Sen. Norma Torres

This measure would designate a specified location on State Highway Route 1 in the City of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway. This measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering those costs, to erect those signs.

The Vehicle License Fee Law, in lieu of any ad valorem property tax upon vehicles, imposes an annual license fee for any vehicle subject to registration in this state in the amount of 1% of the market value of that vehicle, as provided, for a specified amount of time. Existing law also, until June 30, 2011, imposes an additional tax equal to 0.15% of the market value of specified vehicles, as determined by the Department of Motor Vehicles, to the vehicle license fee, to be deposited in the General Fund and transferred to the Local Safety and Protection Account, a continuously appropriated fund. This bill would repeal the provision relating to the sunset date and repeal of the additional 0.15% tax, thereby depositing additional moneys into a continuously appropriated fund. This bill would constitute a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.

This measure would proclaim October 22 to October 30, 2011, as including Red Ribbon Week, and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and participate in drug prevention activities.

Existing law establishes the Multifamily Housing Program under the administration of the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide a standardized set of program rules and features applicable to all housing types based on the department's California Housing Rehabilitation Program. Under the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2002, $195,000,000 is to be expended for supportive housing projects under the Multifamily Housing Program. Existing law establishes priority criteria for housing projects and requires that a borrower of program funds include specified data in an annual report to the department. Existing law authorizes the department take specified action to provide and maintain rents that are affordable to the target population, as defined. This bill would modify the definition of the term "target population" and make several changes to the information a borrower may include in his or her annual report. The bill would also impose new requirements with respect to the populations served by the supportive housing program.

This measure would proclaim the month of March of every year as Read Across California Month and request that public and private stakeholders work together to raise awareness of the importance of reading to young children and the importance of independent reading among our pupils and citizens of California by encouraging everyone to read for 30 minutes for 30 days during the month of March of every year, in conjunction with the Read Across America campaign held annually on March 2.

This measure would recognize June 19, 2011, as Veterans of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Day, in memory of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for freedom and democracy and the victims of the Vietnam War, and in honor of the survivors, activists, and freedom fighters of that war.

This measure would recognize March 31, 2011, as the anniversary of the birth of César Chávez, and would call upon all Californians to participate in appropriate observances to remember César Chávez as a symbol of hope and justice to all persons.

This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to continue to provide resources to increase the supply of physicians in California and to consider solutions that would increase the number of graduate medical education residency positions.

This measure would continue designation and observance of the month of October as Italian American Heritage Month. This measure would also encourage the Legislature to continue the Italian American Legislator Project and welcome the exhibit "The Italian American Legislator Project of 2011: A Legacy of Service to the California Legislature" to the State Capitol Building in October 2011 and encourage all Californians, through the K–12 curriculum and otherwise, to learn about the history, role, and contributions of Italian Americans to the State of California.