(1) Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act (Jessica's Law) , approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, makes a defendant subject to imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense, any person kidnapped the victim, tortured the victim, or committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, as specified. Existing law also makes a defendant subject to imprisonment in the state prison for 15 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense any person, except as specified in the provisions above, kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense. Proposition 83 provides that the Legislature may amend the provisions of the act to expand the scope of their application or increase the punishment or penalties by a statute passed by a majority vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law makes a defendant subject to imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, spousal rape or sexual penetration in concert, sexual penetration, sodomy, or oral copulation if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, in the commission of that offense, any person kidnapped the victim, committed the offense during the commission of a burglary, or used a dangerous or deadly weapon in the commission of the offense, or under other specified circumstances, and the crime was committed against a minor 14 years of age or older. This bill would add the crimes of rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, and oral copulation, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent, to the above provisions, if the victim is developmentally disabled, as defined. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires that a person who commits certain enumerated crimes, including rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, against a person who is 65 years of age or older, or against a person who is blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, a paraplegic, or a quadriplegic, or against a person who is under 14 years of age, receive a one-year sentence enhancement and requires that any person having a prior conviction for any of the enumerated offenses receive a 2-year sentence enhancement. This bill would add to the enumerated list of crimes rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, perpetrated against a person who is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, of giving legal consent. By applying the above enhancements to these crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission, beginning January 1, 2015, to authorize fixed electricity charges that do not exceed a specified amount per residential customer account per month. Existing law, beginning January 1, 2016, authorizes the adjustment of the maximum allowable fixed charge by no more than the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the prior calendar year. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
Existing law establishes the Assumption Program of Loans for Education, administered by the Student Aid Commission, under which any person enrolled in an eligible institution of postsecondary education, as defined, or any person who agrees to participate in a teacher trainee or teacher internship program, is eligible to enter into an agreement for loan assumption, to be redeemed pursuant to a prescribed procedure upon becoming employed as a teacher in an eligible school, as defined, if he or she satisfies certain conditions. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to restore the funding for the Assumption Program of Loans for Education to its 2011–12 fiscal year level. The bill would require the commission to award 7,200 new warrants for the assumption of loans under the program in the 2017–18 fiscal year. The bill would appropriate $5,000,000 from the General Fund to the commission for the funding of warrants for the assumption of loans under the program for the 2017–18 fiscal year. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would exempt from the provisions of CEQA a project, or the issuance of a permit for a project, that consists of the inspection, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, replacement, or removal of, or the addition of an auxiliary lane or bikeway to, existing transportation infrastructure and that meets certain requirements. The bill would require the public agency carrying out the project to take certain actions.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including certain credits that are allowed in modified conformity to credits allowed by federal income tax laws. Federal income tax laws allow a refundable earned income tax credit for certain low-income individuals who have earned income from wages, salaries, tips, and other employee compensation plus net earnings from self-employment and who meet certain other requirements. The Personal Income Tax Law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2015, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows an earned income credit against personal income tax, which is only for earned income from wages, salaries, tips, and other employee compensation, and a payment in excess of that credit amount, to an eligible individual that is equal to that portion of the earned income tax credit allowed by federal law as determined by the earned income tax credit adjustment factor as set forth in the annual Budget Act which, unless otherwise specified in that act, is 0%. This bill, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2017, would expand the earned income credit allowed by the Personal Income Tax Law by providing additional conformity with federal income tax law to include specified net earnings from self-employment in earned income, thus allowing an earned income credit for taxpayers for those earnings. This bill would additionally set the earned income tax credit adjustment factor as 85%. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account and provides that payments required to be made to taxpayers or other persons from the Personal Income Tax Fund are to be paid from that account, including any amount allowable as an earned income credit in excess of any tax liabilities. By authorizing new payments from that account for additional amounts in excess of personal income tax liabilities, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, until January 1, 2020, requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to annually compile a list of names of Vietnam veterans to be added to the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol, as specified, and requires the department to form a specified committee to review and consider requests from the public to include names on the memorial, as specified. Existing law authorizes the names on the list to be added to the memorial if specified requirements are met, including the availability of adequate private funding. The California Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the official state Vietnam veterans war memorial. This bill would extend the provisions relating to the listing of names on the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the existence and operation of the committee to January 1, 2023. The bill would provide for the establishment of an "In Memory" plaque to be affixed to the memorial to honor those veterans who died as a result of subsequent illness or injury, including physical or mental injury, as specified, that can reasonably be presumed to have resulted from military service during the Vietnam War. The bill also would require the department to maintain a public, searchable "Honor Roll" database to honor those veterans, as specified. The provisions of the bill relating to the "In Memory" plaque and the "Honor Roll" database would become inoperative and be repealed on January 1, 2023. This bill would revise the eligibility criteria for the name of a deceased Vietnam veteran to be listed on the memorial or in the database, including, but not limited to, requiring the deceased veteran to have been born or raised in, or a resident of, California, as specified. The bill would require the committee to determine whether an individual's name is to be listed on the memorial or in the database, as specified. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the committee, to identify the names of any California veterans listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. or the Vietnam veterans "In Memory Honor Roll" maintained by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and to include those names on the state's Vietnam Veterans Memorial or in the "Honor Roll" database, as appropriate. The bill would prohibit the removal of any name from the memorial or database.
The California Prompt Payment Act requires a state agency that acquires property or services pursuant to a contract with a business, including any approved change order or contract amendment, to make payment to the person or business on the date required by contract and within 45 days of receipt of an undisputed invoice or be subject to a late payment penalty, as provided. The act applies to all state agencies. This bill would require state agencies to pay an undisputed invoice from a certified disabled veteran business enterprise that is also a small business, as defined, within 30 days of initial receipt. The bill would require a state agency to submit a claim on an undisputed invoice to the Controller for payment within 15 calendar days of the agency's receipt. If an agency fails to submit a correct claim schedule within 15 days of receiving an invoice, and payment is not made within 30 days of receipt, the bill would require the agency to pay penalties from its funds, as specified. The bill would create similar penalties and procedures to be applied to the Controller if the Controller fails to make payment within 15 days of receipt of a correct claim schedule and payment is not made within 30 days of agency receipt of an undisputed invoice.
This measure would recognize August 6, 2017, as the 52nd anniversary of the signing of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This measure would proclaim the period of October 23, 2017, to October 31, 2017, inclusive, as Red Ribbon Week and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and to participate in drug prevention activities.
Existing law requires pet store operators, as defined, to comply with laws governing, among other things, the care of animals in pet stores. Existing law makes a pet store operator who violates these provisions guilty of a misdemeanor, under certain conditions. Existing law also regulates the retail sale of dogs and cats. Existing law requires an animal control officer, a humane officer, or a peace officer who detects any of certain violations of the laws governing pet store operators to issue a single notice to correct the violation, except as specified. Existing law makes a pet store operator who fails to comply with a notice to correct, or who violates the laws regulating pet store operators, as specified, guilty of a crime. This bill would prohibit, on and after January 1, 2019, a pet store operator from selling a live dog, cat, or rabbit in a pet store unless the dog, cat, or rabbit was obtained from a public animal control agency or shelter, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals shelter, humane society shelter, or rescue group, as defined, that is in a cooperative agreement with at least one private or public shelter, as specified. The bill would require all sales of dogs and cats authorized by this provision to be in compliance with laws requiring the spaying or neutering of animals, as specified. The bill would require each pet store to maintain records sufficient to document the source of each dog, cat, or rabbit the pet store sells or provides space for, for at least one year, and to post, in a conspicuous location on the cage or enclosure of each animal, a sign listing the name of the entity from which each dog, cat, or rabbit was obtained, and would authorize public animal control agencies or shelters to periodically require pet stores engaged in sales of dogs, cats, or rabbits to provide access to those records. The bill would make a pet store operator who violates these provisions subject to a civil penalty of $500, as specified. The bill would also exempt a pet store operator who is subject to these provisions from certain requirements relating to the retail sale of dogs and cats, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a public or private shelter to enter into cooperative agreements with animal rescue or adoption organizations regarding dogs and cats. This bill would authorize a public or private shelter to enter into cooperative agreements with animal rescue or adoption organizations regarding rabbits that are equivalent to the cooperative agreements authorized regarding dogs and cats described above.