Asm. Marie Waldron

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Route 50 in the County of El Dorado as the Deputy Sheriff Brian "Ish" Ishmael Memorial Highway. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.

Existing sales and use tax laws, among other things, impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from their sales of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law designates that certain sellers of tangible personal property are consumers, and not retailers, of the tangible personal property they sell, including, until January 1, 2021, that an all volunteer fire department, as defined, is a consumer, and not a retailer, of all tangible personal property sold by it, if the profits are used solely and exclusively in furtherance of the purposes of the all volunteer fire department, subject to specified limitations, so that the retail sale subject to tax is the sale of tangible personal property to the all volunteer fire department. This bill would extend the operation of that consumer designation for all volunteer fire departments until January 1, 2026. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill also would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. 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 laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to 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.

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 employment. Existing law creates a disputable presumption that specified injuries sustained in the course of employment of a specified member of law enforcement or a specified first responder arose out of and in the course of employment. Existing law allows for a claim to be presumed compensable if it has not been rejected within 90 days of filing, as specified. Existing law imposes a duty on an employer to provide certain safety materials and adopt safety practices as necessary. A failure to meet this duty, under specified circumstances, is a misdemeanor. This bill would, until July 1, 2024, define "injury," for certain state and local firefighting personnel, peace officers, certain correctional and law enforcement personnel, as described, certain health care employees who provide direct patient care at an acute care hospital, and certain fire and rescue services coordinators who work for the Office of Emergency Services to include illness or death resulting from COVID-19, that is diagnosed on or after January 1, 2020, if certain circumstances apply. The bill would create a disputable presumption, as specified, that the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment. The bill would require a claim to be presumed compensable, if not rejected within 30 days, as specified. This bill would explicitly add emergency equipment or personal protective equipment, as described, to those materials required to be provided by an employer. A failure to comply with this additional requirement would not constitute a misdemeanor. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Insurance Rate Reduction and Reform Act of 1988, an initiative measure enacted by Proposition 103, as approved by the voters at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, prohibits specified insurance rates from being approved or remaining in effect that are excessive, inadequate, unfairly discriminatory, or otherwise in violation of the act. The act requires an insurer that wishes to change a rate to file a complete rate application with the Insurance Commissioner, as specified. This bill would require the commissioner to investigate, study, and prepare a report that addresses specific issues relating to ratemaking for residential property insurance policies in high fire risk areas. The bill would require the study to address the extent to which the commissioner may use its authority to create one or more market assistance plans to ensure that residential property insurance is fair, available, and affordable in high fire risk communities, the costs and benefits of authorizing insurers to include the cost of reinsurance as part of the rate for residential property insurance, and the extent to which the establishment of a public wildfire catastrophe model would be appropriate for use in residential property insurance ratemaking. The bill would require the commissioner, on or before July 1, 2022, to submit the report to the Chairpersons of the Assembly and Senate Committees on Insurance, the Speaker of the Assembly, the President pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Governor. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025.

(1) Existing law, until January 1, 2021, establishes the Supervised Population Workforce Training Grant Program, administered by the California Workforce Investment Board and funded, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to provide grants for vocational training and apprenticeship opportunities for persons on probation, mandatory supervision, and postrelease community supervision. This bill would extend this program until January 1, 2026. (2) Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to administer the state prison system under the direction of the Secretary of the CDCR. Existing law establishes various advisory bodies within CDCR including the Commission on Correctional Peace Officer Standards and Training, to set training and selection standards for correctional officers, and the Council on Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health to advise on approaches to meeting the long-term needs of persons with behavioral health disorders. This bill would establish an emergency preparedness task force within CDCR, as specified. This bill would require the task force to evaluate the preparedness of the correctional system. This bill would also require the task force to report and make recommendations quarterly to the Legislature, Governor's Office, and the Department of Finance. This bill would also allow the task force to issue competitive grants to nonprofit entities and organizations pursuant to adopted regulations. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would proclaim September 12, 2020, as Native American Women Equal Pay Day in California in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by Native American women.

Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program for the purpose of providing jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Upon appropriation, existing law requires the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to distribute $650,000,000 among continuums of care, cities, and counties pursuant to the program. By executive order, the Governor required the Department of Finance to establish the California Access to Housing and Services Fund, administered by the State Department of Social Services, to provide funding for additional affordable housing units, providing rental and operating subsidies, and stabilizing board and care homes. This bill, the California Access to Housing and Services Act, would establish the California Access to Housing and Services Fund in the State Treasury and continuously appropriate moneys in the fund solely for the purpose of implementing and administering the bill's provisions. The bill, for the 2020–21 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Controller to transfer up to $2,000,000,000 from the General Fund to the fund and require the Department of Housing and Community Development and the State Department of Social Services to jointly administer the fund pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, as provided. The bill would provide that deposits into the fund may also include, but are not limited to, other state funds; private, nonprofit, or philanthropic donations; local government contributions; and any recoveries or reversions resulting from activities pursuant to the act. The bill would require the departments, in collaboration with the California Health and Human Services Agency and after deduction for administrative costs and certain allocations to the Governor's Office to End Homelessness, if the bill establishing that office is enacted, to allocate 55% of the moneys in the fund to counties and continuums of care that apply jointly, 45% to large cities, and 5% to developers operating in unincorporated areas and cities that are not eligible for an allocation. The bill would define various terms for these purposes. The bill would require that recipients and subrecipients ensure that any expenditure of moneys allocated to them serve the eligible population, as defined, unless otherwise expressly provided in the bill. The bill would require eligible recipients to apply for allocations and require the departments to evaluate those applications based on specified criteria and make annual allocations, as provided. The bill would require recipients to contractually obligate 100% of the amount allocated to them under the bill within 4 years, and expend the entirety of that amount within 5 years, of entering into a grant agreement with the departments, except for moneys used to provide a capitalized operating subsidy reserve, which the bill would require to be expended over a period of at least 17 years. If a developer awarded moneys under the bill does not comply with these time periods, the bill would require that the allocation revert to the fund. If a county and continuum of care or a large city does not comply with these time periods, is otherwise not in compliance with specified requirements under the bill, or does not apply for an allocation, the bill would require the departments to designate an alternate entity to administer the allocation until the departments approve a compliance plan submitted by the recipient, as provided. The bill would require the departments to evaluate the outcomes of the program and submit a report to specified committees of the Legislature every 5 years, beginning on January 1, 2023, as provided. The bill would specify various requirements for counties and continuums of care to jointly apply, and for a large city to apply, for allocations from the fund. The bill would also specify various eligible activities for which moneys allocated to counties and continuums of care that apply jointly or to large cities may be expended, which generally include services offered in connection with providing permanent housing and supportive housing, in the case of joint allocations to counties and continuums of care, and capital expenditures to fund the creation of affordable housing and supportive housing, in the case of allocations to large cities. The bill would require recipients under these provisions to comply with specified requirements, including a requirement that the recipient match 25% of the amount allocated to it, and quality standards for housing units assisted under the bill. The bill would require the departments to establish a process for awarding grants to these recipients in subsequent years. The bill would also require the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide grants to eligible developers based on a competitive application process and require the recipient to use that grant for development, acquisition, rehabilitation, preservation, motel conversion, and capitalized operating subsidy reserves in accordance with specified requirements. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. If a local agency determines that a project is not subject to CEQA and approves or determines to carry out the project, CEQA authorizes the local agency to file a notice of exemption with the county clerk of each county in which the project will be located in a specified manner. This bill would exempt from CEQA specified actions taken by a large city in connection with making land available or approving the development of low barrier interim interventions, affordable housing, or supportive housing funded under the bill. The bill would require the large city to file a notice of exemption with the clerk of the county in which the large city is located and the Office of Planning and Research in the manner specified above.

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 services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law provides for the suspension of Medi-Cal benefits to an inmate of a public institution, which ends on the date they are no longer an inmate of a public institution or one year from the date they become an inmate of a public institution, whichever is sooner. Existing federal law, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, prohibits a state from terminating Medi-Cal eligibility for an eligible juvenile if they are an inmate of a public institution, authorizes the suspension of Medicaid benefits to that eligible juvenile, and requires a state to conduct a redetermination of Medicaid eligibility or process an application for medical assistance under the Medicaid program for an eligible juvenile who is an inmate of a public institution. Under existing state law, commencing October 1, 2020, the suspension of Medi-Cal benefits to an inmate of a public institution who is a juvenile, as defined in federal law, ends when the individual is no longer an eligible juvenile pursuant to federal law or one year from the date the individual becomes an inmate of a public institution, whichever is later. This bill would instead require, commencing October 1, 2020, the suspension of Medi-Cal benefits to an inmate of a public institution who is not a juvenile, as defined, to end on the date they are no longer an inmate of a public institution or 3 years from the date they become an inmate of a public institution, whichever is sooner. The bill would also require, commencing October 1, 2020, the suspension of Medi-Cal benefits to an inmate of a public institution who is a juvenile, as defined, on the date that the individual is no longer an inmate of a public institution or 3 years after the date the individual is no longer an eligible juvenile under federal law, whichever is later.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act's requirements a crime. Existing law requires every health care service plan contract that covers hospital, medical, or surgical expenses to include coverage for specified equipment and supplies for the management and treatment of diabetes. Existing law provides for the regulation of insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires an insurance policy that covers hospital, medical, or surgical expenses that is issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2000, to include coverage for specified equipment and supplies for the management and treatment of insulin-using diabetes, non-insulin-using diabetes, and gestational diabetes as medically necessary, even if the items are available without a prescription. Existing law requires an insurance policy issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2000, that covers prescription benefits to include coverage for specified diabetes management prescription items, including insulin and glucagon. This bill would prohibit a health care service plan contract or a specified disability insurance policy that is issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2021, from imposing cost sharing on a covered insulin prescription, except for a copayment not to exceed $50 per 30-day supply of insulin, and no more than $100 total per month, regardless of the amount or type of insulin. The bill would apply these cost-sharing limitations until January 1, 2024. The bill would also authorize the Attorney General to investigate pricing of prescription insulin drugs to ensure adequate pricing protections for consumers, and would authorize the Attorney General, by November 1, 2022, to issue and make publicly available a report detailing its findings from any insulin pricing investigations. The bill would exempt trade secret or proprietary business information submitted to the Attorney General pursuant to these provisions from specified disclosure requirements. The bill would make these provisions applicable until January 1, 2024. 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. 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) The Child Care and Development Services Act establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age and requires the State Department of Education to contract with local contracting agencies for alternative payment programs for childcare services to be provided throughout the state. The act requires the alternative payment program to reimburse childcare providers based upon specified criteria, including the actual days and hours of attendance for those families with variable schedules, or for license-exempt childcare providers that provide part-time services, up to the maximum certified hours. This bill would delete the requirement that alternative payment programs provide reimbursement based on the actual days and hours of attendance to families with variable schedules or license-exempt childcare providers. (2) The act authorizes each licensed childcare provider to alter rate levels for subsidized children once per year and requires the provider to provide the alternative payment program and resource and referral agency with the updated information, as provided. Existing law requires an alternative payment program to verify childcare provider rates no less frequently than once a year, as provided. The act requires the department to develop regulations for addressing discrepancies in the childcare provider rate levels identified through the rate verification process described above. This bill would delete these provisions. (3) The act requires an alternative payment program to provide notice to a childcare provider of specified changes relating to childcare services at least 14 calendar days before the effective date of the intended actions. This bill would instead require the alternative payment program to provide the notice, as well as the effective date of any change described above, on the same day that a notice of action is issued to a family, as provided. (4) The act requires, on and after the date on which the Superintendent of Public Instruction determines that the Financial Information System for California (Fi$Cal Project) has been implemented within the department, at the request of a contractor, the department to request the Controller to make a payment via direct deposit by electronic funds transfer through the Fi$Cal Project into the contractor's account at the financial institution of the contractor's choice, as provided. This bill would instead require, at the request of a contractor, the department to require the Controller to make a payment via direct deposit by electronic funds into the contractor's account at the financial institution of the contractor's choice, as provided. (5) The act authorizes a contractor to retain a reserve fund balance for alternative payment model and certificate childcare contracts, as provided. The act prohibits these funds from exceeding either 2% of the sum of the parts of each contract, as provided, or $1,000, whichever is greater. This bill would instead prohibit the funds from exceeding either 15% of the sum of the parts of each contract, as provided, or $1,000, whichever is greater.