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 approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. This bill, the California Climate Crisis Act, would declare the policy of the state both to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 90% below the 1990 levels. The bill would require the state board to work with relevant state agencies to ensure that updates to the scoping plan identify and recommend measures to achieve these policy goals and to identify a variety of policies and strategies that support carbon dioxide removal solutions, carbon capture and storage technologies, and nature-based climate solutions in California, as specified. The bill would require the state board to work with relevant agencies to establish criteria for the use of carbon dioxide removal technologies and carbon capture and storage technologies for purposes of achieving these policy goals. The bill would require the state board to identify interim 5-year greenhouse gas emission reduction goals that begin on January 1, 2025, and submit an annual report, as specified. The bill would impose other requirements on state agencies, as specified.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the California Values Act, prohibits a California law enforcement agency from providing a person's release date, or responding to a request for notification of a release date, unless that information is available to the public, and prohibits the transfer of an individual to immigration authorities, as specified, unless the person has been convicted of specified crimes or arrested for a serious or violent felony. This bill would prohibit any state or local agency from arresting or assisting with the arrest, confinement, detention, transfer, interrogation, or deportation of an individual for an immigration enforcement purpose, except as specified. The bill would additionally prohibit state or local agencies or courts from using immigration status as a factor to deny or to recommend denial of probation or participation in any diversion, rehabilitation, mental health program, or placement in a credit-earning program or class, or to determine custodial classification level, to deny mandatory supervision, or to lengthen the portion of supervision served in custody. The bill would authorize a person to bring an action for equitable or declaratory relief in a court of competent jurisdiction against a state or local agency or state or local official that violates these provisions, and would make those agencies or officials liable for actual and general damages and reasonable attorney's fees. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement and maintain procedures to identify inmates serving terms in state prison who are undocumented felons subject to deportation. Existing law requires the department to annually report to the Legislature the number of persons identified as undocumented aliens, as specified. This bill would repeal those provisions. Existing law requires all basic information stored in state or local criminal offender record information systems to be recorded in the form of specified standard data elements, including, among other things, place of birth. This bill would no longer require that information to include place of birth.
Existing law, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. The bill would prohibit the Public Employment Relations Board from including employees of the Legislature in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the Legislature. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act are severable. The bill would become operative on July 1, 2024. 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.
This measure would designate the Buena Vista Avenue overpass at postmile marker 29.985 on State Route 101 in the County of San Luis Obispo as the Detective Luca Benedetti Memorial Overpass. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit for qualified renters in the amount of $120 for spouses filing joint returns, heads of household, and surviving spouses if adjusted gross income is $50,000, as adjusted, or less, and in the amount of $60 for other individuals if adjusted gross income is $25,000, as adjusted, or less. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to prepare a written report by April 1, 2023, on the number of taxpayers claiming the credit, and the average credit amount on returns claiming the credit.
This measure would designate the portion of U.S. Route 101 in the County of San Luis Obispo, from postmile 19.812 to postmile 15.579, as the Katcho Achadjian Memorial Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
Existing law provides that there is in state government the California Apple Commission. Existing law vests the commission with certain powers and duties, including to recommend to the Secretary of Food and Agriculture the adoption of maturity standards authorized pursuant to specified state marketing laws. Existing law provides that, unless a different penalty is expressly provided, a violation of any provision of the Food and Agricultural Code is a misdemeanor. This bill would authorize the commission to establish an organic apple certification program applicable to persons engaged in domestic organic production or processing of apples and to persons engaged in importing apples to determine whether they are in compliance with state and federal laws. The bill would require the program's operating procedures to be approved by the secretary. The bill would require the identity of any person determined to be in violation of the program to be provided to the public, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and any other state and federal agency responsible for the administration of laws related to organic products. The bill would require the commission to reimburse the secretary for all expenditures incurred by the secretary in carrying out its duties and responsibilities pursuant to these provisions. Because the provisions of the bill would be in the Food and Agricultural Code, and they do not expressly provide a penalty for violation, the bill would expand the scope of a crime and thereby create a state-mandated local program. 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.
Existing law requires a person who diverts 10 acre-feet of water or more per year under a permit or license to install and maintain a device or employ a method capable of measuring the rate of direct diversion, rate of collection to storage, and rate of withdrawal or release from storage, as specified and with certain exceptions. Existing law requires the measurements to be made using the best available technologies and best professional practices using a device or methods satisfactory to the State Water Resources Control Board. Existing law authorizes the board to adopt regulations requiring measurement and reporting of water diversion and use by persons including, but not limited to, those authorized to appropriate water under a permit, license, or registration for small irrigation use or livestock stockpond use, or a certification for livestock stockpond use. Existing law, until January 1, 2023, requires any diverter, who has completed an instructional course regarding the devices or measurement method administered by the University of California Cooperative Extension, including passage of a proficiency test before the completion of the course, to be considered a qualified individual when installing and maintaining devices or implementing methods of measurement that were taught in the course for the diverter's diversion. Existing law also requires the University of California Cooperative Extension and the board to develop the curriculum of the course and the proficiency test. This bill would indefinitely extend the above-described provisions.
Existing law, the Public Employees' Retirement Law, requires the payment of death benefits to beneficiaries of members and, under certain conditions, the payment of special death benefits. These special death benefits are payable to the surviving spouse and children of certain member categories, among them peace officer and safety member categories, whose deaths are determined to be industrial. Existing law requires an additional percentage of the special death benefit to be paid to the spouses of members who are killed in the performance of their duties, or who die as a result of an accident or an injury caused by external violence or physical force during the performance of their duties, for each of the members' children, as specified, for the lifetime of the surviving spouse. This bill, for the purpose of the additional percentage of the special death benefit described above, would require that payment be made to the person having custody of the member's child or children, if the member does not have a surviving spouse but otherwise meets the specified requirements, or if the surviving spouse dies before each child of the member has died, married, or reached 22 years of age. The bill would eliminate the use of the lifetime of the surviving spouse for purposes of determining the term during which this benefit is paid. The bill would make these provisions operative retroactively to on or after January 1, 2013, and would make various nonsubstantive style changes.
Existing law, the California Ocean Resources Stewardship Act of 2000, authorizes the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to enter into an agreement with an existing nonprofit corporation to establish a trust to be known as the California Ocean Trust to seek and provide funding for ocean resource science projects and to encourage coordinated, multiagency, multiinstitution approaches to ocean resource science. Existing law requires the secretary to report to the Legislature on or before September 1, 2002, on the steps taken to ensure adequate coordination of ocean resource management science. This bill would rename the trust to the California Ocean Science Trust and make conforming changes. The bill would authorize the trust to administer grants and expenditures of the trust for specified purposes from private and public fund sources, including, but not limited to, direct appropriations from the annual Budget Act and block grants from other state agencies with relevant need for coordination and engagement with the trust. The bill would authorize the trust to engage with scientific experts for the purpose of gaining knowledge, solutions, and recommendations for specified topics that are relevant to state agencies and departments, as provided. The bill would repeal the provision requiring the secretary to report on the steps taken to ensure adequate coordination of ocean resource management science.