This measure would urge the Supreme Court of the United States to uphold the federal constitutional principle of "one person, one vote" and not deny California's children and immigrants equal protection under the law.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law provide for a deduction of specified losses sustained as a result of disasters occurring in California in an area determined by the President of the United States to warrant specified federal assistance or, for other disasters for which a specific law has been enacted, proclaimed by the Governor to be in a state of emergency. Those laws allow a taxpayer to elect to deduct those disaster losses on the return for the taxable year preceding the taxable year in which the disaster occurred, filed by a specified date. Existing law also allows individual and corporate taxpayers to utilize net operating losses and carryovers and carrybacks of those losses for purposes of offsetting their individual and corporate tax liabilities. Existing law, for net operating losses incurred in taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013, allows net operating losses to be carrybacks to each of the preceding 2 taxable years, as provided, but varies the amount of carryback allowed for net operating losses attributed to specified taxable years. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2024, extend the provisions relating to disaster losses to losses in any city, county, or city and county that is proclaimed by the Governor to be in a state of emergency and would extend the time during which a taxpayer may claim the deduction. This bill would additionally provide that any law that suspends, defers, reduces, or otherwise diminishes the deduction of a net operating loss, other than those variations already imposed in existing law, shall not apply to a net operating loss attributable to these specified disaster losses. This bill would make a legislative finding and declaration relating to the statewide public purpose served by the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
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. One of the methods by which these services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care health plans. Existing federal law provides for the federal Medicare Program, which is a public health insurance program for persons 65 years of age and older and specified persons with disabilities who are under 65 years of age. Existing law, the Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI) , requires the department to seek federal approval pursuant to a Medicare or a Medicaid demonstration project or waiver, or a combination thereof, to establish a demonstration project that enables beneficiaries dually eligible for the Medi-Cal program and the Medicare Program to receive a continuum of services that maximizes access to, and coordination of, benefits between the programs. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the CCI and the availability of consumer protections for beneficiaries. The bill would require, no later than July 1, 2016, the department to develop and post on the department's Internet Web site, an educational and informational guide to assist consumers and patients in understanding the rights afforded to them under the CCI and how to effectively exercise those rights, as specified. The bill would require the department to distribute the educational and informational guide to specified consumer advocacy groups and programs and, upon request, to all other interested persons. The bill would require the department to update the educational and informational guide annually, or as necessary, to keep the information contained in the guide up to date regarding changes to the CCI.
This measure would recognize the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The California Constitution requires the reasonable and beneficial use of water. Existing law establishes various state water policies, including the policy that the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable. Existing law, the Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation Development Act, declares, among other things, that electrical and natural gas utilities should have as a principal goal of their resource planning and investment to minimize the cost to society of reliable energy services, improve the environment, and encourage the diversity of energy sources. The act also declares that those utilities should seek to exploit all practicable and cost-effective conservation and improvements in the efficiency of energy use and distribution that offer equivalent or better system of reliability. This bill would declare the policy of the state that water use and water treatment shall operate in a manner that is as energy efficient as is feasible and energy use and generation shall operate in a manner that is as water efficient as is feasible. This bill would require all relevant state agencies to consider this state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, and grant criteria when pertinent to these uses of water and energy.
The California Coastal Sanctuary Act of 1994 authorizes the State Lands Commission to enter into a lease for the extraction of oil or gas from state-owned tide and submerged lands in the California Coastal Sanctuary if the commission determines that the oil or gas deposits are being drained by means of producing wells upon adjacent federal lands and the lease is in the best interest of the state. This bill would enact the California Coastal Protection Act of 2015, which would delete this authorization. The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.
(1) Existing law, the Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995, requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to establish and oversee an environmental farming program to provide incentives to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat. The act requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to convene a 5-member Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming for the purpose of providing advice and assistance to federal, state, and local government agencies on issues relating to air, water, and wildlife habitat, as specified. This bill instead would authorize, rather than require, the environmental farming program to provide incentives, including loans, grants, research, technical assistance, or educational materials and outreach, to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat, and reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions or increase carbon storage in agricultural soils and woody biomass, or both. The bill would rename the panel the Environmental Farming Science Advisory Panel and revise the panel's membership and duties, as specified. The bill would require the panel to provide a biennial report describing its work to the Legislature and the Governor, among others. The bill would provide that $25,000,000 shall be made available to the department, upon appropriation, from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to support projects to demonstrate agricultural management practices and activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon storage in agricultural soils and woody biomass, as specified. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the panel, to develop and implement a grant program to carry out the purposes of the act and would require the State Air Resources Board, in consultation with the secretary and the panel, to consider and recommend, as appropriate, the use of available tools to demonstrate and quantify greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the grant program. (2) 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 act authorizes the state board to include the 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. Existing law continuously appropriates 20% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the Strategic Growth Council for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, as provided. This bill would require the council, no later than the 2015–16 fiscal year, to establish and administer a grant program, as part of the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program established by the council in conjunction with the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, to provide financial incentives for the adoption and use of land management practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon in soil and woody biomass, and provide other cobenefits on working agricultural operations, as specified. The bill would continuously appropriate 2% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the Strategic Growth Council to be expended for agricultural land protection consistent with the provisions of that grant program, thereby making an appropriation.
The Reliable Electric Service Investments Act requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , in evaluating energy efficiency investments, to ensure that local and regional interests, multifamily dwellings, and energy service industry capabilities are incorporated into program portfolio design and that local governments, community-based organizations, and energy efficiency service providers are encouraged to participate in program implementation where appropriate. This bill would require the PUC, in ensuring that prudent investments in energy efficiency are made and produce cost-effective energy savings, reduce customer demand, and support the state's greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, to contract with an independent entity to serve as the California Market Transformation Administrator (CalMTA) . The bill would require the PUC to require the CalMTA to work in concert with other energy efficiency administrators that are carrying out energy efficiency activities under the PUC's oversight to incorporate long-term market transformation strategies into the state's energy efficiency portfolio. The bill would require the PUC to modify the energy efficiency programs that it adopts to incorporate a portfolio of long-term market transformation initiatives on a statewide basis. The bill would require the PUC, as part of the portfolio, to take certain actions, including, among other actions, encouraging local publicly owned electric utilities to voluntarily participate in and support the market transformation initiatives adopted by the PUC to ensure statewide consistency and full market deployment. Because a violation of these requirements 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.
The California Disaster Assistance Act generally provides that the state share for disaster project allocations to local agencies is no more than 75% of total state eligible costs, except for specified events for which the state share is up to 100% of state eligible costs. This bill would add the August 24, 2014, South Napa Earthquake to the list of events for which the state share of state eligible cost is up to 100%. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Under existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, the State Department of Developmental Services is authorized to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. Existing law requires an entity that receives payments between $250,000 and $500,000 per year from one or more regional centers to obtain an independent audit or review of its financial statements and requires an entity that receives payments that are equal to or more than $500,000 per year to obtain an independent audit. Existing law exempts payments made using usual and customary rates for services provided by regional centers from these requirements. This bill would instead require an entity to obtain an independent audit or review report of its financial statements relating to payments made by regional centers if it receives payments between $500,000 and $2,000,000 from one or more regional centers and would authorize these entities to apply for, and require the regional center to grant, a 2-year exemption from this requirement if the regional center does not find issues in the audit or review that have an impact on regional center services. The bill would also require an entity to obtain an independent audit if it receives payments that are equal to or more than $2,000,000 and would authorize these entities to apply for, and require the regional center to grant, a 2-year exemption from the audit requirement if the audit resulted in an unmodified opinion, an unmodified opinion with additional communication, or a qualified opinion with issues that are not material and pervasive. The bill would require a regional center to notify the department of any exemption it grants to an entity that receives a qualified opinion report. The bill would also exempt social security benefit payments from these requirements.
