(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing board. The Public Utilities Act imposes various duties and responsibilities on the Public Utilities Commission with respect to the purchase of electricity and requires the commission to review and adopt a procurement plan and a renewable energy procurement plan for each electrical corporation pursuant to the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission to review and adopt an overall procurement plan for each electrical corporation to meet electricity demand for its customers in accordance with specified elements, incentive mechanisms, and objectives. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission to review and accept, modify, or reject each electrical corporation's procurement plan and requires that each approved procurement plan accomplish specified objectives. This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to direct electrical corporations to include in their proposed procurement plans the costs of integrating an eligible renewable energy resource, as specified. (2) The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires a retail seller, as defined, and local publicly owned electric utilities to purchase specified minimum quantities of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, for specified compliance periods. The program, consistent with the goals of procuring the least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources that meet project viability principles, requires that all retail sellers procure a balanced portfolio of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as specified, referred to as the portfolio content requirements. The program requires the commission to adopt, by rulemaking, a process that provides criteria for the rank ordering and selecting of least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources to comply with the program obligations on a total cost basis, taking into account specified matter. This bill additionally would require the commission to adopt, by rulemaking, by December 31, 2015, a methodology for determining the costs of integrating an eligible renewable energy resource.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing law prohibits a person from being registered as a voter except by affidavit of registration. If a court finds that a person is not capable of completing an affidavit of voter registration, as specified, existing law provides that a person shall be deemed mentally incompetent and disqualified from voting. Existing law regulates the terms and conditions of conservatorships and creates various requirements for a court and a court investigator with regard to informing a proposed conservatee that he or she may be disqualified from voting if he or she is not capable of completing an affidavit of voter registration. This bill would prohibit a person, including a conservatee, from being disqualified from voting on the basis that the person signs the affidavit of voter registration with a mark or a cross, signs the affidavit of voter registration with a signature stamp, or completes the affidavit of voter registration with the assistance of another person. (2) Under existing law, if a vacancy occurs in an office after a recall petition is filed against the vacating officer, the recall election is required to proceed. The vacancy in that office is required to be filled as provided by law, but a person appointed to fill the vacancy holds office only until a successor is selected and qualifies for that office. This bill would provide that upon the occurrence of a vacancy, the elections official for each county in which a section of the recall petition has been filed is required to immediately verify the signatures on the petition submitted to the elections official as of the date of the vacancy. If the elections official verifies that a sufficient number of signatures were filed as of the date of the vacancy, the recall election would be required to proceed. If the elections official verifies that an insufficient number of signatures, or no signatures, were filed as of the date of the vacancy, the recall election would not proceed and the vacancy in the office that is the subject of the recall election would be filled as otherwise provided by law. The bill would delete the requirement that a person appointed to fill the vacancy holds office only until a successor is selected and instead would prohibit a person who was subject to a recall petition from being appointed to fill the vacancy in the office that he or she vacated or to fill any other vacancy in office on the same governing board for the duration of the term of office of the vacated seat.
Existing law regulates the sale of certain merchandise, including political items and sports memorabilia. This bill would prohibit the State of California from selling or displaying the Battle Flag of the Confederacy, or a similar image, or tangible personal property inscribed with those images, unless the image appears in a book, digital medium, or state museum that serves an educational or historical purpose.
Existing law, the School-Based Program Coordination Act, which is applicable only to school districts and schools that participate in school-based coordinated categorical programs, is established to provide flexibility to coordinate categorical funds. The act requires a school that participates in school-based program coordination to establish a schoolsite council, composed of the school principal, teachers, and other prescribed members, and requires the schoolsite council to establish a school plan that includes, among other things, the proposed expenditure of funds received through various categorical programs. Existing law, enacted in 2013, revised provisions of the public school financing system, requires state funding for schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, and authorizes local educational agencies to expend for any local educational purpose funds previously required to be spent for various categorical education programs. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to adopt a local control and accountability plan that includes, among other things, a description of the annual goals to be achieved for each of the state priorities identified pursuant to specified provisions. This bill would add provisions separate from the School-Based Program Coordination Act that would authorize a school district to establish a schoolsite council at any school, composed as specified, and subject to prescribed conditions and requirements, with responsibility for developing and annually reviewing a specified school plan. The bill would specify that if any provision that would be added by the bill conflicts with the provisions of the School-Based Program Coordination Act, the provisions of the School-Based Program Coordination Act shall prevail. The bill would make conforming changes by updating cross-references and making various nonsubstantive changes. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 64001 of the Education Code proposed by AB 2380 that would become operative if this bill and AB 2380 are both enacted and this bill is enacted last.
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 an applicable percentage of either 20% or 25%, respectively, of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture is a television series that relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law 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, 2017, 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 2016–17 fiscal year. Existing law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, also allows a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. Existing law provides for a tentative minimum tax and further provides that, except for specified credits, no other credit shall reduce the tax imposed below the tentative minimum tax. This bill would establish similar credits under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, to be allocated by the California Film Commission on or after July 1, 2015, and before July 1, 2020. This bill would, as compared to the existing tax credits, extend the scope of the credits for a qualified motion picture to the applicable percentage of qualified expenditures up to $100,000,000, would extend the credit to qualified expenditures for television pilot episodes, and would determine an applicable percentage of 25% or 20% for qualified expenditures, with an additional credit amount available, as specified. This bill would limit the aggregate amount of these new credits to be allocated in each fiscal year to up to $330 million, and would, subject to a computation and ranking of applicants based on the jobs ratio, as defined, require the California Film Commission to allocate credit amounts subject to specified categories of qualified motion pictures. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, allow a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. This bill would also 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, for taxable years, beginning on or after January 1, 2016, additionally allow the credit under the Corporation Tax Law for qualified expenditures for the production of qualified motion pictures to reduce the tentative minimum tax. This bill would also make findings and declarations related to the entertainment industry, and would urge the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to investigate and impose sanctions on specified motion picture productions and elements of production to combat unfair and illegal competition. Existing constitutional provisions require 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. The bill would state that its provisions are severable. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 23036 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, proposed by AB 2754, to be operative only if AB 2754 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue specialty license plates, including environmental license plates and specified special environmental design license plates. Under existing law, a state agency is authorized to apply to the DMV to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and the DMV is required to issue those license plates if the agency meets certain requirements. The DMV is required to charge specified fees for certain services related to the issuance of those plates. Existing law establishes the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund, and requires that funds in that account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated for the provision of early breast cancer detection services for uninsured and underinsured women. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to apply to sponsor a breast cancer awareness license plate program, and would require the DMV to issue the license plates if the State Department of Health Care Services meets certain requirements. The bill would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services to accept and use donated artwork from California artists for the license plate. The bill would require the revenue generated from the license plates, as specified, to be deposited in the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would declare November 8, 2014, as California Solar Professionals Day.
This measure would urge the National Football League (NFL) to join with the Legislature and numerous organizations in calling for a name change for the Washington, D.C. NFL team, and calls upon the owners of NFL teams based in California to urge the owner of the Washington, D.C. NFL team and the NFL Commissioner to change the team mascot.
This measure would declare November 2014 as Diabetes Awareness Month.
This measure would recognize the month of October 2014 as Filipino American History Month and the 427th anniversary of the first presence of Filipinos in the continental United States.