Sen. Curren D Price

Existing law requires that all expenses authorized and necessarily incurred in the preparation for, and conduct of, elections be paid from the county treasuries, except when an election is called by the governing body of a city. This bill would additionally provide that expenses incurred for elections proclaimed by the Governor to fill a vacancy in the office of State Senator or Member of the Assembly, or to fill a vacancy in the office of United States Senator or Representative in Congress, are to be paid by the state. Where an election proclaimed by the Governor is consolidated with a local election, the bill would provide that the state would pay only those additional expenses directly related to the election proclaimed by the Governor.

Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Act, establishes the Cal Grant C Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under this program. The act requires that a Cal Grant C award be used only for occupational or technical training, as defined, in a course of not less than 4 months. The act requires the commission, after consultation with state and federal agencies, to determine the areas of occupational or technical training for which Cal Grant C awards shall be awarded. This bill would require the Student Aid Commission to develop, and regularly review and update at least every 5 years, the areas of occupational or technical training for which students may utilize Cal Grant C awards. The bill would require the commission to give priority in granting the awards to students pursuing occupational or technical training in areas that meet specified criteria. The bill would require the commission to publish, and retain, on its Internet Web site a current list of the areas of occupational or technical training meeting those specified criteria. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature, containing specified data on the outcomes of the Cal Grant C Program, on or before April 1, 2014, and on or before April 1 of each even-numbered year thereafter.

Existing law requires every contract entered into by a state agency for the procurement of equipment, materials, supplies, apparel, garments, and accessories and the laundering thereof, excluding public works contracts, to require a contractor to certify that no equipment, materials, supplies, apparel, garments, or accessories provided under the contract are produced by sweatshop labor, forced labor, convict labor, indentured labor under penal sanction, abusive forms of child labor, or exploitation of children in sweatshop labor. If a contractor knew or should have known the specified products furnished to the state were laundered or produced by the specified types of prohibited labor, the contractor may be removed from the bidder's list for 360 days. Existing law provides for misdemeanor liability in the case of a knowing false certification. Existing law requires the Department of Industrial Relations to establish a contractor responsibility program, on or before February 1, 2004, including a Sweat Free Code of Conduct. Existing law also requires the appropriate procurement agency, in consultation with the Director of Industrial Relations, to employ an approach to implement the Sweat Free Code of Conduct, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Industrial Relations to explore mechanisms to ensure that businesses that contract with state agencies are in compliance with those provisions. This bill would rename the code of conduct as the Slave and Sweat Free Code of Conduct and would require every contract entered into by a state agency for the procurement of equipment, materials, supplies, apparel, garments, and accessories and the laundering thereof, excluding public works contracts, to require a contractor to certify that no equipment, materials, supplies, apparel, garments, or accessories provided under the contract are produced by abusive forms of labor performed by all persons, not only abusive forms of child labor, as prescribed. The bill would additionally extend the period that the contractor is removed from the bidder's list to 2 years, if the contractor knew or should have known the specified products were laundered or produced by the specified prohibited labor. This bill would require the Department of Industrial Relations to establish a contractor responsibility program on or before January 1, 2012, and would require specified actions by the Department of Industrial Relations and the Department of General Services with regard to the code of conduct. This bill would additionally require contractors whose manufacturing and assembly locations are outside the United States to comply with international laws or treaties binding on their countries and would require a subcontractor to sign a certification regarding the code of conduct under the penalty of perjury. By changing the definition of existing crimes, 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.

(1) 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. This bill would establish the California Higher Education Endowment Corporation (CHEEC) in state government. The bill would establish an oversight board to govern the CHEEC and would require that board to appoint the chief executive officer of the CHEEC. The bill would require the CHEEC to annually allocate the moneys in the continuously appropriated California Higher Education Fund, which would be created by the bill, to the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California, as specified. The bill also would authorize the board to invest the moneys in the fund in accordance with prescribed procedures. (2) Existing law imposes various taxes, including taxes on the privilege of engaging in certain activities. The Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, provides procedures for the collection of certain fees and surcharges. This bill would impose an oil and gas severance tax upon any producer, except as provided, for the privilege of severing oil or gas from the earth or water in this state for sale, transport, consumption, storage, profit, or use, as provided, at a rate of 12.5% of the gross value of the product. The tax would be administered by the State Board of Equalization and would be collected pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Fee Collection Procedures Law. The bill would require the board to deposit all taxes, penalties, and interest collected pursuant to these provisions in the California Higher Education Fund, as provided. Because this bill would expand application of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) 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. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to establish regulations, as specified, governing the operation and maintenance of tissue banks licensed in California. Existing law allows for the revocation or suspension of a tissue bank's license for specified reasons. Violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. This bill would require the collection, processing, storage, or distribution of human tissue for use in California to comply with the edition of Standards for Tissue Banking in effect on January 1, 2011, as published by the American Association of Tissue Banks, and would require the department to evaluate future amendments of these standards to determine which changes to adopt as regulations. This bill would also allow the department to impose on licensed tissue banks, as an alternative to suspension or revocation of a tissue bank's license, a civil administrative penalty of $100 per day of noncompliance per violation not to exceed an aggregate of $3,000. Existing law defines "tissue" as any human cell, group of cells, tissue, or organ, giving specific examples. This bill would delete organ from this definition. Because the bill would make changes to the definition of a crime, it 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 Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop the Academic Performance Index (API) , consisting of a variety of indicators currently reported to the State Department of Education to track the achievement of schools and their pupils. Existing law requires the API to be used for specified purposes, including, but not limited to, ranking all public schools in the state. The Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program, the High Priority Schools Program, and the Quality Education Investment Act of 2006 are intended to provide support to schools ranked in the lower deciles of the API. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires the state accountability system to ensure that all local educational agencies and public schools make adequate yearly progress, as defined. The State Department of Education is required to identify local educational agencies that are in danger of being identified within 2 years as program improvement local educational agencies under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This bill, subject to an appropriation of federal funds for this purpose, would require the State Department of Education to contract for the development of a new indicator that measures pupil-level growth in academic achievement over time using specified statewide tests. The new indicator would be required to allow the state to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and to measure adequate yearly progress under that act. The bill would require the department to convene an advisory board consisting of representatives from the state board, the Secretary for Education, the Department of Finance, the Legislative Analyst's Office, parent groups, school districts, and education researchers to provide general guidance and make recommendations relative to modifying assessments, academic content standards, performance expectations, and eligibility criteria for state support and resources. The bill would require the department, subject to funding being provided in the annual Budget Act, to contract with a consultant for independent oversight of the project to develop a new academic performance indicator. The consultant would be required to twice annually submit a written report on the progress in developing the new indicator and how the new indicator is meeting specified goals to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state board, the advisory board, the Director of Finance, the Legislative Analyst, and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature.

Under existing law, any taxing agency or instrumentality of the state may file a petition and prosecute to completion bankruptcy proceedings permitted under the laws of the United States. This bill would provide that a local public entity may only file under federal bankruptcy law with the approval of the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, except as specified. The bill would also provide an alternative procedure for a local entity to file under federal bankruptcy law by submitting specific analyses regarding its financial position to the State Auditor who would be required to audit the analyses and financial position of the local entity. The bill would make the local public entity responsible for the costs of the audit, as specified. The public entity would be authorized to file a petition under federal bankruptcy law after the State Auditor has notified the public entity of completion of its audit work and made public the findings of that audit.

This measure would proclaim the month of January 2010 as National Mentoring Month.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project Act, which revises hospital reimbursement methodologies under the Medi-Cal program in order to maximize the use of federal funds consistent with federal Medicaid law and stabilize the distribution of funding for hospitals that provide care to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and uninsured patients. This demonstration project provides for funding, in supplementation of Medi-Cal reimbursement, to various hospitals, including designated public hospitals, nondesignated public hospitals, and private hospitals, as defined, in accordance with certain provisions relating to disproportionate share hospitals. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Private Hospital Supplemental Fund, and allows the California Medical Assistance Commission to distribute certain amounts from the fund to private hospitals that satisfy specified criteria. Existing law requires the County of Los Angeles to, for the 2007–08, 2008–09, and 2009–10 project years, make intergovernmental transfers to the state to fund the nonfederal share of increased Medi-Cal payments to those private hospitals that serve the South Los Angeles population formerly served by Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Existing law requires the intergovernmental transfers to be funded by county tax revenues and to total $5,000,000 per project year, subject to specified exceptions. Existing law requires these moneys to be deposited in the Private Hospital Supplemental Fund, thus constituting an appropriation, and distributed to the private hospitals designated by the county. This bill would additionally require the County of Los Angeles to make intergovernmental transfers to the state to fund the nonfederal share of increased Medi-Cal payments to those private hospitals that serve the South Los Angeles population formerly served by Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital for the 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13 project years in accordance with the above-described provisions, thereby constituting an appropriation. Existing law provides for the payment of safety net care pool funds to designated public hospitals, or governmental entities with which they are affiliated, pursuant to the demonstration project. Existing law requires a maximum of $100,000,000 of the safety net care pool funds claimed and received by the state pursuant to the demonstration project, that are based on the certified public expenditures of the County of Los Angeles, or its designated public hospitals, to be deposited in the continuously appropriated South Los Angeles Medical Services Preservation Fund, for each of the 3 project years, 2007–08, 2008–09, and 2009–10, for the purpose of reimbursing counties for specified costs. This bill would extend the requirement for deposits into the South Los Angeles Medical Services Preservation Fund to the 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13 project years, thus making an appropriation.