Sen. Dean Florez

Existing law generally prohibits a manufacturer of alcoholic beverages and a winegrower from paying, crediting, or compensating a retailer for advertising or paying or giving anything of value for the privilege of placing a sign or advertisement with a retail licensee. It authorizes, as an exception, the holder of a winegrower's license, a beer manufacturer, a distilled spirits manufacturer, or a distilled spirits manufacturer's agent, to purchase advertising space and time from, or on behalf of, an on–sale retail licensee, under certain conditions, if the on–sale retail licensee is the owner, manager, agent of the owner, assignee of the owner's advertising rights, or major tenant of specified facilities, including specified facilities located in the County of Los Angeles. This bill would instead limit this exception to specified facilities located in the City of Los Angeles. This bill would make findings regarding the need for special legislation.

Existing law, the Telemedicine Development Act of 1996, regulates the practice of telemedicine, defined as the practice of health care delivery, diagnosis, consultation, treatment, transfer of medical data, and education using interactive audio, video, or data communications, by a health care practitioner, as defined. Existing law establishes that it is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation operate in the most cost-effective and efficient manner possible when purchasing health care services for inmates. This bill would declare the Legislature's findings on the use of telemedicine in the state's prisons. The bill would require the department to establish guidelines for the use of telemedicine consultations, use telemedicine for all appropriate consultations, make use of existing external telemedicine resources, maintain current prison telemedicine programs, as specified, and establish annual performance targets regarding the use of telemedicine in prisons.

Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the California State University to offer undergraduate and graduate instruction through the master's degree in the liberal arts and sciences and professional education, including teacher education. This bill would authorize the California State University to award the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The bill would distinguish the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the doctor of philosophy degree offered at the University of California. The bill would require the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program to be designed to enable professionals to earn the degree while working full time, train nurses for advanced practice, and prepare clinical faculty to teach in postsecondary nursing programs. The bill would require initial funding to come from existing budgets, without diminishing the quality of undergraduate programs or reducing enrollment therein. The bill would require the California State University to annually report on the status of the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program, as specified.

The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit in an amount equal to 50% of specified adoption costs, not to exceed $2,500 per minor child who is a citizen or legal resident of the United States and who is in the custody of a public agency in this state. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2010, and before January 1, 2015, increase the credit limitation to a maximum of $5,000 with respect to the adoption of a minor child, as described, who is over 12 years of age or who was living in a group home or residential treatment facility, as defined, for a period of at least 6 months within 18 months prior to the time the adoption is completed. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law imposes specified duties on state agencies and provides for public access to government records. This bill would require each state department and agency to develop and operate a searchable Internet Web site accessible by the public that includes specified information relating to expenditures of state funds, defined to include, among other things, contracts, grants, purchase orders, subcontracts, and tax refunds, rebates, and credits.

Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health is charged with various duties with respect to protection of the public health, including the prevention and control of communicable disease. This bill would require every primary care clinic and general acute care hospital to enroll and participate in the California Health Alert Network administered by the Emergency Preparedness Office in the State Department of Public Health. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, that generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment. Existing law provides certain methods for determining workers' compensation benefits payable to a worker or his or her dependents for purposes of temporary disability, permanent total disability, permanent partial disability, and in case of death. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would adjust the amount of permanent partial disability benefits paid to workers in order to ensure that the benefits are fair, adequate, and more favorably aligned when compared with permanent partial disability benefits paid to workers in other states. This bill would provide for increased permanent partial disability benefits for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2010. Existing law requires the payment of workers' compensation benefits for injuries causing permanent disability to be computed in accordance with a prescribed formula. This bill would revise the formula for computing permanent disability payments for injuries causing permanent disability, that occur on or after January 1, 2010, as specified.

The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. The act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the act applicable. Existing law requires that a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is a person without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit relating to obtaining lawful immigration status, is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University. Existing law also requires the waiver of student fees charged by community college districts for students who demonstrate financial need or are otherwise eligible for the waiver. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to allocate, to community college districts for determining financial need and delivering student financial aid services, an amount based on the amount of fees waived. This bill would amend the Donahoe Higher Education Act to require the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and to request the Regents of the University of California, to establish procedures and forms that enable persons who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under that provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, to be eligible to receive institutional financial aid awards. The bill would define institutional financial aid as financial assistance offered by a campus of the California Community Colleges, California State University, or University of California, including grant, scholarship, workstudy, and loan programs. The bill would specify that institutional financial aid does not include a specified board of governors fee waiver. The bill would declare that it is a state law within the meaning of a federal statute that permits a state to provide an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States with eligibility for a state or local public benefit only through the enactment of a state law affirmatively providing for that eligibility. The bill would apply to the University of California only if the regents, by appropriate resolution, act to make it applicable.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, on a cyclical basis, to coordinate the development of model curriculum standards for the prescribed course of study and of a career technical education course of study necessary to assist school districts with complying with their obligation to offer qualified pupils a course of study that provides an opportunity for pupils to attain entry-level employment skills in business or industry upon graduation from high school. Existing law requires the Superintendent, upon the adoption of these model curriculum standards, to develop a curriculum framework consistent with specified criteria that offers a blueprint for implementation of career and technical education. This bill would require the Superintendent, in coordinating the development of the next revision of this curriculum framework that is submitted to the State Board of Education for approval, to include guidance for adapting work-based learning for individuals with exceptional needs.