Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of those provisions by a health care service plan a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law requires the department and the commissioner to develop and adopt regulations to ensure that enrollees or insureds of health care service plans and certain health insurers have access to needed health care services in a timely manner pursuant to specified indicators of timeliness. This bill would add timeliness of care for schoolage children who must receive medically necessary services during school hours as one of the indicators of timeliness. Existing law requires the department to review and adopt standards, as needed, concerning the availability of primary care physicians, specialty physicians, hospital care, and other health care so that consumers have timely access to care. In adopting those standards, the department is required to consider the nature of physician practices and circumstances affecting the delivery of care. If the department finds that health care service plans and health care providers have difficulty meeting those standards, existing law authorizes the department to make recommendations to the Assembly Committee on Health and the Senate Committee on Insurance on specified dates regarding implementation. This bill would add availability of school-based health care to the timely access to care provisions for which the department may adopt standards. The bill would instead authorize the department to report and make recommendations to the Assembly Committee on Health and the Senate Committee on Health regarding those standards. The bill would require health care service plans and health insurers to work constructively with local education agencies to provide reimbursement for covered health care services provided to a child during school hours and to ensure adequate availability of licensed health care professionals to accommodate the necessary medical needs of children during school hours. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance to implement these provisions by regulation by January 1, 2012. 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.
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Existing law prohibits a retailer from imposing a surcharge on a credit cardholder who elects to use a credit card instead of paying by cash, check or similar means, as provided. Existing law also provides that any retailer who imposes a surcharge and who fails to pay that amount to the cardholder within 30 days of written demand is liable for 3 times the amount at which actual damages are assessed. The cardholder is entitled to recover reasonable attorney's fees and costs incurred in the action. Existing law exempts from these provisions charges for payment made to an electrical, gas, or water corporation. Existing law also regulates the use of debit cards, as defined. This bill would make these provisions applicable to a retailer in any sales, service, or lease transaction with a consumer who elects to use a debit card instead of paying by cash, check, or similar means. This bill would also include a prepaid card or other means of access to prepaid funds, as provided, in the definition of debit card.
Existing law, the California High-Speed Train Act, creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed train system in the state, with specified powers and duties. Existing law, the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, general election, provides for the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail and related purposes. This bill, subject to appropriation by the Legislature, would require the authority to expend federal funds made available by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for specified high-speed rail purposes. The bill would require the authority to take various actions in that regard. The bill would also require the authority to submit to the Legislature and the Legislative Analyst an expenditure plan for the federal funds within 60 days of finalization of a cooperative agreement with the federal government. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relative to federal funds to be made available to the state by ARRA for high-speed rail purposes. The bill would exempt the Transbay Transit Center project in San Francisco from these provisions. This bill would provide that it shall become operative only if A.B. 289 is also enacted.
Existing law establishes a statewide program to enable eligible low-income persons to receive food stamps under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , formerly the Food Stamp Program. Existing law requires counties to implement the program, including determining eligibility and distributing food stamps. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income persons are provided with health care services. Under existing law, a recipient of aid, as defined, who is changing residence from one county to another within the state is required to promptly notify the county paying aid to the recipient of the move, and to apply for a redetermination of eligibility within the new county of residence. Existing law imposes various requirements on the relevant counties, including requiring the county to which the recipient has moved to determine the recipient's continued eligibility for payment of aid and, to the extent possible, the recipient's eligibility for the Medi-Cal program. This bill would, beginning on July 1, 2010, for households receiving benefits under SNAP and the CalWORKs program or the Medi-Cal program, or both, and on January 1, 2011, for all other households receiving benefits under SNAP, specify that aid, for purposes of the provisions relating to a recipient's change of residence, includes benefits under SNAP. To the extent that it would increase the duties of county officials that administer public aid programs, including the Medi-Cal program and the federal SNAP, 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 these statutory provisions.
The Outdoor Advertising Act regulates placement of advertising displays adjacent to and within specified distances of highways that are part of the national system of interstate and defense highways and federal-aid highways. The act provides that lawfully erected advertising displays include displays that were erected in compliance with state laws and local ordinances in effect at the time of their erection or displays that were subsequently brought into full compliance with state laws and local ordinances. The act provides that an advertising display whose use is modified after erection in a manner that causes it to become illegal is not a lawfully erected display. The act requires compensation to be paid to the owner of a lawfully erected advertising display if the display is compelled to be removed or its customary maintenance or use is limited, except as specified. This bill would additionally provide that an advertising display whose height, orientation, size, or technology is modified after erection in a manner that causes it to become illegal is not a lawfully erected display. The bill would provide that a lawfully erected advertising display includes displays erected and maintained in compliance with state laws, local ordinances, and local building permit requirements in effect at the time of their erection and displays that were subsequently brought into, and maintained in, full compliance with state laws, local ordinances, and local building permit requirements. The bill would authorize a civil action for disgorgement of specified revenues against the owner, and any person working in concert with the owner, of a display that is not lawfully erected or that is in violation of any state law, local ordinance, or local building permit requirement. The bill would also make an owner of those displays liable for a civil penalty up to $2,500 for each day the violation continues and would require the court to consider specified factors in assessing the amount of the civil penalty. The bill would require moneys collected pursuant to these provisions to be paid to the General Fund or to the treasurer of the city or county where a judgment is entered and to the General Fund, as specified.
Existing law, the California High-Speed Train Act, creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed train system in the state, with specified powers and duties. Existing law, the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, provides for the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail and related purposes. This bill would require the authority to contract with the Employment Development Department to develop a labor market assessment of the workforce and identify the education and skills needed for construction, operation, and maintenance of the high-speed train system. The bill, in that regard, would require the department to consult and work cooperatively with the Mineta Transportation Institute at the California State University at San Jose and to consult with other workforce assessment efforts, as specified. The bill would require the authority and the department to form an advisory committee, as specified, to advise the authority and the department on the availability of skilled labor relative to the high-speed train project and on options for workforce training programs in that regard. The bill would require the labor market assessment to be submitted to the Legislature and incorporated into the authority's biennial revised business plan. This bill would appropriate $500,000 from the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund to the authority for these purposes, as specified. The bill would also make related legislative findings and declarations.
Existing law establishes various offenses relating to the unauthorized provision of specified items to persons confined in local and state correctional facilities. This bill would provide, subject to exceptions, that any inmate or ward who possesses any cellular telephone or other wireless communication device or any component thereof, including, but not limited to, a subscriber identity module (SIM card) or memory storage device, or any person who possesses with the intent to deliver, or delivers, to an inmate or ward in the custody of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation any cellular telephone or other wireless communication device or any component thereof, including, but not limited to, a subscriber identity module (SIM card) or memory storage device, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000. The bill would also provide that if a person visiting an inmate or ward is found to be in possession of a cellular telephone or other wireless communication device or any component thereof, including, but not limited to, a subscriber identity module (SIM card) or memory storage device, when searched or subjected to a metal detector, as specified, that cellular telephone or wireless communication device or component shall be subject to confiscation. The bill would require posted notices regarding those search and confiscation provisions, as specified. By creating a new 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.
(1) Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt regulations to establish a process by which chemicals or chemical ingredients in products may be identified and prioritized for consideration as being chemicals of concern and to adopt regulations to establish a process by which chemicals of concern may be evaluated. The regulations are required to specify actions that the department may take following the completion of the analysis. A violation of the hazardous waste control law is a crime. Existing law, the Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Act, administered by the Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings, and Thermal Insulation, imposes specified flame retardant requirements. This bill would require the department to include, as a chemical under consideration as being a chemical of concern, any chemical that is used, or is proposed to be used, as a flame retardant, as defined, in accordance with those regulations and the review process established by the department. The bill would prohibit a person from using a new flame retardant in the manufacture of, or otherwise in connection with, any upholstered furniture, bedding and filling materials, until the department has considered and determined whether the new flame retardant is a chemical of concern. The bill would require the department and the bureau, in consultation with any other state agencies and interdepartmental workgroups, to jointly evaluate the current technical bulletins issued by the bureau and determine whether appropriate changes to those bulletins are warranted. The bill would require a person to use a flame retardant in accordance with the regulatory responses adopted by the department. By creating new prohibitions, the violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) 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 provides benefits for state military veterans. This bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to consult with the State Department of Mental Health and the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, as provided, to identify federal funds that are available for the purposes of funding community-based organizations, certified by the department, to provide substance abuse and mental health services to veterans, as specified, and to pay reasonable administrative expenses. This bill would also require the department to develop a process by which to certify community-based organizations that receive funding, and require the department to establish criteria of success for the purpose of determining renewal of funding to those community-based organizations. The bill would, in counties in which there are no community-based organizations that serve veterans, permit a county to apply for a grant to be used for purposes related to the funding and provision of substance abuse and mental health services to veterans.
The California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board administers a program to assist state residents to obtain compensation for their pecuniary losses suffered as a direct result of criminal acts. Payment is made under these provisions from the Restitution Fund, which is continuously appropriated to the board for these purposes. This bill would authorize the board, as specified, to administer a program to award, upon appropriation by the Legislature, up to $2 million in grants, annually, to trauma centers, as defined.