Sen. Monique Limón

Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified, that includes average daily attendance as a component of that calculation for these local educational agencies. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, on or before February 20 of each year, to make a first principal apportionment of funds and, on or before July 2 of each year, to make a 2nd principal apportionment of funds to each local educational agency. This bill would define "average daily membership" as the quotient of the aggregate enrollment days for all pupils in a school district, county office of education, or charter school, from transitional kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, as applicable, divided by the total number of instructional days for the local educational agency in an academic year. The bill would require a local educational agency's average daily membership to be calculated using data from the same fiscal year or years that the local educational agency used to calculate its average daily attendance for purposes of state apportionment, as provided. For any fiscal year before the 2022–23 fiscal year for which average daily membership data is not available, the bill would require the Superintendent to use a local educational agency's census day enrollment count, as provided. The bill, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, would require a local educational agency that submits enrollment data to the Superintendent and demonstrates a maintenance of effort to address chronic absenteeism, as provided, to receive as additional education funding the difference between what the local educational agency would have received under the local control funding formula based on average daily membership and what the local educational agency received under the local control funding formula based on average daily attendance for that fiscal year, as provided. The bill would make that maintenance of effort requirement subject to an annual audit and would provide that failure to meet the maintenance of effort requirement shall result in the loss of the additional education funding. The bill would require local educational agencies to use at least 30% of their additional education funding for local educational agency expenditures to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, as provided. This bill would, for purposes of calculating a local educational agency's average daily membership, require the Superintendent to issue directives and guidance on determining the date of withdrawal for a pupil deemed habitually truant. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a report to the Legislature, on or before November 1, 2028, on the implementation of the average daily membership funding in local educational agencies selected by the Legislative Analyst's Office, as provided. The bill would expressly state that funds to implement these provisions would be continuously appropriated in the annual Budget Act.

This measure would designate the week of May 1, 2022, through May 7, 2022, as Compost Awareness Week.

This measure would designate April 3, 2022, to April 9, 2022, inclusive, as Women and Girls in STEM Week and would encourage all citizens and community organizations to support the observance of California's Women and Girls in STEM Week by encouraging and celebrating women in the STEM fields.

Existing law, referred to as the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 (MICRA) , prohibits an attorney from contracting for or collecting a contingency fee for representing any person seeking damages in connection with an action for injury or damage against a health care provider based upon alleged professional negligence in excess of specified limits. This bill would recast those provisions and base the amount of contingency fee that may be contracted for upon whether recovery is pursuant to settlement agreement and release of all claims executed before a civil complaint or demand for arbitration is filed, or pursuant to settlement, arbitration, or judgment after a civil complaint or demand for arbitration is filed, as specified. The bill would add and revise definitions for these purposes. Existing law provides that in any action against a health care provider based upon professional negligence, the injured plaintiff is entitled to recover noneconomic losses to compensate for pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement, and other nonpecuniary damage. Existing law limits the amount of damages for noneconomic losses in an action for injury against a health care provider based on professional negligence to $250,000. This bill would remove the $250,000 limit on noneconomic damages and expand the recast provisions to include an action for injury against a health care institution, as defined. The bill would increase the applicable limitation based upon whether the action for injury involved wrongful death. The bill would specify that these limitations would increase by $40,000 each January 1st for 10 years and beginning on January 1, 2034, the applicable limitations on noneconomic damages for personal injury and for wrongful death would be adjusted for inflation on January 1st of each year by 2%. Existing law specifies that in any action for injury or damages against a provider of health care services, a superior court shall, at the request of either party, enter a judgment ordering that money damages or its equivalent for future damages of the judgment creditor be paid in whole or in part by periodic payments rather than by a lump-sum payment if the award equals or exceeds $50,000. This bill would increase the minimum amount of the judgment required to request periodic payments to $250,000. Existing law makes statements, writings, or benevolent gestures expressing sympathy or a general sense of benevolence relating to the pain, suffering, or death of a person involved in an accident and made to that person, or to the family of that person, inadmissible as evidence of an admission of liability in a civil action. This bill would specify that statements, writings, or benevolent gestures expressing sympathy, regret, a general sense of benevolence, or suggesting, reflecting, or accepting fault relating to the pain, suffering, or death of a person, or to an adverse patient safety event or unexpected health care outcome, as specified, shall be confidential, privileged, protected, not subject to subpoena, discovery, or disclosure, and shall not be used or admitted into evidence in any civil, administrative, regulatory, licensing, or disciplinary board, agency, or body action or proceeding, and shall not be used or admitted in relation to any sanction, penalty, or other liability, as evidence of an admission of liability or for any other purpose.

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, establishes the Office of Emergency Services within the Governor's office under the supervision of the Director of Emergency Services and makes the office responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or man-made disasters and emergencies. Existing law sets forth various provisions on fairgrounds owned or operated by a district agricultural association, the California Exposition and State Fair, county fairs, and citrus fruit fairs. This bill would, upon an appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, require the Office of Emergency Services to establish a grant program on or before January 1, 2024, to provide fairs with grant funding for purposes of building and upgrading broadband communication infrastructure on fairgrounds. The bill would require the office to establish standards to determine how fairs receive grant funding based on the fairgrounds' need for broadband capabilities in order to service an emergency response operation. In regard to the standards, the bill would require that fairs eligible for funding meet certain criteria, including being capable of providing publicly available broadband access to the fair's broadband network throughout the year. The bill also would authorize the office to prioritize the order of grant disbursements based on specified criteria, including the frequency in which fairgrounds are used as an emergency staging area, evacuation center, community resilience center, or other relevant emergency response site. The bill would require the office to consult with the Department of Technology and the Department of Food and Agriculture to coordinate the statewide deployment of broadband communication infrastructure on fairgrounds. For purposes of the grant program, the bill would define "fair" to mean a district agricultural association, the California Exposition and State Fair, a county fair, or a citrus fruit fair.

Existing law provides certain methods for determining workers' compensation benefits payable to a worker or the worker's dependents for purposes of temporary disability, permanent total disability, permanent partial disability, and in case of death. This bill would increase the payment of disability benefits by the percentage of disparity in earnings between genders, as specified. The bill would apply prospectively to injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2023.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations. Existing law prohibits a gas corporation from constructing a gas plant, as defined, or an extension of a gas plant without having first obtained from the commission a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity requires or will require that construction. This bill would authorize the commission, in issuing a certificate for the construction of a new gas plant or a substantial modification of an existing gas plant, to take into consideration the need for the new gas plant or substantially modified gas plant as it relates to the provision of safe, reliable, and affordable electrical or gas service and the environmental impacts of the new or substantially modified gas plant, including impacts on surrounding communities.

Existing law establishes the State Supplementary Program for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (SSP) , which requires the State Department of Social Services to contract with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to make payments to SSP recipients to supplement Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments made available pursuant to the federal Social Security Act. Under existing law, benefit payments under SSP are calculated by establishing the maximum level of nonexempt income and federal SSI and state SSP benefits for each category of eligible recipient. The state SSP payment is the amount required, when added to the nonexempt income and SSI benefits available to the recipient, to provide the maximum benefit payment. Existing law, commencing January 1, 2022, requires the amount of aid paid under SSP that is in effect on December 31, 2021, less the federal benefit portion received, to be increased by a percentage increase that the State Department of Social Services and the Department of Finance determines can be accomplished with $291,287,000, and, subject to an appropriation in the Budget Act of 2023, requires an additional grant increase commencing January 1, 2024, subject to the same calculations, notifications, and implementation as the first increase. Existing law continuously appropriates funds for the implementation of SSP. This bill would, if there is a surplus in the state budget and subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act, require a recipient of aid paid under SSP to receive a monthly supplemental payment in the amount of $600 for the following calendar year. The bill would provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing these provisions.

Under existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Act, an enforcing agency, as defined, may assess civil penalties against any person, firm, or corporation that sells, gives, or furnishes specified tobacco and cigarette related items, including cigarette papers, to a person who is under 21 years of age, except as specified. The existing civil penalties range from $400 to $600 for a first violation, up to $5,000 to $6,000 for a 5th violation within a 5-year period. Existing law prohibits the sale, distribution, or nonsale distribution of tobacco products directly or indirectly to any person under 21 years of age through the United States Postal Service or other public or private postal or package delivery service. Under existing law, a district attorney, city attorney, or the Attorney General may assess civil penalties against a violator of not less than $1,000 or more than $2,000 for the first violation and up to $10,000 for a 5th or subsequent violation within a 5-year period. Under existing law, every person, firm, or corporation that knowingly or under circumstances in which it has knowledge, or should otherwise have grounds for knowledge, sells, gives, or furnishes a cigarette, among other specified items, to another person who is under 21 years of age is, except as specified, subject to either a criminal action for a misdemeanor or to a civil action brought by a city attorney, a county counsel, or a district attorney, punishable by a fine of $200 for the first offense, $500 for the 2nd offense, and $1,000 for the 3rd offense. This bill would prohibit a person or entity from selling, giving, or furnishing to another person of any age in this state a single-use electronic cigarette, as defined, except as specified. The bill would prohibit that selling, giving, or furnishing, whether conducted directly or indirectly through an in-person transaction, or by means of any public or private method of shipment or delivery to an address in this state. This bill would authorize a city attorney, county counsel, or district attorney to assess a $500 civil fine against each person determined to have violated those prohibitions in a proceeding conducted pursuant to the procedures of the enforcing agency, as specified. This bill would make its provisions operative on January 1, 2024.