Existing law requires public entities to comply with certain procedures in soliciting and evaluating bids and awarding contracts for the erection, construction, alteration, repair, or improvement of any public structure, building, road, or other public improvement. Existing law authorizes school district governing boards, the governing boards of specified community college districts and community college facility construction projects, certain cities, certain counties, and transit operators, to enter into design-build contracts, as specified. Existing law requires awarding bodies entering into design-build contracts under these provisions to establish and enforce a labor compliance program or to contract with a 3rd party to operate a labor compliance program, and exempts from this requirement projects where the awarding body or the design-build entity has entered into a collective bargaining agreement that binds all of the contractors performing work on the project. This bill would delete the exemption for those projects from the requirement that the entity establish and enforce a labor compliance program or contract with a 3rd party to operate a labor compliance program.
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(1) Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles, for good cause, to issue an instruction permit to a physically and mentally qualified person who is at least 15 years and 6 months of age and who has, among other qualifications, successfully completed an approved course in automobile driver education. Existing law requires a person, prior to the issuance of an instruction permit, to have complied with one of 3 alternative programs of driver education and training. This bill would reduce the number of programs to 2 and would revise the requirements of those programs. The bill would also require that the instruction permit not be issued until that person is enrolled in an approved driver training course and completes the first 2 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction. The instruction permit would not be valid until the permit is signed by the instructor. This bill would also require that a person be prohibited from commencing an approved course in automobile driver education prior to attaining 15 years of age. (2) Existing law authorizes a person, with immediate possession of a valid permit, to operate a motor vehicle, when accompanied by, and under the immediate supervision of, a California licensed driver with a valid license who is 18 years of age or older, with exceptions. This bill would change the minimum age of the California licensed driver required to accompany and supervise a person with immediate possession of a valid permit in the operation of a motor vehicle, to 25 years of age. (3) Existing law authorizes the issuance of a provisional driver's license to a person at least 16 years of age, but under 18 years of age. Existing law requires a person, prior to the issuance of a provisional license, to complete 50 hours of supervised driving practice and, upon application for the provisional license, submit a certification of a parent, spouse, guardian, or licensed or certified driving instructor that the applicant has completed the required amount of driving practice and is prepared to take the driving test. This bill would additionally require the parent, spouse, or guardian to complete a debriefing with the driving instructor. The bill would require that before obtaining a provisional license the person successfully complete an approved course of driver training conducted by a California secondary school, licensed driving school, or equivalent instruction in a secondary school of another state or a driving school licensed by another state, or completes an approved integrated driver education and training program. (4) This bill would make conforming changes.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (the act) requires the State Air Resources Board (state board) to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of emissions of greenhouse gases and to monitor and enforce compliance with the reporting and verification program, and requires the state board to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions levels in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The state board is required by January 1, 2011, to adopt greenhouse gas emissions limits and emission reduction measures by regulation to achieve the prescribed emission reductions. This bill would suspend the act until the state unemployment rate is 5.5% or lower for four consecutive calendar quarters. The bill would require the resuspension of the act whenever the state unemployment rate rises above 5.5% for four consecutive calendar quarters. The bill would prohibit the state board, and specified other state agencies, from proposing, promulgating, or adopting any regulation pursuant to the act during a period of suspension and would require that any such regulation adopted prior to January 1, 2011, be inoperative until the suspension is lifted. The bill would request local agencies to refrain from adopting rules, regulations, and policies that derive authority or responsibility from the act and to revise or repeal those rules, regulations, or policies adopted prior to January 1, 2011, until the suspension is lifted.
The Charter Schools Act of 1992 permits teachers and parents to petition the governing board of a school district to approve a charter school to operate independently from the existing school district structure as a method of accomplishing, among other things, improved pupil learning. A charter petition is required to be signed by a specified number of teachers or parents who are meaningfully interested in either enrolling their children in the school or teaching at the school. If a school district denies a petition, the petitioners may submit the petition to the county board of education. If a county board of education denies a petition, the petitioners may submit the petition to the State Board of Education, which may designate its supervisorial and oversight responsibilities for a charter school it approves to any local educational agency in the county in which the charter school is located or to the governing board of the school district that first denied the petition. A county board of education is authorized to grant a charter petition submitted directly to it for a countywide charter school. In addition, a petition for the operation of a statewide charter school that will provide instructional services of statewide benefit may be submitted directly to the state board, in which case the state board may enter into an agreement with a 3rd party to oversee, monitor, and report on the operations of the state charter school. This bill would authorize a petition to establish a charter school to be submitted for approval to the governing board of a community college district if the petition proposes the operation of a charter school within the county in which the community college district maintains a campus. The governing board of a community college district would be authorized to grant a petition submitted to it for approval. The governing board of a community college district that grants a charter petition would be required to assume all of the duties, responsibilities, functions, and obligations that the governing board of a school district assumes when it grants a charter petition. A charter school established as specified in the bill would be required to receive the state aid portion of the charter school's total general-purpose entitlement, categorical block grant, other state and federal categorical aid, and lottery funds directly. The governing board of a community college district would be required to inform the state board if it elected to accept petitions for charter schools. The bill would require the state board to limit the number of charter schools established pursuant to these provisions to 10 schools. The bill would require the State Department of Education, by January 1, 2013, to prepare an analysis of the efficacy of community college districts approving charter school petitions.
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various deductions in computing income that is subject to tax under that law. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2010, allow a deduction in connection with health savings accounts in conformity with federal law. In general, the deduction would be an amount equal to the aggregate amount paid in cash during the taxable year by, or on behalf of, an eligible individual, as defined, to a health savings account of that individual, as provided. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2010, also provide related conformity to that federal law with respect to treatment of the account as a tax‑exempt trust, the allowance of rollovers from Archer Medical Savings Accounts, health flexible spending arrangements, or health reimbursement accounts to a health savings account, and penalties in connection therewith. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law requires a person proposing to construct a thermal powerplant to obtain a certification from the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. Existing law exempts facilities for which the Public Utilities Commission has issued a certificate of convenience and necessity or that a municipal utility has approved before January 7, 1975. This bill would additionally exempt an applicant for a nuclear fission thermal powerplant capable of producing up to 2,000 megawatts of energy that is the first California entity to obtain an early site permit from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Existing law requires public entities to comply with certain procedures in soliciting and evaluating bids and awarding contracts for the erection, construction, alteration, repair, or improvement of any public structure, building, road, or other public improvement. Existing law authorizes school district governing boards, the governing boards of specified community college districts and community college facility construction projects, certain cities, certain counties, and transit operators, to enter into design-build contracts, as specified. Existing law requires proposals to be evaluated and scored using certain minimum factors, including skilled labor force availability. Existing law defines "skilled labor force availability" to mean that an agreement exists with a registered apprenticeship program, approved by the California Apprenticeship Council, which has graduated apprentices in the preceding 5 years, except as specified. This bill would revise the definition of "skilled labor force availability" for purposes of these provisions to a commitment to training the future construction workforce of California through apprenticeship, as specified, and would require the design-build entity to provide specified information from which it intends to request the dispatch of apprentices for use on the design-build contract.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would allow for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2010, and before January 1, 2015, a deduction under that law for the qualified costs paid or incurred during the taxable year by a taxpayer for the adoption of pets from a qualified animal rescue organization, as defined. Existing law relating to the administration of personal income taxes authorizes individual taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of specified funds or accounts. This bill would allow individual taxpayers to designate on their tax returns, that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the Pet Adoption Cost Deduction Fund, which would be created by this bill. This bill would provide that all moneys contributed to the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board and the Controller for reimbursement of costs, as provided, to the Controller for reimbursement of the General Fund for revenue losses from providing the deduction for pet adoption costs, and to the Department of Food and Agriculture for purposes relating to abandoned and impounded animals. This bill would provide that these voluntary contribution provisions are repealed on either January 1 of the 5th taxable year following the taxable year the fund first appears on the personal income tax return or on January 1 of an earlier calendar year, if the Franchise Tax Board estimates that the annual contribution amount will be less than $250,000, or an adjusted amount, as specified, for subsequent taxable years.
Existing law requires a driver and a passenger to wear a safety helmet meeting certain requirements when riding on a motorcycle, motor-driven cycle, or motorized bicycle. This bill would exempt from this requirement a driver who is 18 years of age or older who has either completed a motorcyclist safety training program, or has been issued a class M1 license or endorsement, or a comparable license from another jurisdiction, for 2 years or more.
Existing law requires certain persons specified as "mandated reporters" to report suspected child abuse or child neglect, as specified, and provides that failure to report as required is an offense. This bill would include employees in public libraries as mandated reporters, for purposes of reporting the use of computers in public libraries, discovered in the course of their duties, to access, on the Internet or from other sources, any material that would constitute depictions of sexual exploitation, as described. By expanding the list of mandated reporters, for whom the failure to report specified conduct is a 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.