The Political Reform Act of 1974 regulates mass mailings, known as slate mailers, that support or oppose multiple candidates or ballot measures for an election. The act requires that each slate mailer identify the slate mailer organization that is sending the slate mailer and make other specified disclosures, and further requires the slate mailer organization to file periodic statements reporting payments received and expenditures made to produce slate mailers. This bill would provide that, if a slate mailer organization sends a slate mailer or other mass mailing that displays a logo, insignia, emblem, or trademark that is identical or substantially similar to the logo, insignia, emblem, or trademark of a governmental agency or a nongovernmental organization that represents law enforcement, firefighting, emergency medical, or other public safety personnel, and that would reasonably be understood to imply the participation or endorsement of that governmental agency or nongovernmental organization, the slate mailer organization would be required to obtain the express written consent of the governmental agency or nongovernmental organization associated with the logo, insignia, emblem, or trademark prior to using the logo, insignia, emblem, or trademark in the slate mailer or other mass mailing. This bill would also provide that, if a slate mailer organization sends a slate mailer or other mass mailing that identifies itself or its source material as representing a nongovernmental organization with a name that would reasonably be understood to imply that the organization is composed of, or affiliated with, law enforcement, firefighting, emergency medical, or other public safety personnel, the slate mailer or mass mailing would be required to disclose the total number of members in the organization identified in the slate mailer or mass mailing. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating additional crimes. 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.
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The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit against those taxes for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in an amount equal to a specified percentage of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture has relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law allows specified qualified taxpayers to elect to assign the credit, requires specified information from qualified taxpayers that apply for a tax credit allocation, and imposes specified duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits, including a requirement to allocate the tax credits until July 1, 2015, and limits the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated to qualified motion pictures in any fiscal year to $100,000,000, through the 2014–15 fiscal year. Existing law additionally allows, in lieu of the credits under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures, a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. This bill, under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, would impose additional duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits and would extend the requirement to allocate the tax credits 2 additional years, until July 1, 2017. This bill would also extend the limit on the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated through the 2016–17 fiscal year. This bill would also require assigning qualified taxpayers to provide the Franchise Tax Board with specified information, would revise the information included in an application for a tax credit allocation, and require the Legislative Analyst's Office to prepare reports related to the effectiveness and administration of the qualified motion picture credit under the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, and the Corporation Tax Law. This bill would require the California Film Commission to annually post on its Internet Web site and make available for public release specified information, including a list of qualified taxpayers and the tax credit amounts allocated to each qualified taxpayer by the commission. The bill would authorize various state agencies to disclose specified taxpayer information for purposes of the Legislative Analyst's Office report, and would impose specified criminal penalties on the disclosure of that information. By expanding the crime of knowingly and wrongfully accessing, using, or disclosing specified information, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law prohibits a person from acting as a dealer in vehicles, as specified, without a license issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Existing law governs conditional sale contracts, as defined, for the purchase of motor vehicles, including the enforceability of those contracts. Existing law also governs lease contracts, as defined, for the lease of motor vehicles, including the enforceability of those contracts. Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, the violation of which is a crime, provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders by the Commissioner of Corporations, but exempts from its provisions a bona fide conditional contract of sale involving the disposition of personal property when that form of agreement is not used for the purpose of evading provisions of that law. This bill would enact the Buy-Here-Pay-Here Automobile Dealers Act. The bill would define a "buy-here-pay-here" dealer as a dealer, as defined, who enters into conditional sale contracts, as defined, or lease contracts, as defined, and assigns less than 90% of all unrescinded contracts to an unaffiliated 3rd-party finance or leasing source, within 45 days of the consummation of those contracts. The bill would exclude from this definition automobile sellers who meet specified requirements. This bill would require those dealers to obtain a finance lender license and subject them to specified other provisions of the California Finance Lenders Law. The bill would also define a "buyer-borrower" as a person who enters into a conditional sale contract or lease contract with a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer. The bill would provide that the Department of Corporations would have regulatory jurisdiction over the lending and repossessing activities of buy-here-pay-here automobile dealers, as specified. This bill would govern the terms and conditions of contracts entered into by a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer and the rights of the parties, including, but not limited to, requiring a notice to a buyer-borrower of specified rights under the contract. (2) Existing law, the Collateral Recovery Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of repossession agencies, as defined, and their employees by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services within the Department of Consumer Affairs. This bill would impose additional requirements on a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer seeking to repossess a vehicle, including, but not limited to, prohibiting a dealer from commencing repossession proceedings due to failure to make a scheduled loan payment prior to the 16th day following the day on which that payment was due, requiring a dealer to hire a licensed repossession agency to repossess the vehicle on the dealer's behalf, and prohibiting the dealer from charging the buyer-borrower a fee exceeding $500 for the dealer's costs in connection with the repossession. The bill would also establish a cap on interest rates that could be charged under a conditional sale or lease contract and require a buy-here-pay-here automobile dealer to allow a buyer-borrower 45 days to repay any penalties, fees, and other charges imposed by the dealer on the buyer-borrower in connection with past due payments that have been brought current. (3) The bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature with regard to buy-here-pay-here automobile dealers. (4) Because this bill would expand the scope of a crime, the bill would create 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.
Existing law regulates the accuracy of information provided to consumers during vehicle sales, including the information contained in advertising, brochures, and manuals, as specified. Existing law also requires manufacturers, as specified, to disclose certain information regarding a vehicle's engine, as specified, by affixing a label on the vehicle. A violation of these provisions is an infraction. This bill would require a buy-here-pay-here dealer, as defined, to affix to and to prominently and conspicuously display a label on any used vehicle offered for retail sale that states the reasonable market value of the vehicle. The bill would require the label to contain specified information used to determine the vehicle's reasonable market value and the date the value was determined. The bill would require a buy-here-pay-here dealer to provide to a prospective buyer of the used vehicle a copy of any information obtained from a nationally recognized pricing guide that the buy-here-pay-here dealer used to determine the reasonable market value of the vehicle. By creating a new crime, 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 a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is responsible for administering various programs and services for the benefit of veterans. This bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop outcome and related indicators for veterans, for the purpose of assessing the status of veterans in California, for monitoring the quality of programs intended to serve those veterans, and to guide decisionmaking on how to improve those services. This bill would require the department to report to the Senate and Assembly Committees on Veterans Affairs all of the outcome and related indicators developed by the department, recommendations on ways to establish a system for monitoring those indicators on a continual basis, and any regulatory or fiscal barriers that may hinder future progress on the development of a monitoring system, as provided. Under existing law, the information obtained in the administration of the Unemployment Insurance Law is for the exclusive use and information of the Director of Employment Development in the discharge of his or her duties and is not open to the public. However, existing law requires the director to permit the use of specified information for specified purposes, and allows the director to require reimbursement for direct costs incurred. Existing law provides that a person who knowingly accesses, uses, or discloses this confidential information without authorization is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would require the Director of Employment Development to permit the receipt of specified information to enable the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop outcome and related indicators for veterans. By providing this information to the Department of Veterans Affairs, this bill would expand the crime related to the unauthorized disclosure of this information, and 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. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 1095 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, proposed by AB 174 and SB 691 that would become operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are chaptered and become effective January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation to contract with Amtrak for intercity rail passenger services and provides funding for these services from the Public Transportation Account. Existing law, until December 31, 1996, authorized the department, subject to approval of the Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, to enter into an interagency transfer agreement under which a joint powers board assumes responsibility for administering the state-funded intercity rail service in a particular corridor. Existing law, with respect to a transferred corridor, requires the board to demonstrate the ability to meet performance standards established by the secretary. This bill would authorize the department, with approval of the secretary, to enter into interagency transfer agreements for additional intercity rail corridors, to be entered into between June 30, 2014, and June 30, 2015. The bill would require the agreements to cover the initial 3-year period after the transfer, and would authorize subsequent extensions by mutual agreement. If agreements are not entered into by the expiration of that period, the bill would require the secretary to report to the Governor and the Legislature by June 30, 2016, as specified. This bill would specifically authorize an additional interagency transfer agreement to be entered into with respect to the LOSSAN Corridor, defined to mean the intercity passenger rail corridor between San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Luis Obispo, if the LOSSAN Agency, an existing joint powers agency, is reconstituted through an amended joint powers agreement approved by the governing boards of its members to enable that agency to enter into an interagency transfer agreement with the secretary relative to the LOSSAN Corridor. Existing law requires the level of service to be funded by the state pursuant to a transfer agreement to not be less than the current number of intercity round trips operated in a corridor and serving the same endpoints. This bill would require the service funded by the state to remain the same during the first 3 years following the effective date of a transfer agreement, and would require the entity assuming responsibility for a corridor to provide that level of service. The bill would prohibit termination of feeder bus services except for specified reasons. Existing law provides for the allocation of state funds by the secretary to a joint powers board under an interagency transfer agreement based on the annual business plan for the intercity rail corridor and subsequent appropriation of state funds. Existing law states that the interagency transfer agreement may provide that any additional funds required to operate the intercity rail service during a fiscal year shall be provided by a joint powers board from jurisdictions that receive service. This bill, if local resources are made available for operating the intercity rail service, would require a vote of the local agency providing the resources, and would require the concurrence of the joint powers board in that regard. This bill would authorize the secretary to adopt new performance standards for intercity rail services. Existing law authorizes the department and any entity that assumes administrative responsibility for passenger rail services through an interagency transfer agreement to contract with specified entities for the use of tracks and other facilities and for the provision of passenger rail services. This bill would require a contractor under an agreement described above to agree that its labor relations shall be governed by a specified federal act relating to labor relations on railroads and would add similar provisions applicable to the LOSSAN Corridor, as specified. This bill would repeal now-obsolete provisions authorizing the Southern California Regional Rail Authority to be a party to an interagency transfer agreement for intercity rail services in specified counties.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations, as defined. This bill would, until January 1, 2020, prohibit the commission from regulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol enabled service (IP enabled service) , as defined, except as required or delegated by federal law or expressly provided otherwise in statute. The bill would prohibit any department, agency, commission, or political subdivision of the state from enacting, adopting, or enforcing any law, rule, regulation, ordinance, standard, order, or other provision having the force or effect of law, that regulates VoIP or other IP enabled service, unless required or delegated by federal law or expressly authorized by statute. The bill would specify certain areas of law that are expressly applicable to VoIP and IP enabled service providers. The bill would provide that its limitations upon the commission's regulation of VoIP and IP enabled services do not affect the commission's existing authority over non-VoIP and other non-IP enabled wireline or wireless service and do not affect the enforcement of any state or federal criminal law or local ordinances of general applicability that apply to the conduct of business, the California Environmental Quality Act, or a local utility user tax, among other things.
Existing law establishes in state government the Military Department, which includes the office of the Adjutant General, the State Military Reserve, the California Cadet Corps, and the Naval Militia. There is also, within the Military Department, the inspector general, an office that inspects, audits, investigates, trains, and performs various duties necessary to support the mission of the Military Department. This bill would establish specified requirements for the position of California's inspector general, including, among others, a requirement that the Governor appoint the inspector general. This bill would specify the duties of the California Military Department Inspector General, and would require the inspector general to continue to maintain a toll-free public telephone number and Internet Web site to receive complaints and allegations. This bill would authorize the inspector general to investigate specified complaints and allegations of misconduct upon written request of specified persons, and would provide that those requests are not a public record under the California Public Records Act. This bill would establish the California Military Whistleblower Protection Act, which would prohibit a person from restricting a member of the Military Department from making specified communications to a Member of Congress, the Governor, a Member of the Legislature, or any state or federal inspector general, or from taking, or threatening to take, unfavorable personnel actions, or withholding, or threatening to withhold, favorable personnel actions, as a reprisal against a member of the Military Department for making specified communications. This bill would require the California Military Department Inspector General to take specified actions if a member of the Military Department makes allegations that a prohibited personnel action has been taken, or has been threatened to be taken, as provided. This bill would require the Military Department to provide one training per year to the department's civil service employees regarding the role and responsibility of the California Military Department Inspector General and their rights under the California Whistleblower Protection Act, the California Military Whistleblower Protection Act, and any other relevant state or federal law. The California Constitution requires that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law authorizes a cemetery authority, cemetery corporation or association, or other entity in possession of the cremated remains of a veteran or dependent of a veteran to release the remains to a veterans' remains organization, as defined, for interment after specified conditions are met, including possession of the remains for at least one year. This bill would require the public administrator of a county to make every reasonable effort to determine if the unclaimed remains of a decedent referred to the public administrator belong to a veteran or the dependent of a veteran. The bill would require the public administrator to work with specified entities, including the county veteran service officer, to determine if the remains belong to a veteran or the dependent of a veteran. The bill would require a county veteran service officer who determines that unclaimed remains are those of a veteran or dependent of a veteran, and that the remains meet the criteria for interment by a veterans' remains organization, to report specified information to the Department of Veterans Affairs. This bill would require the department to maintain a list of those unclaimed remains, and make that list available to veterans' remains organizations by phone or in person. By increasing the duties of counties, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
Existing law authorizes use of the Emergency Alert System to inform the public of local, state, and national emergencies. Existing law requires a law enforcement agency to activate the Emergency Alert System within the appropriate area if that agency determines that a child 17 years of age or younger, or an individual with a proven mental or physical disability, has been abducted and is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death, and there is information available that, if disseminated to the general public, could assist in the safe recovery of that person. This bill would require that if a person is reported missing to a law enforcement agency, and that agency determines that certain requirements are met, including, among others, that the missing person is 65 years of age or older, the law enforcement agency shall request the California Highway Patrol to activate a Silver Alert. The bill would require the California Highway Patrol to activate a Silver Alert upon request if it concurs with the law enforcement agency that specified requirements are met. The bill would require the California Highway Patrol to, upon activation of a Silver Alert, take certain actions to assist the agency investigating the disappearance. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2016.