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 allows a vehicle displaying a copy of the report of sale to be operated without license plates or registration card until either the license plates and registration card are received by the purchaser, or the expiration of a 90-day period beginning with the date of sale of the vehicle, whichever occurs first. A violation of this provision is an infraction. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles, in consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to assess the need for a temporary vehicle identification system that is different from the process described above. The bill would require the department, in making this assessment, to consider information from relevant entities and the experience of other states, as specified. The bill would require the department, if its assessment demonstrates the need to enhance or change the existing temporary vehicle identification system, to examine the costs and benefits of employing different systems, as specified. The bill would require the department to submit, no later than January 1, 2016, a report that includes the results of the assessments and examinations described above, as specified. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to make a recommendation in the report as to whether the state should implement a new temporary vehicle identification system. This bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2017.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a hiring credit for qualified taxpayers who hire qualified employees, as defined, within enterprise zones and local agency military base recovery areas, subject to specified criteria and requirements. Those laws require that a taxpayer obtain a certification from the Employment Development Department, as permitted by federal law, the local county or city Job Training Partnership Act administrative entity, the local county GAIN office or social services agency, or the local government administering a specified area or zone that provides that a qualified employee meets the specified eligibility requirements. Existing law authorizes any local entity formerly authorized to issue a certification that provides that a qualified employee, qualified disadvantaged individual, or qualified displaced employee meets specified eligibility requirements, to continue to accept applications for certification and to issue the certifications up to but no later than January 1, 2015. This bill would instead authorize those local entities to continue to accept applications for the certification up to but no later than January 1, 2015, and would provide that a local entity has until January 1, 2016, to issue the certifications. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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.
Within the Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance and Postponement Law, the Gonsalves-Deukmejian-Petris Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance Law provides for payment of assistance by the Franchise Tax Board to low-income and elderly or disabled claimants, whether those claimants own or rent their residences, in accordance with schedules that reduce the amount of assistance provided as the amount of a claimant's household income increases along a specified scale of household income amounts. This bill would create the Renter's Tax Assistance Act within the Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance and Postponement Law to provide for payment of assistance by the Franchise Tax Board to individuals who rent their residences and have gross household income that do not exceed $42,588, in accordance with a schedule that reduces the amount of assistance provided as the amount of an individual's household income increases along a specified scale of household income amounts. This bill would require each individual applying for assistance to file a claim under penalty of perjury with the board on a form supplied by the board, and would require the claim to include information in the form and manner prescribed by the board that establishes that the individual was eligible for assistance. Existing law provides that a tax preparer who endorses or otherwise negotiates any warrants made with respect to assistance claimed under the Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance and Postponement Law and issued is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would expand the scope of that misdemeanor to include a tax preparer who endorses or otherwise negotiates any warrants made with respect to assistance claimed under the Renter's Tax Assistance Act. By expanding the crime of perjury and expanding the scope of the existing crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing state board regulations require specified entities to comply with a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, and require additional specified entities to comply with that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015. This bill instead would exempt categories of persons or entities that did not have a compliance obligation, as defined, under a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, from being subject to that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015, and until December 31, 2017. The bill would require all participating categories of persons or entities to have a compliance obligation beginning January 1, 2018. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Act of 2008 requires the Department of Parks and Recreation to establish a local assistance program to distribute grants to the most critically underserved communities, as defined, across the state, on a competitive basis, to various local entities and nonprofit organizations for the acquisition or development, or both, of property for parks and recreation areas and facilities. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would provide funding for regional parks in underserved areas.
Existing law until January 1, 2015, establishes in state government the Department of Technology within the Government Operations supervised by the Director of Technology. Existing law requires the director, among other things, to advise the Governor on the strategic management and direction of the state's information technology resources, to establish and enforce state information technology strategic plans, policies, standards, and enterprise architecture, and to produce an annual information technology strategic plan to guide the acquisition, management, and use of information technology. Existing law provides that the department is responsible for the approval and oversight of information technology projects. This bill would extend the operation of those provisions indefinitely. The bill would also require the department, on or before January 1, 2017, to submit a report to the Legislature on the effective use of commercial, off-the-shelf technology in information technology procurement.
Existing law, the California Public Records Act, requires state and local agencies to make public records available upon receipt of a request that reasonably describes an identifiable record not otherwise exempt from disclosure, upon the payment of fees to cover costs. Existing law authorizes the Department of General Services to enter into exclusive or nonexclusive contracts on a bid or negotiated basis with the manufacturers and suppliers of single source or multisource drugs, as specified. Existing law authorizes those contracts to include price discounts, rebates, refunds, or other strategies aimed at managing escalating prescription drug prices. This bill would exempt the financial terms of a contract executed pursuant to this authorization from disclosure under the California Public Records Act. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
(1) Existing law establishes the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program, which requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to award a grant, for the purpose of purchasing or leasing agricultural career technical education equipment, to an applicant school district that operates an agricultural career technical education program and that meets specified requirements. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to annually adopt or update a local control and accountability plan that contains specified information. This bill would continuously appropriate the sum of $4,134,000 in each fiscal year beginning with the 2015–16 fiscal year from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of funding the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program. The bill would require the Superintendent to award a grant to a school district that, in addition to meeting the existing requirements, demonstrates how the expenditure of the grant funds will be consistent with its adopted local control and accountability plan. The bill would also express various findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to agricultural career technical education. (2) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
