(1) Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is through contracts with various types of managed care plans. Existing law imposes a tax at a specified rate on the gross premiums of an insurer, as defined, and, until July 1, 2012, on the total operating revenue, as specified, of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, as defined. Existing law exempts from that tax the total operating revenue of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, if specified events occur before July, 1, 2012. Existing law continuously appropriates the revenues derived from the tax on Medi-Cal managed care plans for specified purposes. This bill would extend the imposition of the tax on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans until July 1, 2014, and would make other conforming changes. This bill also would authorize the Controller to loan funds in the Children's Health and Human Services Special Fund to the General Fund, as provided, until July 1, 2013. By extending the imposition of a tax whose revenues are continuously appropriated, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law requires, until July 1, 2012, every return required to be filed with the Insurance Commissioner pursuant to provisions governing taxes on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans to be signed by the insurer or the Medi-Cal managed care plan or an executive officer of the insurer or the plan and to be made under oath or contain a written declaration that is made under penalty of perjury. This bill would instead apply this signature requirement until July 1, 2013. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law creates the Healthy Families Program, administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB) , to arrange for the provision of health, vision, and dental benefits to eligible children pursuant to a federal program, the Children's Health Insurance Program. Under existing law, the Director of Health Care Services may contract with any qualified individual, organization, or entity to provide services to, arrange for, or case manage the care of Medi-Cal beneficiaries, subject to specified requirements. Existing law requires a Medi-Cal applicant or beneficiary to be informed of the managed care and fee-for-service options available regarding methods of receiving Medi-Cal benefits. Existing law provides for the transition of specified enrollees of the Healthy Families Program to the Medi-Cal program, to the extent that those individuals are otherwise eligible, no sooner than January 1, 2013. Existing law requires this transition to take place in 4 phases, as prescribed. This bill would repeal the provisions requiring the transfer of Healthy Families Program enrollees into the Medi-Cal program. (4) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to impose a uniform quality assurance fee on each skilled nursing facility, with certain exceptions, in accordance with a prescribed formula. The formula is based on the determination of the projected net revenues, as defined, of skilled nursing facilities. Under existing law, the charge will cease to be assessed after July 31, 2013, and these provisions will be repealed on January 1, 2014. Existing law, the Medi-Cal Long-Term Care Reimbursement Act, requires the department to implement a facility-specific reimbursement ratesetting system for certain skilled nursing facilities. Reimbursement rates for freestanding skilled nursing facilities are funded by a combination of federal funds and moneys collected pursuant to the skilled nursing uniform quality assurance fee. Existing law also establishes the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund in the State Treasury, which is a continuously appropriated fund that contains moneys from the assessment of specified administrative penalties and set asides of General Fund moneys, for the purposes of making quality and accountability payments. Existing law provides that this rate methodology shall cease to be implemented after July 31, 2013, and that these provisions shall be repealed on January 1, 2014. This bill would modify the calculation of rates under the above-referenced rate methodology, and would extend the assessment of the charge, implementation of the rate methodology, and implementation of related provisions until July 31, 2015. By extending the period of time during which transfers are made to the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would also modify the amount of moneys to be deposited into the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund, by, among other things, requiring that specified set-asides under the rate methodology remain in the General Fund instead of transferring to the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund and increasing the amount of certain set-asides to be transferred to the fund. This bill would instead require that the quality and accountability payments be made beginning with the 2013–14 rate year. (5) Existing federal Medicaid law requires nursing facilities, as defined, to perform an assessment of each resident's functional capacity that is based on a uniform minimum data set, as specified. This bill would require nursing facilities, the State Department of Health Care Services, and the State Department of Public Health to perform various duties with respect to the federal government's nursing home quality initiative and this assessment. (6) Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 provides that act becomes inoperative if any of its provisions are amended or repealed. This bill would repeal that provision and would provide that, notwithstanding Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011, the provisions of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 do not become inoperative upon the amendment or repeal of any provision of that chapter made by this bill. (7) 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. (8) This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.
Sponsored bills
This measure would commemorate and honor the service and sacrifice of the members of the United States Armed Forces who supported the operations in Iraq, and their families, as the official combat mission in Iraq draws to a close. This measure would encourage mayors and communities across the State of California to honor veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan on November 11, 2012, in Veterans Day parades, ceremonies, and other displays of our state's gratitude for their service and sacrifice. This measure would also request that the Department of General Services work with appropriate 3rd parties to advise and oversee the creation of a memorial for the California veterans who fought and served in Iraq and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering the design, construction, and maintenance costs and ensuring that the memorial is in the best interest of the State Capitol Park, erect that memorial, in accordance with California law, in the State Capitol Park. This measure would state the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation authorizing the creation of a larger memorial commemorating and thanking those who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
This measure would urge the California delegates of Congress to protect California military bases from closure during upcoming base realignment and closure processes.
This measure would designate the week of September 8 through September 15, 2012, and the 2nd week of September every year thereafter as California Coastal Protection Week and would urge all Californians to observe that week as California Costal Protection Week.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 regulates mass mailings, known as slate mailers, that support or oppose multiple candidates or ballot measures for an election. The act requires that each slate mailer identify the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer, and to contain other specified information in specified formatting. The act requires that each candidate and each ballot measure that has paid to appear in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk. This bill would instead require that a candidate or ballot measure appearing in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk if the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer has received payment to include the candidate or ballot measure in the slate mailer. The bill would also recast the language of the prescribed notice to voters that must be included on a slate mailer. The act also regulates advertisements, which are defined as any general or public advertisement that is authorized and paid for by a person or committee for the purpose supporting or opposing a candidate for elective office or a ballot measure or ballot measures. The act places certain disclosure requirements on advertisements for or against any ballot measure, including that the advertisement disclose any person who has made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more, as prescribed. The act places more specific disclosure requirements on broadcast or mass mailing advertisements that are paid for by independent expenditures that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. This bill would repeal provisions relating to disclosures for advertisements paid for by an independent expenditure and required disclosures of persons who have made cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more. This bill would, instead, impose specified disclosure requirements on radio, television, and video advertisements, and certain mass mailing and print advertisements that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure or solicit contributions in support of those purposes. The bill would require radio, television, and video advertisements that are authorized by a candidate or agent of the candidate to include a statement in which the candidate identifies himself or herself and states that he or she approves the message, as specified. The bill would require radio, television, video, and certain mass mailings and print advertisements that are not authorized by a candidate or an agent of the candidate to disclose, in a prescribed format, the 3 largest identifiable contributors, as defined, of the committee that paid for the advertisement. The bill would require mass mailings or print advertisements that are paid for by certain persons who are not committees to disclose the name of that person as the funder of the mass mailing or print advertisement. The bill would also require that certain committees establish and maintain a committee disclosure Internet Web site, as defined, which discloses the top 10 identifiable contributors and provides a link to either the Internet Web site maintained by the Secretary of State for campaign finance disclosures of the committee, or a page on the committee disclosure Internet Web site that discloses all identifiable contributors to that committee, as specified. The bill would require these advertisements to identify the address for the committee disclosure Internet Web site. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating additional crimes. 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 act may be amended by a statute that becomes effective upon approval of the voters. This measure would call a special statewide election to be consolidated with the statewide general election scheduled for November 4, 2014. It would provide for the submission to the voters of the provisions of this bill amending the Political Reform Act of 1974, as summarized above, at that election. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an act calling an election.
(1) Existing law authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation, with the consent of the Department of Finance, to acquire title to or any interest in real property that the department deems necessary or proper for the extension, improvement, or development of the state park system. Existing law also authorizes the department to accept monetary and real property gifts to be used in any connection with the state park system. This bill would, except as provided below, prohibit land acquired for the state park system, through public funds or gifts, from being disposed of or used for other purposes incompatible with state park system purposes without the substitution of other land. This bill would require the State Park and Recreation Commission, following a duly noticed public hearing, to certify that all requests to dispose of or use the land for those incompatible purposes provide for the substitution of other land meeting certain criteria. If lands that fully meet the substitution eligibility criteria cannot be acquired, the commission would be authorized, if certain conditions are met, to approve a combination of substitute park lands and monetary compensation to allow for the disposal or use of lands for those incompatible purposes. The bill would require that the commission consider requests only if the commission determines that all practical alternatives that avoid the proposed disposal or use of park lands for those incompatible purposes have been considered. This bill would provide that its provisions shall not apply to existing uses of state park lands that have been authorized on or before January 1, 2013, by written agreement with the Department of Parks and Recreation or by the general plan for a state park unit. (2) Existing law authorizes a reconfiguration of the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (state recreation area) if certain requirements are met and authorizes the Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation to remove the land from the state recreation area and enter into an agreement to convey to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, or to the City of San Francisco, an interest in the state property, if the director makes certain findings. Existing law provides that these provisions govern an agreement entered into or convergence made pursuant to the agreement and supersede any other provision of law pertaining to the department's authority to acquire or transfer real property, or to enter into an agreement to acquire or transfer real property. This bill would provide that it does not amend, repeal, or limit the effect of this provision.
The State Building Construction Act of 1955 requires that all new public buildings, as specified, be equipped with all energy efficiency measures, materials, and devices that are feasible and cost-effective, as defined, over the life of the building or the life of the energy efficiency measure, whichever is less, and sets forth the duties of the Department of General Services in this regard. This bill would additionally require the department to deem a contract for the purchase of an energy efficiency information technology product or service to be a no-cost or net-neutral cost contract when specified conditions are met. It would require the department to issue a nonmandatory master services agreement permitting owners, operators, and tenants of state facilities to procure a wide range of energy efficiency information technology products and services according to specified criteria. It would require the department to post on its Internet Web site, as specified, a link to a document entitled "Record of Energy-Saving Projects" that contains specified information.
Existing law establishes several developmental centers within the jurisdiction of the State Department of Developmental Services. This bill would permit the real property within the grounds of a developmental center, as specified, that is determined to no longer meet the needs of the state for directly serving persons with developmental disabilities to be made available for lease and be leased, to generate revenue for deposit into the Californians with Developmental Disabilities Fund, which the bill would create. The bill would require moneys in this fund to be made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for purposes of serving persons with developmental disabilities.
This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to pursue a comprehensive approach to stem the trafficking of illicit United States firearms and ammunition into Mexico, that includes, among other things, enhanced collaboration among local, state, and federal agencies, the allocation of a permanent source of federal funding to sustain local and state law enforcement operations to combat firearms and ammunition trafficking and other border-related crimes, the redirection of federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) , United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and United States Customs and Border Protection resources towards this effort, reenactment of a strong federal assault weapons ban, and stronger federal authority to crack down on corrupt gun dealers.
Existing law, the California Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) , under the administration of the State Department of Public Health, provides for the issuance of nutrition coupons, as defined, to certain low-income women, infants, and children who have been determined to be at nutritional risk. Existing law authorizes the department to design, implement, and fund an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system for WIC. Existing law requires the department to develop a plan to determine the feasibility of implementing an EBT system for WIC by January 1, 2003, and to report its findings to the Legislature by July 1, 2003. This bill would require the department to provide to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, the Legislative Analyst's Office, and the office of the State Chief Information Officer, 2 briefings per year, provided within 30 days of the close of the first and third quarter of each year and with the first quarter commencing on January 1, 2013, on the development of the EBT system, until the system is fully operational. This bill would repeal those provisions on January 1, 2023.