This measure would designate Monday, May 7, 2012, as California Peace Officers' Memorial Day, urge all Californians to use that day to honor California peace officers, and recognize specified California peace officers who were killed in defense of their communities.
Existing law imposes an annual assessment of 1% on the gross sales of all deciduous pome and stone fruit trees, nut trees, olive trees, and grapevines, including seeds, seedlings, rootstocks, and topstock, including ornamental varieties of apple, apricot, crabapple, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, and plum, produced and sold within the state or produced within and shipped from the state by any licensed nursery dealer. Existing law provides that the Secretary of Food and Agriculture may exempt from the assessment certain species of pome and stone fruit, nut trees, olive trees, grapevines, or ornamental varieties of apple, apricot, crabapple, cherry, nectarine, olive, peach, pear, and plum if it can be demonstrated that no benefit is derived by these species from specified programs established by existing law concerning pome and stone fruit trees, nut trees, olive trees, and grapevines, as provided. This bill would remove species of olive trees from the plants that the secretary may exempt from the assessment and instead allow the secretary to exempt certain varieties of olive trees from the assessment. The bill would also make a clarifying change.
This measure would designate May 2012 as Foster Care Month in California.
Under existing law, the state, through the State Department of Social Services and county welfare departments, is required to establish and support a public system of statewide child welfare services. Existing law requires the department to establish the California Child and Family Service Review System, in order to review all county child welfare systems, as specified. Under existing law, these reviews cover child protective services, foster care, adoption, family preservation, family support, and independent living. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to authorize the department to obtain access to designated information held by other state agencies as it relates to outcomes for children and youth involved in the child welfare system, for purposes of monitoring those outcomes and improving the operations of the child welfare system. This bill would require the department to consult with state and local agencies, child welfare advocates, and other appropriate entities, to determine the outcomes identified pursuant to the bill. The bill would require the department to provide information to the budget and appropriate policy committees of both houses of the Legislature, regarding identifying and monitoring the specified outcomes, and related findings and recommendations for needed statutory, regulatory, and fiscal changes. Existing law provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible unemployed individuals and requires that the Employment Development Department implement the unemployment insurance system in the state. Existing law authorizes the Director of Employment Development to permit the use of information in his or her possession for specified purposes, including to enable various state agencies to administer programs under their respective jurisdictions. This bill would additionally authorize the director to release specified quarterly wage data to the State Department of Social Services for the purpose of carrying out the department's responsibilities under the bill, to the extent permitted by federal law.
Existing law makes it a public offense, punishable by a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment, or both, for a person to perform or assist in performing a surgical abortion if the person does not have a valid license to practice as a physician and surgeon, or to assist in performing a surgical abortion without a valid license or certificate obtained in accordance with some other provision of law that authorizes him or her to perform the functions necessary to assist in performing a surgical abortion. Existing law also makes it a public offense, punishable by a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment, or both, for a person to perform or assist in performing a nonsurgical abortion if the person does not have a valid license to practice as a physician and surgeon or does not have a valid license or certificate obtained in accordance with some other provision of law authorizing him or her to perform or assist in performing the functions necessary for a nonsurgical abortion. Under existing law, nonsurgical abortion includes termination of pregnancy through the use of pharmacological agents. Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of registered nurses, including nurse practitioners and certified nurse-midwives, by the Board of Registered Nursing. Existing law, the Physician Assistant Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of physician assistants by the Physician Assistant Committee of the Medical Board of California. Existing law authorizes the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to designate experimental health workforce projects as approved projects that, among other things, teach new skills to existing categories of health care personnel. The office has designated a pilot project, known as the Access through Primary Care Project, relating to the provision of health care services involving pregnancy. This bill would authorize a nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife, or physician assistant who has completed training through the pilot project described above on or before January 1, 2013, to continue, outside of that pilot project, to perform abortions by aspiration techniques.
This measure would designate April 2012 as California Autism Awareness Month, would affirm the Legislature's commitment to the important issues related to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) , and would emphasize that each and every individual with an ASD is a valued and important member of our society.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law, relative to private energy producers, requires every electric utility, as defined, to make available to an eligible customer-generator, as defined, a standard contract or tariff for net energy metering on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity used by eligible customer-generators exceeds 5% of the electric utility's aggregate customer peak demand. This bill would specify that an electric utility is also not obligated to provide net energy metering to additional eligible customer-generators that are public agencies whose facilities have a total capacity of more than one megawatt if the collective state-wide capacity of these customers exceeds 100 megawatts. The existing definition of an eligible customer-generator requires that the generator be a residential, small commercial, commercial, industrial, or agricultural customer of the electric utility, that the generating facility use a renewable source listed in the definition of a renewable electricity generation facility that is used for purposes of the Renewable Energy Resources Program administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, that the generating facility have a total capacity of not more than one megawatt, and that it meet certain locational and operational requirements. Existing law authorizes a local publicly owned electric utility to elect to provide co-energy metering, as defined, rather than net energy metering. This bill would include in the definition of an eligible customer-generator, a public agency customer, as defined, meeting the existing requirements applicable to residential, small commercial, commercial, industrial, or agricultural customers, except that that generation facility have a total capacity of not more than 2 megawatts. This bill would also require an eligible customer-generator that is a public agency whose facility or facilities has a total capacity of more than one megawatt to pay for an interconnection study associated with that customer, as well as any distribution grid upgrades found to be necessary by that study. 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 an order of the commission would be required to implement certain of the bill's requirements and 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. Because the bill would expand the net energy metering or co-energy meeting requirements for local publicly owned electric utilities, 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 specified reasons.
This measure would resolve that the Legislature is proud to join the Girl Scouts of the USA in recognizing their 100th anniversary.
(1) The California Constitution requires the Governor to submit annually to the Legislature a budget itemizing state expenditures and estimating state revenues and requires the Legislature to pass the Budget Bill by midnight on June 15. This bill would require that the budget submitted by the Governor to the Legislature for the 2013–14 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, as specified in a plan developed by the Department of Finance and distributed to the appropriate committees of the Legislature by August 1, 2012, be developed pursuant to performance-based budgeting, as defined, for each state agency. (2) Under existing law, a state agency for which an appropriation is made is generally required to submit to the Department of Finance for approval a complete and detailed budget setting forth all proposed expenditures and estimated revenues for the ensuing fiscal year. The bill would require the budget of a state agency, as defined, submitted to the department as specified in the plan developed by the department, to utilize performance-based budgeting for all programs, as defined to include those performed not only by state agencies, but by local agencies, contractors, or others that have a material relationship with the state, or its authorities and activities. For those programs not administered by the state, but which confer a benefit that would not otherwise be conferred but for the action of state government, state departments would be required to develop a process for consulting with responsible local agencies, contractors or other responsible entities, and stakeholders to develop information related to performance standards and program performance. The bill would require the department to include specified performance-based budgeting information in the Governor's Budget proposal and to post that information on the department's Internet Web site. Implementation of the requirement to use performance-based budgeting for departments and programs would be contingent on an appropriation of funding for that requirement in the annual Budget Act.
The Integrated Regional Water Management Planning Act of 2002 authorizes a regional water management group, as defined, to prepare and adopt an integrated regional water management plan. The act requires an integrated regional water management plan to address specified water quality and water supply matters. This bill would additionally require an integrated regional water management plan to identify the manner in which the plan furthers a specified state policy concerning reducing reliance on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for water supply and improving regional self-reliance for water, if the region depends on water from the Delta watershed. The bill would require integrated regional water management plans to incorporate that requirement when they are developed, updated, or amended in accordance with guidelines established by the Department of Water Resources. For an application for funding for a plan that is made prior to an update or amendment of the plan, the bill would require an applicant to specify how the existing plan advances the specified state policy concerning reducing reliance on the Delta for water supply and improving regional self-reliance for water.
