Asm. Tasha Boerner

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement various programs throughout the state relating to public health. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health and the Office of Emergency Services, in coordination with other state agencies as appropriate, to, upon appropriation and as necessary, establish an infant formula stockpile. The bill would require the department to establish guidelines for the procurement, management, and distribution of infant formula, taking into account, among other things, the amount of each type of infant formula that would be required to meet shortages, as specified. The bill would also establish the Infant Formula Advisory Committee to, among other things, make recommendations for the development of guidelines for the procurement, management, and distribution of infant formula, as specified, and advise the development and implementation of the program. The bill would require the committee to provide an annual report to the Legislature with feedback regarding the implementation of the program and updates regarding policy changes and public comments.

Existing law authorizes the Controller, upon approval of a claim for the postponement of property taxes, as defined, to directly pay a county tax collector for the property taxes owed by the claimant, as provided. Existing law establishes the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the Controller for specified purposes, including disbursements relating to the postponement of property taxes pursuant to the Property Tax Postponement Law. Existing law requires the Controller, on June 30, 2018, and on June 30 each year thereafter, to transfer any moneys in the fund in excess of $15,000,000 to the General Fund. This bill would require money to be transferred, on June 30, 2024, and on June 30 each year thereafter, from the General Fund to the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Fund when the balance in the latter fund is less than $15,000,000. The bill would require the amount of money transferred each year to be equal to the sum needed to bring the balance of the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Fund to $15,000,000. By requiring the transfer of moneys into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing law establishes homeless youth emergency service pilot projects in the City of Los Angeles and the City and County of San Francisco providing services to homeless minors, including food and access to an overnight shelter and counseling to address immediate emotional crises or problems. Existing law also requires similar programs to be established in the Counties of San Diego and Santa Clara, and all of these programs to be operated by an agency in accordance with a grant award agreement with the Office of Emergency Services. Existing law requires the Governor to create the California Interagency Council on Homelessness and specifies the duties of the council. Existing law requires agencies and departments administering state programs to collaborate with the council to adopt guidelines and regulations to incorporate core components of Housing First, which include, among other things, a tenant screening process that accepts applicants regardless of sobriety, not rejecting applicants based on poor credit or financial history, and prohibiting participation in services or program compliance from being a requirement for permanent housing. This bill, until January 1, 2027, and upon appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to establish the Unicorn Homes Transitional Housing for Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth Program, to be administered by local community-based organizations that provide a majority of its services to the LGBTQ+ community. The bill would require the department to fund community-based organizations in the participating Counties of San Diego and Sacramento that provide transitional housing for LGBTQ+ youth, 18 to 24 years of age, inclusive, experiencing homelessness due to family rejection, with the ultimate goal of reunification with the youth's original family. The bill would require the community-based organization to place eligible youth with volunteer host families who meet specified criteria, pursuant to the results of a background check, and who are able to provide crisis intervention with a trauma-informed approach, as defined, to their care. The bill would also require the program to comply with the existing core components of Housing First. The bill would require each community-based organization to prepare and submit an annual report to the department, with the first report due on or before December 1, 2024, and a final report due on or before June 30, 2026, which would be required to include specified information, including the number of times the organization was contacted by youths, how many of those contacts became participants in the program, and how many of those initial contacts became repeat contacts. The bill would also require the department to compile the annual reports into a final report, to be submitted to the Legislature on or before December 31, 2026.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and 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 establishes a schedule of benefits under the Medi-Cal program, including medical transportation and nonmedical transportation for a beneficiary to obtain covered Medi-Cal services. Existing law requires nonmedical transportation to be provided by the beneficiary's managed care plan or by the department for a Medi-Cal fee-for-service beneficiary. This bill would require the department to require Medi-Cal managed care plans that are contracted to provide nonmedical transportation or nonemergency medical transportation to contract with public paratransit service operators who are enrolled Medi-Cal providers for the purpose of establishing reimbursement rates for nonmedical and nonemergency medical transportation trips provided by a public paratransit service operator. The bill would require the rates reimbursed by the managed care plan to the public paratransit service operator to be based on the department's fee-for-service rates for nonmedical and nonemergency medical transportation service, as specified. The bill would condition implementation of these provisions on receipt of any necessary federal approvals and the availability of federal financial participation.

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 provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2000, or an individual or group policy of disability insurance or self-insured employee welfare benefit plan to provide coverage for mammography for screening or diagnostic purposes upon referral by specified professionals. Under existing law, mammography performed pursuant to those requirements or that meets the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force is provided to an enrollee or an insured without cost sharing. This bill would require a health care service plan contract, a policy of health insurance that provides hospital, medical, or surgical coverage, or a self-insured employee welfare benefit plan issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, to provide coverage without imposing cost sharing for, among other things, screening mammography and medically necessary diagnostic breast imaging, including diagnostic breast imaging following an abnormal mammography result and for an enrollee or insured indicated to have a risk factor associated with breast cancer, except as specified. 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 provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits and extended benefits to eligible individuals who meet specified requirements. Under existing law, unemployment benefits are paid from the Unemployment Fund, which is continuously appropriated for these purposes. Existing law makes an employee ineligible for benefits if the employee left work because of a trade dispute and specifies that the employee remains ineligible for the duration of the trade dispute. Existing case law holds that employees who left work due to a lockout by the employer, even if it was in anticipation of a trade dispute, are eligible for benefits. This bill would restore eligibility after the first 2 weeks for an employee who left work because of a trade dispute. The bill would codify specified case law that holds that employees who left work due to a lockout by the employer, even if it was in anticipation of a trade dispute, are eligible for benefits. The bill would specify that the bill's provisions do not diminish eligibility for benefits of individuals deprived of work due to an employer lockout or similar action, as specified. Because this bill would expand the categories of people eligible to receive benefits from a continuously appropriated fund, it would make an appropriation.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires, among other things, 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 requires a local agency that approves or determines to carry out a project subject to CEQA to file a notice of determination with the county clerk of each county in which the project will be located, as provided. CEQA authorizes a local agency that determines that a project is not subject to CEQA to file a notice of exemption with the county clerk of each county in which the project will be located, as provided. CEQA requires the county clerk to make the notice available for public inspection and post the notice within 24 hours of receipt in the office or on the internet website of the county clerk, as specified. CEQA requires an action or proceeding challenging an act or decision of a public agency, including a local agency, on the grounds of noncompliance with CEQA to be commenced within certain time periods, as specified. This bill would require a local agency to file a notice of determination with the State Clearinghouse in the Office of Planning and Research in addition to the county clerk of each county in which the project will be located. The bill would authorize a local agency to file a notice of exemption with the State Clearinghouse in the Office of Planning and Research in addition to the county clerk of each county in which the project will be located. The bill would require the notice, including any subsequent or amended notice, to be posted both in the office and on the internet website of the county clerk and by the Office of Planning and Research on the State Clearinghouse internet website within 24 hours of receipt. The bill would specify that the posting of the notice by the Office of Planning and Research would not affect the applicable time periods to challenge an act or decision of a local agency, as described above. By imposing duties on local agencies, the bill would create 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.

The County Water Authority Act provides for the formation of county water authorities and grants to those authorities specified powers with regards to providing water service. The act provides 2 methods of excluding territory from any county water authority, one of which is that a public agency whose corporate area as a unit is part of a county water authority may obtain exclusion of the area by submitting to the electors within the public agency, at any general or special election, the proposition of excluding the public agency's corporate area from the county water authority. Existing law requires that, if a majority of the electors approve the proposition, specified actions take place to implement the exclusion. This bill, the Water Ratepayers Protections Act of 2023, would additionally require the public entity to submit the proposition of excluding the public agency's corporate area from the county water authority to the electors within the territory of the county water authority. The bill would require the 2 elections to be separate; however, the bill would authorize both elections to run concurrently. The bill would require the ballot materials to include a fiscal impact statement, as described. The bill would also require the ballot materials for the election encompassing the territory of the county water authority to include a statement describing the annual aggregated fiscal impact to remaining members of the county water authority as a result of the reorganization. The bill would require the county water authority to prepare that statement. By imposing a higher level of service on a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require a majority vote for withdrawal in both elections for the withdrawal of the public agency from the territory of the county water authority. 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.