Asm. Jim Patterson

Existing law establishes fees for the registration of vehicles to be collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) , and requires that a penalty be assessed for delinquent payment of vehicle registration, as specified. This bill would require the department to permit the payment of registration renewal fees in installments, as specified. The bill would subject a registered owner who fails to pay the registration renewal fees in full by the due date to the delinquent payment penalties described above.

The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. This bill, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, would allow a credit against those taxes in an amount equal to 50% of the amount paid or incurred by a family caregiver during the taxable year for eligible expenses related to the care of an eligible family member, not to exceed $5,000. The bill would limit the aggregate amount of these credits to be allocated in each calendar year to $150,000,000 as well as any unused credit amount, if any, allocated in the preceding calendar year. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to allocate and certify these tax credits to taxpayers on a first-come-first-served basis. The bill would make these provisions operative on the effective date of any budget measure specifically appropriating funds to the Franchise Tax Board for its costs to administer these provisions. The bill would require an eligible family member to be certified by a physician, registered nurse, advanced practice registered nurse, or physician assistant, under penalty of perjury, as being an individual with long-term care needs and would require the family caregiver to retain, and make available to the Franchise Tax Board upon request, that certification. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make specified findings detailing the goals, purposes, and objectives of the above-described tax credit, performance indicators for determining whether the credit meets those goals, purposes, and objectives, and data collection requirements. 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. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

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. 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 an eligible biomass facility, an innovative forest products facility, or a mass timber 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.

Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Motor Vehicles implement procedures to ensure, to the fullest extent permitted by the resources made available to it, that a person who is requesting certain services will not be required under normal circumstances to wait in any one line for service longer than 12 hour during the department's published or posted hours of operation. This bill would instead require the department to implement those procedures. The bill would also require every office of the department to post information relating to wait times and would require the department to make that wait time information available on the department's Internet Web site and by telephone.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish contracts for electronic programs that allow qualified private industry partners to provide services that include processing and payment programs for vehicle registration and titling transactions. Existing law authorizes the department to enter into a partnership with an interstate carrier partner to provide electronic vehicle registration services and to enter into contractual agreements with interstate carrier partners, if certain criteria are met. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to explore ways to increase its partnerships with motor clubs, qualified private industry partners, and others to provide services traditionally provided by the department and would authorize those partners to provide specified services. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature every 2 years beginning January 1, 2022, on its progress to expand and increase those partnerships.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities and can establish its own procedures, subject to the statutory restrictions and constitutional requirements of due process. Existing law requires that certain decisions, including resolutions, be served on parties and subject to at least 30 days' public review and comment prior to being voted on. Under existing law, the 30-day period may be reduced or waived in an unforeseen emergency situation, upon the stipulation of all parties in the proceeding, for an uncontested matter in which the decision grants the relief requested, or for an order seeking temporary injunctive relief. This bill would instead subject those decisions to at least 45 days of public review and comment and would authorize the reduction or waiving of that 45-day period under the same conditions.

Existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, requires the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with stakeholders, to develop an alternative service delivery model that provides an Individual Choice Budget and suspends a regional center's authority to purchase certain services, including, camping services and associated travel expenses, social recreation activities, educational services, and nonmedical therapies, as specified, pending implementation of the Individual Choice Budget and certification that the Individual Choice Budget has been implemented and will result in state budget savings, as specified. This bill would repeal the above-described suspension of a regional center's authority to purchase camping services and associated travel expenses, or social recreation activities.

Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to implement various fire protection programs intended to protect forest resources and prevent uncontrolled wildfires. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency, to prepare and submit to the Legislature and the appropriate legislative policy and budget committees, on or before January 1, 2021, and by January 1 of each year thereafter, until January 1, 2024, a report on the progress made with regard to the implementation of a specified forest carbon plan, as described, and the policies and resources needed to meet the objectives of the plan.

Existing law prohibits discrimination on the basis of various specified personal characteristics, including disability. Existing law imposes minimum statutory damages for construction-related accessibility claims if the violation of a construction-related accessibility standard denied the plaintiff full and equal access to the place of public accommodation on a particular occasion, including by causing difficulty, discomfort, or embarrassment. Existing law, for claims filed on or after a specified date, presumes that certain technical violations do not cause a person difficulty, discomfort, or embarrassment for these purposes where the defendant is a small business and has corrected all of the technical violations that are the basis of the claim within specified time periods. Under existing law, these technical violations include the order in which parking signs are placed or the exact location or wording of parking signs, provided that the parking signs are clearly visible and indicate the location of accessible parking and van-accessible parking. This bill would specify that the design of parking signs is a technical violation under this latter provision. The bill would also establish additional technical violations presumed under the same provision to not cause difficulty, discomfort, or embarrassment, including the number of required accessible parking spaces, noncompliant van-accessible parking spaces or aisles in parking lots, and noncompliant or nonexistent curb ramps or entrance ramps. Existing law provides that a small business for these purposes is one that has employed 25 or fewer employees on average, and has average annual gross receipts of less than a specified amount, over the past 3 years, or for the years it has been in existence if less than 3 years. This bill would recast this provision and increase the average number of employees for a business to qualify as a small business for these purposes from 25 to 50.

Existing law requires the Secretary of State and the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish the California New Motor Voter Program. Under the program, the Department of Motor Vehicles is required to provide to the Secretary of State specified information associated with each person who submits an application for a driver's license or identification card, and additionally to report to the Secretary of State that an applicant has attested that the applicant meets the voter preregistration requirements for a person who is at least 16 years of age and otherwise meets all voter eligibility requirements. The prescribed information submitted by the department to the Secretary of State constitutes a completed or submitted affidavit of registration, and the Secretary is required to register or preregister the person to vote, unless the person affirmatively declines to register to vote during a transaction with the department, the department does not represent to the Secretary of State that the person attested that the person meets all voter eligibility requirements, or the Secretary of State determines that the person is ineligible to vote. This bill would instead require a person to affirmatively agree to become registered or preregistered to vote during a transaction with the department before the Secretary registers or preregisters that person, and it would make other conforming changes.