Sen. Janet Nguyen

This measure would recognize that every child who needs comprehensive health and early intervention services and supports in order to achieve his or her developmental potential should have those services easily accessible, sufficient, responsive, timely, and of high quality. The measure would further urge the Legislature to leverage existing efforts and statutes to ensure an accountable, results-oriented, and coordinated network of resources in order to provide multidisciplinary early identification and intervention services and supports to California infants and toddlers.

Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism relative to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates 60% of the annual proceeds of the fund to various purposes, including high-speed rail, transit and intercity rail capital, low-carbon transit operations, and affordable housing and sustainable communities. This bill would exclude from allocation under these provisions the annual proceeds of the fund generated from the transportation fuels sector. The bill would instead provide that those annual proceeds shall be appropriated by the Legislature for transportation infrastructure, including public streets and highways, but excluding high-speed rail.

This measure would state the Legislature's support of the nomination of Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2016, and before January 1, 2021, would allow a credit in the amount of 30% of the costs of startup expenses for child care programs, constructing a child care facility, providing child care information and referral services, and contributing to a qualified care plan, as defined. The bill would authorize, in the case where the credit allowed for the taxable year exceeds the "net tax" or "tax" the excess to be carried over to reduce the "net tax" or "tax" in the following year, and the succeeding 7 years if necessary, as specified. The bill would also require the Franchise Tax Board to report to the Legislature on the effectiveness of these credits, as specified. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Under existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, the State Department of Developmental Services is authorized to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. Existing law requires an entity that receives payments between $250,000 and $500,000 per year from one or more regional centers to obtain an independent audit or review of its financial statements and requires an entity that receives payments that are equal to or more than $500,000 per year to obtain an independent audit. Existing law exempts payments made using usual and customary rates for services provided by regional centers from these requirements. This bill would instead require an entity to obtain an independent audit or review report of its financial statements relating to payments made by regional centers if it receives payments between $500,000 and $2,000,000 from one or more regional centers and would authorize these entities to apply for, and require the regional center to grant, a 2-year exemption from this requirement if the regional center does not find issues in the audit or review that have an impact on regional center services. The bill would also require an entity to obtain an independent audit if it receives payments that are equal to or more than $2,000,000 and would authorize these entities to apply for, and require the regional center to grant, a 2-year exemption from the audit requirement if the audit resulted in an unmodified opinion, an unmodified opinion with additional communication, or a qualified opinion with issues that are not material and pervasive. The bill would require a regional center to notify the department of any exemption it grants to an entity that receives a qualified opinion report. The bill would also exempt social security benefit payments from these requirements.

This bill would designate the month of June 2015 as Student Safety Month, and would recognize the importance of providing young people with a learning environment and foundation that will promote successful careers and that will be the force to help California grow and prosper.

Existing law requires each county elections official to prepare separate sample ballots for each political party and a separate sample nonpartisan ballot, as specified. Existing law requires the elections official to send to each voter, together with the sample ballot, a voter's pamphlet that contains the written statements of each candidate. Existing law requires the elections officials to provide a Spanish translation to those candidates who wish to have one and requires that the person selected to provide that translation be from a list of approved Spanish-language translators and interpreters of the superior court of the county or from an institution accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Existing law requires the public posting of specified voting information at each polling place on the day of each election. Existing law requires the precinct board to post, in a conspicuous location at the polling place, at least one facsimile copy of the ballot with the ballot measures and ballot instructions printed in Spanish and facsimile ballots printed in other languages if a significant and substantial need is found by the elections official. Existing law requires that each translation of the ballot measures and ballot instructions posted at the polling place be provided by a person selected by the elections official from the list of approved translators and interpreters of the superior court of the county or from an institution accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. This bill would expand the group of acceptable translators for purposes of those provisions to include persons appearing on the Judicial Council Master List, persons qualified by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, persons from an institution accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education, and members of certain professional organizations.