Asm. Tasha Boerner

Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, to advocate for causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. Existing law authorizes counties, cities, and other local agencies to impose various taxes and fees in connection with activity or property within those jurisdictions. This bill would enact the California Small Business Rent Relief Act, which would authorize a county to establish a local small business rent forgiveness and tax relief program, as provided, for the purpose of providing credits to qualified taxpayers, as defined, to be used against any tax or fee owed to the county by the qualified taxpayer, and for which the county has authority to collect a credit in lieu of cash. The bill would authorize CalOSBA to establish the California Small Business Rent Forgiveness and Tax Relief Program, as provided, for the purpose of allocating credit authority to qualified counties, as defined, to implement a small business rent forgiveness and tax relief program. The bill would create the Small Business Rent Forgiveness and Tax Relief Account within the California Economic Development Fund, for the purpose of receiving moneys transferred to the account, and would require all moneys in the account to be available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of implementing the California Small Business Rent Forgiveness and Tax Relief Program. The bill would require CalOSBA to submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature on program activities, as provided.

Existing law requires a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining a kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, and authorizes the school district or county superintendent of schools to use funds available from any federal or state program to comply with that requirement, as provided. Existing law generally requires a school district or a county superintendent of schools to provide breakfast and lunch free of charge to all pupils at a very high poverty school, as defined. This bill would require a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining a kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a pupil, eligible to receive a reduced-priced meal, that meal free of charge. By creating a new duty on a school district or a county superintendent of schools, the bill would create a state-mandated program. The bill would require the state to provide sufficient funding to school districts and county offices of education to cover the cost of providing meals free of charge to pupils from households that would otherwise be required to provide a copayment for these meals. To comply with the above, the bill would authorize a school district or county office of education to use funds made available through any federal, to the extent allowed, or state program relating to the provision of meals to pupils, as provided. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law requires the board of governors to appoint a chief executive officer, to be known as the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Existing law establishes community college districts, administered by governing boards, throughout the state, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction to students at the community college campuses maintained by the districts. This bill would establish the Cooperative Education Reskilling and Training Pilot Program at MiraCosta Community College. The bill would require the pilot program to include 11 not-for-credit work skill training courses that can be completed in 3 to 6 months, inclusive, and the design and implementation of not-for-credit career readiness training offered in conjunction with or before enrollment in the work skill training courses. The bill would require the chancellor to report to the Legislature on the implementation of the pilot program no later than January 1, 2024. The bill would appropriate $5,000,000 from the General Fund to the chancellor for allocation to MiraCosta College for the development and implementation of the program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025.

Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, establishes the California Coastal Commission and provides for planning and regulation of development in the coastal zone, as defined. The act requires the commission, within 90 days after January 1, 1977, to adopt, after public hearing, procedures for the preparation, submission, approval, appeal, certification, and amendment of a local coastal program, as provided. Existing law places specified requirements on a hosting platform, including providing an offeror listing a residence for short-term rental on the hosting platform with a specific notice relating to certain liability considerations and risks of listing the residence. Existing law defines "hosting platform" as a marketplace that is created for the primary purpose of facilitating the rental of a residential unit, as specified. This bill would provide that an ordinance, policy, or program enacted by a city or county, including a charter city or county, that regulates or licenses the rental of residential units for tourist or transient-use occupancy within the coastal zone through a hosting platform is not considered development subject to the California Coastal Act. The bill would specify that a city or county, including a charter city or county, is not required to comply with the California Coastal Act when enacting or enforcing an ordinance, policy, or program that regulates or licenses the rental of residential units through a hosting platform. The bill would additionally provide that a local coastal program is not required to include an ordinance, policy, or program that regulates or licenses the rental of residential units through a hosting platform. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to develop and update every 5 years the California Transportation Plan. Under existing law, the plan describes the state's transportation policies and system performance objectives, includes broad transportation strategies and recommendations, considers certain topics relating to the movement of people and freight, and addresses how the state will achieve maximum feasible emissions reductions to attain a statewide reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by December 31, 2030, and other air quality standards. This bill would require the Secretary of Transportation, in consultation with certain state entities, to implement a Safe and Clean Truck Infrastructure Program to support the construction and operation of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicle parking and electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure on public and private properties, and to encourage the use of zero-emission vehicles. As part of the program, the bill would require the Secretary of Transportation, by January 1, 2025, to conduct an assessment outlining regional zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicle parking and refueling deficiencies and strategies to address those deficiencies. (2) Existing law establishes the Clean Freight Corridor Efficiency Assessment, to be developed by the California Transportation Commission, in coordination with other state agencies, and requires the assessment's findings and recommendations to be incorporated into the development of the California Transportation Plan. In developing the assessment, existing law requires the commission to identify freight corridors, or segments of corridors, throughout the state that would be priority candidates for the deployment of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Existing law requires the commission to submit a report containing the assessment's findings and recommendations to certain committees of the Legislature by December 1, 2023. This bill would require the commission, in developing the plan, to also identify, among other things, short- and long-term zero-emission electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refueling strategies for the freight transportation system and regional zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicle parking and refueling deficiencies and strategies to address those deficiencies. (3) Existing law requires the California Transportation Commission, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to allocate certain revenues deposited in the Trade Corridor Enhancement Account and certain federal funds for eligible infrastructure projects, including truck corridor improvements to mitigate emissions from trucks, located on or along specified transportation corridors. This bill would provide that the construction and operation of zero-emission truck parking, and supporting electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refueling networks, that the Secretary of Transportation has identified as part of the Safe and Clean Truck Infrastructure Program is an infrastructure project eligible for this funding.

(1) Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary education in this state, and authorizes local educational agencies throughout the state to provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law establishes procedures for the apportionment of state funds to these local educational agencies. Existing law, for purposes of calculating apportionments for the 2020–21 fiscal year, requires a local educational agency to offer in-person instruction and authorizes these agencies to offer distance learning, as specified. This bill would specify that the requirement to provide in-person instruction applies when that instruction is allowed under state and local public health orders. (2) Existing law establishes criteria for local educational agencies to offer distance learning for the 2020–21 school year, including as a result of an order or guidance from a state public health officer or local public health officer, or for pupils who are medically fragile or would be put at risk by in-person instruction or who are self-quarantining. This bill would specify that, from March 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021, inclusive, distance learning is authorized on an agency-wide or schoolwide level as a result of an order from a state public health officer or a local public health officer requiring school campus closure. The bill would also include, in addition to pupils, certificated employees who are medically fragile or who are self-quarantining within the scope of this provision. (3) Existing law requires local educational agencies to offer in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible and to develop written procedures for tiered reengagement strategies for all pupils who are absent from distance learning for more than 3 schooldays or 60% of the instructional days in a school week. This bill would require local educational agencies to publicly adopt plans that offer in-person instruction within 2 weeks of local or state public health orders allowing school campuses to be open, and that outline all local educational agency plans to meet local and state public health school campus safety standards. The bill would also require each local educational agency to implement the written procedures for the tiered reengagement strategies for all pupils who are absent from distance learning for more than 3 schooldays or 60% of the instructional days in a school week, as specified. The bill would also require local educational agencies to develop and implement written procedures for tiered reengagement strategies for all unduplicated pupils who are performing significantly below grade level, with a priority for pupils in kindergarten or grades 1 to 3, inclusive, and pupils at risk of not graduating from high school. Because these provisions would impose new duties on local educational agencies, they would create 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, 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 the statutory provisions noted above. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

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 a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires that health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies provide coverage for certain services and treatments, including emergency medical transportation services. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2022, that offers coverage for emergency ground medical transportation services to include those services as in-network services and would require the plan or insurer to pay those services at the contracted rate pursuant to the plan contract or policy. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to a health care service plan would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency, in collaboration with the Ocean Protection Council, to create, and update biannually, a Planning for Sea Level Rise Database describing steps being taken throughout the state to prepare for, and adapt to, sea level rise. This bill would establish the Climate Adaptation Center and Regional Support Network in the Ocean Protection Council to provide local governments facing sea level rise challenges with information and scientific expertise necessary to proceed with sea level rise mitigation.

Existing law defines rape as an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person not the spouse of the perpetrator under certain circumstances, including where the victim is incapable of giving legal consent because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, where the victim is not aware of the essential characteristics of the act due to the perpetrator's fraudulent representation that the act serves a professional purpose, and where the victim submits to the act under the belief that the perpetrator is someone known to the victim other than the perpetrator, and the perpetrator intentionally and fraudulently induces that belief. Existing law separately defines rape of a spouse as an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with the spouse of the perpetrator under similar circumstances as nonspousal rape, except that spousal rape does not include acts of sexual intercourse accomplished under the specific circumstances described above. This bill would repeal the provisions relating to spousal rape and make conforming changes, thereby making an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a spouse punishable as rape if the act otherwise meets the definition of rape. By changing the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes an employer to request from the Department of Justice records of all convictions or any arrest pending adjudication for specified offenses for a person who applies for a license, employment, or volunteer position, in which the person would have supervisory or disciplinary power over a minor and requires the employer to notify the parent or guardian of a child if a person with specified convictions will have supervisory or disciplinary power over that child. Existing law exempts certain convictions, including spousal rape, from that notification requirement. This bill would remove the exemption for spousal rape or any other felony conviction and would instead exempt only misdemeanor convictions from that notification. The bill would make numerous conforming changes. 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.