The Psychology Licensing Law establishes the Board of Psychology to license and regulate the practice of psychology. Existing law requires an applicant for licensure as a psychologist to have engaged in supervised professional experience under the direction of a licensed psychologist, or under suitable alternative supervision, for at least 2 years, at least one year of which is required to occur after the applicant has been awarded the qualifying doctoral degree. Existing law authorizes a registered psychological associate to perform psychological functions in preparation for licensure as a psychologist under specified conditions, including that the registered psychological associate is supervised by a licensed psychologist. This bill would authorize the supervision of an applicant for licensure as a psychologist, and of a registered psychological associate, to be provided in real time, which is defined as through in-person or synchronous audiovisual means, in compliance with federal and state laws related to patient health confidentiality. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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This measure would declare that the Legislature honors the life and legacy of Vicente Fernández, and would proclaim February 17, 2022, as Vicente Fernández Day, a day of remembrance and education to ensure that all Californians honor and remember the cultural voice of generations.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. CEQA requires the Office of Planning and Research to prepare and develop proposed guidelines for the implementation of CEQA by public agencies and requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to certify and adopt those guidelines. CEQA requires the office to prepare, develop, and transmit to the secretary for certification and adoption proposed revisions to the guidelines establishing criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas, as defined, that promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses. Existing law requires the office to recommend potential metrics to measure transportation impacts, as specified. CEQA authorizes the office to adopt guidelines establishing alternative metrics to the metrics used for traffic levels of service for transportation impacts outside transit priority areas. This bill would require the office, by January 1, 2025, to conduct and submit to the Legislature a study on the impacts and implementation of the guidelines described above relating to transportation impacts. The bill would require the office, upon appropriation, to establish a grant program to provide financial assistance to local jurisdictions for implementing those guidelines.
Under existing law, a state agency is authorized to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and the DMV is required to issue those license plates if the agency meets certain requirements. Existing law also requires the DMV to charge specified fees for certain services related to the issuance of those plates. This bill would require the State Department of Education to apply to the DMV to sponsor a mental health awareness license plate program, and would require the DMV to issue the license plates if the State Department of Education meets certain requirements. The bill would also establish the Mental Health Awareness Fund in the State Treasury and would require the revenue generated from the license plates to be deposited in the fund for use, upon appropriation by the Legislature to the State Department of Education, for mental health services in public schools.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2026, a credit to a qualified taxpayer that hires a qualified full-time employee within a designated census tract or economic development area and that receives a tentative credit reservation for that qualified full-time employee. For purposes of that credit, various requirements relating to work within those tracts or areas are further prescribed. Under that credit, "qualified wages" are defined to mean wages that meet specified requirements and that portion of the wages paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer during the taxable year to each qualified full-time employee that exceeds 150% of minimum wage, but does not exceed 350% of minimum wage. Under that credit, however, if the qualified full-time employee is employed in a designated pilot area, "qualified wages" are defined to mean wages that meet specified requirements and that portion of wages paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer to each qualified full-time employee that exceeds $10 per hour or an equivalent amount for salaried employees, but does not exceed 350% of minimum wage. For purposes of that credit, a qualified full-time employee is defined as an individual who meets certain requirements, including that they are, upon commencement of employment with the qualified taxpayer, unemployed, a veteran, an ex-offender previously convicted of a felony, or a recipient of CalWORKs, general assistance, or the federal earned income credit, as those requirements are further described. Existing law requires the Franchise Tax Board to determine the aggregate tentative reservation amount and the aggregate small business tentative reservation amount for a calendar year. This bill would remove, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, the requirement that the work performed by the qualified full-time employee be in a designated census tract or economic development area, and would make conforming and related changes to remove requirements relating to those tracts and areas. The bill would expand the definition of qualified full-time employee to also include an employee claimed by the qualified taxpayer during the taxable year, as described, for a federal work opportunity credit, as defined. The bill would instead define "qualified wages" to mean that portion of wages paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer during the taxable year to each qualified full-time employee that exceeds 150% of the minimum wage, but does not exceed 350% of minimum wage, among other things. This bill would prohibit the requirement that the board determine the aggregate tentative reservation amount and aggregate small business tentative reservation amount from being construed to limit the aggregate amount of credits granted to all qualified taxpayers. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would provide information in compliance with that requirement. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law establishes the Strategic Growth Council in state government consisting of various state agency heads and 3 public members. Existing law requires the council, among other things, to identify and review activities and funding programs of state agencies that may be coordinated to improve air and water quality, improve natural resource protection, increase the availability of affordable housing, improve transportation, meet greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, encourage sustainable land use planning, and revitalize urban and community centers in a sustainable manner. This bill, until January 1, 2026, would create the Farmworker Climate Resilience Adaptation Program, to be administered by the Strategic Growth Council, to award grants totaling $20,000,000 to eligible entities for the development and implementation of projects addressing the needs of farmworkers, their families, and communities for sustainable and equitable adaptation to the impacts of climate change. The bill would require the program to be guided by the Farmworker Climate Resilience Adaptation Task Force established by this bill, to be composed as specified, and would require the task force to meet not less than 6 times before June 30, 2023, as specified. The bill would require the task force to make recommendations about projects funded under this program and, on or before June 30, 2023, to report its findings and recommendations to the Strategic Growth Council, the state agencies involved in the task force, the Legislature, and the Governor. The bill would make the implementation of this program contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose.
The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and requires the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. The California Constitution requires the board to consist of 7 ex officio members and 18 appointive members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. The California Constitution authorizes the members of the board to appoint either a member of the faculty at a campus of the university or of another institution of higher education, or a person enrolled as a student at a campus of the university, or both, as members of the board serving for no less than one year with all rights of participation. This measure would require, rather than authorize, the members of the board to appoint 2 students enrolled at a campus of the university for each regular academic term during their service as members of the board, as provided.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement and administer various programs relating to public health. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to create a California Standard Diagnostic for Valley Fever. The bill would request that the University of California at Merced and the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine Fresno campus consult on the creation of that standard diagnostic. The bill would additionally, until January 1, 2028, require the department to conduct an awareness campaign about the diagnostic, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, to be administered by the Office of Planning and Research, to coordinate regional and local efforts with state climate adaptation strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change, as provided. Existing law requires the program to include working with and coordinating local and regional efforts for climate adaptation and resilience, including, but not limited to, developing tools and guidance, promoting and coordinating state agency support for local and regional efforts, and informing state-led programs to better reflect the goals, efforts, and challenges faced by local and regional entities pursuing adaptation, preparedness, and resilience. Existing law requires the office to coordinate with appropriate entities to establish a clearinghouse for climate adaptation information for use by state, regional, and local entities, as provided. This bill would require the office, on or before July 1, 2023, to establish within the program the Resilience Navigators Program to provide information and guidance to potential applicants for state programs that offer financial assistance, including grants or loans, to develop or implement plans, programs, or projects that seek to create, improve, or enhance resilience to climate change, including disasters associated with or amplified by climate change, including, but not limited to, wildfires and extreme heat. The bill would require the office to develop and maintain on its internet website or a related, state-administered internet website, and update annually, an interactive resource of all of these state programs, as specified, provide specified information and guidance to entities that are potential applicants for these programs, and conduct outreach to vulnerable communities, as defined, regarding available programs. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, on or before July 1, 2024, and in coordination with the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program and state entities represented in the California Climate Adaptation Strategy, to develop an interactive internet website that displays the state's climate adaptation strategy, including the strategy's priorities, goals, actions, metrics, timeframes, and lead agencies, as provided, and to develop coordinated, science-based approaches for measuring the performance and outcomes of state investments that support implementation of the state's climate adaptation strategy, as provided.
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. The federal Medicaid program provisions prohibit payment to a state for medical assistance furnished to an alien who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence or otherwise permanently residing in the United States under color of law. Existing law requires individuals under 19 years of age enrolled in restricted-scope Medi-Cal at the time the Director of Health Care Services makes a determination that systems have been programmed for implementation of these provisions to be enrolled in the full scope of Medi-Cal benefits, if otherwise eligible, pursuant to an eligibility and enrollment plan, and extends eligibility for full scope Medi-Cal benefits to individuals who are under 25 years of age, and who are otherwise eligible for those benefits but for their immigration status. Existing law makes the effective date of enrollment for those individuals the same day that systems are operational to begin processing new applications pursuant to the director's determination. Existing law requires an individual eligible for Medi-Cal under these provisions to enroll in a Medi-Cal managed care health plan. Existing law provides that Medi-Cal benefits for individuals who are 65 years of age or older, and who do not have satisfactory immigration statuses or are unable to establish satisfactory immigration statuses, as specified, are to be prioritized in the Budget Act for the upcoming fiscal year if the Department of Finance projects a positive ending balance in the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties for the upcoming fiscal year and each of the ensuing 3 fiscal years that exceeds the cost of providing those individuals full scope Medi-Cal benefits. Effective January 1, 2022, this bill would instead extend eligibility for full scope Medi-Cal benefits to anyone regardless of age, and who is otherwise eligible for those benefits but for their immigration status, pursuant to an eligibility and enrollment plan. The bill would delete the above-specified provisions regarding individuals who are under 25 years of age or 65 years of age or older and delaying implementation until the director makes the determination described above. The bill would require the eligibility and enrollment plan to ensure that an individual maintains continuity of care with respect to their primary care provider, as prescribed, would provide that an individual is not limited in their ability to select a different health care provider or Medi-Cal managed care health plan, and would require the department to provide monthly updates to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on the status of the implementation of these provisions. Because counties are required to make Medi-Cal eligibility determinations and this bill would expand Medi-Cal eligibility, 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.