Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to adopt a local control and accountability plan and requires the governing board of a school district to update its local control and accountability plan before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires a local control and accountability plan to include, among other things, a description of the annual goals to be achieved for each state priority, as specified, for all pupils and certain subgroups of pupils. This bill would add to the enumerated state priorities the degree to which the certificated instructional personnel of the school district are offered opportunities for professional development and growth. By requiring the governing board of each school district to include additional information in the local control and accountability plan, 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, 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.
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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. This bill would repeal the act.
In a fiscal year immediately after a fiscal year in which a transfer is made into the Public School System Stabilization Account, existing law prohibits a school district's adopted or revised budget from containing a combined assigned or unassigned ending fund balance that is in excess of either 2 or 3 times the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties adopted by the State Board of Education, depending on the school district's units of average daily attendance. Existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to waive the prohibition, pursuant to specified conditions, for up to 2 consecutive fiscal years within a 3-year period if the school district provides documentation indicating that extraordinary fiscal circumstances substantiate the need for the balance. This bill would repeal those provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law authorizes the limit line, intersection, or other places where a driver is required to stop to be equipped with an automated traffic enforcement system, as defined, if the system meets certain requirements. Existing law authorizes a governmental agency to contract out the operation of the system under certain circumstances, except for specified activities, that include, among other things, establishing guidelines for selection of the location of the system. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2016, prohibit a governmental agency from installing an automated traffic enforcement system. The bill would authorize a governmental agency that is operating an automatic traffic enforcement system on that date to continue to do so after that date only if the agency begins conducting a traffic safety study on or before February 28, 2016, at each intersection where a system is in use to determine whether the use of the system resulted in a reduction in the number of traffic accidents involving failing to stop at a red light or failing to stop at a red light when making a right turn at that intersection. The bill would require the traffic safety study to be completed on or before January 1, 2017. The bill would require the governmental agency to terminate the use of an automated traffic enforcement system at an intersection no later than January 1, 2018, if the traffic safety study shows that the use of the system did not reduce the number of traffic accidents that occurred at that intersection by a statistically significant number.
The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by that law. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2015, would allow as a deduction under that law the lesser of (1) the amount contributed by a qualified taxpayer, as defined, to a qualified tuition program, as specified, or (2) $3,000 in the case of a qualified taxpayer who is single or is a married individual filing a separate return, and $6,000 in the case of a qualified taxpayer who is a married individual filing a joint return or an individual filing a head of household return. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to allow pupils whom the district has determined would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work to attend community college as special part-time or full-time students, subject to recommendation by the school principal and parental permission. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation later in the 2015–16 Regular Session regarding concurrent enrollment in secondary school and community college for pupils pursuing studies related to computer science.
Existing law prohibits, subject to exceptions, specified acts of animal abuse including, among others, the malicious and intentional maiming, mutilation, torture, or wounding of a living animal. Under existing law, a violation of those provisions is punishable as a felony by imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years, or by a fine of not more than $20,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment, or alternatively, as a misdemeanor by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than $20,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment. This bill would require a person who violates the animal abuse prohibitions described above to be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000 for each violation, in addition to the fines described above. The bill would require those additional fines to be paid to the local public animal control agency that has jurisdiction over the location where the violation occurred. The bill would authorize the agency to use the moneys paid as a fine to compensate a person who incurs costs for the animal's medical care, rehabilitation, or recovery, if the owner or caretaker of the animal was the person who violated the animal abuse prohibitions described above. The bill would also require, in addition to any other penalty provided by law, a person who violates the animal abuse prohibitions described above in a rehabilitative facility for animals to pay for and successfully complete an appropriate counseling course, as determined by the court, designed to evaluate and treat behavior or conduct disorders. The bill would define "rehabilitative facility for animals" for these purposes as a facility at which medical care or rehabilitative services are provided to animals, including, but not limited to, an animal sanctuary, animal shelter, or aquarium. By increasing the penalties for existing crimes and increasing the duties of a public animal control agency relative to the use of the moneys paid as a fine, 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law prohibits, subject to certain exceptions, an employer from requiring an employee to work more than 5 hours per day without providing a meal period. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to those provisions.
Existing law, inoperative due to a pending referendum election, would otherwise, as of July 1, 2015, prohibit stores that have a specified amount of sales in dollars or retail floor space from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer, with specified exceptions. That law would also prohibit those stores from selling or distributing a recycled paper bag at the point of sale unless the store makes that bag available for purchase for not less than $0.10 and would allow those stores to distribute compostable bags at the point of sale only in jurisdictions that meet specified requirements and at a cost of not less than $0.10. This same law, on and after July 1, 2016, would additionally impose these prohibitions and requirements on convenience food stores, foodmarts, and entities that are engaged in the sale of a limited line of goods, or goods intended to be consumed off premises, and that hold a specified license with regard to alcoholic beverages. This inoperative law would require, on and after July 1, 2015, a reusable grocery bag sold by certain stores to a customer at the point of sale to be made by a certified reusable grocery bag producer and to meet specified requirements with regard to the bag's durability, material, labeling, heavy metal content, and, with regard to reusable grocery bags made from plastic film on and after January 1, 2016, recycled material content. Existing law, included in the bill that enacted the provisions currently inoperative due to the pending referendum election, but not included in the referendum election, and thus operative, appropriates $2,000,000 from the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Account to the department for the purposes of providing loans for the creation and retention of jobs and economic activity in California for the manufacture and recycling of plastic reusable grocery bags that use recycled content. Existing law, subject to the referendum election, requires the department, no later than March 1, 2018, to provide a status report to the Legislature on the implementation of all of these provisions. This bill would repeal the above provisions and related provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) generally requires all state and local governmental lead agencies to prepare, or cause to be prepared by contract, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on any discretionary project that they propose to carry out or approve that may result in a significant effect on the environment, that is, a substantial, or potentially substantial, adverse change in the physical conditions that exist within the area that will be affected by the project. Under existing law, a housing project qualifies for an exemption from CEQA if certain requirements are met, including the requirement that the site is not located within the boundaries of a state conservancy. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the site not be located within the boundaries of a state conservancy.