Sen. Josh Newman

The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit for qualified renters in the amount of $120 for spouses filing joint returns, heads of household, and surviving spouses if adjusted gross income is $50,000, as adjusted, or less, and in the amount of $60 for other individuals if adjusted gross income is $25,000, as adjusted, or less. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to prepare a written report by April 1, 2023, on the number of taxpayers claiming the credit, and the average credit amount on returns claiming the credit.

Existing law prohibits settlement agreements from containing provisions that prevent the disclosure of factual information related to specified claims or causes of action, such as information relating to an act of sexual harassment or an act that may be prosecuted as a felony sex offense. This bill would prohibit a provision within an agreement between the parties in an action the factual foundation for which establishes a cause of action for civil damages regarding a defective product or environmental hazard that poses a danger to public health or safety, as defined, that purports to restrict the disclosure of factual information related to the action. The bill would provide that those provisions are void as a matter of law and as against public policy and unenforceable, except as specified. The bill would provide that the disclosure of discoverable factual information relating to those actions must not be restricted by stipulation or by order of a court or arbitral tribunal, except for specified categories of information such as medical information, personal identifying information, the amount of the settlement, current proprietary customer lists, trade secrets, or citizenship or immigration status. The bill would allow a person for whom it is reasonably foreseeable that the person would be affected by a provision, agreement, or order, to challenge the provision, agreement, or order, as specified. The bill would allow a party, including an intervenor that has become a party, or a person whose attendance in the action or production of documents or other tangible things is required by subpoena, subpoena duces tecum, or other means, to file a motion for nondisclosure under these provisions. The bill would require a party requiring attendance in the action or production of documents of a person who is not a party to the action to provide a notice of the availability of a motion for nondisclosure of a proprietary customer list or trade secret to the person who is not a party to the action. The bill would provide that an attorney's failure to comply with these provisions may be grounds for professional discipline.

The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes 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. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes, including an exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or consumption of, tangible personal property sold by a thrift store located on a military installation and operated by a designated entity, as defined, that, in partnership with the United States Department of Defense, provides financial, educational, and other assistance to members of the Armed Forces of the United States, eligible family members, and survivors that are in need. Existing law provides that this exemption will remain in effect only until January 1, 2024. This bill would remove the exemption's expiration date. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would make findings and declarations in satisfaction of that requirement. 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, as specified. 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 that provision, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the provisions this bill would impose. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

(1) Existing law, the CalSavers Retirement Savings Trust Act, administered by the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board, establishes the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program and the CalSavers Retirement Savings Trust. Under existing law, the trust consists of a program fund and an administrative fund with trust moneys that are continuously appropriated and administered by the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board for the purpose of promoting greater retirement savings for California private employees. Existing law requires eligible employers to offer a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement so that eligible employees may contribute a portion of their salary or wages to a retirement savings program account in the program, as specified. Existing law defines "eligible employer" for purposes of the act to mean a person or entity engaged in a business, industry, profession, trade, or other enterprise in the state, excluding specified federal, state, and local governmental entities, with 5 or more employees and that satisfies certain requirements to establish or participate in a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement. This bill would expand that definition of "eligible employer" to include a person or entity, as described above, that has at least one eligible employee and that satisfies the requirements to establish or participate in a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement, and would additionally exclude from the definition of "eligible employer" sole proprietorships, self-employed individuals, or other business entities that do not employ any individuals other than the owners of the business. By expanding eligibility under the act, the bill would remove a restriction limiting expenditure of funds and authorize the expenditure of continuously appropriated moneys for a new purpose, thereby making an appropriation. (2) Existing law authorizes an employer to choose to have a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement to allow employee participation in the program under the terms and conditions prescribed by the board. Existing law requires eligible employers with more than 100 eligible employees and those with more than 50 eligible employees, that do not offer a retirement savings program, to have a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement to allow employee participation in the program within 12 or 24 months, respectively, as prescribed. Existing law requires all other eligible employers that do not offer a retirement savings program, within 36 months after the board opens the program for enrollment, to have a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement to allow employee participation in the program. This bill would instead require eligible employers with 5 or more employees and that do not offer a retirement savings program to have a payroll deposit savings arrangement to allow employee participation in the program within 36 months after the board opens the program for enrollment. By December 31, 2025, the bill would require eligible employers with one or more eligible employees and that do not provide a retirement savings program, to have a payroll deposit savings arrangement to allow employee participation in the program.

Existing law establishes the Structural Pest Control Board, within the Department of Consumer Affairs, and requires the board to license and regulate structural pest control operators, as specified. Existing law makes a violation of provisions regulating structural pest control operators a misdemeanor. Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, provides for the licensing and regulation of contractors by the Contractors State License Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law requires every licensed contractor, or applicant for licensure, to have on file at all times with the Contractors State License Board a current and valid Certificate of Workers' Compensation Insurance or Certification of Self-Insurance, or a statement certifying that they have no employees and are not required to obtain or maintain workers' compensation insurance, and specifies various rules that apply to certain license classifications. Existing law requires the insurer, including the State Compensation Insurance Fund, to report to the registrar of contractors the name, license number, policy number, dates that coverage is scheduled to commence and lapse, and cancellation date if the policy is canceled for specified reasons. Existing law provides that willful or deliberate disregard and violation of workers' compensation insurance laws constitutes a cause for disciplinary action. This bill would, similar to the provision governing contractors, prohibit the Structural Pest Control Board from issuing, reinstating, or continuing to maintain any structural pest control operator company registration unless the applicant or existing company has filed a current and valid Certificate of Workers' Compensation Insurance as evidence of current and valid Workers' Compensation Insurance coverage, or a statement certifying that they have no employees and are not required to obtain or maintain workers' compensation insurance. The bill would also require the insurer, including the State Compensation Insurance Fund, to report to the registrar of the Structural Pest Control Board the company name, registration number, policy number, dates that coverage is scheduled to commence and lapse, and cancellation date if the policy is canceled for specified reasons. The bill would provide that willful or deliberate disregard and violation of workers' compensation insurance laws constitutes a cause for disciplinary action, and that a violation of these provisions is not a misdemeanor, as specified.

Existing law grants state employees certain health, dental, and vision benefits, and authorizes other public agencies, including the Legislature, to elect to contract for these benefits. Existing law, which is applicable to certain state employees, requires the state employer, upon the death of an employee while in state service, to continue to pay employer contributions for health, dental, and vision benefits for a period not to exceed 120 days, as specified. Existing law also requires in this context that the state employer provide certain information and notifications to surviving spouses and other eligible family members. This bill would require the Legislature, upon the death of a legislative employee while in service, to continue to pay employer contributions for health benefits for a period not to exceed 120 days, as specified, to the extent the benefits have been elected. The bill would specify, for these purposes, that the employer is the Senate or the Assembly, as may be applicable, and would identify the entities responsible for providing certain advisements to surviving spouses and other eligible family members.

Existing law categorizes certain drugs and other substances as controlled substances and prohibits various actions related to those substances, including their manufacture, transportation, sale, possession, and ingestion. Existing law creates a Research Advisory Panel, as specified, to conduct hearings on, and in other ways study, research projects concerning cannabis or hallucinogenic drugs. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to convene a working group, as specified, to research and make recommendations to the Legislature regarding, among other things, the regulation and use of psilocybin, psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine (DMT) , ibogaine, mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) , and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) .

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 39 in the City of Huntington Beach as the Officer Nicholas Vella Memorial Highway. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.

This measure would, among other things, proclaim the month of July 2022 as California Firefighter Appreciation Month and July 30, 2022, as California Firefighters Memorial Day.

Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to employ persons for positions not requiring certification qualifications and the governing board of a community college district to employ persons for positions that are not academic positions. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district or community college district to classify those employees and positions and requires that they be known as the classified service. Existing law establishes procedures through which a school district or community college district may be authorized to adopt a merit system with respect to its personnel. Existing law requires a school district or community college district that has a merit system to appoint a personnel commission to prescribe, amend, and interpret rules regarding the merit system. Existing law deems a person who has served an initial probationary period in a class not to exceed 6 months or 130 days of paid service, whichever is longer, as prescribed by the rules of the commission, to be in the permanent classified service, except as provided. Existing law requires that, in a school district or community college district that has adopted a merit system for its classified employees, an employee shall not attain permanent status in the classified service until the employee has completed a probationary period in a class. Under existing law, in a school district that has not adopted a merit system for its employees, a permanent employee who accepts a promotion and fails to complete the probationary period for that promotional position is required to be employed in the classification from which the employee was promoted. This bill, in a school district that has adopted a merit system for its employees, would require a permanent employee who accepts a promotion and fails to complete the probationary period for that promotional position to be employed in the classification from which the employee was promoted. Under existing law, in a community college district that has not adopted a merit system for its employees, a permanent employee who accepts a promotion and fails to complete the probationary period for that promotional classification is required to be employed in the position from which the employee was promoted. This bill, in a community college district that has adopted a merit system for its employees, would require a permanent employee who accepts a promotion and fails to complete the probationary period for that promotional classification to be employed in the position from which the employee was promoted. This bill would not apply the above-described provisions to a conflicting collective bargaining agreement entered into before January 1, 2023, until the expiration or renewal of that collective bargaining agreement.