The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit against those taxes for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in an amount equal to a specified percentage of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture has relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law allows specified qualified taxpayers to elect to assign the credit, requires specified information from qualified taxpayers that apply for a tax credit allocation, and imposes specified duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits, including a requirement to allocate the tax credits until July 1, 2015, and limits the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated to qualified motion pictures in any fiscal year to $100,000,000, through the 2014–15 fiscal year. Existing law additionally allows, in lieu of the credits under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures, a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. This bill, under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, would impose additional duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits and would extend the requirement to allocate the tax credits 2 additional years, until July 1, 2017. This bill would also extend the limit on the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated through the 2016–17 fiscal year. This bill would also require assigning qualified taxpayers to provide the Franchise Tax Board with specified information, would revise the information included in an application for a tax credit allocation, and require the Legislative Analyst's Office to prepare reports related to the effectiveness and administration of the qualified motion picture credit under the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, and the Corporation Tax Law. This bill would require the California Film Commission to annually post on its Internet Web site and make available for public release specified information, including a list of qualified taxpayers and the tax credit amounts allocated to each qualified taxpayer by the commission. The bill would authorize various state agencies to disclose specified taxpayer information for purposes of the Legislative Analyst's Office report, and would impose specified criminal penalties on the disclosure of that information. By expanding the crime of knowingly and wrongfully accessing, using, or disclosing specified information, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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(1) Existing law prohibits a person from acting as a dealer in vehicles, as specified, without a license issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Existing law governs conditional sale contracts, as defined, for the purchase of motor vehicles, including the enforceability of those contracts. Existing law also governs lease contracts, as defined, for the lease of motor vehicles, including the enforceability of those contracts. Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, the violation of which is a crime, provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders by the Commissioner of Corporations, but exempts from its provisions a bona fide conditional contract of sale involving the disposition of personal property when that form of agreement is not used for the purpose of evading provisions of that law. This bill would enact the Buy-Here-Pay-Here Automobile Dealers Act. The bill would define a "buy-here-pay-here" dealer as a dealer, as defined, who enters into conditional sale contracts, as defined, or lease contracts, as defined, and assigns less than 90% of all unrescinded contracts to an unaffiliated 3rd-party finance or leasing source, within 45 days of the consummation of those contracts. The bill would exclude from this definition automobile sellers who meet specified requirements. This bill would require those dealers to obtain a finance lender license and subject them to specified other provisions of the California Finance Lenders Law. The bill would also define a "buyer-borrower" as a person who enters into a conditional sale contract or lease contract with a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer. The bill would provide that the Department of Corporations would have regulatory jurisdiction over the lending and repossessing activities of buy-here-pay-here automobile dealers, as specified. This bill would govern the terms and conditions of contracts entered into by a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer and the rights of the parties, including, but not limited to, requiring a notice to a buyer-borrower of specified rights under the contract. (2) Existing law, the Collateral Recovery Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of repossession agencies, as defined, and their employees by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services within the Department of Consumer Affairs. This bill would impose additional requirements on a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer seeking to repossess a vehicle, including, but not limited to, prohibiting a dealer from commencing repossession proceedings due to failure to make a scheduled loan payment prior to the 16th day following the day on which that payment was due, requiring a dealer to hire a licensed repossession agency to repossess the vehicle on the dealer's behalf, and prohibiting the dealer from charging the buyer-borrower a fee exceeding $500 for the dealer's costs in connection with the repossession. The bill would also establish a cap on interest rates that could be charged under a conditional sale or lease contract and require a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer to allow a buyer-borrower 45 days to repay any penalties, fees, and other charges imposed by the dealer on the buyer-borrower in connection with past due payments that have been brought current. (3) The bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature with regard to buy-here-pay-here automobile dealers. (4) Because this bill would expand the scope of a crime, the bill would create 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System. These systems provide defined pension benefits to public employees based on age, service credit, and final compensation. The California Constitution confers upon the retirement boards of public retirement systems plenary authority and fiduciary responsibility for the investment of moneys of those systems. This bill would authorize these public retirement system boards, consistent with their fiduciary duties and the standard for prudent investment, to prioritize investment in an in-state infrastructure project over a comparable out-of-state infrastructure project.
Existing law regulates the accuracy of information provided to consumers during vehicle sales, including the information contained in advertising, brochures, and manuals, as specified. Existing law also requires manufacturers, as specified, to disclose certain information regarding a vehicle's engine, as specified, by affixing a label on the vehicle. A violation of these provisions is an infraction. This bill would require a buy-here-pay-here dealer, as defined, to affix to and to prominently and conspicuously display a label on any used vehicle offered for retail sale that states the reasonable market value of the vehicle. The bill would require the label to contain specified information used to determine the vehicle's reasonable market value and the date the value was determined. The bill would require a buy-here-pay-here dealer to provide to a prospective buyer of the used vehicle a copy of any information obtained from a nationally recognized pricing guide that the buy-here-pay-here dealer used to determine the reasonable market value of the vehicle. By creating a new crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law prescribes various duties for the Department of General Services in connection with development and maintenance of the park around the State Capitol Building. This bill would authorize the American Portuguese Club Incorporated, in consultation with the department and a specifically created committee, to construct and maintain a memorial in the existing All Veterans Memorial to honor California American Portuguese veterans. It would require that the planning, construction, and maintenance of the memorial be funded with private donations through the American Portuguese Club Incorporated. It would prohibit construction of the memorial until the master plan of the State Capitol Park is approved and adopted by the Joint Committee on Rules and the Joint Committee on Rules, and the Department of Finance have determined that sufficient private funding is available to construct and maintain the memorial. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the Department of Transportation, in cooperation with county and city governments, to establish minimum safety design criteria for the planning and construction of bikeways, and authorizes cities, counties, and local agencies to establish bikeways. Existing law requires all city, county, regional, and other local agencies responsible for the development or operation of bikeways or roadways where bicycle travel is permitted to utilize all minimum safety design criteria and uniform specifications and symbols for signs, markers, and traffic control devices established pursuant to specified provisions of existing law. This bill would require the department to establish, by June 30, 2013, procedures for cities, counties, and local agencies to be granted exceptions from the requirement to use those criteria and specifications for purposes of research, experimentation, testing, evaluation, or verification. The bill would require the department, by November 1, 2014, to report to the transportation policy committees of both houses of the Legislature the steps that the department has taken to implement those requirements, including, but not limited to, information regarding requests received and granted by the department from July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014, inclusive, for those exceptions, and the reasons the department rejected any requests for those exceptions.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district or community college district to order an election and submit to the electors of the district the question of whether the bonds of the district shall be issued and sold for the purpose of raising money for various facilities purposes, for refunding bonds, or for the purchase of schoolbuses. Existing law limits the total amount of bonds that a school district or community college district may issue to 1.25% of the taxable property of the school district or community college district. Existing law also authorizes the governing board of a school district or community college district to issue bond anticipation notes. Existing law requires a bond anticipation note to be payable not more than 5 years from the date of the original issuance of the note. Existing law requires the interest on the notes to be payable from the proceeds of the sale of bonds or from the tax levied to pay principal of and interest on the bonds. This bill, instead of requiring the interest on the notes to be paid from the tax levied to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds, would authorize the interest on the notes to be paid from a property tax levied for that purpose if authorized by a resolution of the governing board of the school district or community college district and if the principal amount of the notes does not exceed the remaining principal amount of authorized but unissued bonds. The bill would provide that this tax is authorized by law. The bill also would allow the premium received on the sale of the bonds to be used to pay the interest on the notes. The bill also would provide that the notes may be issued only if the tax rate levied to pay interest on the notes would not cause the school district or community college district to exceed the limitations set forth in specified existing law.
The existing Medical Waste Management Act, administered by the State Department of Public Health, regulates the management and handling of medical waste, as defined. Existing law requires that all medical waste be hauled by either a registered hazardous waste hauler or by a person with an approved limited-quantity exemption granted pursuant to specified provisions of law. Violation of these provisions of law is a crime. This bill would define pharmaceutical waste for purposes of the Medical Waste Management Act, and would exempt a pharmaceutical waste generator or parent organization that employs health care professionals who generate pharmaceutical waste from specified medical waste hauling requirements if the generator, health care professional, or parent organization retains specified documentation and meets specified requirements and if the facility receiving the medical waste retains specified documentation and meets specified requirements. The bill would authorize pharmaceutical waste to be transported by the generator or health care professional who generated the pharmaceutical waste, a staff member of the generator or health care professional, or common carrier, as defined, pursuant to these provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007 makes findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to the promotion of solar water heating systems and other technologies that reduce natural gas demand and defines terms for purposes of the act. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to evaluate data available from a specified pilot program, and, if it makes a specified determination, to design and implement a program of incentives for the installation of 200,000 solar water heating systems, as defined, in homes and businesses throughout the state by 2017. The act requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources and Conservation Commission and interested members of the public, to establish eligibility criteria for the solar water heating systems receiving gas customer funded incentives. The act requires the PUC to establish conditions on those incentives. The act defines a solar water heating system as a solar energy device that has the primary purpose of reducing demand for natural gas through water heating, space heating, or other methods of capturing energy from the sun to reduce natural gas consumption in a home, business, or any building receiving natural gas sold or transported for consumption in this state and that meets or exceeds the eligibility criteria. The act excludes solar pool heating systems from that definition. This bill would expand the definition of a solar water heating system to include a facility meeting the specified requirements and would qualify the exclusion from the definition of a solar water heating system as being limited to a single-family residential solar pool heating system. The bill would delete the requirement that the PUC evaluate data available from a specified pilot program before it makes a specified determination to design and implement a program of incentives for the installation of 200,000 solar water heating systems in homes and business throughout the state by 2017. The bill would revise certain eligibility criteria as being applicable to installation of solar water heating systems at government, nonprofit, and educational sites and would require the PUC to determine an appropriate division of funds between solar water heating systems that are and are not solar pool heating systems. The bill would require the PUC, not later than February 1, 2014, to complete a review of whether the rebate levels established by the PUC will be sufficient to spur investment to reach the goals of the program and to report the results of the review to the Legislature. The bill would require the PUC to require a gas corporation or 3rd-party administrator to implement the changes made to the act by the bill not later than July 1, 2013. The bill would make other technical, nonsubstantive changes to the act. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because the duties of gas corporations pursuant to the Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007 would be expanded by this bill, a decision or order of the PUC would be required to implement the program requirements, a violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. The Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007 requires the governing body of each publicly owned utility providing gas service to retail end-use gas customers to adopt, implement, and finance a solar water heating system incentive program to meet certain requirements. By expanding the definition of a solar water heating system to include a facility meeting the specified requirements and qualifying the exclusion from the definition of a solar water heating system as being limited to a single-family residential solar pool heating system, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.
Existing law establishes the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority and requires the authority to provide financial assistance in the form of a sales and use tax exclusion for applicants to promote the creation of California-based manufacturing, California-based jobs, the reduction of greenhouse gases, or reductions in air and water pollution or energy consumption. This bill would require the authority to establish the Clean Energy Economy and Jobs Incentive Program to provide financial assistance in the form of specified financing mechanisms to eligible California-based entities for the manufacturing of an eligible clean energy technology project, as specified. The bill would establish the Clean Energy Economy and Jobs Incentive Program Fund in the State Treasury and would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, authorize the authority to expend moneys in the fund to implement the program. The bill would repeal the program on January 1, 2018.