Sen. Sam Blakeslee Ph.D.

The Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act of 2000 authorizes a local agency formation commission to, among other things, initiate proceedings for the consolidation, dissolution, and formation of new districts, as specified. This bill would authorize a commission to order the administration of nonperforming districts. The bill would require the commission to, upon placing a district under temporary administration, prepare a performance study, as specified.

Existing law establishes the California Earthquake Authority, administered under the authority of the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law provides that the authority shall be governed by a 3-member governing board consisting of the Governor, the Treasurer, and the commissioner. The authority is authorized to transact insurance as necessary to sell policies of basic residential earthquake insurance, as specified. This bill would authorize the board to create a program, administered by the authority, to access and dispense federal stimulus dollars for purposes of retrofitting multiunit, soft-story buildings, as specified.

Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency, or a board, department, or office within the agency, to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences, the University of California, the California State University, or any similar scientific institution of higher learning, or any combination of those entities, or with a scientist or group of scientists of comparable stature and qualifications that are recommended by the President of the University of California, to conduct an external scientific peer review of the scientific basis for any rule, as defined to include specified regulations and policies, proposed by any board, department, or office within the agency, and prescribes procedures for conducting that scientific peer review. This bill would, at or before the time a rule proposed for adoption is made available to the public at a public workshop or for purposes of public comment, require the California Environmental Protection Agency, or a board, department, or office within the agency, to complete and place into the rulemaking record an economic analysis, as defined, of the rule. The bill would also require the agency to solicit public comment on the economic analysis in the same manner as on the proposed rule. The bill would allow any interested person, within 15 calendar days of the date of the public workshop or public hearing, to request the agency to submit the economic analysis to external peer review, and would prescribe procedures for conducting the external peer review.

The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, and provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would exempt from a specified portion of those taxes, for calendar years beginning on and after January 1, 2011, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, sustainable development equipment investments of tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person, as specified, and tangible personal property used primarily during the research and development process on qualified research. The bill would also exempt from a specified portion of those taxes, for calendar years beginning on and after January 1, 2013, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, tangible personal property purchased by a qualified person for use primarily in any stage of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of property, as specified, and tangible personal property purchased for use by a contractor purchasing that property for use in the performance of a construction contract for the qualified person who will use the property as an integral part of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling process, or as a storage facility for use in connection with the manufacturing process. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes or transactions and use taxes. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities including electrical corporations, as defined. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to conduct various assessments and forecasts on energy industry supply, production, transportation, delivery and distribution, demand, and prices. This bill would require Pacific Gas and Electric Company, in furtherance of the recommendations made by the Energy Commission, to conduct seismic fault studies or surveys in areas at or near the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in order to maintain reliable operation of the electrical grid and mitigate impacts to customer rates that could result from a seismic event. Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the California Geologic Survey and the Seismic Safety Commission, to conduct or facilitate a peer review of any fault studies or surveys conducted pursuant to that requirement within 120 days of receipt of a final study or survey. The bill would require the Pacific Gas and Electric Company to fund all costs associated with a peer review of any studies or surveys and would require the commission to authorize the utility to fully recover, in its generation procurement rates, all reasonable costs associated with any studies, surveys, or peer review required pursuant to the bill. (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. (3) This bill would state the findings and declarations of the Legislature concerning the need for special legislation.

Existing law authorizes the California Earthquake Authority to hire up to 25 employees and subjects those employees to state civil service provisions, as specified. Existing law also authorizes the authority to contract for the services of a chief executive officer, a chief financial officer, and an operations manager. This bill would remove the 25-person limit on the number of authority employees subject to civil service provisions and would also authorize the authority to contract for the services of a chief mitigation officer. The bill would additionally establish the responsibilities of the chief mitigation officer, as specified.

(1) Existing law allows a state or local public agency to authorize a nonprofit organization to hold title to, and manage an interest in, real property that the state or local public agency requires a property owner to transfer to the agency to mitigate any adverse impact upon natural resources caused by permitting the development of a project or facility, provided the nonprofit organization meets certain requirements. This bill would authorize funds set aside for the long-term management of any lands or easements conveyed to a nonprofit organization pursuant to the above provisions to also be conveyed to the nonprofit organization, on and after July 1, 2010. The bill would also require the nonprofit organization to hold, manage, invest, and disburse the funds in furtherance of managing and stewarding the land or easement for which the funds were set aside. The bill would authorize the state or local agency to impose certain requirements on the nonprofit organization and impose on the state or local agency specified due diligence requirements. (2) Existing law also authorizes a state or local public agency that, in the development of its own project, is required to transfer an interest in real property to mitigate an adverse impact upon natural resources to transfer the interest to a nonprofit organization that meets the specified requirements. This bill would instead authorize a state or local public agency that, in the development of its own project, is required to protect an interest in real property to mitigate an adverse impact upon natural resources to transfer the interest to a nonprofit organization that meets the specified requirements or to provide funds to a nonprofit organization to acquire land or easements that satisfy the agency's mitigation obligations. The bill would prohibit retroactive application of its provisions to endowment funds held by the state in the Pooled Money Investment Account. (3) This bill would provide that these changes to existing law would remain in effect until January 1, 2014, after which the provisions of existing law would become operative.

(1) Under existing law, various measures have been approved by the voters to provide funds for water supply and protection facilities and programs. This bill would enact the Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $11,140,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a safe drinking water and water supply reliability program. The bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 2, 2010, statewide general election. (2) This bill would take effect only if SB 1 of the 2009–10 7th Extraordinary Session is enacted and becomes effective. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would establish the Regional Environmental Mitigation Program and would specify that the purpose of the program is to improve the success, efficiency, and effectiveness of actions implemented to mitigate the natural resource impacts of projects, by establishing the means to implement those actions on a regional basis. The bill would establish the program in the Natural Resources Agency and would require the agency to consider and implement mitigation requirements on a regional basis for projects that require mitigation based on federal, state, or local laws. The bill would require the agency to communicate, coordinate, and work with specified entities. The bill would permit the agency to engage in specified activities in order to implement the program. The bill would specify that a project that requires mitigation under other provisions of law may, but is not required to, participate in the program. The bill would establish the Regional Environmental Mitigation Account in the State Treasury. The bill would require the account to accept fees collected for the mitigation requirements for projects and disburse the funds for projects that fulfill mitigation requirements. The bill would require the agency to establish guidelines for the calculation, acceptance, and use of the fees. The bill would require the money in the account to be continuously appropriated and to be used to administer and implement the program and for any purpose associated with the mitigation of a project, including protection, restoration, enhancement, monitoring, capital improvements, as fencing, long-term management or defense, transaction costs, and administration.

Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency, or a board, department, or office within the agency, to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences, the University of California, the California State University, or any similar scientific institution of higher learning, or any combination of those entities, or with a scientist or group of scientists of comparable stature and qualifications that are recommended by the President of the University of California, to conduct an external scientific peer review of the scientific basis for any rule, as defined to include specified regulations and policies, proposed by any board, department, or office within the agency, and prescribes procedures for conducting that scientific peer review. This bill would, at or before the time a rule proposed for adoption is made available to the public at a public workshop or for purposes of public comment, require the California Environmental Protection Agency, or a board, department, or office within the agency, to complete and place into the rulemaking record an economic analysis, as defined, of the rule. The bill would also require the agency to solicit public comment on the economic analysis in the same manner as on the proposed rule. The bill would allow any interested person, within 15 calendar days of the date of the public workshop or public hearing, to request the agency to submit the economic analysis to external peer review, and would prescribe procedures for conducting the external peer review. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 19, 2009. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2009, pursuant to the California Constitution.