Existing law, known as the Donahoe Higher Education Act, provides for a public postsecondary education system in this state. The University of California and the California State University are 2 of the segments of the public postsecondary education system. The provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California act by resolution to make them applicable. Existing law authorizes the trustees of the California State University to require that fees, among other charges, be paid by students that institution. Existing provisions of the California Constitution require the regents to have all powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of the university. This bill would enact the Student Protection Act, which would require any increase in mandatory systemwide fees adopted by the trustees to become effective at least 180 calendar days after the date on which the increase is adopted. The bill would prohibit the trustees from increasing mandatory systemwide fees, in any academic year, by an amount exceeding 10% of the mandatory systemwide fees for the immediately preceding academic year. The bill would request the regents to adopt policies that are consistent with these provisions.
Sponsored bills
The Enterprise Zone Act provides for the designation of enterprise zones by the Department of Community Housing and Development, based on the department's approval of applications from a city, county, or city and county with a geographic area meeting certain criteria. Certain entities within a designated enterprise zone may receive regulatory, tax, and other incentives for private investment and employment. Existing law provides that no more than 42 enterprise zones be designated at any one time pursuant to the act. Upon the expiration or termination of a designation, existing law authorizes the department to designate another enterprise zone to maintain a total of 42 enterprise zones. This bill would authorize the department to designate one special enterprise zone within the City of Fremont consisting of a geographical area encompassing a facility that manufactures automobiles and to designate, until June 30, 2010, an additional 10 special enterprise zones limited to one nonrenewable 15-year term. The bill would exclude these enterprise zones from the calculation of the overall number of enterprise zones authorized under the act. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit for an increase in qualified employees of a qualified employer. This bill would, under both laws, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2010, allow a credit to a qualified taxpayer, as defined, in an amount equal to 25% of the wages, not to exceed $6,000, paid to each qualified veteran, as defined, by the qualified taxpayer during the taxable year. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing and requires candidates for elective office, candidates for elective state office, and committees formed or existing primarily to support or oppose those candidates to file specified reports disclosing contributions and independent expenditures made in connection with the campaigns of those candidates. Existing law further establishes the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System to administer the Public Employees' Retirement System and the Teachers' Retirement Board to administer the State Teachers' Retirement System. Existing law specifies the composition of those boards and requires that designated positions on the boards be filled by election. With limited exception, as specified, candidates for election to those boards are not required to comply with the various reporting requirements imposed by the Political Reform Act of 1974. This bill would revise the definitions of "elective office" and "elective state office" for purposes of the Political Reform Act of 1974 to include membership on the boards described above and would repeal the provision that exempts from the act candidates for election to those boards, thereby subjecting those candidates, and committees formed or existing primarily to support or oppose those candidates, to the reporting requirements of the act. The bill would further make conforming changes to provisions of the act relating to the reporting of late contributions, the reporting of late independent expenditures, the filing of committee organization statements, and the filing of campaign statements and preelection statements. In addition, the bill would give the Fair Political Practices Commission the authority to adopt regulations to tailor the act's reporting and disclosure requirements for those candidates and committees consistent with the purposes and provisions of the act. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating additional crimes. 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 Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
Existing law prescribes procedures for the issuance of registered warrants and provides that a registered warrant is acceptable and may be used as security for the performance of any public or private trust or obligation. This bill would, if the Controller makes a specified determination, require a state agency to accept, from a person or entity, a registered warrant issued by the Controller and endorsed by that payee, at full face value, for the payment of any obligations owed by that payee to that state agency. The bill would specify that its requirements do not apply to certain obligations and would require the Controller, on or before the September 1 following the conclusion of a fiscal year in which a state agency is required to accept registered warrants pursuant to these provisions, to submit a report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The bill would make its provisions inoperative on July 1, 2012, and would repeal them on January 1, 2013. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to adopt those regulations that are necessary to carry out the act. The act also requires the commission, after one or more public hearings, to prescribe, by regulation, standards for minimum levels of operating efficiency and prescribe other measures, such as energy and water consumption labeling not preempted by federal labeling law, to promote the use of energy and water efficient appliances that do not result in any added total costs for consumers over the designed life of the appliances concerned. This bill would provide that the television product labeling regulations adopted by the commission would not be effective until July 1, 2011, and would be effective on that date only if a United States Federal Trade Commission labeling rule for those products is not effective on or before July 1, 2011. The bill also would provide that those regulations would remain in effect only until a Federal Trade Commission labeling rule for television products becomes effective.
(1) Existing law created the California Central Coast State Veterans Cemetery at Fort Ord Endowment Fund in the State Treasury and requires those moneys to be allocated for the annual administrative and oversight costs of the veterans cemetery, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs, in voluntary cooperation with the Board of Supervisors of the County of Monterey, the City of Seaside, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, and local agencies to design, develop, and construct the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery at Fort Ord, as specified. This bill would require the Secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs to appoint an Advisory Committee to advise the department when considering significant changes to the cemetery, as provided. This bill would require additional revenues identified for the administration and oversight of the cemetery to be deposited in the Endowment Fund, as specified. (2) Existing law requires the department to develop and submit a Veterans Cemetery Grant Program application to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs for the establishment of a veterans cemetery, as provided. Existing law requires the Controller to transfer moneys from the Endowment Fund to the Operations Fund in the amount equal to the costs of developing and submitting the State Veterans Cemetery Grant Program application, as provided. This bill would require the Controller, upon the appropriation of the Legislature, to transfer funds from the Endowment Fund to the Operations Fund in the amount at least equal to the estimated costs to complete preliminary plans and working drawings. This bill would authorize the department, upon the transfer of those funds, to proceed with all activities necessary to support the submission of the grant application, and, upon the United States Department of Veterans Affairs certification of the grant award to begin construction and equipping the veterans cemetery. This bill would define "phases" to mean the usual phases of a capital outlay project, as specified. (3) Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations for eligibility requirements, as provided, and authorizes the burial of honorably discharged veterans and their spouses and children in the veterans cemetery. This bill would require regulations to apply to all state-operated veterans cemeteries, as specified, and would limit burial of the children of honorably discharged veterans in the veterans cemetery to only dependent children.
(1) Existing law imposes licensing and regulatory requirements on vehicle dealers and vehicle salespersons. Existing law requires a dealer's place of business to have posted the license issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles to the dealer and to each salesperson employed by the dealer. This bill would instead authorize the dealer to post a true and exact copy of the license issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles to the dealer and to each salesperson employed by the dealer and would make other conforming changes. (2) Existing law requires the applicant of a dealer's or remanufacturer's license, before the license is issued or renewed by the department, to procure and file with the department a bond, as provided. Existing law authorizes the director of the department, if a deposit is given instead of the bond, to order the deposit returned at the expiration of specified dates. This bill would also authorize the director to order the deposit to be returned at the expiration of 5 years from the date the licensee secured and maintained a dealer bond, after posting a deposit, if the director is satisfied that there are no outstanding claims against the deposit. (3) Existing law requires a dealer that obtains a consumer credit score from a consumer credit reporting agency, for use in connection with an application for credit initiated by a consumer for the purchase or lease of a motor vehicle for specified uses, to provide, prior to the sale, certain information in at least 10-point boldface type on a document separate from the sale or lease contract, that includes, among other things, the credit score obtained and used by the dealer and the name of the credit reporting agency providing the credit score to the dealer. This bill would delete these requirements and instead require a dealer to provide a document, in at least 10-point type, that contains certain information pertaining to credit scores, including each credit score obtained and used by the dealer and a statement that a consumer report or credit report is a record of the consumer's credit history and includes information about whether the consumer pays his or her obligations on time and how much the consumer owes to creditors, among other things. The bill would provide that use of a specified model form, that meets federal requirements for form and content, would be deemed to comply with the above requirements. The bill would also provide that it does not limit or restrict any rights or remedies otherwise available under existing law. (4) Existing law authorizes the department to refuse to issue, to suspend, or to revoke a vehicle salesperson's license when it determines, among other things, that the applicant or licensee has acted as a vehicle salesperson or engaged in that activity for, or on behalf of, more than one licensed dealer whose business does not have identical ownership and structure. Existing law provides that the law does not preclude a vehicle salesperson from working at more than one location of one licensed dealer if the business of that dealer has identical ownership and structure. This bill would authorize the department to refuse to issue, to suspend, or to revoke a vehicle salesperson's license when it determines, among other things, that the applicant or licensee has concurrently acted as a vehicle salesperson and engaged in that activity for, or on behalf of, more than one licensed dealer unless all of the licensed dealers, for whom that salesperson works, have common controlling ownership. The bill would also provide that the law does not preclude a vehicle salesperson from working for more than one dealer provided that all of the licensed dealers for whom that salesperson works have common controlling ownership, as defined. (5) Existing law requires the salesperson's license to be displayed continuously during employment and requires that the license be returned to the salesperson once employment is terminated. A violation of these requirements is a crime. This bill would require the dealer to display the license or a true and exact copy of the license continuously at each location where the salesperson is actually engaged in the selling of vehicles. Once the employment is terminated, this bill would require all copies used by the dealer for posting or display to be destroyed by the dealer. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) 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 recognizes various holidays, including November 11, known as Veterans Day. Existing law requires that public offices of the state and state institutions, except for the University of California, be closed on Veterans Day. This bill would require that public offices of the state and state institutions, including, but not limited to, all state agencies and the Legislature, be closed on November 11 for Veterans Day, except as specified. The bill would also state the Legislature's intent that the University of California also be closed on November 11, Veterans Day.
(1) Existing law subjects violators of air pollution laws to specified civil and administrative penalties. Existing law imposes various duties on the State Air Resources Board relative to the reduction of air pollution. This bill would require a written communication from the state board alleging that an administrative or civil penalty will be, or could be, imposed either by the state board or another party, including the Attorney General, for a violation of air pollution law, to contain specified information. The bill would require this information and final mutual settlement agreements reached between the state board and a person alleged to have violated air pollution laws to be made available to the public. The bill would require the state board to prepare and submit to the Legislature and the Governor a report summarizing the motor vehicle pollution administrative penalties imposed by the state board for calendar year 2011, and annually thereafter, and would require the state board to publish a penalty policy for motor vehicle pollution laws that is based on specified criteria. (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.