Existing provisions of the California Constitution require the Governor to submit to the Legislature a budget for the ensuing fiscal year within the first 10 days of each calendar year and prohibit the Legislature from sending to the Governor for consideration a Budget Bill that would appropriate from the General Fund a total amount that exceeds General Fund revenues for that fiscal year estimated as of the date of the Budget Bill's passage. This measure would require the Director of Finance to submit estimates of General Fund revenues and expenditures for the ensuing fiscal year and the 3 fiscal years thereafter within 10 days following the submission of a budget by the Governor, following the submission of proposed adjustments to the Governor's Budget, as required by statute, and following the enactment of the Budget Bill. Existing provisions of the California Constitution require the Legislature to establish a prudent state reserve fund in an amount the Legislature deems reasonable and necessary. Existing provisions of the California Constitution, approved by the electors on March 2, 2004, additionally establish the Budget Stabilization Account in the General Fund and require the Controller, commencing no later than September 30, 2006, and for each fiscal year thereafter, to transfer from the General Fund to the account a specified percentage of estimated General Fund revenues. Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution (Proposition 98) sets forth a formula for computing the minimum amount of General Fund revenues that the state is required to appropriate for the support of school districts, as defined, and community college districts for each fiscal year. This measure would establish a replacement version of the Budget Stabilization Account, and would require the Controller, commencing with the 2015–16 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, to transfer from the General Fund to the account 1.5% of the estimated amount of General Fund revenues for that fiscal year. Commencing with the 2015–16 fiscal year, this measure would also require the Controller to annually transfer from the General Fund to the account amounts determined pursuant to specified formulae, consisting of General Fund proceeds of taxes derived from personal income taxes paid on net capital gains that exceed a designated level, based on estimates provided in the Budget Act. This measure, for the 2015–16 fiscal year through the 2029–30 fiscal year, would require the Legislature to appropriate 50% of these total amounts for one or more designated fiscal obligations of the state, including accrued school funding obligations, repayment of budgetary loans, payment of accrued claims for mandate costs, and payment of unfunded pension liabilities and prefunding of other postemployment benefits. For the 2030–31 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, this measure would instead authorize the Legislature to appropriate up to 50% of these total amounts for one or more of these designated fiscal obligations of the state. This measure would require the Department of Finance, commencing with the 2015–16 fiscal year, to annually report to the Legislature certain fiscal information necessary to calculate the amount of the transfer from the General Fund to the Budget Stabilization Account for that fiscal year, and would require certain of these estimates to be included in the annual Budget Act. Commencing with the 2017–18 fiscal year, the measure would require the department to provide updated estimates for each of the 2 preceding fiscal years, calculated separately, for the purpose of determining the maximum allowable transfer from the General Fund to the Budget Stabilization Account for each of these fiscal years. This measure would prohibit the balance in the Budget Stabilization Account from exceeding 10% of estimated General Fund proceeds of taxes. It also would limit the use of funds, that otherwise would be transferred to the account, to appropriation for the funding of infrastructure, as defined in a specified statute, including deferred maintenance. This measure would establish the Public School System Stabilization Account, to provide a reserve for public school funding. Commencing with the 2015–16 fiscal year and pursuant to specified calculations, the Controller would transfer certain moneys from the General Fund into the Public School System Stabilization Account, for subsequent allocation to school districts and community college districts in fiscal years for which the minimum state funding obligation under Proposition 98 falls below specified levels. The measure would prohibit the transfer of moneys into the Public School System Stabilization Account for a fiscal year for which a maintenance factor is created under Proposition 98 or before a previously determined maintenance factor has been fully reimbursed. The measure would also prohibit the transfer of funds into the account in a fiscal year in which provisions of Proposition 98 have been suspended. The funds transferred into the Public School System Stabilization Account under the measure in a fiscal year would be counted toward the state's annual funding obligation for that fiscal year under Proposition 98, rather than in a fiscal year in which those funds are allocated. The measure would authorize the Controller to utilize funds in the account, that he or she determines to be unnecessary to meet foreseeable obligations, to help manage General Fund daily cash flow needs if that use does not interfere with the purpose of the account. Existing provisions of the California Constitution authorize the Governor to issue a proclamation declaring an emergency in specified circumstances. This measure would authorize the Legislature, upon the Governor's proclamation declaring a budget emergency, as described, to enact a statute that returns funds from the Budget Stabilization Account to the General Fund for appropriation to address the budget emergency, appropriates funds in the Public School System Stabilization Account for the support of school districts and community college districts, or suspends or reduces the transfer of funds from the General Fund to the Budget Stabilization Account or the Public School System Stabilization Account. Existing law requires the Secretary of State to submit ACA 4 of the 2009–10 Regular Session, a proposed legislative constitutional amendment relating to state finance, to the voters at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election. This bill would direct the Secretary of State to withdraw ACA 4 from the ballot.
Sponsored bills
Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority with specified powers and duties relating to the development and implementation of an intercity high-speed rail system. Existing law, pursuant to the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, authorizes $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail development and other related purposes. The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and other federal acts provide funding for allocation nationally to high-speed rail projects. The Budget Act of 2012 appropriates federal funds, and state funds in the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund, to the authority for various purposes related to the high-speed rail project, including right-of-way acquisition and construction. This bill would prohibit the authority from expending the federal funds appropriated to the authority pursuant to the Budget Act of 2012 unless state funds appropriated from the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Fund or from another state funding source are immediately available to the authority for the purpose of providing matching state funds for the federal funds. This requirement would apply regardless of whether the federal government has authorized the expenditure of the federal funds without the immediate availability of the nonfederal match that is a condition for the award of the federal funds. The bill would also make legislative findings and declarations.
This measure would designate April 2014 as Autism Awareness Month and would encourage residents to show support for autism awareness by lighting their homes, businesses, schools, and places of worship with blue light bulbs.
This measure would recognize the week of March 23, 2014, to March 29, 2014, inclusive, as National Agriculture Week, and would designate March 19, 2014, as California Agriculture Day.
Existing law establishes an education funding system under which the Superintendent of Public Instruction apportions to each qualifying school district state aid funds in an amount not to exceed its revenue limit, an amount that is largely based on the school district's average daily attendance, which is computed as specified. Existing law authorizes specified school districts to calculate their revenue limits in a different manner if the school district includes a necessary small high school, which is defined as a high school with an average daily attendance of less than 301 that meets prescribed conditions. Existing law also authorizes a school district that includes a necessary small high school to include average daily attendance in grades 7 and 8 and the instructors of grade 7 and 8 pupils in the calculation of average daily attendance and number of certificated employees employed in the 2011–12 fiscal year if the school district included average daily attendance in grades 7 and 8 and the instructors of grade 7 and 8 pupils in the calculation of average daily attendance and certificated employees employed in the 2010–11 fiscal year. Existing law also authorizes charter schools and school districts to apply for an exemption from required funding deferrals, as specified. This bill would instead authorize a school district that includes a necessary small high school to include average daily attendance in grades 7 and 8 and the instructors of grade 7 and 8 pupils in the calculation of average daily attendance and number of certificated employees employed in the 2012–13 fiscal year if the school district included average daily attendance in grades 7 and 8 and the instructors of grade 7 and 8 pupils in the calculation of average daily attendance and certificated employees employed in the 2011–12 fiscal year. The bill would require a school district that chooses to include the average daily attendance in grades 7 and 8 and the instructors of grade 7 and 8 pupils, as described above, to pursue any funding deferral exemptions for which it may be eligible. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including water corporations and sewer system corporations. Whenever the commission determines that a water corporation or sewer system corporation is unable or unwilling to adequately serve its ratepayers or has actually or effectively been abandoned by its owners or is unresponsive to the rules or orders of the commission, existing law authorizes the commission to petition the superior court for the county within which the corporation has its principal office or place of business for the appointment of a receiver to assume possession of the corporation's property and to operate its system upon such terms and conditions as the court prescribes. This bill would additionally authorize the court appointment of a receiver if the water or sewer system corporation has failed to provide safe and adequate service, as confirmed by the commission, and would, as an alternative to the appointment of a receiver, authorize the commission to appoint another water or sewer system corporation, or other qualified entity, to serve as an interim operator of the water or sewer system. The bill would require the commission to issue decisions and orders that it deems necessary and proper to permit the interim operator to abate any danger to the public health and safety and to provide adequate service to the customers of the water or sewer system corporation. The bill would provide that the interim operator shall have the powers of a receiver and require that the interim owner assist the commission in its search for a responsible owner or operator to purchase the water or sewer system, the sale of which would be subject to the commission's approval.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments to be reduced by 1% or 5%, and provider payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 1%, for dates of service on and after March 1, 2009, and until June 1, 2011. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments and payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 10% for dates of service on and after June 1, 2011. This bill would instead, subject to federal approval, require that this payment reduction not apply to skilled nursing facilities that are a distinct part of a general acute care hospital for dates of service on or after June 1, 2011. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires that a person claiming title in an action for adverse possession show that the land has been occupied and claimed for a period of 5 years continuously and that all state, county, or municipal taxes levied on the land during that period have been timely paid, as provided. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.
Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each habitable structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area, as defined, and requires that the fire prevention fee be adjusted annually using prescribed methods. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to collect the fire prevention fees, as prescribed, commencing with the 2011–12 fiscal year. Existing law establishes the State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund and prohibits the collection of fire prevention fees if, commencing with the 2012–13 fiscal year, there are sufficient amounts of moneys in the fund to finance specified fire prevention activities for a fiscal year. Existing law requires that the fire prevention fees collected, except as provided, be deposited into the fund and be made available to the board and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for certain specified fire prevention activities that benefit the owners of structures in state responsibility areas who are required to pay the fee. Existing law further requires the board, on and after January 1, 2013, to submit an annual written report to the Legislature on specified topics. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to repeal the state responsibility area fire prevention fees imposed by the above provisions.