Existing law imposes requirements on the Department of Water Resources in connection with the preparation of a Bay Delta Conservation Plan. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation establishing judicial review procedures for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing state board regulations require specified entities to comply with a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, and require additional specified entities to comply with that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015. This bill instead would exempt categories of persons or entities that did not have a compliance obligation, as defined, under a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, from being subject to that market-based compliance mechanism through December 31, 2020. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the state to have the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas, as defined. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to collect a fire prevention fee not to exceed $150 to be charged on each structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law specifies that the fire prevention fee determined to be due by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is due and payable at the time it becomes final, and imposes a specified civil penalty for each 30-day period during which the fee remains unpaid. This bill would eliminate the specified civil penalty imposed for unpaid fire prevention fees.
Existing law creates the Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2012, 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. Existing law provides for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to reduce the $11,140,000,000 bond.
The Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Act of 2003 provides for the acquisition, operation, and funding of state off-highway vehicular recreation areas and trails, and makes various legislative findings and declarations regarding the benefits of off-highway motor vehicle recreation, and the need to effectively protect and efficiently manage off-highway motor vehicle recreation areas. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes in those legislative findings and declarations.
The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practices Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, as defined, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The act authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from some or all of those provisions of the act a person engaging in specified forest management activities including the cutting or removal of trees in compliance with existing law relating to defensible space that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuel break for a distance of no more than 150 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted structure, as provided. This bill would, until no later than January 1, 2019, also authorize the board to exempt from some or all of those provisions of the act a person engaged in forest management whose activities are limited to the cutting or removal of trees on the person's property in compliance with existing law relating to defensible space that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuel break for a distance of no more than 300 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted habitable structure, as provided. The bill would require the board to adopt regulations to implement the above provisions no later than January 1, 2016. The bill would require the department to evaluate the effects of these provisions and to report its recommendations, no later than January 1, 2019, to the Legislature based on that evaluation.
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation is in full possession and control of the state highway system. Existing law provides for placement of signs on state highways, as specified. This bill would require the department to erect, at appropriate locations on highways in the state highway system, generic directional signs to each Veterans' Home of California, upon receiving funds from nonstate sources sufficient to cover the cost.
(1) Under existing law, the segments of the public postsecondary education system in the state include the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which are administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law exempts a student of the California Community Colleges or the California State University who was a member of the Armed Forces of the United States stationed in this state on active duty for more than one year immediately prior to being discharged from paying nonresident tuition for the length of time he or she lives in the state after being discharged up to the minimum time necessary to become a resident. Existing law also exempts one of those students if he or she is enrolled, or intending to enroll, at a campus of the California Community Colleges or as an undergraduate at a campus of the California State University from paying nonresident tuition for up to one year if he or she files an affidavit with the institution stating that he or she intends to establish residency in California as soon as possible. Existing law requires a student to use this exemption within 2 years of being discharged. Existing law prohibits a former member of the Armed Forces who received a dishonorable or bad conduct discharge from receiving an exemption from paying nonresident tuition under either of the provisions described above. Existing law provides that the statutory provisions relating to student residency requirements for public postsecondary education apply to the University of California only to the extent that the regents act, by resolution, to make these provisions applicable. The bill, notwithstanding the requirements of existing law as referenced above, would require the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and request the University of California, to update and adopt policies no later than July 1, 2015, regarding tuition rates for eligible veterans and their eligible dependents to ensure conformity to, and compliance with, a specified federal statute and the requirements of existing law as described above. To the extent that this provision would impose new duties on community college districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. (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, 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 these statutory provisions. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law provides for the issuance of reciprocal licenses in certain fields where the applicant, among other requirements, has a license to practice within that field in another jurisdiction, as specified. Existing law requires that the licensing fees imposed by certain boards within the department be deposited in funds that are continuously appropriated. Existing law requires a board within the department to expedite the licensure process for an applicant who holds a current license in another jurisdiction in the same profession or vocation and who supplies satisfactory evidence of being married to, or in a domestic partnership or other legal union with, an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the United States who is assigned to a duty station in California under official active duty military orders. This bill would, in addition to the expedited licensure provisions described above, establish a temporary licensure process for specified licensed professions for an applicant who holds a current, active, and unrestricted license in another jurisdiction, as specified, and who supplies satisfactory evidence of being married to, or in a domestic partnership or other legal union with, an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the United States who is assigned to a duty station in California under official active duty military orders. The bill would require a temporary license issued pursuant to these provisions to expire 12 months after issuance, upon issuance of an expedited license, or upon denial of the application for expedited licensure by the board, whichever occurs first. This bill would also require an applicant seeking a temporary license as a civil engineer, geotechnical engineer, structural engineer, land surveyor, professional geologist, professional geophysicist, certified engineering geologist, or certified hydrogeologist to successfully pass the appropriate California-specific examination or examinations required for licensure in those respective professions by the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. Because the bill would authorize the expenditure of continuously appropriated funds for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. Existing law permits the commission to authorize an electrical corporation to offer residential customers the option of receiving service pursuant to time-variant pricing, as defined, and to participate in other demand reduction response programs, but prohibits the commission from authorizing an electrical corporation to employ mandatory or default time-variant pricing for any residential customer, except that beginning January 1, 2018, the commission may require or authorize an electrical corporation to employ default time-of-use pricing for residential customers, subject to specified limitations and conditions. This bill would require the commission to first explicitly consider evidence addressing the extent to which hardship will be caused to customers living in hot, inland areas, and residential customers living in areas with hot summer weather before it could require or authorize an electrical corporation to employ default time-of-use rates for residential customers.
