(1) The Public Employees' Retirement Law requires the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System to administer the Public Employees' Retirement Law. Under that law, state employees and employees of local agencies that contract with the Board of Administration for retirement benefits are within the membership of the retirement system. That law, as in effect on July 1, 1991, provides that the membership of the Board of Administration shall include 6 elected members, including 2 members elected from the membership of the retirement system by the members of the retirement system, one member elected from state membership by active state members, 2 members elected by and from active local members, and one member elected by and from the retired members of the retirement system. This bill instead would provide for the appointment of those 6 board members by the Governor based on their demonstrated expertise in the financial and actuarial fields. (2) The California Constitution prohibits the number, terms, and method of selection or removal of members of the retirement board of a public pension or retirement system, which includes in its composition elected employee members, from being changed, amended, or modified by the Legislature from those that were required by law or otherwise in effect on July 1, 1991, unless the change, amendment, or modification enacted by the Legislature is ratified by a majority vote of the electors of the jurisdiction in which the participants of the system are or were, prior to retirement, employed. This bill would call a special election to be consolidated with a statewide election to be held in 2011. The bill would condition the provisions of the bill upon voter approval, and would require the Secretary of State to submit the provisions of the bill to the voters for approval at the consolidated statewide election. Because local election officials would be required to undertake additional duties to place this bill on the ballot at the consolidated election, 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, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an act calling an election.
Sponsored bills
The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, the Ralph C. Dills Act, provisions commonly referred to as the Educational Employment Relations Act, the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, the Trial Court Employment Protection and Governance Act, the Trial Court Interpreter Employment and Labor Relations Act, and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Transit Employer-Employee Relations Act each provide for the representation of state or local public employees by recognized employee organizations, and provide that the scope of this representation includes negotiations concerning wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between the state or local public employer and representatives of those employee organizations. This bill would exclude matters relating to the retroactive effect of pension benefit increases from the scope of representation of public employees by recognized employee organizations, and would thereby prohibit these employee organizations from negotiating for a retroactive effect of pension benefit increases with public employers. The Public Employees' Retirement Law creates the Public Employees' Retirement System, which provides a defined benefit to its members based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. The State Teachers' Retirement Law, the Judges' Retirement System II Law, and the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 also provide for a defined benefit based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. This bill would require that any adjustment to the formula used to calculate the retirement benefits of a member of a public retirement system that would yield an increase in the member's retirement benefits apply only to service performed after the operative date of the adjustment, and would prohibit the retroactive application of that adjustment, except as provided.
The Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) provides a defined benefit to members of the Public Employees' Retirement System based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation, as those terms are defined. The management and control of PERL is vested in the board of administration of PERL, including the calculation of the contribution rates for public employers. Existing law requires the board, any time it adopts or forecasts the contribution rates, to submit a report to the Legislature, the Governor, and the Treasurer describing the investment return assumptions, discount rates, and amortization periods utilized by the board in the calculation of the contribution rates for all public employees and employers. Existing law also requires that this report include recalculations of those rates based on specified adjustments of the investment return assumptions, amortization periods, and discount rates utilized by the board, and specifically requires the board to calculate the liabilities of the fund using a discount rate equal to the rate of the 10-year United States Treasury Bond. Existing law requires the Treasurer, within 30 days following receipt of the report, to provide each house of the Legislature, at a publicly noticed floor session, with an explanation of the role played by the investment return assumption and amortization period in the calculation of the contribution rates and the consequences for future state budgets if the investment return assumptions are not realized, to report whether the board's amortization period exceeds the estimated average remaining service periods of employees covered by the contributions, and to express his or her opinion of the reasonableness of the board's calculation of the contribution rates. This bill would instead require an annual report and would limit the scope of this report to include only contribution rates for the state employer. The bill would delete the reference to the 10-year United States Treasury Bond, and would instead require the board to include a calculation of the liabilities of the fund using discount rates equal to (1) the average rate of investment return since the establishment of the fund, and (2) the average rate of investment return since January 1, 1984. The bill would require the Treasurer, within 30 days of receipt of the report, to present the above-described information to a publicly noticed, joint meeting of the budget and retirement committees of both houses of the Legislature.
The Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) creates the Public Employees' Retirement System, which provides a defined benefit to its members based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. PERL defines "final compensation" for purposes of calculating a member's retirement allowance. The State Teachers' Retirement Law (STRL) , the Judges' Retirement System II Law, and the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 also provide for a defined benefit based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. This bill, for persons first hired on and after January 1, 2012, for the purpose of determining any pension or benefit with respect to a public entity defined benefit retirement system, would require that final compensation means the highest annual average compensation earnable by the person during a consecutive 36-month period of membership, as specified. The bill would prohibit the inclusion of credit for accrued leave of any form or credit for overtime work in the calculation of final compensation, as specified.
Existing law authorizes the creation of retirement systems for public employees by counties, cities, and districts. Existing law creates the Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System, which provide a defined benefit to their members based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. Existing law establishes the criteria for membership in the various public employee retirement systems and may exclude certain employment classifications from membership. The California Constitution provides for the division of the state into counties and requires that a county have an elected sheriff, elected district attorney, elected assessor, and elected governing body. Existing law provides for the incorporation of cities in various forms and requires that certain city offices be filled pursuant to elections, as prescribed. Existing law provides for the creation of districts, the governing bodies of which may be elected. This bill would prohibit a person who is publicly elected to a local office of any kind, on and after January 1, 2012, from becoming a member of a retirement system by virtue of that service or from acquiring any retirement right or benefit for serving in that elective local office. The bill would also apply these prohibitions to a person who is appointed to fill the term of a person so elected, but would not apply them to a person who obtained membership by virtue of holding an elective local office prior to January 1, 2012, for so long as he or she holds that office or is reelected to that office.
This bill would urge the United States Patent and Trademark Office to place a satellite office in California.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. Under existing sales and use tax regulations, gross receipts from a retail sale of a wireless telecommunication device sold in a bundled transaction with wireless telecommunication service are generally equal to the amount of the unbundled sales price of the wireless telecommunication device. This bill would, instead, limit the gross receipts from a retail sale of a wireless telecommunication device sold in a bundled transaction with wireless telecommunication service to the bundled sales price of the wireless telecommunication device. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing law authorizes districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to state sales and use taxes are incorporated into these laws. Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code provides that the state will reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care benefits. Under existing law, the Director of Health Care Services is required to enter into contracts with managed care plans to provide services under the Medi-Cal program. A Medi-Cal participant is given 30 days following the determination of eligibility to indicate his or her choice of health care options. Under existing law, in counties where the conversion to managed care plan enrollment has occurred, and where the default rate, as defined, is 20% or higher in 2 consecutive months occurring after the conversion, the department is required to conduct a survey of beneficiaries, as specified, and to report the results to the appropriate legislative policy and budget committees. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the survey and reporting provisions.
Existing personal income tax allow individual taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of specified funds, including the ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease Research Fund. Those laws repeal the ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease Research Fund on January 1, 2013, or on the taxable year 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 a minimum contribution amount, as defined, whichever occurs first. This bill would repeal those provisions and reenact similar provisions, except that the January 1, 2013, repeal date would be extended to January 1, 2016.
(1) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater by municipalities and industries in accordance with the federal national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit program. Existing law, the Professional Engineers Act, requires all civil engineering plans, calculations, specifications, and reports to be prepared by, or under the responsible charge of, a licensed civil engineer. A violation of the act is a crime. This bill would exempt a civil engineer from any requirement of additional experience, training, or certification requirements in order to perform activities in the preparation of a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan pursuant to a specified general permit for stormwater discharges. (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.