Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. Existing law authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. This bill would continuously appropriate $480,000,000 and $20,000,000 to the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention and the California Conservation Corps, respectively, for fire prevention activities, as provided. (2) The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law, until January 1, 2022, authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from the requirements of that act a person engaged in forest management whose activities are limited to the cutting or removal of trees on the person's property 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 fuelbreak for a distance of not more than 300 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted habitable structure, when that cutting or removal is conducted in compliance with certain requirements. This bill would extend the state board's authorization to provide for the above exemption indefinitely. The bill would extend the distance of the fuelbreak to not more than 500 feet. (3) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA projects or activities related to forest health and fuel reduction that involve thinning overgrown brushes or trees 10 inches or less in diameter by mechanical thinning, pile burning, prescribed fire, and grazing. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) 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 establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development for the purpose of advocating for the causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. This bill, the Keep California Working Act, would establish the Keep California Working Grant Program. The act would require the Small Business Advocate to administer the program and award grants, as specified, to small businesses and nonprofit entities that meet specified criteria, including that the entity has experienced economic hardship resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The act would specify that grant money awarded pursuant to the program may be used only for specified purposes, including payroll costs, health care benefits, paid sick, medical, or family leave, and insurance premiums. The act would appropriate $2.6 billion dollars to the Office of Small Business Advocate for those purposes. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally define "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provide various exclusions from gross income. This bill would exclude from gross income, for state income tax purposes, the amount of a grant awarded pursuant to the Keep California Working Grant Program. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill also would include additional information required for a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires real property taxes to be paid in 2 installments and requires the tax collector to collect those taxes. Existing law authorizes the tax collector, with the approval of the county board of supervisors, to accept partial payment of real property taxes from the taxpayer in the case of a deficiency in the payment of those taxes. This bill would authorize a county board of supervisors to adopt a resolution or ordinance to implement a monthly property tax payment program, which would authorize a qualified taxpayer, as defined, to pay, in monthly installments, their real property taxes on their principal residence, as defined. The bill would authorize the ordinance or resolution implementing the program to set forth specific procedures for purposes of determining delinquency and default, as specified. The bill would require revenues received by the county from property tax payments pursuant to the bill's provisions to be distributed in the same manner and time as all other property tax apportionments pursuant to applicable state law and related procedures and agreements established by the county auditor. The bill would exclude from its provisions property for which an escrow account is established, as provided.

Existing law requires, during the next revision of the publication "Health Framework for California Public Schools," the Instructional Quality Commission to consider developing, and recommending for adoption by the State Board of Education, a distinct category on mental health instruction to educate pupils about all aspects of mental health. Existing law requires mental health instruction for these purposes to include, but not be limited to, specified elements, including reasonably designed and age-appropriate instruction on the overarching themes and core principles of mental health. This bill would require each school district, county office of education, state special school, and charter school that offers one or more courses in health education to pupils in middle school or high school to include in those courses instruction in mental health that meets the requirements of the bill, as specified. The bill would require that instruction to include, among other things, reasonably designed instruction on the overarching themes and core principles of mental health. The bill would require that instruction and related materials to, among other things, be appropriate for use with pupils of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds, pupils with disabilities, and English learners. The bill would require the State Department of Education to develop a plan to expand mental health instruction in California public schools on or before January 1, 2024.

Existing law establishes the Comprehensive Statewide Domestic Violence Program in the Office of Emergency Services to, among other things, provide local assistance to existing service providers and to establish a targeted or directed program for the development and establishment of domestic violence services in currently unserved and underserved areas. Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services to provide financial and technical assistance to local domestic violence centers in implementing specified services. This bill would require that the portion of any grant funding awarded pursuant to this provision that is funded by the state be distributed to the recipient in a single disbursement at the beginning of the grant period. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 13823.15 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 689 to be operative only if this bill and AB 689 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils and authorizes the governing board of a school district to employ properly certified persons for this purpose. Existing law requires a school of a school district or county office of education and a charter school to notify pupils and parents or guardians of pupils no less than twice during the school year on how to initiate access to available pupil mental health services on campus or in the community, or both, as provided. This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop model referral protocols, as provided, for addressing pupil mental health concerns. The bill would require the department to consult with various entities in developing the protocols, including current classroom teachers, administrators, pupils, and parents. The bill would require the department to post the model referral protocols on its internet website. The bill would make these provisions contingent upon funds being appropriated for its purpose in the annual Budget Act or other legislation, or state, federal, or private funds being allocated for this purpose.

Existing federal law provides for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law requires the eligibility of households to be determined to the extent permitted by federal law. Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law requires each campus of the California State University and the California Community Colleges, and requests each campus of the University of California, to include on the internet website-based account for an enrolled student notification of, and a link to information on, specified public services and programs, including the CalFresh program. This bill would, as a part of campus orientation, require the Trustees of the California State University and request the Regents of the University of California to provide, for all campuses of their respective segments, and require each campus of the California Community Colleges to provide, educational information about CalFresh and the student eligibility requirements for CalFresh to all incoming students. To the extent that the bill would impose new duties on community college districts, it would constitute 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, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of nursing by the Board of Registered Nursing and requires an applicant for licensure to have completed a nursing program at a school of nursing that is approved by the board. Existing law requires the board to determine by regulation the required subjects of instruction to be completed in an approved school of nursing for licensure as a registered nurse and to include the minimum units of theory and clinical experience necessary to achieve essential clinical competency at the entry level of the registered nurse. Existing law requires that the board's regulations be designed to require all schools to provide clinical instruction in all phases of the educational process, except as specified. Existing law requires the board, among other healing arts boards, to collect workforce data from its licensees for future workforce planning on at least a biennial basis. Existing law requires the board to maintain the confidentiality of the information collected pursuant to these provisions and to only release the information in an aggregate form. Existing law requires the board, or the Department of Consumer Affairs on its behalf, beginning July 1, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, to provide the individual licensee data to the Department of Health Care Access and Information, as specified. This bill would require the board to incorporate regional forecasts into its biennial analyses of the nursing workforce. The bill would require the board to develop a plan to address regional areas of shortage identified by its nursing workforce forecast and identify in the plan additional facilities that could offer clinical placement slots. The bill would require the board to annually collect, analyze, and report information related to the number of clinical placement slots that are available and the location of those clinical placement slots within the state, including, but not limited to, information concerning the total number of placement slots a clinical facility can accommodate and how many slots the programs that use the facility will need. The bill would require the board to place the annual report on its internet website.

Existing law creates, in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Employment Development Department, which is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction with respect to job creation activities. The department is authorized to study and make recommendations as to actions that might tend to do several things, including, but not limited to, promoting the prevention of unemployment and the stabilization of employment, reducing and preventing unemployment, and establishing the most effective methods of providing economic security through all forms of social insurance. This bill would require the department to develop and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, implement a recession plan to prepare for an increase in unemployment insurance compensation benefits claims due to an economic recession. The bill would require the plan to detail how to respond to economic downturns with a predetermined strategy that has considered the full effect on the department's operations, and include, but not be limited to, identifying the lessons learned from previous economic downturns, identifying ways to improve self-serve services to avoid long wait times to speak to staff, and enhancing claims processing tools to ensure that the department's identity verification processes are as robust as possible. The bill would require the department to provide a copy of the recession plan to specified legislative committees and the Department of Finance by March 1, 2022, and to update the recession plan and provide a copy to specified legislative committees and the Department of Finance every 2nd year thereafter.

Existing law, commencing on January 1, 2023, prohibits a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail that contains an individual's social security number unless the number is truncated to its last 4 digits or in specified circumstances, including when federal law requires inclusion of the social security number or when documents are mailed to a current or prospective state employee. This bill would instead require state agencies, as soon as is feasible, but no later than January 1, 2023, to stop sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains the individual's social security number unless the number is truncated to its last four digits, except in specified circumstances. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.