Asm. Jim Patterson

Existing law establishes the California Broadband Council with duties that include, but are not limited to, ensuring that all relevant state agencies are made aware of actions necessary to fully implement recommendations in the 2008 Broadband Task Force Report. Executive Order N-73-20, among other things, directed the council to create a new State Broadband Action Plan by December 31, 2020, which resulted in the adoption of the 2020 Broadband for All Action Plan. This bill would require the council to ensure that all relevant state agencies are made aware of actions necessary to fully implement recommendations in the 2020 Broadband for All Action Plan, instead of the 2008 Broadband Task Force Report.

The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, defined to mean the cutting or removal, or both, of timber or other solid wood forest products from timberlands for commercial purposes, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted for the operations to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act provides an exception from its provisions for timber operations that involve the removal of trees less than 16 inches in diameter at breast height from a firebreak or fuelbreak if the removal meets specified requirements, including the requirement that the removed trees will not be processed into logs or lumber. 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 act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. The Administrative Procedure Act generally governs the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to develop and implement a fuels transportation program that provides competitive grants or other financial incentives for projects in eligible communities to offset the costs of transporting fuels to a biomass energy facility, as specified. The bill would authorize the agency to allocate moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund consistent with the purposes of the fund. The bill would exempt these provisions from the Administrative Procedure Act.

Existing law, the Personal Income Tax Law and Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, generally allow various deductions in computing the income that is subject to taxes imposed by those laws, including a deduction for a net operating loss as specified. Existing law suspends the deduction for a net operating loss, as specified, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2023. The Personal Income Tax Law and Corporation Tax Law generally authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. Existing law provides that, except as specified, the total credits allowable under those laws may not reduce the taxes imposed by those laws by more than $5,000,000, as provided, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2023. This bill, the Golden State Innovation Act of 2021, would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2023, exclude a taxpayer that performs research and development in biotechnology, as described, from the above-described suspension of the deduction for net operating losses and the above-described limitation on the total credits allowable. 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. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing state sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes, including an exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or consumption of, any container used to collect or store human whole blood, plasma, blood products, or blood derivatives. This bill, on and after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028, would exempt the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, any reagents or chemicals, and lab equipment and supplies, used by a licensed nonhospital blood bank to perform blood screening tests on donated human blood. Existing law requires a bill that would authorize a new tax expenditure under the Sales and Use Tax Law to identify specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, and detailed performance indicators and data collection requirements for determining whether the tax expenditure achieves these goals, purposes, and objectives. This bill 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 authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to allow a person to submit any document required to be submitted to the department by using electronic media, as specified, instead of requiring the actual submission of the original document. If a signature is required on a document in order to complete a transaction, the requirement may be satisfied for an electronically submitted document if the signature is also submitted electronically. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish a virtual field office allowing the electronic completion of transactions that require manual review by the department. The bill would permit the department to allow any transaction that is required to otherwise be completed in person at a field office or by mail to instead be conducted through the virtual field office, to the extent authorized by federal law. The bill would make conforming changes to permit various transactions to be conducted electronically, including, among others, electronically submitting an application for a low emission vehicle decal and electronically completing a title transfer transaction.

(1) The Gambling Control Act provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. The act authorizes the commission and the department to impose and collect fees for various actions related to the licensure and regulation of gambling. The act further authorizes the commission and the department to adopt regulations regarding the fees. This bill would require the commission and the department, when increasing a fee amount, to include a clear statement justifying the need for the fee increase and explaining how the funds will be used in the regulation updating the fee. (2) The act authorizes the department to require an applicant to deposit money adequate to pay the costs of an investigation associated with an application for a license, and allows the department to require additional funds to be deposited during the investigation, as needed. The act requires the department, at the conclusion of the investigation, to refund any unused portion of this deposit and to provide a written accounting of costs and charges. This bill would require additional information to be included in the accounting of charges and would require this accounting to be provided whenever an additional deposit of funds is requested by the department.

Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and sets forth its powers and duties, including responsibility for administering various housing and home loan programs throughout the state. Existing law requires the department, on or before December 31 of each year, to submit an annual report containing specified information to the Governor and both houses of the Legislature on the operations and accomplishments during the previous fiscal year of the housing programs administered by the department. This bill would require the department to include in those annual reports specified information relating to the CalHome Program and the Building Equity and Growth in Neighborhoods (BEGIN) Program, including the amount of the original awards to recipients, the portions not yet disbursed to recipients, and an estimate of how many individuals could benefit from the remaining balance. This bill would require the department to take certain actions by January 1, 2024, with respect to monitoring its housing bond programs, including developing, and implementing, a plan for performing onsite visits of CalHome Program recipients, determining the usability of the Consolidated Automated Program Enterprise System (CAPES) for the housing bond programs, and developing, and implementing, a long-term plan for the department to address instances when the department has exceeded its administrative spending limits.

Existing law requires all state and local agencies with an aggregate spending of $50,000,000 or more annually to consider establishing an ongoing audit function. This bill would require all state agencies with an aggregate spending of $50,000,000 or more annually to establish an ongoing audit function. Existing law requires any governing body, as defined, that oversees a state agency that performs or reviews internal audits to establish an audit committee. Existing law, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Bagley-Keene Act) , requires that all meetings of a state body, as defined, be open and public, and all persons be permitted to attend any meeting of a state body, except as provided. Violation of the Bagley-Keene Act is a crime. This bill would extend the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Act to the internal audit committees established by any governing body if the governing body is subject to the Bagley-Keene Act. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law generally requires all internal auditor operations of state agencies to meet specified criteria. If a state agency does not report to a governing body, existing law requires the internal auditor operations to, among other things, report audit findings and recommendations to the head or deputy head of the state agency and to the general counsel of the state agency, if applicable. If a state agency is overseen by a governing body, existing law requires the internal audit operations to, among other things, report audit findings and recommendations to the audit committee and general counsel of the governing body. This bill would require both of these types of state agencies to post audit findings and recommendations on its internet website within 5 days of reporting its audit findings and recommendations, as described above. 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 authorizes the Employment Development Department (department) to administer the federal-state unemployment insurance program and provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law establishes procedures for the filing, determination, and payment of benefit claims, and those benefits are payable from the Unemployment Fund. Existing law requires the department to promptly pay benefits if it finds the claimant is eligible and to promptly deny benefits if it finds the claimant is ineligible for benefits. Existing law requires the department to consider facts submitted by an employer in making this determination and also provides for the department to audit claims, as specified. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2021, require the department, as part of its process for determining eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits, cross-check all claimant information with state and county correctional facility inmate data in an effort to detect fraudulent applications. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities. Existing law establishes the independent Public Advocate's Office within the commission to represent and advocate on behalf of the interests of public utility customers and subscribers within the commission's jurisdiction. Existing law requires the commission to develop appropriate procedures to ensure that the existence of the office does not create a conflict of roles for any employee. This bill would require the commission to triennially update those procedures.