Existing law, administered by the State Department of Social Services, provides for the establishment of a statewide electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system for the purpose of providing financial and food assistance benefits to needy Californians. This bill would allow an interested collective group or association of produce sellers that is Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) authorized and in a flea market, farmers' market, or certified farmers' market to initiate and operate an EBT acceptance system in the market, as specified. The bill would provide that an individual produce seller in a market is not prohibited from operating his or her own individual EBT acceptance activity as part of that seller's personal business customer transaction offering.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes various prison education programs. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to determine and implement a system of incentives to increase inmate participation in, and completion of, academic and vocational education, as specified. Existing law requires the department to develop and implement a plan to obtain additional rehabilitation and treatment services for prison inmates and parolees. The bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature pertaining to inmate education. This bill would require that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation implement any funding adjustments to inmate academic and vocational education programs consistent with specified requirements, including, among others, that the department shall prioritize the preservation of programs that are effective at reducing recidivism, and that the department shall seek to place inmates and parolees into programs for which they are best suited, as specified. The bill would require the department to annually report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee specified information regarding inmate participation in, and completion of, academic and vocational education programs. The bill would render this reporting requirement inoperative on September 1, 2015.
Existing workers' compensation law requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment. Existing law generally provides that whenever certain public employees who are employed on a regular, full-time basis, and are disabled, whether temporarily or permanently, by injury or illness arising out of, and in the course of, their duties, they are required to become entitled, regardless of their period of service with the public employer, to a leave of absence while so disabled without loss of salary in lieu of temporary disability payments or maintenance allowance payments, if any, for the period of disability, but not exceeding one year, or until that earlier date as he or she is retired on permanent disability pension, and is actually receiving disability pension payment, or certain advanced disability pension payment. This bill would provide that the employees and the employer through the collective bargaining process may mutually agree to extend the leave of absence under the above-described provisions beyond the one year period of disability, but that the extension may only be for a maximum of one additional year.
Existing law establishes the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in this state. These segments include the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, and the California Community Colleges, which are administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law requires the trustees and the board of governors, and requests the regents, to work with the academic senates of each respective segment to encourage faculty to give consideration of the least costly practices in assigning textbooks, including using a selected textbook as long as it is educationally sound. This bill would require the trustees, and request the regents, to review each respective segment's student transfer policies, and to revise those policies, to ensure that faculty may choose a textbook selected for a transfer or general education course, regardless of publication date, for as long as the textbook is available to students and the information contained in the textbook is current and reflects contemporary thinking in the discipline.
Under existing law, every person who willfully enters and occupies real property without the consent of the owner, owner's agent, or person in lawful possession, is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would, with exemptions for employees and public officers, make it an infraction or a misdemeanor to enter an animal enclosure at a zoo, defined to include a public aquarium, or at a circus or traveling animal exhibit, if posted as specified to prohibit entrance, without the consent of the governing authority of the zoo, circus, or traveling animal exhibit, or a representative of that governing authority. Because this bill would create a new crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 19.8 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 451 and AB 1829, to be operative only if this bill and one or both of the other bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is chaptered last. 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, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 (the Greene Act) , 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. This bill, on and after July 1, 2011, would require all new construction projects submitted to the Division of the State Architect pursuant to the Greene Act to include locks that allow doors to classrooms and rooms with an occupancy of 5 or more persons to be locked from the inside, except as specified.
Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacies, including hospital pharmacies, by the California State Board of Pharmacy, and makes a knowing violation of that law a crime. Existing law prohibits the operation of a pharmacy without a license and a separate license is required for each pharmacy location. Under existing law, a hospital pharmacy, as defined, includes a pharmacy located outside of the hospital in another physical plant. However, as a condition of licensure by the board for these pharmacies, pharmaceutical services may only be provided to registered hospital patients who are on the premises of the same physical plant in which the pharmacy is located and those services must be directly related to the services or treatment plan administered in the physical plant. Existing law imposes various requirements on manufacturers, as defined, and states that a manufacturer does not mean a pharmacy compounding a drug for parenteral therapy, pursuant to a prescription, for delivery to another pharmacy for the purpose of delivering or administering the drug to the patient or patients, provided that neither the components for the drug nor the drug are compounded, fabricated, packaged, or otherwise prepared prior to receipt of the prescription. This bill would provide that a hospital pharmacy also includes a pharmacy, licensed by the board, that may be located outside of the hospital in either another physical plant on the same premises or on a separate premises, located within a 100-mile radius of the hospital, that is regulated under a hospital's license. The bill would eliminate the conditions of licensure by the board that limit the services provided by the pharmacy in the other physical plant, but would require that any unit-dose medication produced by a hospital pharmacy under common ownership be barcoded to be readable at the patient's bedside. The bill would authorize a hospital pharmacy to prepare and store a limited quantity of unit-dose medications in advance of a patient-specific prescription under certain circumstances. The bill would also provide that a "manufacturer" does not mean a pharmacy compounding or repackaging a drug for parenteral therapy or oral therapy in a hospital for delivery to another pharmacy or hospital under common ownership in order to dispense or administer the drug to the patient or patients pursuant to a prescription or order. The bill would require a pharmacy compounding or repackaging a drug pursuant to this provision to notify the board of the location of the compounding or repackaging within a specified period of time. Because a knowing violation of the bill's requirements would be 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.
Provisions relating to the administration of personal income taxes allow individual taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of specified funds. This bill would allow taxpayers to designate on their tax returns that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the California Police Activities League (CALPAL) Fund, which would be created by this bill. However, the bill would provide that a voluntary contribution designation for this fund may not be added on the tax return until another voluntary contribution designation is removed from that return. This bill would require that all moneys contributed to the fund pursuant to these provisions, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board and to the Controller for allocation to the CALPAL, as provided. This bill would provide that these voluntary contribution provisions are repealed on January 1 of the 5th taxable year following the taxable year the fund first appears on the tax return. The bill would further provide that these provisions are repealed for taxable years beginning on or after January 1 of the calendar year in which the Franchise Tax Board estimates by September 1 that the contributions made on returns filed in that calendar year will be less than $250,000, or an adjusted amount for subsequent taxable years.
Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department to administer the disability compensation program. Existing law requires the department, among other duties, to make disability benefit payments by checks drawn on a specified bank, as provided. The bill would remove the requirement to pay by check and thus allow the director to make these payments using electronic technology. Existing law requires a claim for disability benefits to be supported by a certification of a treating physician or practitioner, and defines a practitioner as a person duly licensed or certified in California acting within the scope of his or her license or certification who is a dentist, podiatrist, or as to normal pregnancy or childbirth, a midwife, nurse midwife, or a nurse practitioner. This bill would modify the definition of practitioner, as prescribed. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires each admitted insurer to provide information biennially to the Insurance Commissioner on all of its community development investments and community development infrastructure investments, as defined, in California. The commissioner and the Department of Insurance are required to provide certain information on these investments to the public, as specified. These provisions are to remain in effect only until January 1, 2011, and are repealed as of that date. This bill would instead require each admitted insurer to provide information, by January 1, 2014, to the commissioner on all of its community development investments and community development infrastructure investments. The bill would also require that the information the commissioner and the department are required to provide to the public on these investments be provided by May 31, 2014. This bill would extend the date for repealing those provisions to January 1, 2015, and would state that certain insurers could meet the filing requirements relating to community development investments and community development infrastructure investments through a specified filing. This bill would also require certain insurers to develop and file with the commissioner, no later than July 1, 2011, a community development investment and community development infrastructure investment policy statement that expresses the insurer's goals for these investments during the current and following calendar year. Thereafter, each insurer would be required to biennially review its policy statement and, if the insurer revises or changes its policy statement, submit the new policy statement to the commissioner no later than July 1 of each odd-numbered year. The bill would require the commissioner to establish a link on the department's Internet Web site providing public access to each insurer's community development investment and community development infrastructure investment information, as specified. This bill would delete obsolete provisions. The bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 926.2 of the Insurance Code, proposed by AB 1011 of the 2009–10 Regular Session, to be operative only if both bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is chaptered last.