Existing law, the Marks-Roos Local Bond Pooling Act of 1985, authorizes joint powers authorities, among other powers, to issue bonds and loan the proceeds to local agencies to finance specified types of projects and programs. This bill would enact the Water Bill Savings Act, which would authorize a joint powers authority to provide funding for a customer of a local agency or its publicly owned utility to acquire, install, or repair a water efficiency improvement on the customer's property served by the local agency or its publicly owned utility. The bill would require the customer to repay the authority through an efficiency charge on the customer's water bill to be established and collected by the local agency or its publicly owned utility on behalf of the authority pursuant to a servicing agreement. The bill would authorize the authority to issue bonds to fund the program. The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to provide ongoing oversight of activities undertaken pursuant to these provisions, including, but not limited to, monitoring an authority's administration of an efficiency improvement financing program, as specified. The bill would also make technical changes.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each habitable structure, as defined, on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area, as defined. Existing law requires the state board to adjust the fire prevention fee annually using prescribed methods, and requires the state board, until January 31, 2017, to submit a report to the Legislature every January 31 on the status and uses of the fund, containing specified information and recommendations. This bill would instead require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to submit that report to the Legislature and the board, and would extend to January 31, 2021, the time until which the report is required to be submitted. The bill would additionally require that the report include specified information on each program, subprogram, and element for which the department uses money generated from that fire prevention fee, and other information regarding fund expenditures, as provided.
This measure would recognize 2016 as the 150-year anniversary of public service and protection of state parks by state park rangers and would encourage the Department of Parks and Recreation, the California State Park Rangers Association, and the California State Parks Anniversary Committee to take all appropriate action to celebrate that anniversary.
This measure would proclaim June 2016 as California Grown Flower Month to recognize and honor the men and women of the California grown flower industry for their dedication and productivity.
Existing law generally authorizes the general manager of any park or open-space district, with district board approval, to bind the district, in accordance with board policy, and without advertising, for the payment for supplies, materials, labor, or other valuable consideration for any purpose in amounts not exceeding $25,000. However, existing law grants that authority to the general managers of the East Bay Regional Park District and the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District with respect to the payment of amounts not exceeding $50,000. This bill would also grant that authority with respect to the payment of amounts not exceeding $50,000 to the general manager of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District.
Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to impose taxes within its jurisdiction, as provided, including a transient occupancy tax. This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to elect to allow platforms, as defined, that elect to assume the responsibility of collecting and remitting transient occupancy taxes on behalf of operators, to collect and remit those taxes to that city, county, or city and county, as specified. For cities, counties, and cities and counties that notify the Controller of their election by April 30, 2017, and for platforms that notify the Controller of their election by March 1, 2017, this collection and remittance would begin on July 1, 2017. For platforms and cities, counties, or cities and counties that provide notifications to the Controller after those dates, the collection and remittance would begin at least 6 months after notification, as specified. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to discontinue an election and would make this discontinuance effective at least 6 months after notification to the Controller. The bill would also authorize a platform to discontinue its election, entirely or in part, effective as specified. This bill, by December 31, 2018, and by December 31 of each year thereafter, would require the Controller to review or audit a platform's collection and remittance of tax revenue pursuant to the above-described provisions, would further require the Controller to submit a final report containing specific information to each city, county, or city and county in which the platform collected and remitted taxes, and would authorize the platform or the city, county, or city and county to appeal findings identified in the report, as provided. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing provisions of the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act, establishes the number "911" as the primary emergency telephone number for use in the state and requires the providing of enhanced service capable of selective routing, automatic number identification, or automatic location identification. The act requires a telephone corporation serving rural telephone areas that cannot provide enhanced 911 emergency telephone service capable of selective routing, automatic number identification, or automatic location identification to present to the Office of Emergency Services a comprehensive plan detailing a schedule by which their facilities will be converted to be compatible with the enhanced emergency telephone system. This bill would require a facilities-based provider of telecommunications services that the Federal Communications Commission requires to provide access to 911 service to provide responder outage notification by email to the Office of Emergency Services whenever there is a rural outage, as defined, within 60 minutes of discovering the rural outage. The bill would make the Office of Emergency Services responsible for notifying any applicable county office of emergency services and the sheriff of any county affected by the outage. The bill would require the responder outage notification to the Office of Emergency Services to include the telecommunications provider's contact name and calling number with a description of the estimated area affected by the outage. The bill would require the telecommunications services provider to notify the Office of Emergency Services of the estimated time to repair the outage and when service is restored. The bill would require that the telecommunications service provider ensure that the calling number provided to the Office of Emergency Services with the responder outage notification be staffed by the indicated contact person, or by a person qualified to respond to inquiries about the outage, at all times until the provider notifies the office that service has been restored.
Existing law, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, an initiative measure enacted by the approval of Proposition 215 at the November 5, 1996, statewide general election, exempts from specified criminal penalties the possession or cultivation of medical marijuana by patients and primary caregivers. The Medical Marijuana Program requires the State Department of Public Health to establish and maintain a voluntary program for the issuance of identification cards to qualified patients who satisfy specified requirements with respect to the use of medical marijuana. The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, operative beginning on January 1, 2016, provides for the licensure and regulation of commercial medical marijuana activity, as specified. The Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, provides procedures for the collection of certain fees. This bill would require an identification card issued pursuant to the Medical Marijuana Program to contain an indication that the cardholder has low income if that person's income is less than 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. This bill would enact the Marijuana User Fee Act. The bill, on and after January 1, 2018, unless a specified initiative is passed by the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, would impose a fee on the consumption or other use in this state of medical marijuana purchased from any retailer for the consumption or other use in this state at the rate of 10% of the sales price of the medical marijuana. This bill would provide that a purchaser is liable for that fee unless the purchaser has an identification card indicating that the purchaser has low income, as described above, and would require every retailer engaged in business in this state and making sales of medical marijuana to a purchaser for the consumption or other use in this state to separately state and collect the fee from a purchaser, unless the purchaser presents that identification card, as specified. This bill would also make specific violations of this bill a crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the State Board of Equalization to administer and collect the fee in accordance with the Fee Collection Procedures Law. By expanding the application of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require a retailer to register for a permit with the board, to prepare and file with the board returns, and to remit the fee quarterly. The bill would require that all revenues, less refunds, be remitted to the board and deposited in the Marijuana User Fee Fund, which the bill would establish. This bill would require moneys in the Marijuana User Fee Fund to be allocated by the Controller in specified percentages to the General Fund and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation for the administration of a grant program to distribute grants to local agencies, as defined, that oversee or are affected by the regulation of cultivating, processing, manufacturing, distributing, and selling of medical marijuana, or that undertake enforcement activities pertaining to the cultivation of marijuana; the Department of Parks and Recreation for the stewardship, operation, maintenance, and preservation of state park units; and to counties, as defined, for drug and alcohol treatment programs. The bill, commencing in 2018, and at least every other year thereafter, would require the Legislative Analyst to review and evaluate the fee, and provide a report on the fee to specified committees of the Legislature. The bill would also require funds to be advanced to the Marijuana User Fee Fund as a General Fund or special fund loan, would authorize the Director of Finance to provide an initial operating loan from the General Fund, and would appropriate to the board funds so advanced or loaned to the board for the implementation and administration of the act. 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, the Wildlife Conservation Law of 1947, establishes the Wildlife Conservation Board in the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Under existing law, the board consists of the president of the Fish and Game Commission, the Director of Fish and Wildlife, and the Director of Finance. Existing law prescribes the board's duties with regard to, among other things, real property acquisitions for property used for wildlife preservation and conservation purposes. This bill would establish the Inner Coast Range Program with specified goal areas and authorization related to the Inner Coast Range Region, as defined. This bill would require the board to establish an advisory board for the program consisting of one representative of each of the counties within the region and would authorize the board to invite certain legislators and representatives of state and federal agencies to participate as members on the advisory board. The bill would create the Inner Coast Range Program Fund in the State Treasury and would provide that moneys in the fund would be available, upon appropriation, for the purposes of the program. The bill would require the board to make a biannual report to the Legislature and to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency regarding expenditures, land, management costs, and administrative costs for the purposes of the program. The bill, by January 1, 2027, would require the board, in consultation with the advisory board, to review the program and issue a report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature about the possible creation of a state conservancy for the Inner Coast Range Region.
This measure would acknowledge the month of May 2016 as Foster Care Awareness Month.