(1) Existing law provides for a public postsecondary education system in this state. This system consists of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes these institutions to require that mandatory systemwide fees and tuition, among other fees, be paid by their students. Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending these institutions. This bill would establish the CalServe Higher Education Grant Program, under the administration of the commission, which would award annual grants to eligible students to finance mandatory systemwide tuition and fees not covered by federal, state, or institutionally administered grants or fee waivers commencing with the 2023–24 academic year. The bill would establish the CalServe Higher Education Grant Program Fund in the State Treasury and require that all moneys appropriated for the program be deposited into the fund and appropriated by the Legislature to the commission for the program. (2) Under existing law, by executive order, CaliforniaVolunteers is established in the office of the Governor and is charged with overseeing programs and initiatives for service and volunteerism. Existing law authorizes CaliforniaVolunteers to form a nonprofit public benefit corporation or other entity exempt from income taxation, as provided, to raise revenues and receive grants or other financial support from private or public sources, for purposes of undertaking or funding any lawful activity authorized to be undertaken by CaliforniaVolunteers. Existing federal law, the National Community Service Trust Act, also requires the state to create a commission to carry out specified duties relating to national service programs to be eligible for grants or allotments under certain programs, or to receive distributions of approved national service positions. This bill would reestablish CaliforniaVolunteers, renamed CalServe, as a state agency that is not established in the office of the Governor and would set forth its mission, duties, and responsibilities. The bill would require the director, deputy director, and staff of CalServe to serve at the pleasure of, and be appointed by, the Governor. The bill would continue in existence a Board of Commissioners under CaliforniaVolunteers, to be named the CalServe Commission, for purposes of meeting the requirements of the federal act and the act's implementing rules and regulations, as provided. The bill also would make conforming changes.
Sponsored bills
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions by December 1, 2020, to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations, including developing microgrid service standards necessary to meet state and local permitting requirements and developing methods to reduce barriers for microgrid deployment without shifting costs between ratepayers. This bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, to create a database of critical facilities and critical infrastructure, and related critical circuits that are located in tier 2 or tier 3 high fire-threat districts served by electrical corporations, and identify with respect to each whether it serves low-income households or low-income communities, as defined. The bill would require an electrical corporation, upon request, to collaborate with local governments or community choice aggregators within its service area to identify critical circuits and microgrid projects. The bill would authorize the above listed entities and local publicly owned electric utilities to use capacity resulting from a microgrid project to satisfy specified resource adequacy requirements. The bill would require electrical corporations to provide local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators with electrical distribution equipment data, transmission and distribution circuit data, grid hardening plans, and other information requested by those entities to ensure that they are able to plan and develop microgrid projects collaboratively with the electrical corporations. The bill would authorize the electrical corporations to require the use of a commission-approved nondisclosure agreement before providing the requested information. (2) Existing law requires the commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, to establish resource adequacy requirements for electrical corporations, community choice aggregators, and electric service providers. This bill would require the commission and the Independent System Operator, in an existing proceeding, to develop a methodology, as provided, to account for the resource adequacy value of distributed storage no later than July 31, 2021. (3) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law provides for various state programs and services for the purpose of attracting and retaining businesses in the state. Existing law creates the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development and requires the office to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth.This bill would establish the California Electric Vehicle Authority within the Governor's office. The bill would make the authority responsible for funding and financing programs to accelerate the transition to a zero emissions transportation system, as specified. The bill would require the authority to coordinate among state, regional, and local government entities to facilitate the transition to a clean transportation system, as specified.
Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The University of California comprises 10 campuses, located at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. The University of California operates law schools at campuses in Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. This bill would request the regents to enact, no later than July 1, 2021, a resolution to authorize the university's Berkeley and Irvine law schools, in consultation with the superior courts of the Counties of Alameda and Orange, respectively, to participate in a research program to develop artificial intelligence or machine-learning solutions to address issues of access to justice faced by pro se indigent litigants who are residents of those counties. The bill would require each participating law school, no later than March 31, 2024, to submit to specified public officials copies of a report including its findings and recommendations relating to the goals, challenges, successes, and potential areas of growth and development with respect to the research program.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the commission for review and approval, as specified. Following approval, the commission is required to oversee compliance with the plans. Existing law requires a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation to include, among other things, protocols for deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety. As part of these protocols, an electrical corporation is required to include protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider customers that receive medical baseline allowances. Existing law authorizes an electrical corporation to deploy backup electrical resources or provide financial assistance for backup electrical resources to a customer receiving a medical baseline allowance if the customer meets specified conditions. This bill would require an electrical corporation to deploy backup electrical resources for the operation of the customer's qualifying medical device or provide financial assistance for backup electrical resources to a customer receiving a medical baseline allowance if the customer meets those conditions and the additional condition that the customer is located in a high fire threat district. The bill would require an electrical corporation to develop its program to provide backup electrical resources or financial assistance in consultation with community disability rights groups or other local disability rights advocates. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because this bill would add additional requirements to an electrical corporation's wildfire mitigation plan that would be approved and overseen by the commission and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.
Existing sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. Those laws provide various exemptions from those taxes, including, until July 1, 2023, an exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or other consumption of, menstrual hygiene products, defined as tampons, specified sanitary napkins, menstrual sponges, and menstrual cups. Existing law requires the Department of Finance, beginning on May 15, 2020, to estimate the total dollar amount of revenue that would have been credited to the Local Revenue Fund 2011 if not otherwise exempted under the sales and use tax exemption for menstrual hygiene products and requires the Controller to transfer that amount from the General Fund to the Local Revenue Fund 2011, a continuously appropriated fund, no later than June 30 of each fiscal year. This bill would establish a similar exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or other consumption of, menstrual hygiene products beginning July 1, 2023, and would define menstrual hygiene products to additionally include menstrual underwear. The bill would provide that the Department of Finance is required to calculate, and the Controller is required to transfer, the total dollar amount of revenue prior to January 1, 2024, that would have been credited to the Local Revenue Fund 2011 if not otherwise exempted under the sales and use tax with respect to menstrual hygiene products, as specified. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The California Constitution authorizes any person who is a United States citizen, at least 18 years of age, and a resident of the state to vote. This measure, in addition, would authorize a United States citizen who is 17 years of age, is a resident of the state, and will be at least 18 years of age at the time of the next general election to vote in any primary or special election that occurs before the next general election in which the citizen would be eligible to vote if at least 18 years of age.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Under existing law, the Legislature has declared that it is the policy of this state to achieve, whenever feasible and not inconsistent with sound environmental planning, the undergrounding of all future electric and communication distribution facilities that are proposed to be erected in proximity to designated state scenic highways and that would be visible from those highways if erected above ground. The commission's existing Electric Tariff Rule 20 establishes policies for the undergrounding of electric facilities and includes, among other programs, the Rule 20A undergrounding program, which requires electrical corporations to convert overhead electric facilities to underground facilities when it is in the public interest for specified reasons. This bill would require the commission to revise Electric Tariff Rule 20 to additionally authorize and fund, whenever feasible, the undergrounding of electrical infrastructure within certain commission-designated high fire-threat areas for purposes of wildfire mitigation. (2) Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare a wildfire mitigation plan and to submit its plan to the commission for review and approval, as specified. Existing law requires the wildfire mitigation plan to include, among other things, protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety. This bill would require the commission to develop a standard against which to measure the prudency of an electrical corporation's conduct of a public safety power shutoff, as defined, and an electrical corporation's fire risk mitigation capital expenditures on the distribution or transmission infrastructure that motivated the public safety power shutoff. The bill would require an electrical corporation that conducts a public safety power shutoff to report specified information about the shutoff and its infrastructure expenditures to the commission. The bill would require the commission to hold a public hearing to determine whether a public safety power shutoff was conducted prudently. The bill would require the commission, if it determines a shutoff or related expenditures were not conducted prudently, to levy fines and penalties against the electrical corporation. The bill would require an electrical corporation to notify the commission, the Office of Emergency Services, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection of a potential public safety power shutoff. The bill would also require an electrical corporation, on or before July 1, 2021, to identify and report to the commission at least 15% of its transmission and distribution infrastructure that is most likely to cause a public safety power shutoff or ignite a wildfire, that needs fire risk mitigation capital expenditures, and for which fire risk mitigation capital expenditures have not been made by July 1, 2021. The bill would require fire risk mitigation capital expenditures to be made on at least 50% of that infrastructure so that a public safety power shutoff is not necessary due to that infrastructure except in extraordinary circumstances by July 1, 2023, on at least 75% of that infrastructure by July 1, 2024, and on all of that infrastructure by July 1, 2025. (3) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act, or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission, is a crime. Because the provisions of the bill would be included in the act and would require action by the commission, a violation of which would be a 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.
Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas of the state as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria. Existing law requires a local agency to designate, by ordinance, very high hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving recommendations from the director. Existing law authorizes a local agency to include areas within its jurisdiction not identified as very high fire hazard severity zones by the director as very high fire hazard severity zones following a specified finding supported by substantial evidence. Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to determine, based on specified criteria, whether an area of the state is one for which the financial responsibility of preventing and suppressing fires is primarily the responsibility of the state. Existing law refers to these areas as "state responsibility areas." This bill would, in furtherance of specified state housing production and wildfire mitigation goals, prohibit the creation or approval of a new development, as defined, in a very high fire hazard severity zone or a state responsibility area. By imposing new duties on local governments with respect to the approval of new developments in very high fire hazard severity zones and state responsibility areas, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. 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.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires the PUC and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to undertake specified actions to advance the state's clean energy and pollution reduction objectives, including, where feasible, cost effective, and consistent with other state policy objectives, to increase the use of large- and small-scale energy storage with a variety of technologies, including green electrolytic hydrogen, targeted energy efficiency, demand response, eligible renewable energy resources or other renewable and nonrenewable technologies with zero or lowest feasible emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants onsite to protect system reliability. For these purposes, "green electrolytic hydrogen" is defined as hydrogen gas produced through electrolysis and not from fossil fuel. Existing law requires the PUC, State Air Resources Board (state board) , and Energy Commission to consider green electrolytic hydrogen as an eligible form of energy storage, and to consider other potential uses of green electrolytic hydrogen. This bill would include use of green electrolytic hydrogen as an alternative transportation fuel as another potential use for these purposes. The Charge Ahead California Initiative, administered by the State Air Resources Board (state board) , among other things, requires the state board to identify and adopt appropriate policies, rules, or regulations to remove regulatory disincentives preventing certain retail sellers of electricity from facilitating the achievement of greenhouse gas emission reductions in nonelectrical industry sectors through increased investments in transportation electrification. Existing law, enacted as part of the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015, requires the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission and state board, to direct electrical corporations to file applications for programs and investments to accelerate widespread transportation electrification, as defined, to achieve specified results. The PUC is required to approve, or modify and approve, programs and investments in transportation electrification, including those that deploy charging infrastructure, through a reasonable cost recovery mechanism, if they meet specified requirements. This bill would revise the definition of "transportation electrification" for this purpose to include the use of renewable hydrogen when used directly as a transportation fuel in fuel cell electric vehicles, if the hydrogen meets specified renewable content requirements. The bill would require the PUC, in consultation with the state board and the Energy Commission, to authorize gas corporations to file applications for investments in programs to accelerate widespread transportation electrification to advance specified environmental objectives. The bill would require the PUC to approve, or modify and approve, programs and investments in transportation electrification, including hydrogen and hydrogen-related distribution, pipelines, and make-ready infrastructure for hydrogen, utilizing a reasonable cost recovery mechanism if they are consistent with the specified environmental objectives, do not unfairly compete with nonutility enterprises, include performance accountability measures, and are in the interest of ratepayers, as defined. Existing law generally designates the state board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution and requires the state board, in partnership with the Energy Commission and in conjunction with other state agencies, to develop and adopt a state plan to increase the use of alternative fuels, as defined. Existing law requires the state board to adopt regulations that will ensure that, in any year immediately following a 12-month period in which the mass of hydrogen fuel dispensed for transportation purposes in California exceeds 3,500 metric tons, no less than 33.3% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be made from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined. This bill would require those regulations to require that, on a statewide basis, not less than 33.3% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be renewable hydrogen, as defined. The bill would require that the renewable hydrogen percentage be increased to 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, 60% by December 31, 2030, and would require that by December 31, 2045, 100% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be either renewable hydrogen or clean hydrogen produced using zero-carbon resources. Existing law requires that the governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility with an annual electrical demand exceeding 700 gigawatthours adopt an integrated resource plan and a process for updating the plan at least once every 5 years to ensure the utility achieves specified objectives. Existing law requires that the integrated resource plan address procurement of, among other things, transportation electrification and a diversified procurement portfolio consisting of both short-term and long-term electricity, electricity-related, and demand response products. By expanding the definition of transportation electrification the bill would expand the matter that a local publicly owned electric utility must consider when updating an integrated resource plan, thereby imposing 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.