This measure would proclaim the month of March, each year, as Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness Month and encourage all citizens to participate in prevention programs and activities and to pledge to "Spread the Word ... One Pill Can Kill."
Existing law establishes the Dealers' Record of Sale Special Account in the General Fund with moneys in the account available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish and maintain an online database to be known as the Prohibited Armed Persons File, sometimes referred to as the Armed Prohibited Persons System, to cross-reference persons who have ownership or possession of a firearm with those who are prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm. This bill would appropriate $24,000,000 from the Dealers' Record of Sale Special Account to the Department of Justice to address the backlog in the Armed Prohibited Persons System, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the department to report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee regarding ways the backlog in the Armed Prohibited Persons System has been reduced or eliminated, as specified. The bill would make related findings and declarations. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would recognize the contributions of the aerospace industry to the history, economy, security, and educational system of California, its communities, and its citizens by proclaiming the month of March 2013 as California Aerospace Month.
This measure would call on the United States Congress to pass the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, Senate Bill No. 47, authored by Senator Leahy, and ensure the sustainability of vital programs designed to keep women and families safe from violence and abuse.
Existing law creates the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund as a special fund in the State Treasury and requires any moneys collected by the State Air Resources Board under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 from the auction or sale of allowances pursuant to a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited into the fund and available for appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law requires a state agency, prior to expending any moneys appropriated to it by the Legislature from the fund, to prepare a record consisting of a description of proposed expenditures and how they will further the regulatory purposes of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, how they will achieve specified greenhouse gas emissions reductions, how the agency considered other objectives of that act, and how the agency will document expenditure results. This bill would enact the School Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act. The bill would create the School Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund as a special fund in the State Treasury. The bill would make moneys in the School Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund available to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of implementing the program. The bill states the intent of the Legislature that the commission administer the fund and implement the program in coordination with the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide grants to eligible institutions for building retrofits to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce the demand for energy. The bill would require the commission to award grants through the Bright Schools Program, as specified, and require the commission, in consultation with the Superintendent, to establish a system to prioritize eligible institutions for grants.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Commonly referred to as utilization review, existing law governs the procedures that apply to every health care service plan and health insurer that prospectively, retrospectively, or concurrently reviews and approves, modifies, delays, or denies, based on medical necessity, requests by providers prior to, retrospectively, or concurrent with, the provision of health care services to enrollees or insureds, as specified. Existing law also imposes various requirements and restrictions on health care service plans and health insurers, including, among other things, requiring a health care service plan that provides prescription drug benefits to maintain an expeditious process by which prescribing providers, as described, may obtain authorization for a medically necessary nonformulary prescription drug, according to certain procedures. Existing law also requires every health care service plan that provides prescription drug benefits that maintains one or more drug formularies to provide to members of the public, upon request, a copy of the most current list of prescription drugs on the formulary. This bill would impose specified requirements on health care service plans or health insurers that restrict medications for the treatment of pain pursuant to step therapy or fail first protocol. The bill would authorize the duration of any step therapy or fail first protocol to be determined by the prescribing participating plan provider or prescribing provider, as respectively defined, and would, except under certain conditions, prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from requiring that a patient try and fail on more than 2 pain medications before allowing the patient access to other pain medication prescribed by the prescribing participating plan provider or prescribing provider, as specified. Because a willful violation of the bill's provisions relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the 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.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of emissions of greenhouse gases and to monitor and enforce compliance with the reporting and verification program, and requires the state board to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would require the California Environmental Protection Agency to identify disadvantaged communities for investment opportunities, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Finance, when developing a specified 3-year investment plan, to allocate 25% of the available moneys in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to projects that provide benefits to disadvantaged communities, as specified, and to allocate a minimum of 10% of the available moneys in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to projects located within disadvantaged communities, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Finance, when developing funding guidelines, to include guidelines for how administering agencies should maximize benefits for disadvantaged communities. The bill would require administering agencies to report to the Department of Finance, and the Department of Finance to include in a specified report to the Legislature, a description of how administering agencies have fulfilled specified requirements relating to projects providing benefits to, or located in, disadvantaged communities. This bill would make its provisions contingent on the enactment of other legislation, as specified.
Existing law requires the court to order defendants convicted of any crime to pay a fine in the form of a penalty, as specified. Existing law additionally requires the court to order defendants to pay restitution to the victim or victims, as well as a restitution fine. Existing law requires that a person convicted of specified crimes, including counterfeiting products and failing to disclose the origin of a recording or audiovisual work, pay restitution to the owner, lawful producer, or trade association acting on behalf of the owner or lawful producer that suffered economic loss from the violation. Under existing law, the value of each nonconforming article or device is based on the aggregate wholesale value of lawfully manufactured and authorized devices or articles from which sounds or visual images are devised, except in certain circumstances. This bill would specify that possession of nonconforming devices or articles intended for sale constitutes actual economic loss to an owner or lawful producer in the form of displaced legitimate wholesale purchases. The bill would also base the order of restitution on the aggregate wholesale value of lawfully manufactured and authorized devices or articles from which sounds or visual images are devised corresponding to the number of nonconforming devices or articles involved in the offense. The bill would make additional changes to Section 1202.4 of the Penal Code made by SB 1177 to take effect if both bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. The bill would also make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit against those taxes for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in an amount equal to a specified percentage of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture has relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law allows specified qualified taxpayers to elect to assign the credit, requires specified information from qualified taxpayers that apply for a tax credit allocation, and imposes specified duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits, including a requirement to allocate the tax credits until July 1, 2015, and limits the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated to qualified motion pictures in any fiscal year to $100,000,000, through the 2014–15 fiscal year. Existing law additionally allows, in lieu of the credits under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures, a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. This bill, under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, would impose additional duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits and would extend the requirement to allocate the tax credits 2 additional years, until July 1, 2017. This bill would also extend the limit on the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated through the 2016–17 fiscal year. This bill would also require assigning qualified taxpayers to provide the Franchise Tax Board with specified information, would revise the information included in an application for a tax credit allocation, and require the Legislative Analyst's Office to prepare reports related to the effectiveness and administration of the qualified motion picture credit under the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, and the Corporation Tax Law. This bill would require the California Film Commission to annually post on its Internet Web site and make available for public release specified information, including a list of qualified taxpayers and the tax credit amounts allocated to each qualified taxpayer by the commission. The bill would authorize various state agencies to disclose specified taxpayer information for purposes of the Legislative Analyst's Office report, and would impose specified criminal penalties on the disclosure of that information. By expanding the crime of knowingly and wrongfully accessing, using, or disclosing specified information, 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 declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
