Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

Existing law establishes within state government the Office of Planning and Research as the comprehensive state planning agency for long-range planning and research. Existing law, until January 1, 2026, establishes within state government a Governor's Military Council that serves under the direction of the Military Department to advise the Governor on efforts to retain military installations and operations within this state that are necessary for the defense of the nation, and to coordinate and focus those efforts. This bill would establish the California Defense Community Infrastructure Program, which would require the Office of Planning and Research, with input and assistance from the Governor's Military Council, to grant funds to local agencies to assist with matching fund requirements in applications for funds from the federal Defense Community Infrastructure Program. This bill would require the office to use specified project criteria, define an eligible project, and require the Military Council to rank the projects, as specified, and forward their recommendations to the office to award the grants, or, if the Military Council is abolished, would require the office to rank the projects based on the available criteria and funds. This bill would appropriate $50,000,000 for the purposes of the program. The bill would authorize the office to award these grants without regard to fiscal year and would require funds unencumbered after 3 years to revert to the General Fund.

Existing law authorizes the State Department of Health Care Services to, subject to an appropriation, establish a Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program. Existing law authorizes the department, pursuant to this program, to award competitive grants to qualified entities to construct, acquire, and rehabilitate real estate assets or to invest in needed mobile crisis infrastructure to expand the community continuum of behavioral health treatment resources to build or expand the capacity of various treatment and rehabilitation options for persons with behavioral health disorders, as specified. This bill would authorize the department, in awarding the above-described grants, to give preference to qualified entities that are intending to place their projects in specified facilities or properties. The bill would continuously appropriate, without regard to fiscal year, $1,000,000,000 to the department for purposes of implementing the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program.

The Personal Income Tax Law excludes from the gross income of an employee amounts paid or incurred by an employer for educational assistance to the employee, as specified, up to $5,250 during a calendar year. This bill would include in the definition of "educational assistance" a payment made by an employer on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2026, paid or incurred by the employer, whether paid to the employee or to a lender, of principal or interest on a qualified education loan, as defined, relating to interest on education loans, incurred by the employee for education of the employee. The bill would also make various technical changes to these provisions and delete obsolete language relating to graduate level educational assistance. Existing law requires that any bill introduced on or after January 1, 2020, that would authorize certain tax expenditures, as defined, or tax exemptions contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure or exemption will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to apply these requirements to its provisions and make findings regarding the purpose of the exclusion from gross income allowed by the bill, as described above. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

The Williamson Act, also known as the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, authorizes a city or county to enter into contracts with owners of land devoted to agricultural use, whereby the owners agree to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation. Existing law sets forth procedures for reimbursing cities and counties for property tax revenues not received as a result of these contracts and continuously appropriates General Fund moneys for that purpose. This bill, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, would appropriate an additional $40,000,000 from the General Fund to the Controller to make subvention payments to counties, as provided, in proportion to the losses incurred by those counties by reason of the reduction of assessed property taxes. The bill would make various findings in this regard.

Existing law, the California Uniform Controlled Substances Act, classifies controlled substances into 5 schedules and places the greatest restrictions and penalties on the use of those substances placed in Schedule I. The act classifies the drug fentanyl in Schedule II. Existing law prohibits a person from possessing for sale or purchasing for purposes of sale, specified controlled substances, including fentanyl, and provides for imprisonment in a county jail for 2, 3, or 4 years for a violation of this provision. Existing law also requires a local health officer to assume that the fentanyl manufacturing process has led to some degree of chemical contamination and take action, as prescribed, if a fentanyl laboratory activity has taken place at a property. This bill would establish the California Fentanyl Abuse Task Force to undertake various duties relating to fentanyl abuse including, among others, collecting and organizing data on the nature and extent of fentanyl abuse in California and evaluating approaches to increase public awareness of fentanyl abuse. The bill would require the task force to be chaired by the Attorney General, or their designee, and would specify the membership of the task force. The bill would require the first meeting of the task force to take place no later than March 1, 2023, and would require the task force to meet at least once every 2 months. The bill would require the task force to report its findings and recommendations to the Attorney General, the Governor, and the Legislature by July 1, 2024. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025.

Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department and vests the department with various duties. Existing law establishes the Director of Employment Development as the executive officer of the department. Existing law provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible persons who are unemployed through no fault of their own through a federal-state unemployment insurance program administered by the department. Existing law requires the department to make various types of information available on its internet website, including information about overpayments and information for victims of identity theft who receive incorrect tax forms. This bill would require the director, beginning on July 1, 2023, to make certain information about timeframes for processing unemployment compensation benefit applications available on the department's internet website, including the current average timeframe for issuing a first payment when the department does not request additional or clarifying information, and for making a final determination of eligibility for benefits, as specified. The bill would also require the director to update the required information every 2 weeks and to display on the department's internet website graphical representations of certain data. The bill would further require the director to provide the web address where this information may be found to claimants, as specified.

This measure would recognize the value of all women's contributions to agriculture and resolve to help realize their success as leaders on the land.

Existing law defines the terms "serious felony" and "violent felony" for various purposes, including, among others, enhancing the punishment for felonies pursuant to existing sentencing provisions commonly known as the Three Strikes Law. This bill would include human trafficking within the definition of a violent felony and the definition of a serious felony for all purposes, including for purposes of the Three Strikes Law. By expanding the scope of an enhancement, this bill would impose 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.