(1) Existing law, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (CUA) , provides that a patient or a patient's primary caregiver who possesses or cultivates marijuana for personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician is not subject to conviction for offenses relating to possession and cultivation of marijuana. The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative statute approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes a person 21 years of age or older to engage in specified activities related to the personal use of cannabis or cannabis products, subject to certain restrictions, as specified. AUMA also authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities. Existing law, the California Uniform Controlled Substances Act, makes the cultivation, manufacture, transportation, possession, and sale of cannabis a crime, except as provided. This bill would require the Board of State and Community Corrections to create and administer a program of grants to be made on a competitive basis to cities, counties, and joint powers authorities to establish or expand an enforcement program against unauthorized cannabis activity, as defined, and provide consumer education about the difference between licensed or legal cannabis activity and unlicensed or illegal cannabis activity. The bill would require the board to create an evaluation design for unauthorized cannabis activity reduction grants that assesses the effectiveness of the grant programs in reducing cannabis-related crime and increasing public knowledge of cannabis regulation and, commencing January 1, 2022, and annually thereafter until January 1, 2025, to submit a report to the Legislature based on the evaluation design. The bill would authorize the board to use up to 2.5% of the money appropriated for this program for administration of the grant program and the development of the evaluation component. (2) MAUCRSA generally authorizes a local jurisdiction to adopt and enforce local ordinances to regulate licensed businesses located within the local jurisdiction. MAUCRSA prohibits a local jurisdiction from preventing the delivery of cannabis or cannabis products on public roads by a licensee who is acting in compliance with MAUCRSA as well as any local law adopted pursuant to MAUCRSA. This bill would authorize a local jurisdiction to adopt an ordinance or resolution that permits, restricts, limits, or bans the delivery of cannabis or cannabis products to a location within its jurisdictional boundaries. (3) AUMA authorizes the Legislature to amend its provisions with a 23 vote of both houses to further its purposes and intent. This bill would make specified findings and declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of AUMA.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate crisis nurseries. Existing law defines crisis nurseries as nonprofit corporations that care for and supervise children under 6 years of age who are voluntarily placed at the crisis nursery by a parent or guardian due to a family crisis or stressful situation for no more than 30 days. This bill, until January 1, 2023, would require the department to implement a 2-year pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of crisis nurseries in the Counties of Contra Costa, Nevada, Sacramento, and Yolo on the outcomes for children and families, including the incidence of child abuse and neglect in those counties. The bill would require the department to report the results of its study to the Legislature on or before June 15, 2022. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to, upon appropriation, provide funding for crisis nurseries to enable crisis nurseries to continue to provide services and participate in the pilot project.
Existing law authorizes various state entities to adopt, amend, or repeal regulations for various specified purposes. The Administrative Procedure Act requires the Office of Administrative Law and a state agency proposing to adopt, amend, or repeal a regulation to review the proposed changes for, among other things, consistency with existing state regulations. This bill would require each state agency to, on or before January 1, 2022, review its regulations, identify any regulations that are duplicative, overlapping, inconsistent, or out of date, revise those identified regulations, as provided, and report its findings and actions taken to the Legislature and Governor, as specified. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2023.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, and additionally amended by statute, imposes duties on the Bureau of Cannabis Control in the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the State Department of Public Health with respect to the creation, issuance, denial, suspension and revocation of commercial cannabis licenses, and imposes an excise tax commencing January 1, 2018, on the purchase of cannabis and cannabis products at the rate of 15% of the average market price of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer. Commencing January 1, 2018, AUMA also imposes a cultivation tax upon all cultivators on all harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market, at specified rates per dry-weight ounce of cannabis flowers and leaves. Existing law requires the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to administer those taxes, and requires the revenues from those taxes to be deposited into the California Cannabis Tax Fund and to be continuously appropriated for specified purposes pursuant to a specified schedule. AUMA requires the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2020, with recommendations for adjustments to the tax rate to achieve the goals of undercutting illicit market prices and discouraging use by persons younger than 21 years of age while ensuring sufficient revenues are generated for specified programs. AUMA authorizes the Legislature to amend its provisions with a 23 vote of both houses to further its purposes and intent. This bill would reduce that excise tax rate to 11% on and after the operative date of this bill until July 1, 2022, at which time the excise tax rate would revert back to 15%. The bill would suspend the imposition of the cultivation tax on and after the operative date of this bill until July 1, 2022. The bill would require the bureau, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide the Legislature with reports measuring the success of this bill, as specified. This bill would make specified findings and declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the AUMA. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.
Existing property tax law requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenue to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, and generally provides that each jurisdiction be allocated an amount equal to the total of the amount of revenue allocated to that jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, subject to certain modifications, and that jurisdiction's portion of the annual tax increment, as defined. Existing property tax law also requires that, for purposes of determining property tax revenue allocations in each county for the 1992–93 and 1993–94 fiscal years, the amounts of property tax revenue deemed allocated in the prior fiscal year to the county, cities, and special districts be reduced in accordance with certain formulas. It requires that the revenues not allocated to the county, cities, and special districts as a result of these reductions be transferred to the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund in that county for allocation to school districts, community college districts, and the county office of education. Beginning with the 2004–05 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, existing property tax law requires that each city, county, and city and county receive additional property tax revenues in the form of a vehicle license fee adjustment amount, as defined, from a Vehicle License Fee Property Tax Compensation Fund that exists in each county treasury. Existing law requires that these additional allocations be funded from ad valorem property tax revenues otherwise required to be allocated to educational entities. Existing property tax law, for the 2006–07 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, requires the vehicle license fee adjustment amount to be the sum of the vehicle license fee adjustment amount for the prior fiscal year, if specified provisions did not apply, and the product of the amount as so described and the percentage change from the prior fiscal year in the gross taxable valuation within the jurisdiction of the entity. Existing law establishes a separate vehicle license fee adjustment amount for a city that was incorporated after January 1, 2004, and on or before January 1, 2012. This bill would establish a separate vehicle license fee adjustment amount for a city incorporating after January 1, 2012, including an additional separate vehicle license fee adjustment amount for the first fiscal year of incorporation and for the next 4 fiscal years thereafter. By imposing additional duties upon local tax officials with respect to the allocation of ad valorem property tax revenues, this 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, 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.
This measure would name the public street, circle, and plaza at 914 and 915 Capitol Mall in the City of Sacramento as the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Circle and Plaza. The measure would request the Department of General Services to determine the cost of erecting the appropriate signage commemorating this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources, to cover that cost to erect that signage.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to develop and implement the Electric Program Investment Charge program for the purpose of awarding funds to projects that may lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs to overcome barriers that prevent the achievement of the state's statutory energy goals and that may result in a portfolio of projects that are strategically focused and sufficiently narrow to make advancement on the most significant technological challenges. Existing law authorizes an individual to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds. Under existing law, there are general administrative provisions applicable to these voluntary contributions, which, among other things, provide for the disbursement of contributions following the repeal of the fund's provisions and require undesignated funds to be transferred to the General Fund. Existing law requires any new or extended voluntary contribution to include the words "voluntary tax contribution" in the name of the fund, to require the administering agency to include specified information about the fund on its internet website, to continuously appropriate from the fund the contributions made to the administering agency, to set a minimum contribution amount for the continuation of any voluntary tax contribution on the tax return form, and to include a generally applicable repeal date for a voluntary tax contribution. This bill would establish the Climate Innovation Grant Program, to be administered by the Strategic Growth Council or another entity identified by the council that it determines to have the appropriate skills necessary to successfully implement this program. The bill would establish the Climate Innovation Fund, a special fund, in the State Treasury and would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to the council for purposes of the program. Once the Climate Innovation Fund accrues $2,000,000, the bill would require the council or the entity implementing the program to notify the Franchise Tax Board and would require the program to award grants for the development and research of new innovations and technologies that either reduce emissions of greenhouse gases or address impacts caused by climate change. The bill would repeal the program on January 1, 2031. This bill would allow an individual to designate on their tax return that a specified amount in excess of their personal income tax liability be transferred to the Climate Innovation Voluntary Tax Contribution Account, which would be created by this bill. The bill would conform with those aforementioned administrative requirements by continuously appropriating those funds to the Franchise Tax Board and the Controller for administrative costs and to the Climate Innovation Fund, as specified. The bill would also conform by requiring the Strategic Growth Council to comply with certain internet website reporting requirements. The bill would make the voluntary tax contribution provisions operative upon notification of the Franchise Tax Board that the fund has accrued $2,000,000. The bill would repeal these provisions as of the sooner of December 1 of the year that the minimum contribution amount of $250,000 is not met or by a specified repeal date. By continuously appropriating these funds, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law generally regulates the business of insurance in the state. Existing law provides for the powers and duties of the Insurance Commissioner, including the duty to annually report specified insurer data to the Governor, the Legislature, and the committees of the Senate and the Assembly with jurisdiction over insurance. Existing law requires an insurer doing business in California to file specified certain statements with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) , grants NAIC specified immunities when collecting data as an agent of the Insurance Commissioner, and requires various NAIC standards to be met. This bill would require the Insurance Commissioner to provide a regular presentation on the NAIC accreditation process to the committees of the Senate and the Assembly with jurisdiction over insurance, and would require the presentation to meet specified criteria. The bill would require the department to include the information presented in a written report provided to relevant legislative committees and posted to the department's internet website, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to coordinate with NAIC to have NAIC make a presentation at its national meeting in lieu of the commissioner's presentation if certain criteria are met, including that the department reports specified information in writing to relevant legislative committees annually or at least once during a legislative session.
This measure would recognize September 2020 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month and encourage the Legislature to appropriate funds for research, treatment, and monitoring of sickle cell disease, and for related education and outreach.