Sen. Ricardo Lara

Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing, including requiring the reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures and imposing other reporting and recordkeeping requirements on campaign committees. The act requires elected officers, candidates, committees, and slate mailer organizations to file various reports, including semiannual reports, preelection statements, and supplemental preelection statements. The act requires the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Fair Political Practices Commission, to develop online and electronic filing processes for specified entities. This bill would require elected state officers, candidates for elective state office and their controlled committees, committees primarily formed to support or oppose a candidate for elective state office or a statewide ballot measure, and state general purpose committees to file quarterly statements each year instead of semiannual statements, as specified. The bill would recast or repeal other specified reporting requirements, including supplemental preelection statements, supplemental independent expenditure reports, and odd-numbered year reports. The act defines "late contributions" and "late independent expenditures" for purposes of the act to include certain contributions and independent expenditures, respectively, that are made within 90 days before the date of the election. This bill would revise the definitions to specify that those terms also include contributions and independent expenditures that are made on the date of the election. The bill would also make conforming changes. This bill would require the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Fair Political Practices Commission, to develop a statewide Internet-based system for the electronic filing and public display of all records filed by or for specified entities. This bill would make all other changes to existing law effected by the bill operative on January 1 of the year following the year in which this system becomes operative, as certified by the Secretary of State. A violation of the act's provisions is punishable as a misdemeanor. By expanding the scope of 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 Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments to be reduced by 1% or 5%, and provider payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 1%, for dates of service on and after March 1, 2009, and until June 1, 2011. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments and payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 10% for dates of service on and after June 1, 2011. This bill would, instead, prohibit the application of those reductions for payments to providers for dates of service on or after June 1, 2011. The bill would also require payments for managed care health plans for dates of service following the effective date of the bill to be determined without application of some of those reductions. The bill would require the Director of Health Care Services to implement this provision to the maximum extent permitted by federal law and for the maximum time period for which the director obtains federal approval for federal financial participation for those payments. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law, commencing January 1, 2014, prohibits a person from discharging from nonvehicular sources air contaminants or other materials that cause injury, detriment, nuisance, or annoyance to the public, or that endanger the comfort, repose, health, or safety of the public, or that cause injury or damage to business or property, as specified. Under existing law, a person who violates this provision is guilty of a misdemeanor, as specified, or is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $10,000, unless that person alleges by affirmative defense and establishes that the act was not the result of intentional or negligent conduct, in which case that person is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $1,000. A person who violates this provision and who acts negligently, knowingly, willfully and intentionally, or with reckless disregard, is liable for a civil penalty in a greater amount, as specified. This bill would make a person who violates this provision liable for a civil penalty of not more than $100,000, as specified, if the violation results from a discharge from a stationary source required by federal law to be included in an operating permit program established pursuant to Title V of the federal Clean Air Act, the discharge results in a severe disruption to the community, the discharge contains or includes one or more toxic air contaminants, as specified, and 100 or more people are exposed to the discharge. The bill would prohibit this provision from applying if the violation is caused by unforeseen and unforeseeable criminal acts, acts of war, acts of terrorism, or civil unrest. The bill would require moneys collected pursuant to this provision to be expended in support of air quality programs. The bill would require that the recovery of a civil penalty under these provisions precludes prosecution of a misdemeanor for the same offense.

Under the existing Political Reform Act of 1974, the Fair Political Practices Commission has primary responsibility for the impartial, effective administration and implementation of the act. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to review the Commission's responsibilities.

Existing law establishes various health research grant programs, including the Cancer Research Program, the Breast Cancer Research Program, and the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program. This bill, the California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in Neuroscience (Cal-BRAIN) Act of 2014, would request the Regents of the University of California to establish the Cal-BRAIN program to leverage California's research assets and the federal BRAIN Initiative's funding opportunities to accelerate the development of brain mapping techniques, including the development of new technologies, in order to achieve certain goals. The bill would additionally request the University of California to convene certain stakeholders to develop a governing structure for the Cal-BRAIN program designed to do specified tasks, and to provide information about the program through an Internet Web site. These provisions would only be implemented to the extent that adequate funding is appropriated to the University of California, as specified.

Existing law, the California Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of residential care facilities for the elderly. These provisions are administered by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law requires the department to notify affected placement agencies and the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman whenever the department substantiates that a violation has occurred which poses a serious threat to the health and safety of any resident when the violation results in the assessment of any penalty or causes an accusation to be filed for the revocation of a license. This bill would additionally require the department to provide the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman with a precautionary notification if the department begins to prepare to issue a temporary suspension or revocation of any license.

The Sales and Use Tax Law exempts from the taxes imposed by that law the sales of food products, nonalcoholic beverages, and other tangible personal property made or produced by an organization, as defined, but only if sold on an irregular or intermittent basis and the organization's profits from the sales are used exclusively in furtherance of the purposes of the organization. The Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, exempts the income of various types of organizations from taxes imposed by that law. This bill would revise the Sales and Use Tax Law exemption for those organizations, as provided. This bill would also provide, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, that an organization that is a public charity youth organization that discriminates on the basis of gender identity, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or religious affiliation is not exempt from the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would include 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 bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.