The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing state board regulations require specified entities to comply with a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, and require additional specified entities to comply with that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015. This bill instead would exempt categories of persons or entities that did not have a compliance obligation, as defined, under a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, from being subject to that market-based compliance mechanism through December 31, 2020. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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Under existing law, it is an infraction for any person to drive a motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication, unless the device is configured to allow hands-free operation. A person under 18 years of age is prohibited from driving a motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communications device, even if equipped with a hands-free device. Under existing law, a violation of these provisions is an infraction punishable by a fine of $20 for a first offense and $50 for each subsequent offense, but does not result in the assessment of a violation point against the driver's record for purposes of suspension or revocation of the privilege to drive. This bill would require that one point be assessed for a violation of the prohibitions on driving a motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication. This bill would also increase the base fine to $40 for a first offense and to $100 for each subsequent offense.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA exempts various projects from its requirements. This bill would exempt specified renewable energy projects of limited duration on disturbed land, as defined, that meet certain requirements. Because a lead agency would be required to determine if a project qualifies for this exemption, 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.
Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when income is derived directly from real property acquired and operated by the state as a wildlife management area, as defined, to pay annually to the county in which the property is located an amount equal to the county taxes levied upon the property at the time title to the property was transferred to the state, and any assessments levied upon the property by any irrigation, drainage, or reclamation district. This bill would appropriate $19,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties for unpaid amounts under these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law imposes requirements on the Department of Water Resources in connection with the preparation of a Bay Delta Conservation Plan. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation establishing judicial review procedures for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to amend CEQA.
Existing law establishes the annual salary of the members of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, the Public Employment Relations Board, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board, the State Personnel Board, the State Air Resources Board, and the Central Valley Flood Protection Board. This bill would, for nonelected members of these state boards and commissions appointed on or after January 1, 2016, set the annual salary at $12,000.
Existing law provides that a person who inflicts great bodily injury on another person in the commission or attempted commission of a felony, including a person who is 70 years of age or older, or under specified circumstances, including domestic violence, shall be punished by additional and consecutive terms of imprisonment, as specified. Existing law makes these provisions inapplicable to murder or manslaughter. This bill would instead provide that those provisions are inapplicable to great bodily injury suffered by the victim of murder or manslaughter. The bill would specify that this provision does not preclude a person from being subject to an additional and consecutive term of imprisonment for great bodily injury, whether resulting in death or not, suffered by a victim other than the victim who is the subject of the murder or manslaughter charge. By expanding the applicability of an enhancement that must be pled and proved, 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 transferee of a California real property interest, in specified circumstances, to withhold, for income tax purposes, 313% of the sales price of the property when the property is acquired from either an individual, or a partnership or corporation without a permanent place of business, as specified. Existing law also allows, by election of the transferor, alternative withholding amounts that are not less than the amount of gain required to be recognized under income tax laws multiplied by the corporation tax rate, bank and financial corporate tax rate, the highest personal income tax rate, or the current "S" corporation tax rate plus the highest personal income tax rate, as applicable. This bill would eliminate these withholding provisions for the disposition of a California real property interest that occurs on or after January 1, 2016, and would instead require the transferee of a California real property interest to withhold 3â…“% of the purchase price of the property if the property was either acquired from a person, who is not a resident or who after the transfer of the real property will no longer be a resident of this state, or from a corporation, if after the transfer that corporation has no permanent place of business in this state.
Existing law, with certain exceptions, prohibits recreational use, in which there is bodily contact with water, in a reservoir in which water is stored for domestic use and establishes water standards for those exempted reservoirs. This bill would exempt from this prohibition recreational activity in which there is bodily contact with water by any participant in the Diamond Valley Reservoir if certain standards are met. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Diamond Valley Reservoir in the County of Riverside.