Existing law sets forth various requirements for the issuance of diplomas conferred upon a pupil as evidence of graduation from high school. Statutory provisions establish the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma for the purpose of recognizing pupils who have mastered the high school curriculum. This bill would establish the State Seal of Biliteracy to recognize high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing in one or more languages in addition to English. The State Seal of Biliteracy would be awarded by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in accordance with specified criteria. The Superintendent would be required to prepare and deliver to participating school districts the seal insignia. Participating school districts would be required to maintain records in order to identify pupils who have earned a State Seal of Biliteracy and to affix an appropriate insignia to the diploma or transcript of pupils who earn a State Seal of Biliteracy. The bill would make an appropriation by authorizing the Superintendent to use money appropriated for purposes of the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma program to develop an Internet Web site for electronic delivery of the seals for both the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and State Seal of Biliteracy programs to school districts.
Sponsored bills
(1) The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response, including drills and preparedness, and oil spill containment and cleanup, and to represent the state in any coordinated response efforts with the federal government. The act requires the administrator to periodically carry out announced and unannounced drills to test response and cleanup operations, equipment, contingency plans, and procedures. This bill would require the administrator to develop and implement a screening mechanism and a comprehensive risk-based monitoring program for inspecting the bunkering and lightering operations of vessels at anchor and alongside a dock. The bill also would require that the administrator identify bunkering and lightering operations that pose the highest risk of a pollution incident and coordinate with the United States Coast Guard to routinely monitor and inspect those operations. The bill would require the administrator to establish regulations to provide for the best achievable protection during bunkering and lightering operations in the marine environment. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2015. (2) Existing law imposes an oil spill prevention and administration fee in an amount determined by the administrator to be sufficient to implement oil spill prevention activities, but not to exceed $0.05 per barrel of crude oil or petroleum products, on persons owning crude oil or petroleum products at a marine terminal. The fee is deposited into the Oil Spill Prevention and Administration Fund in the State Treasury. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, moneys in the fund are available for specified purposes. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2012, revise that fee to an amount not to exceed $0.065 per barrel of crude oil or petroleum products and, beginning January 1, 2015, to an amount not to exceed $0.05. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Game to contract with the Department of Finance to prepare and submit to the Governor and the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2005, a detailed report on the financial basis and programmatic effectiveness of the state's oil spill prevention, response, and preparedness program. This bill would require the Department of Fish and Game and the State Lands Commission, independently, to contract with the Department of Finance to prepare and submit that report to the Governor and the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2013, and no less than once every 4 years thereafter. (4) Under existing law, the State Lands Commission has jurisdiction over state lands and ungranted tidelands and submerged lands owned by the state. This bill would require the State Lands Commission, on or before March 1, 2012, in consultation with the Department of Conservation, to report to the Legislature on regulatory action, pending or already taken, and statutory recommendations for the Legislature to ensure maximum safety and prevention of harm during offshore oil drilling. This provision would be repealed on January 1, 2016.
Existing law, the Sacramento Regional Transit District Act, creates the Sacramento Regional Transit District with specified powers and duties relative to providing transit services in the Sacramento region. Existing law authorizes the district to issue revenue bonds under the Revenue Bond Act of 1941, payable from revenue of any facility or enterprise of the district. Existing law also authorizes the district to temporarily borrow money in accordance with various provisions of the Government Code applicable to local agencies. This bill would provide that revenues or other income, receipts, or amounts made available to the district, including sales tax revenue, are revenues of the enterprise for purposes of paying revenue bonds issued by the district. The bill would exempt the district from certain provisions of the Revenue Bond Act of 1941, but would require a 23 vote of the district board to issue bonds under that act. The bill would revise provisions in the Sacramento Regional Transit District Act relating to temporary borrowing to conform these provisions to the Government Code provisions applicable to local agencies. The bill would make other related changes.
(1) Existing law makes a person guilty of a misdemeanor if the person enters or remains upon any rail transit-related property, as defined, owned or operated by a county transportation commission or transportation authority without permission or whose entry, presence, or conduct upon the property interferes with, interrupts, or hinders the safe and efficient operation of the railline or rail-related facility. This bill would instead make it a misdemeanor if a person enters or remains upon any transit-related property, as defined, that is used to provide public transportation by rail or passenger bus, without permission or whose entry, presence, or conduct upon the property interferes with, interrupts, or hinders the safe and efficient operation of the railline or rail-related or transit-related facility. (2) Existing law authorizes a local or regional transit agency or a joint powers agency operating rail service to contract with designated persons to act as its agent in the enforcement of specified provisions relative to certain prohibited acts on or in public transportation systems or vehicles if the persons satisfy specified training requirements. This bill would authorize the governing board of the Sacramento Regional Transit District to designate persons regularly employed by the district as inspectors or supervisors to enforce those provisions or any ordinance that is adopted by the district relative to prohibited acts on or in public transportation systems or vehicles, if the persons satisfy specified training requirements. The bill would make changes to cross-references in these provisions. The bill would also delete similar provisions that authorize the board to designate persons to enforce district ordinances and specified state laws, but which do not require the persons to satisfy the training requirements described above. (3) Existing law prohibits certain acts by a person with respect to the property, facilities, or vehicles of a transit district. A violation is an infraction punishable by a fine not exceeding $75 on a first offense, or a fine not exceeding $250 or by community service on a subsequent offense. Existing law, until January 1, 2012, authorizes the Sacramento Regional Transit District and the Fresno Area Express to issue a prohibition order to any person cited for committing one or more of certain prohibited acts in specified transit facilities, including, among other things, if a person has been cited on at least 3 separate occasions, within a period of 60 days, for specified infractions committed in or on a vehicle, bus stop, or light rail station of the transit district. Existing law prohibits a person subject to a prohibition order from entering the property, facilities, or vehicles of the transit district for specified periods of time up to one year. Existing law establishes notice requirements in that regard and provides for initial and administrative review of the order. This bill would remove the January 1, 2012, repeal date for these provisions and would make these provisions operative indefinitely. The bill would authorize the Sacramento Regional Transit District, the Fresno Area Express, and, until January 1, 2015, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, to issue a prohibition order to a person who has been cited on at least 3 separate occasions, within a period of 90 days, for specified infractions committed in or on a vehicle, bus stop, or train or light rail station of the transit district. (4) A violation of a prohibition order is punishable as an infraction. By extending the operative period of a crime, and by expanding the scope of existing crimes, 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.
(1) Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the use of risk factors and specified characteristics to deny an injured worker his or her rightful benefit when disabled in the workplace. The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the apportionment of risk factors and characteristics without prohibiting the apportionment of documentable preexisting nonindustrial causes of disability or holding an employer liable for any percentage of permanent disability not directly caused by an injury arising out of and occurring in the course of employment. (2) Existing law requires any physician who prepares a report addressing the issue of permanent disability due to a claimed industrial injury to address the issue of causation of the permanent disability, and requires that the report include an apportionment determination in order to be considered complete on the issue of permanent disability. Existing law requires a physician to make an apportionment determination by finding what approximate percentage of the permanent disability is caused by the direct result of injury arising out of and occurring in the course of employment and what approximate percentage is caused by other factors. This bill would prohibit the approximate percentage of the permanent disability caused by other factors from including consideration of race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic characteristics.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill would prohibit a gas corporation from recovering any fine or penalty in any rate approved by the commission. The bill would require a gas corporation to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the commission in its general rate case proceeding that the requested revenue requirements will be sufficient to enable the gas corporation to fund those projects and activities necessary to maintain safe and reliable service and to meet federal and state safety requirements applicable to its gas plant, in a cost-effective manner. The bill would require a gas corporation to file gas transmission and storage safety reports with the commission's consumer protection safety division that include certain matter and require that if the division determines that there is a deficiency in a gas corporation's prioritization or administration of the storage or pipeline capital projects or operation and maintenance activities, to bring the deficiency to the commission's immediate attention. This bill would require the commission, in any ratemaking proceeding in which the commission authorizes a gas corporation to recover expenses for a federal transmission pipeline integrity management program, or for related capital expenditures for the maintenance and repair of transmission pipelines, to require the gas corporation to establish and maintain a balancing account for the recovery of those expenses. This provision would not become operative if SB 879 is enacted and becomes effective on or before January 1, 2012, and SB 879 enacts an identical provision. (2) The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to ascertain and fix just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements, or service to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by specified public utilities, including gas corporations. Existing federal law requires the United States Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to adopt minimum safety standards for pipeline transportation and for pipeline facilities, including an interstate gas pipeline facility and intrastate gas pipeline facility, as defined. Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to prescribe or enforce safety standards and practices for an intrastate pipeline facility or intrastate pipeline transportation to the extent that the safety standards and practices are regulated by a state authority that submits to the secretary annually a certification for the facilities and transportation or alternatively authorizes the secretary to make an agreement with a state authority authorizing it to take necessary action to meet certain pipeline safety requirements. Existing law prohibits a state authority from adopting or continuing in force safety standards for interstate pipeline facilities or interstate pipeline transportation. Existing law authorizes a state authority that has submitted a current certification to adopt additional or more stringent safety standards for intrastate pipeline facilities and intrastate pipeline transportation only if those standards are compatible with the minimum standards prescribed by PHMSA. This bill would require owners and operators of intrastate transmission and distribution lines for natural gas, at least once each calendar year, to meet with each local fire department having fire suppression responsibilities in the area where those lines are located to discuss and review contingency plans for emergencies involving the intrastate transmission and distribution lines within the jurisdiction of the local fire department. The bill would require the commission, unless it determines that doing so is preempted under federal law, to require the installation of automatic shutoff or remote controlled sectionalized block valves on certain intrastate transmission lines, as specified. The bill would require each gas corporation to prepare and submit to the commission a proposed comprehensive pressure testing implementation plan that includes specified elements and require that, at the conclusion of an implementation period, all intrastate transmission line segments meet specified requirements. (3) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. (4) 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 requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, state, and county funds. Existing federal law provides for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, formerly the Food Stamp Program, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services and the California Health and Human Services Agency Data Center to design, implement, and maintain a statewide fingerprint imaging system for use in connection with the determination of eligibility for benefits under the CalWORKs program, excluding the Aid to Families with Dependent Children‑Foster Care program, and CalFresh. Existing law, with specified exceptions, requires applicants for, and recipients of, CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits, as a condition of eligibility, to be fingerprint imaged, pursuant to the statewide fingerprint imaging system. This bill would remove the requirement that applicants for, and recipients of, CalFresh benefits, as a condition of eligibility, be fingerprint imaged and would make related conforming changes. Under existing law, the county is required to annually redetermine eligibility for CalWORKs benefits. Existing law additionally requires the county to redetermine recipient eligibility and grant amounts on a quarterly basis, using prospective budgeting, and to prospectively determine the grant amount that a recipient is entitled to receive for each month of the quarterly reporting period. Under existing law, a CalWORKs recipient is required to report to the county, orally or in writing, specified changes that could affect the amount of aid to which the recipient is entitled. Under existing law, the CalWORKs quarterly reporting system is also implemented by the State Department of Social Services in administering SNAP. This bill would make inoperative October 1, 2013, and repeal January 1, 2014, the requirements relating to quarterly reporting and prospective determination grant amounts, and would, instead, impose similar requirements for a semiannual reporting period, operative April 1, 2013, to be implemented no later than October 1, 2013. This bill would require each county to transition recipients to a semiannual reporting system simultaneously and require each county to provide a certificate to the Director of Social Services certifying that semiannual reporting has been implemented in the county. The bill would also require the department to establish an income reporting threshold for CalWORKs recipients, as specified. The bill would make various related conforming changes, including revising provisions relating to the collection of CalWORKs grant overpayments. The bill would authorize counties to adopt staggered semiannual reporting requirements, as specified. This bill would prohibit administrative savings associated with the implementation of semiannual reporting from exceeding the amount necessary to fund the net General Fund costs of the semiannual reporting, and would authorize the reflection of possible additional savings in excess of this amount only to the extent that they are based on actual savings, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions through all-county letters until the adoption of implementing regulations, as prescribed. Existing law requires the Department of Community Services and Development to receive and administer the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program block grant. This bill would, to the extent permitted by federal law, require the State Department of Social Services, in conjunction with the Department of Community Services and Development, to design, implement by January 1, 2013, and maintain a utility assistance initiative. Under the bill, the State Department of Social Services would be required to grant applicants and recipients of CalFresh benefits a nominal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) service benefit, as specified, out of the federal LIHEAP block grant and any funds allocated for this purpose not expended and reinvested into the program, as prescribed. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would, instead, provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. To the extent that the bill would expand eligibility for CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits, the bill would create 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 requires the Department of Food and Agriculture, headed by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. This bill would, until July 1, 2017, create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative. It would require, by July 1, 2012, the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to prepare recommendations, to be presented upon request to the Legislature, regarding actions that need to be taken to promote food access in the state. The bill would establish the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Council and would require the council to implement the initiative, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish an advisory group, as specified. The bill would create the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Fund in the State Treasury, to be comprised of federal, state, philanthropic, and private funds, for the purpose of expanding access to healthy foods in underserved communities and, to the extent practicable, to leverage other funding, as specified. Moneys in the fund would be expended upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, pursuant to which medical benefits are provided to public assistance recipients and other low-income persons. Existing law provides for the department to enter into contracts with managed care systems, hospitals, and prepaid health plans for the provision of various Medi-Cal benefits. Existing law prohibits services covered by the California Children's Services program (CCS) from being incorporated into a Medi-Cal managed care contract entered into after August 1, 1994, until January 1, 2012, except with respect to contracts entered into for county organized health systems in specified counties. This bill would extend to January 1, 2016, the termination of the prohibition against CCS covered services being incorporated into a Medi-Cal managed care contract entered into after August 1, 1994. Existing law requires the provider rates of payment for services rendered for the Healthy Families Program to be identical to the rates of payment for the same service performed by the same provider type pursuant to the Medi-Cal program if the services are provided by a Medi-Cal provider. This bill would require identical rates only if the service was provided by a Medi-Cal provider pursuant to specified contracts.
Existing law, the California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act, provides the procedure for the forfeiture of property and proceeds acquired through a pattern of criminal profiteering activity, as specified, and requires the prosecution to file a petition for forfeiture in conjunction with certain criminal charges. Under existing law, criminal profiteering activity is defined to include specified crimes, including human trafficking. This bill would include within the definition of criminal profiteering activity any crime in which the perpetrator induces, encourages, or persuades, or causes through force, fear, coercion, deceit, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, a person under 18 years of age to engage in a commercial sex act. Under existing law, in any case involving human trafficking of minors for purposes of prostitution or lewd conduct, or in any case involving abduction or procurement by fraudulent inducement for prostitution, in lieu of the distribution procedure described above, the proceeds shall be deposited in the Victim-Witness Assistance Fund to be available for appropriation to fund child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse victim counseling centers and prevention programs. This bill would include the proceeds from any case in which the perpetrator induces, encourages, or persuades, or causes through force, fear, coercion, deceit, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, a person under 18 years of age to engage in a commercial sex act, to be deposited in the Victim-Witness Assistance Fund to be available for appropriation to fund child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse victim counseling centers and prevention programs, as specified. By expanding the scope of an 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.