Sen. Megan Dahle

Existing law authorizes the Department of Food and Agriculture to make and administer loans from the Fair and Exposition Fund to any fair in the network of California Fairs, according to specific agreements and subject to the fair's demonstrated ability to repay the loan. This bill would authorize a fair to defer repayment of a loan issued pursuant to this provision until July 1, 2021. The bill would provide that interest shall not accrue on a loan during the time period that a fair elects to defer repayment. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, 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 the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project Act. The act revises hospital supplemental payment methodologies in the Medi-Cal program to maximize the use of federal funds consistent with federal Medicaid law and to stabilize the distribution of funding for hospitals that provide care to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and uninsured patients. This demonstration project provides funding, in supplementation of Medi-Cal reimbursement, to various hospitals, such as designated public hospitals, specified nondesignated public hospitals, and private hospitals, in accordance with certain provisions relating to disproportionate share hospitals. Existing law establishes several continuously appropriated funds, including the Demonstration Disproportionate Share Hospital Fund, the Private Hospital Supplemental Fund, the Nondesignated Public Hospital Supplemental Fund, and the Distressed Hospital Fund, to be expended by the department for purposes of the act. This bill would require the payment of Medi-Cal disproportionate share hospital replacement payment adjustments to any eligible hospital that is a nondesignated public hospital. By expanding the purposes of continuously appropriated funds by authorizing payment of appropriated funds to additional hospital facilities, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal law, generally defines "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provides various exclusions from gross income for purposes of computing tax liability. 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. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, would provide an exclusion from gross income for all survivor benefits or payments received on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2025, under the federal Survivor Benefit Plan. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to submit a report to the Legislature on the income brackets of taxpayers who claimed this exclusion, and would provide findings and declarations relating to the goals, purposes, and objectives of this exclusion. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law, notwithstanding the requirement that each person between 6 and 18 years of age who is not otherwise exempted is subject to compulsory full-time education, requires a pupil to be excused from school for specified types of absences, including, among others, if the absence was due to the pupil's illness. This bill would include as another type of required excused absence an absence that is for the purpose of participating in a cultural ceremony or event. To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on local educational entities, the 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 designate the week of February 24, 2020, to March 1, 2020, as Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

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. Existing law authorizes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to administer various programs, including grant programs, relating to forest health and wildfire protection. Existing law states that a specified amount is to be annually appropriated, through the 2023–24 fiscal year, from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the department in the annual Budget Act for specified healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects. Under existing law, the 2019–20 annual Budget Act appropriated $165,000,000 to the department, with at least $5,000,000 to be made available to the California Conservation Corps, as specified. This bill would appropriate $330,000,000 for the 2020–21 fiscal year from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, as specified, to the department for specified healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects that improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by uncontrolled wildfires, with not less than $10,000,000 for the California Conservation Corps' fire prevention projects and activities in, or adjacent to, the state responsibility areas.

Existing law establishes the Education Code and sets forth general provisions, rules of construction, and definitions that govern its construction. This bill, for purposes of the Education Code, would define "frontier school district" to mean a school district that meets certain attendance or population criteria.

Existing law authorizes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to prescribe, by regulation, energy efficiency standards, including appliance efficiency standards. Under this authority, the commission has established regulations for the installation of photovoltaic systems meeting certain requirements for low-rise residential buildings built on or after January 1, 2020. This bill would exempt from the photovoltaic requirements new residential and nonresidential buildings constructed in areas of the state that receive a significant amount of annual snowfall.

The Personal Income Tax Law and Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including hiring credits within the specified economic development areas. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would, under both laws for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2023, allow a credit against those taxes in an amount equal to 50% of wages paid, not to exceed $15,000 per taxable year, by a qualified taxpayer, as defined, to qualified full-time employees, defined to mean that the person is between 18 and 25 years of age at the time of hiring and is either a former foster youth or is an ex-offender previously convicted of a felony. The bill would also provide that the credit amount is $0 for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2023, unless otherwise specified in a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Act. The bill would provide findings and declarations relating to the goals, purposes, and objectives of this credit. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law requires a peace officer to hold property alleged to have been stolen or embezzled when the property comes into the custody of the officer. Existing law requires the clerk or person in charge of the property section for the police or sheriff's department to enter in a suitable book a description of every article of property alleged to be stolen or embezzled that has been brought into the office or taken from the person of a prisoner. This bill would state that the clerk or person in charge of the property section may enter that description in a computer database.