Sen. Anthony Portantino

This measure would proclaim, in perpetuity, January 28 as the Stand Against Hate Action Day.

The Dixon-Zenovich-Maddy California Arts Act of 1975 establishes the Arts Council, consisting of 11 appointed members. The act specifies the duties of the council, including providing for the exhibition of art works in public buildings throughout California. Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. Existing law authorizes the Governor to appoint the Director of the Office of Small Business Advocate who serves as the Small Business Advocate. Existing law requires the advocate to serve as the principal advocate in the state on behalf of small businesses, to represent the views and interests of small businesses before other state agencies, and to enlist the cooperation and assistance of public and private agencies, businesses, and other organizations in disseminating information about the programs and services provided by state government that are of benefit to small businesses, among other things. This bill would create in the State Treasury the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund. The bill would require the Office of Small Business Advocate to establish and administer a grant program, funded by the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of enabling small nonprofit performing arts organizations, as defined, to hire and retain employees. The bill would limit the eligibility of applicants for the grant program to applicants that submit specified information, and, in some cases, information that has been attested to, including founding documents for the organizations, various policies and statements of the organization, financial records of the organization, or of its fiscal sponsor; and evidence of its production and advertisement of performing arts events that it has made open to the public. The bill would exclude various organizations from eligibility, as specified. The bill would require any recipient of the grant to provide the office with certified information, including certification that the grant funds were used for only the specified purposes allowed by these provisions; organizational information including venue size where applicable, annual budget, the number of employees and independent contractors in the last budget year, and the percentage of budget spent on payroll expenses; and certification that there have been no final judgments relating to employee misclassification at any time after the effective date of these provisions. This bill would require the office to adopt regulations as necessary for ensuring that grant recipients have not used moneys for other purposes and for validating the accuracy of certifications provided. The bill would authorize the office to distribute the grant according to a specified schedule that assigns a percentage of the first $10,000 of payroll expenses to be reimbursed based on the adjusted gross revenue, as defined, of the grant recipient organization per employee per quarter.

The Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits an officer of an agency from accepting, soliciting, or directing a contribution of more than $250 from any party, participant, or a party or participant's agent, while a proceeding involving a license, permit, or other entitlement for use is pending before the agency and for 3 months following the date a final decision is rendered in the proceeding, if the officer knows or has reasons to know that the participant has a financial interest, as defined. The act also prohibits a party, participant, or participant's agent from making a contribution of more than $250 to an officer of the agency during the proceeding and 3 months following the date a final decision is rendered. The act defines "agency" for these purposes to mean any state or local government agency, except certain entities, including local government agencies whose members are directly elected by the voters. This bill would remove the exception for local government agencies, thereby subjecting them to the prohibition described above. The bill would extend the prohibition on contributions from 3 to 12 months following the date a final decision is rendered in the proceeding. The bill would permit an officer who does not willfully and knowingly accept, solicit, or direct a prohibited contribution to cure the violation by returning it. The bill would require the party to a proceeding to disclose whether the party or the party's agent has made a contribution of more than $250 in the 12 months before the proceeding. A violation of the act is punishable as a misdemeanor. By expanding the scope of restrictions on contributions, this bill would expand the scope of an existing crime, and therefore 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. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health in the California Health and Human Services Agency. Existing law requires the department to collect data on various topics, including data on violent deaths as reported by various sources, as specified. This bill would require the department to establish, on or before January 1, 2024, and administer the Childhood Drowning Data Collection Pilot Program, which would collect detailed data on childhood fatal and nonfatal drownings in California, as specified. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2024, to seek to collaborate with at least 5 but no more than 10 county child death review teams or other local agencies, as specified. The bill would require the department to submit various reports to the appropriate legislative policy committees, as specified. The bill would require the department, based on those reports, to develop a California Water Safety Action Plan for Children and a standardized form for counties to use in reporting drownings statistics. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2029.

Existing law, the Teachers' Retirement Law, establishes the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) and creates the Defined Benefit Program of the State Teachers' Retirement Plan, which provides a defined benefit to members of the program, based on final compensation, credited service, and age at retirement, subject to certain variations. STRS is administered by the Teachers' Retirement Board. Existing law creates the Teachers' Retirement Fund and establishes within that fund a segregated account named the Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account. Existing law continuously appropriates funds in the Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account for expenditure for the purpose of restoring the purchasing power of the allowances of retired members and nonmember spouses, disabled members, and beneficiaries, and prescribes various schedules pursuant to which these allowances are augmented. This bill would prescribe additional benefits to be paid quarterly from the Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account, beginning July 1, 2023, to retired members and nonmember spouses, disabled members, and beneficiaries, to be made pursuant to a specified schedule. By providing for additional payments to be made from a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require the amount of these increases to be determined on July 1, 2023, as specified, and would require that amount to be increased each year commencing on July 1, 2024, but not compounded. The bill would specify that these increases are not part of the base allowance, are payable only to the extent that funds are available from the Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account, and would state the extent to which these payments would be vested. The bill would make additional conforming and nonsubstantive changes.

Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, authorizes the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to issue a special on-sale general license to a nonprofit theater company, subject to specified requirements. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for any on- or off-sale licensee, or agent of that licensee, to sell, give, or deliver to any persons any alcoholic beverage between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. of the same day. The act defines "public premises" to mean, among other things, a premises in which food products are only sold or served incidentally to the sale or service of alcoholic beverages and exempts an above-described nonprofit theater company from the definition. This bill would authorize the department to issue a special on-sale general license to a nonprofit cultural film exhibition company with specified characteristics, including that it predominantly exhibits classic, foreign, independent, or rare movies and is exempt from the payment of income taxes, as specified. The bill would authorize those nonprofit cultural film exhibition companies, subject to the misdemeanor provision described above, to sell and serve alcoholic beverages, as specified, to ticketholders only during, and 2 hours before and one hour after, a bona fide film exhibition of the company. The bill would also exempt companies licensed pursuant to those provisions from the definition of "public premises." By expanding the application of an existing crime, 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. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 23039 and 24045.7 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 1370 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1370 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

(1) Existing law provides for the funding of projects on the state highway system and other transportation improvements, including under the interregional transportation improvement program, the state highway operation and protection program, the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program, the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, and the program within the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program commonly known as the Local Partnership Program. This bill would require, no later than January 1, 2024, the guidelines or plans applicable to those programs to include the strategies established in the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure adopted by the Transportation Agency, as provided. The bill would also require the Transportation Agency, the California Transportation Commission, and the Department of Transportation, no later than January 1, 2024, to each establish guidelines to ensure transparency and accountability for specified transportation funding programs that they respectively administer and for the project selection processes applicable to those programs. The bill would require those guidelines to meet certain requirements and would require those agencies to hold public workshops to solicit input before establishing the guidelines. The bill, with regard to the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program, would require a project that receives funding under the program to be part of a comprehensive multimodal corridor plan rather than a comprehensive corridor plan. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to prepare the California Transportation Plan for submission to the Governor and the Legislature, to complete the 3rd update to the plan by December 31, 2025, and to update the plan every 5 years thereafter, as a long-range planning document that incorporates various elements and is consistent with specified expressions of legislative intent. This bill would also require the California Transportation Plan to include a financial element that summarizes the full cost of plan implementation, a summary of available revenues through the planning period, and an analysis of what is feasible within the plan if constrained by a realistic projection of available revenues. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 164.6 of the Streets and Highways Code proposed by AB 2514 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2514 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.