Quality, headed by a chief medical officer, to support the delivery of high quality care and promote provider and patient satisfaction. The bill would create the Office of Inspector General for the California Healthcare System within the Attorney General's office, which would have various oversight powers. The bill would prohibit health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies from being issued for services covered by the California Healthcare System. The bill would create the Healthcare Fund and the Payments Board to administer the finances of the California Healthcare System. The bill would create the California Healthcare Premium Commission (Premium Commission) to determine the cost of the California Healthcare System and to develop a premium structure for the system that complies with specified standards. The bill would require the Premium Commission to recommend a premium structure to the Governor and the Legislature on or before January 1, 2013, and to make a draft recommendation to the Governor, the Legislature, and the public 90 days before submitting its final premium structure recommendation. The bill would specify that only its provisions relating to the Premium Commission would become operative on January 1, 2011, with its remaining provisions becoming operative on the date the Secretary of California Health and Human Services notifies the Legislature, as specified, that sufficient funding exists to implement the California Healthcare System. The bill would require that system to be operative within 2 years of that date and would provide for various transition processes for that period. The bill would extend the application of certain insurance fraud laws to providers of services and products under the system, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by revising the definition of a crime. The bill would enact other related provisions relative to budgeting, regional entities, federal preemption, subrogation, collective bargaining agreements, compensation of health care providers, conflict of interest, patient grievances, independent medical review, and associated matters. 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.
Existing law provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible unemployed persons during the period that the person is unemployed, and requires the Employment Development Department to implement and administer the unemployment compensation program. Existing law, the California Workforce Investment Act, declares that it is the intent of the Legislature to deliver comprehensive workforce services to job seekers, students, and employers through a system of one-stop career centers to, among other things, make job outreach, intake, job search and placement assistance, and other related services available in one location. This bill would require the department, commencing on or before July 1, 2011, to provide unemployment insurance benefits assistance in at least one comprehensive one-stop career center in each workforce area, as described in the Workforce Investment Act. The bill would require that the unemployment benefit assistance services required to be provided at these one-stop career centers be funded with existing moneys available to the department for the administration of the unemployment compensation program, as specified. These provisions would remain in effect through December 31, 2014.
(1) Existing law requires the Insurance Commissioner to designate a licensed rating organization, as defined, as his or her statistical agent to gather and compile workers' compensation insurers' loss and expense experience statistics, and all licensed rating organizations are required to report loss and expense experiences of their member workers' compensation insurers to the statistical agent. Subject to reasonable rules approved by the commissioner, the statistical agent is required to make available those compiled experience statistics to all licensed rating organizations. The statistical agent is authorized to make a reasonable charge to other ratings organizations for the expense incurred by it in combining, tabulating, and compiling the experience of all workers' compensation insurers. This bill would require a designated statistical agent to conduct public meetings, as provided, would specify records of the designated statistical agent that are public, and would specify information that the designated statistical agent is not required to make available to the public. (2) Existing law requires a licensed rating organization to make experience rating information contained in its records available to any insurer, insurance agent, or broker that is admitted or licensed to transact workers' compensation insurance in this state. Existing law prohibits a licensed rating organization from entering into an agreement, as specified, that prohibits information services companies in the business of publishing or providing experience rating information immediately prior to September 15, 1989, from continuing to receive and provide experience rating information. This bill would require a rating organization to provide experience rating information, by electronic means, directly to information service providers in the business of publishing or providing experience rating information immediately prior to September 15, 1989, or to advisory organizations, as defined, on a timely basis, as provided. This bill would require a licensed rating organization to make experience rating information contained in its records available to any information services company that is engaged in furnishing workers' compensation information to insurers, insurance agents, and insurance brokers, admitted or licensed to transact workers' compensation insurance in this state, as provided.
Existing law prohibits employers from engaging in unfair labor practices, including interfering in the election by agricultural employees of labor representatives to engage in collective bargaining for the designated bargaining units. Existing law provides for a secret ballot election for employees in agricultural bargaining units, as defined, to select labor organizations to represent them for collective bargaining purposes. This bill would authorize the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, under specified circumstances, to set aside an election where there has been misconduct by the employer affecting the outcome of the election and to certify a labor organization as the exclusive bargaining representative for a bargaining unit if the organization had previously presented the board with authorization cards signed by more than 50% of the employees in that bargaining unit.
Existing law, the Clean Air and Transportation Improvement Act of 1990, authorizes the issuance of $1.99 billion in general obligation bonds for rail and transit purposes. Existing law provides for the California Transportation Commission to allocate bond funds to eligible projects. Existing law, the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006, authorizes the issuance of $19.925 billion in general obligation bonds for various transportation purposes. Existing law designates an administrative agency that is responsible for programming these bond funds for the various categories of projects funded by the act. Existing law authorizes a regional or local agency that is a lead agency for a project to be funded under the act to apply to the administrative agency for a letter of no prejudice that permits the applicant to spend its own resources on the project and then to be reimbursed at a later date when bond funds become available, subject to various requirements and conditions. This bill would enact similar provisions applicable to regional or local agencies relative to projects to be funded by the Clean Air and Transportation Improvement Act of 1990.
Existing law divides the state into agricultural districts within the boundaries of which agricultural associations may be formed. Existing law creates District 32a from real property commonly known as the Orange County Fair and authorizes the Department of General Services to sell all or any portion of the real property that composes District 32a. This bill would repeal the provision creating District 32a out of the Orange County Fair property and would repeal the provision authorizing its sale by the department. This bill would also repeal the creation of the District 32a Disposition Fund in the State Treasury. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would designate the first week of March of each year as Cuss Free Week.
Existing law imposes residency requirements on specified elected officials in California. The California Constitution provides that each house of the Legislature is the sole judge of the qualifications of its Members. This bill would require that a person elected to a nonjudicial public office for a county, city, or school district, maintain his or her domicile, as defined, within the jurisdiction within which voters are qualified to vote for the office during his or her term of office. The bill would require a person who violates this provision to immediately forfeit his or her office and would disqualify the person from holding any state or local public office for a period of 4 years. As to persons serving terms of office that commence on or after November 2, 2010, the bill would also make a violation of the domicile requirement punishable by either a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000 or a fine not to exceed $1,000, imprisonment in a county jail for no more than 6 months, or by both fine and imprisonment, if it is established that the officeholder moved his or her domicile out of the jurisdiction of the office with the intent of retaining the office and misleading the voters within the jurisdiction to believe that he or she maintains his or her domicile within the jurisdiction of the office. The bill would authorize enforcement of its provisions by the Attorney General or the district attorney of a county for a violation involving a nonjudicial public office whose territory is located wholly or partially within that county. By creating a new 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
