This measure would declare May 19, 2011, to be Viral Hepatitis Awareness Day in California.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits a lobbyist or lobbying firm from making gifts to one person aggregating more than $10 in a calendar month. This bill would prohibit a lobbyist employer from making gifts to a Member of the Legislature aggregating more than $10 in a calendar month. Existing law makes a 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.
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 (EIR) 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. Except as provided, CEQA requires the lead agency to mitigate or avoid the significant effects on the environment of a project it carries out or approves whenever feasible to do so. 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. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires a retail seller of electricity, including electrical corporations, community choice aggregators, and electric service providers, to purchase a specified minimum percentage of electricity generated by eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, in any given year as a specified percentage of total kilowatthours sold to retail end-use customers each calendar year. This bill would authorize the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to communicate, coordinate, and work with specified entities to consider and implement mitigation requirements on a regional basis for projects proposing to develop eligible renewable energy resources for the purposes of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. The bill would authorize the commission to execute an agreement, memorandum of its understanding, or other similar instrument memorializing it understanding of any communication, coordination, or implementation activities with other state agencies for the purposes of meeting mitigation requirements on a regional basis.
This measure would designate the week of May 2 to May 8, 2010, as Public Service Recognition Week, and encourage all Californians to recognize the crucial role of public employees in this state.
The California Constitution requires the state to apply a minimum amount of funding for each fiscal year for the support of school districts and community college districts. The amount of that minimum funding obligation is required to be determined pursuant to one of three tests, depending on specified factors. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, in calculating each community college district's revenue level for each fiscal year, to subtract, among other things, local property tax revenue specified by law for general operating support, exclusive of bond interest and redemption, from the total revenues owed. This bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to conduct a study, by July 1, 2011, that calculates the amount of General Fund and property tax revenues allocated to California Community Colleges for the 1989–90 to 2009–10 fiscal years, inclusive. The bill would require the study to analyze which form of revenue provides the most stable funding source for California Community Colleges.
Existing law relative to private energy producers requires every electric utility, as defined, to make available to an eligible customer‑generator, as defined, a standard contract or tariff for net energy metering on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity used by eligible customer‑generators exceeds 2.5% of the electric utility's aggregate customer peak demand. This 2.5% limitation is in effect until December 31, 2010, and beginning January 1, 2011, the limitation becomes 5%. Existing law requires the electric utility, upon an affirmative election by the eligible customer-generator to receive service pursuant to this contract or tariff, to either: (1) provide net surplus electricity compensation for any net surplus electricity generated in the 12-month period, or (2) allow the eligible customer-generator to apply the net surplus electricity as a credit for kilowatthours subsequently supplied by the electric utility to the surplus customer-generator. This bill would require, for the purposes of determining whether an agricultural customer-generator using wind or solar electric generation is a net consumer or a net surplus customer-generator during a 12-month period, the electric utility to aggregate the electrical load of the agricultural customer under the same ownership located on property adjacent or contiguous to the generation facility.
Existing law establishes various programs to enhance education technology, including the California Technology Assistance Project, which is composed of regional consortia that work collaboratively with school districts and county offices of education to meet locally defined educational needs that can be effectively addressed with the use of technology, as specified. This bill would authorize the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish a task force for education technology, funded by private donations, for the purpose of making recommendations to increase and enhance the level of technology used to deliver instruction in California public schools. The task force would consist of no more than 15 education technology experts, including, but not necessarily limited to, parents, current credentialed teachers, administrators, school board members, researchers, and industry representatives, as specified. This bill would require the task force to address specified topics to be presented to the state board and the Legislature on or before September 1, 2012, and require the state board to adopt a comprehensive statewide plan to increase and enhance the level of technology used to deliver instruction in California public schools technology literacy model content standards, pursuant to the recommendations of the task force, on or before January 1, 2013. The bill would provide that the report to the Legislature be in a specified form. This provision would be inoperative on September 1, 2016.
(1) The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity to specified provisions of the federal Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, allows an exclusion from a taxpayer's income for the discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness, as defined, if that debt is discharged after January 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2009, as provided. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 extended the operation of those federal provisions to debt that is discharged before January 1, 2013. This bill would provide further conformity to those federal acts, including allowance of the exclusion for debt that is discharged before 2013, as provided. (2) This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law permits voters to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution, and to adopt or reject them, through the initiative process. This measure would require an initiative measure that would authorize the issuance of state general obligation bonds in a total amount exceeding $1 billion to either provide additional tax or fee revenues, the elimination of existing programs, or both, as necessary to fully fund the bonds, as determined by the Legislative Analyst, in order to be submitted to the voters or have any effect.
