This measure would recognize May 2018 as National Mental Health Awareness Month in California to enhance public awareness of mental illness.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit for a personal exemption for dependents. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2023, would allow a credit against those taxes to a taxpayer who holds a Certificate of Still Birth in an amount equal to the actual amount of medical and burial or cremation costs paid or incurred, not to exceed $2,000, during the taxable year in which the still birth occurred. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law creates the Human Trafficking Victims Assistance Fund in the State Treasury. Existing law makes the Office of Emergency Services responsible for awarding grants, based on specified criteria, to qualified nonprofit organizations that provide services to victims of human trafficking. This bill would also require the office to conduct a prevalence study to better understand human trafficking in California and a comprehensive audit and evaluative study of qualified nonprofit organizations that are awarded grants pursuant to these provisions. The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to annually enact legislation in the Budget Act that would appropriate $15,000,000 from the General Fund to the Office of Emergency Services for the purpose of awarding grants to support programs for victims of human trafficking, increasing technical assistance provided to, and training of, qualified nonprofit organizations, and conducting the studies described above.
Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities, as defined, by the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law authorizes those facilities to provide incidental medical services to a resident of the facility if those medical services are provided by, or under supervision of, a licensed physician and surgeon who is knowledgeable about addiction medicine. This bill would require a person who has responsibility for residents of an alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility to be subject to a criminal record review prior to that person's involvement in the provision of services, except this requirement would not apply to residents. The bill would require the department to conduct this review, and allow it to approve or deny a person's involvement in the provision of services based on the results of that review. The bill would prohibit the department from denying that involvement due to a drug-related conviction.
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 approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. This bill would require the state board, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to annually submit a specified report to the Legislature that includes, among other things, an estimate of the annual emissions of greenhouse gases associated with wildfires in the state that have burned 10,000 acres or more and a direct comparison of that estimate to the emissions of greenhouse gases offset by the state board's applicable regulatory programs.
Existing law, known as the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program, establishes, among other programs, the Cal Grant B program and the Cal Grant C Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under those programs. This bill, beginning with the 2019–20 academic year, would require each Cal Grant participating institution, as a condition of its voluntary participation in the Cal Grant Program, to implement a financial aid book advance program that would provide a line of credit at the institution's campus bookstore to students receiving Cal Grant B, Cal Grant C, federal Pell Grant, or other financial aid dispersed to the student for educational expenses for the purchase of books and educational materials before the Cal Grant B or Cal Grant C funds are disbursed to the student. The bill would provide for a reduction in the amount of these grant funds disbursed to a student based on the amount of credit expended by the student at the institution's campus bookstore and would provide for reimbursement to the institution's campus bookstore for the amount of the credit expended by the student. The bill would exempt an institution that does not have a campus bookstore from these requirements.
This measure would declare the support of the Legislature for the expansion of sensory-friendly movie screenings and similar programs for people with autism, and would encourage families to attend a sensory-friendly movie screening during April 2018, which is National Autism Awareness Month.
This measure would, among other things, designate the year 2018 as "State of California Year of Commemoration of the Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923," would designate April 24, 2018, as "State of California Day of Commemoration of the 103rd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923," and would call upon the President of the United States and the United States Congress to formally and consistently reaffirm the historical truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted genocide.
This measure would proclaim April 16, 2018, as California Holocaust Memorial Day and would urge all Californians to observe this day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to implement revised dam safety and inspection requirements, with specified components, for all federally operated and regulated dams and reservoirs for the purpose of ensuring public safety.
