Existing law, including, but not limited to, property tax law, the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, the Corporation Tax Law, the Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law, the law governing the taxation of insurers, the Use Fuel Tax Law, and the Diesel Fuel Tax Law, provides for tax expenditures, including exemptions, deductions, exclusions, and credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to comprehensively assess the major tax expenditures, as defined, of the state, write and publish a report on each major tax expenditure, and make a recommendation to the Legislature based on each report. In this regard, the bill would require LAO, as part of the comprehensive assessments, to identify any savings that the Legislature can realize by reducing or limiting the major tax expenditures, and require them to consider certain criteria when finalizing each report, including the extent to which the major tax expenditure is a cost-effective use of resources compared to other options to address the same purpose, intent, or goal. The bill would require LAO to complete and publish on its internet website its first report on a major tax expenditure by January 1, 2028, and to complete and publish on its internet website each subsequent report on a major tax expenditure annually in a sequence determined by the office thereafter until the fifth and final report is submitted on January 1, 2032. The bill would require the Senate Committee on Revenue and Taxation and the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, to hold a joint public hearing on these reports by each August 15 of the second year of the legislative session, as specified. To the extent that LAO needs access to taxpayer data and information, the bill would require the Franchise Tax Board, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, and the Employment Development Department to ensure that relevant anonymized taxpayer data is made available and ensure that appropriate levels of data security and privacy protections are in place for transferred or sensitive data. The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2033. The bill would make findings and declarations relating to these provisions.
Sponsored bills
Existing law generally regulates artificial intelligence, including companion chatbots, as defined. Existing law requires an operator, as defined, to prevent a companion chatbot on its companion chatbot platform from engaging with users unless the operator maintains a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user. Existing law requires an operator, for a user the operator knows is a minor, to take certain prescribed action, including disclosing to the user that the user is interacting with artificial intelligence. This bill would delete those provisions imposing requirements on an operator if the operator knows the user is a minor. The Digital Age Assurance Act requires a person who owns, maintains, or controls a software application, as defined, to request age bracket data sent by a real-time secure application programming interface or operating system with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched. This bill would require an operator, as defined, of a companion chatbot to, beginning July 1, 2027, before making a new or substantially modified companion chatbot available to users in the state, do various things with respect to child safety, including perform and document a comprehensive risk assessment related to the design, configuration, and operation of the companion chatbot with respect to minor users that contains, among other things, a summary of the results of any evaluation of each covered harm, as defined, pertaining to the companion chatbot. The bill would require an operator to submit to independent child safety audits of its compliance with the bill, as specified. The bill would require an auditor to produce a report that describes whether the operator has established and adhered to policies and practices to comply with the bill that includes, among other things, the signature of the lead auditor certifying the results of the audit under penalty of perjury. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to, for cause, request and obtain a copy of an AI child safety audit report from the operator and would make a child safety audit report submitted to the Attorney General confidential. This bill would authorize certain public prosecutors to bring a civil action to enforce the bill's provisions, as specified, and would authorize a child who suffers an actual harm as a result of a violation of this chapter, or a parent or guardian acting on behalf of that child, to bring a civil action against the operator, as specified. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 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 it 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 defines various terms, including "natural and protected lands" for its purposes. This bill would revise the definition of that term to include habitats for protected species identified as candidate, sensitive, or species of special status by state or federal agencies. CEQA exempts from its requirement projects that consist exclusively of a day care center that is not located in a residential area and projects that consist exclusively of an advanced manufacturing facility located on a site zoned exclusively for industrial uses. This bill would additionally exempt projects consisting exclusively of a family day care home, as defined. The bill would, for the exemption for the day care center and family day care home, instead require the projects for those facilities not be located in an area zoned for industrial use or within 3,200 feet of a facility that actively extracts or refines oil or natural gas in order for the exemption to apply. The bill would revise the exemption for advanced manufacturing facility projects to require those projects to be used exclusively for final tier manufacturing, as defined. The bill would require an applicant of an advanced manufacturing project that is exempted from CEQA under the bill's requirement to enter into a bona fide community benefits agreement, as provided, and to comply with certain labor requirements, as provided. The bill would require the lead agency, before determining that an advanced manufacturing project is exempt from CEQA, to hold at least one public hearing on the project and to ensure that the applicant complies with the requirement to enter into a bona fide community benefits agreement and the labor requirements. CEQA exempts from its requirements a rezoning that implements the schedule of actions contained in an approved housing element. CEQA specifies that this exemption does not apply to a rezoning that would allow for the construction of certain facilities, including oil and gas infrastructure. CEQA also specifies that this exemption does not apply rezoning that would allow for construction to occur within the boundaries of any natural and protected lands, except as provided. This bill would repeal the exception from the CEQA exemption for rezoning that would allow for oil and gas infrastructure. The bill would specify that the definition of "natural and protected land" does not include habitats for protected species that would be added to that definition by this bill for purposes the exception for rezoning that would allow for construction to occur within the boundaries of any natural and protected lands to the CEQA exemption. CEQA specifies, for a proposed housing development project that would otherwise be exempt from its requirements but for a single condition required for the exemption to apply, that the application of CEQA is limited to the effects upon the environment that are caused by that single condition. CEQA provides that this limited application of CEQA does not apply if the proposed housing project is located on natural and protected land, but does not include "natural and protected land" that is a site within a very high fire hazard severity zone or within the state responsibility area, except as provided. This bill would additionally specify that "natural and protected land" does not include habitats for protected species that would be added to that definition by this bill. Because the bill would imposes additional duties on a lead agency, 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.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is in part governed by, and funded pursuant to, federal Medicaid program provisions. Under existing law, certain vision care benefits are covered under the Medi-Cal program, relating to, among other things, optometric and optician services and eyeglasses, as specified. This bill would require the department, by no later than January 1, 2028, to establish a list of performance measures to ensure that the vision services under the Medi-Cal program meet quality and access criteria. The bill would require that the performance measures be designed to evaluate utilization, access, and availability of Medi-Cal vision services. The bill would require certain information within the performance measures, relating to providers and examinations, among other factors. The bill would require the department, when evaluating performance measures, to consider certain criteria, including trended data and other state performance and quality measures. The bill would require the department to report on each performance measure only to the extent that the department has existing data sources from which to calculate the applicable measure, as specified. The bill would specify a timeline for the posting of performance measures and data on the department's internet website. The bill would also require the department to establish benchmarks for each performance measure and to annually prepare a summary report on complaints and grievances, as specified.
Existing law establishes the California Housing Finance Agency for the primary purpose of meeting the housing needs of persons and families of low or moderate income, and sets forth various programs administered by the agency to fulfill that purpose. This bill would require the agency to conduct a comprehensive assessment of potential credit enhancement mechanisms designed to reduce borrowing costs for housing projects receiving state financial assistance that includes specified evaluations. The bill would require the agency to submit an interim report by January 1, 2028, and a final report by July 1, 2028, as specified.
Existing federal law, known as Title IX, prohibits a person, on the basis of sex, from being excluded from participation in, being denied the benefits of, or being subject to discrimination, which includes sexual harassment, under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Existing law requires, no later than January 1, 2022, except as specified, the governing board or body of a postsecondary educational institution that receives state financial assistance to provide students with procedural protections relating to complaints of sexual harassment, including the requirement to adopt and publish on its internet website grievance procedures providing for the prompt and equitable resolution of sexual harassment complaints filed by a student against an employee or another student. Existing law requires that the grievance procedures afford both student parties the opportunity to each have a support person or adviser accompany the student party during any stage of the process. This bill would instead require that the grievance procedures afford each student party the opportunity to have a support person and an advisor of their choice accompany the student party during any stage of the process, as specified. The bill would also require the governing board or body of a postsecondary educational institution that receives state financial assistance and state student financial aid to allow each complainant or respondent of a sexual harassment complaint to have a support person, in addition to an advisor, accompany the parties of a sexual harassment complaint during the grievance procedures that provide for the prompt and equitable resolution of sexual harassment complaints pursuant to the above-described procedural protections for students or Title IX, as specified. By imposing new duties on community college districts, 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.
Existing law establishes within the office of the Governor, the office of the Governor's Tribal Advisor, which is headed by the Governor's Tribal Advisor who is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Governor. This bill would, instead, establish within the Office of the Governor, the Office of Tribal Affairs (office) , which is headed by the Secretary of Tribal Affairs who is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Governor, as specified. The bill would require each state agency that engages, or has programs, services, or responsibilities affecting tribal governments to, among other things, designate a tribal liaison, as described. The bill would require the office to be advised by a Tribal Advisory Committee, as described, and would require the committee to, among other things, provide recommendations and tribal perspectives to assist the office in strengthening government-to-government engagement and improving the design, access, and implementation of state programs and services affecting tribal governments. The bill would require the office to, among other things, support the implementation of consultation policies, facilitate direct engagement between state agencies and tribal governments, and provide training, guidance, and technical assistance to tribal liaisons and state agency personnel, as specified.
For purposes of state apportionments based on average daily attendance, as provided, if the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of a specified emergency, including, among others, the imminence of a major safety hazard as determined by a local law enforcement agency, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the average daily attendance in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school approximately the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to the school district, county office of education, or charter school had the emergency not occurred. This bill, for the above-described purposes, would additionally allow a local fire agency to make a determination of the imminence of a major safety hazard. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law prohibits the disconnection, modification, or alteration of required motor vehicle pollution control devices. Existing law exempts from the prohibition an alteration, modification, or modifying device, apparatus, or mechanism that is covered by a resolution of the State Air Resources Board that makes specified findings. Under existing regulations, the executive officer of the state board is authorized to exempt add-on and modified parts for on-road vehicles or engines from the above prohibition based on an evaluation conducted in accordance with certain procedures. Existing law requires the state board to undertake a public process to review the existing procedures for exempting parts for on-highway vehicles under those resolutions with the goal of streamlining the process for issuing executive orders. Existing law authorizes the state board to adopt a schedule of fees to cover all or a portion of the state board's reasonable costs for the certification, audit, and compliance of aftermarket parts sold in the state, as specified. This bill would authorize a manufacturer of an add-on or modified part for on-road vehicles or engines to request the state board issue a conditional approval to sell an add-on or modified part before issuance of an executive order while the applicant is awaiting final determination for the add-on or modified part, as specified. The bill would require the state board to make a determination on whether the application is complete and satisfies other specified requirements and, if it determines those requirements are met, to grant a conditional approval. If the state board does not make a determination within 30 days of receipt of a request, the bill would deem the request conditionally approved, except as specified. The bill would authorize, upon the effective date of a conditional approval, the add-on or modified part specified in the application to be sold, offered for sale, advertised, or installed in the state. The bill would require a conditional approval to expire 2 years from the effective date of the conditional approval, unless extended by the executive officer, or upon issuance of an executive order, whichever occurs sooner.
Existing law authorizes the finder of fact in a criminal prosecution to find the defendant guilty of an offense that is necessarily included in the charged offense. Case law requires the trial court to instruct the jury that it must find the defendant guilty of a necessarily included offense if there is substantial evidence that the defendant is guilty of the necessarily included offense. This bill would require the court, if requested by a defendant, to instruct the jury on a lesser offense, which is closely related to the offense charged, if the court finds that the defendant has relied on a theory of defense consistent with a conviction for the lesser offense, the evidence of the lesser offense is relevant to and admitted for the purpose of establishing guilt of the charged offense, and a basis exists on which the jury could find the offense to be less than charged. The bill would also authorize the judge to find the defendant guilty of the lesser offense if there is no jury. The bill would require the defendant to provide notice to the prosecution of the intent to seek the above-described jury instruction, as specified.