Sen. Sabrina Cervantes

The Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act authorizes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to, among other things, provide financing for specified economic development projects, including economic development facilities, as defined. The act authorizes the bank to make credit enhancements to a sponsor or participating party as financial assistance for a project. The act prohibits the bank from providing financing if the bank has not determined that the financing meets specified public interest criteria. Existing federal law authorizes the United States Secretary of the Treasury to certify and designate qualified opportunity zones. Existing federal law authorizes a taxpayer to defer to a later taxable year specified capital gains from certain investments in property located in a qualified opportunity zone. Under existing federal law, a qualified opportunity zone means a population census tract that is a low-income community. This bill would require the bank to consider providing a credit enhancement to support an economic development facility in a qualified opportunity zone and to establish procedures for the expeditious review of applications for those credit enhancements. The bill would further authorize the bank to provide credit enhancements that support financing for economic development facilities located in a qualified opportunity zone. The bill would also create additional required public interest criteria that would apply to these credit enhancements.

Existing law establishes a system of postsecondary education in this state, including the University of California, the California State University, the California Community Colleges, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions as the segments of that system. Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the state agency that generally administers student financial aid programs. These programs include, among others, the Cal Grant Program. This bill would prohibit the Student Aid Commission or an institution of higher education from performing a verification to establish eligibility for state financial aid on a student more than once, unless there is a break in attendance of more than one year by the student or the student transfers institutions, in which circumstance an additional verification would be authorized. This bill would, however, authorize the Student Aid Commission through an institution, or an institution internally, to verify student enrollment and grade point average for the purpose of verifying student eligibility under existing state financial aid eligibility requirements.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. Existing law provides for the establishment of apprenticeship programs in various trades, to be approved by the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards in any trade in the state or in a city or trade area whenever the apprentice training needs justify the establishment. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2024, would allow a credit against the taxes imposed under those tax laws in an amount equal to $1 for each hour a registered apprentice worked in the taxable year, up to $1,000 each for up to 10 registered apprentices, as defined, trained by the taxpayer in the taxable year. This bill would provide that the credit would have an aggregate cap of $10,000,000 for each calendar year. This bill would require the Division of Apprenticeship Standards in the Department of Industrial Relations, among other things, to establish a procedure for taxpayers, in the form and manner jointly prescribed by the Division of Apprenticeship Standards and the Franchise Tax Board, to apply and receive a certificate for purposes of the credit. This bill would also require the Division of Apprenticeship Standards to prepare reports for each of the 5 calendar years beginning on January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2026, containing specified information relating to the credits, to be submitted to the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees, the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee, and the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on or before March 1 of the following calendar year, commencing March 1, 2022. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and charges it with certain duties and powers, including, among other things, the operation of prisons and other specified institutions. This bill would require the department to establish a Peace Officer Peer Support Labor Management Committee tasked with crafting, updating, and monitoring the implementation of a standardized statewide peace officer policy for the department's peer support program to provide substantive assistance to the peace officers employed by the department. The bill would require the committee to be composed of an equal number of representatives of the employer and peace officer employees, and would require the members of the committee to be selected and hold their first meeting on or before July 1, 2020. The bill would require the policy to address, among other things, the selection process and training for peer support team members, and guidelines for the types of communication that would remain confidential within the peer support program. The bill would require the policy to be fully implemented by January 1, 2022. The bill would require the department to submit, beginning July 1, 2020, an annual report to the Legislature that contains data pertaining to the utilization rates of the peace officer peer support program statewide.

Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program, establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B Awards, the Cal Grant C Awards, and the Cal Grant T Awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law specifies the amounts of the maximum Cal Grant A and B awards for students attending private nonprofit postsecondary institutions of higher education and private for-profit postsecondary educational institutions that are regionally accredited, as specified. Beginning with the 2020–21 award year, the maximum tuition award is either $9,084 or $8,056, depending upon whether the number of new unduplicated transfer students accepted by private nonprofit postsecondary educational institutions who have been given associate degree for transfer commitments, as defined, in the prior award year meet and exceed specified targets. This bill would change, in accordance with a prescribed formula, the maximum Cal Grant award for tuition for a new recipient attending an independent institution of higher education, commencing with the 2020–21 award year. This bill would provide that the award amount for a student attending an independent institution of higher education may be determined in the annual Budget Act if the independent institutions of higher education, as a group, do not accept the specified number of transfer students who have been given associate degree for transfer commitments.

Existing law establishes the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) as the statewide system of pupil assessments under which certain assessments are required or authorized to be administered in public schools, as specified, including a consortium summative assessment in English language arts and mathematics for grades 3 to 8, inclusive, and grade 11 that measures content standards adopted by the State Board of Education. This bill would require, pursuant to specified provisions of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Superintendent of Public Instruction to approve a nationally recognized high school assessment that a local educational agency, as defined, may, at its own discretion, administer, if the alternative assessment is approved by the local educational agency's governing board or body in a public meeting, commencing with the 2021–22 school year, and each school year thereafter, in lieu of the consortium summative assessment in English language arts and mathematics for grade 11. The bill would require a nationally recognized high school assessment approved by the Superintendent to meet specified requirements, would authorize the Superintendent to require the publisher of that assessment to provide documentation that the assessment meets or exceeds these requirements, and would require the Superintendent, if he or she determines that the assessment does not meet these requirements, to inform the assessment's publisher in writing of specific deficiencies and changes needed to meet these requirements. The bill would authorize a governing board of a local educational agency that is part of a consortium of local educational agencies to enter into a cooperative contract with a publisher for purposes of providing an assessment, as provided. To the extent permitted by the United States Department of Education, the bill would deem certain nationally recognized high school assessments to meet these requirements, and would require the Superintendent to approve these assessments for selection by a local educational agency. The bill would require the state board to amend the state plan required pursuant to federal law to account for the authorization for local educational agencies to use an alternate assessment pursuant to the bill's provisions, if required by federal law. The bill would require a local educational agency that administers a nationally recognized high school assessment to comply with specified requirements, would require the Superintendent to apportion to the local educational agency the lesser of the actual cost of administering the alternative assessment, as specified, and the amount that would have been apportioned to the local educational agency if it had administered the consortium summative assessment in English language arts and mathematics for grade 11. The bill would state that a local educational agency may administer only one nationally recognized high school assessment in lieu of the consortium summative assessment in English language arts and mathematics for grade 11. The bill would make these provisions inoperative 5 years after the first school year in which a local educational agency is able to exercise the authority to administer the alternative assessment, as specified, and would repeal these provisions as of the following January 1. The bill would require the Superintendent to inform the Legislative Counsel within 30 days of when this 5 year condition has been satisfied and post that determination on its internet website. The bill would require the State Department of Education to ensure that local educational agencies comply with specified requirements concerning the alternative assessment that apply in connection with the summative assessments under the CAASPP, including that grade 11 pupils, or parents or legal guardians of those pupils, may request results from the alternative assessment. Existing law requires the Superintendent to prepare and submit, and subsequently post on the internet website of the department, an annual report to the state board containing an analysis of the results and test scores of the summative assessments administered under the CAASPP. This bill would require the Superintendent to include the results and test scores of the alternative assessment in that annual report.

This measure would recognize September 2020 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month and encourage the Legislature to appropriate funds for research, treatment, and monitoring of sickle cell disease, and for related education and outreach.

This measure would urge specified state departments and the Attorney General to use their authority to ensure that health care service plans and health insurers subject to their authority comply with the federal Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.

(1) Proposition 6, an initiative measure approved by the electors at the November 3, 1998, general election, enacted the Prohibition of Horse Slaughter and Sale of Horsemeat for Human Consumption Act of 1998. The act makes it unlawful, and punishable as a felony, for any person to possess, to import into or export from the state, or to sell, buy, give away, hold, or accept any horse with the intent of killing, or having another kill, that horse, if that person knows or should have known that any part of that horse will be used for human consumption. The act also makes it unlawful to offer horsemeat for sale for human consumption. The Equine Protection Act of 1991 creates a program of equine protection and identification in the Department of Food and Agriculture. The act prohibits any person from purchasing, consigning, selling, or accepting the donation of an animal, defined as a horse, pony, mule, or burro, that is destined for slaughter unless a written bill of sale or any written instrument containing specified information is provided, as prescribed. The act makes it a misdemeanor if any person does not keep the necessary written records with respect to these transactions and other transactions subject to the act, refuses to show the records to a peace officer or to allow copies to be made of the record, or destroys the record within a specified period of time. This bill would instead require a written bill of sale or written instrument to be provided when any person purchases, consigns, sells, or accepts the donation of an animal, as defined in the act, at a public or private auction, as prescribed. The bill would require a person who purchases an animal in these circumstances to sign a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, acknowledging and agreeing to comply with Proposition 6. The bill would require, before any animal could be sold at an auction, the operator of the auction yard to determine whether the animal has an implanted microchip or has been tattooed or branded with an identifying mark. If the animal has an implanted microchip, a tattoo, or a brand, the bill would require the operator of the auction yard to post, on its internet website and through any active social media in which the operator of the auction yard participates, all identifying information, as provided, for at least 24 hours. The bill would also require, for a minimum of one year following the date of sale of each animal sold at auction, the operator of the auction yard to maintain specified records that document compliance with the above provisions. The bill would require the operator of the auction yard to provide access to these records upon the request of the Department of Food and Agriculture, a law enforcement officer, an animal control agency, or a humane officer, as provided. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, and by expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require, in addition to any other penalties available under law, a person who violates these provisions to be subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 for the first offense and $2,000 for the 2nd and each subsequent offense. (2) Existing law requires that, at any public auction or sale where equines are sold, a specified notice be posted conspicuously or inserted into the consignment agreement, as specified, by the management of the auction or sale warning buyers and sellers that horses sold there may be purchased for slaughter and that, as a possible safeguard, the seller can set the minimum bid above current slaughter prices. Existing law requires the management of the auction or sale to post current slaughter prices or to make them available to sellers upon request. This bill would instead require that notice or agreement to warn buyers that the sale of horses in California for slaughter for human consumption is a felony and would make a conforming change. (3) 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.