Existing law establishes an Office of Health Equity in the State Department of Public Health for purposes of aligning state resources, decisionmaking, and programs to accomplish certain goals related to health equity and protecting vulnerable communities. Existing law requires the office to develop department-wide plans to close the gaps in health status and access to care among the state's diverse racial and ethnic communities, women, persons with disabilities, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning communities, as specified. Existing law requires the office to work with the Health in All Policies Task Force to assist state agencies and departments in developing policies, systems, programs, and environmental change strategies that have population health impacts by, among other things, prioritizing building cross-sectoral partnerships within and across departments and agencies to change policies and practices to advance health equity. Existing law establishes the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States to, among other things, identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies. Existing law requires the task force to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature. This bill, until January 1, 2030, would establish in state government a Racial Equity Commission. The bill would require the commission to be staffed by the Office of Planning and Research. The bill would require the commission to develop resources, best practices, and tools for advancing racial equity by, among other things, developing a statewide Racial Equity Framework that includes methodologies and tools that can be employed to advance racial equity and address structural racism in California. The bill would require the commission to prepare an annual report that summarizes feedback from public engagement with communities of color, provides data on racial inequities and disparities in the state, and recommends best practices on tools, methodologies, and opportunities to advance racial equity and to submit that report, on or after December 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, to the Governor and the Legislature, as specified.
Sponsored bills
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with the act. The act requires the state board to make available, and update at least annually, on its internet website the emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants for each facility that reports to the state board, as provided. This bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2024, to develop and adopt regulations requiring United States partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies, and other business entities with total annual revenues in excess of $1,000,000,000 and that do business in California, defined as "reporting entities," to publicly disclose to the emissions registry, as defined, and verify, starting in 2025 on a date to be determined by the state board, and annually thereafter, their greenhouse gas emissions, categorized as scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, as defined, from the prior calendar year, as provided. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2029, to review, and update as necessary, these deadlines to evaluate trends in scope 3 emissions reporting and to consider changes to the deadlines, as provided. The bill would require reporting entities to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions in a manner that is easily understandable and accessible to residents of the state. The bill would require reporting entities to ensure that their public disclosures have been independently verified by the emissions registry or a third-party auditor, approved by the state board, with expertise in greenhouse gas emissions accounting. The bill would require the state board, in developing these regulations, to consult with the Attorney General, other government stakeholders, stakeholders representing consumer and environmental justice interests, and reporting entities that have demonstrated leadership in full-scope greenhouse gas emissions accounting and public disclosure and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The bill would also require the state board to establish auditor qualifications and a process for approval of auditors that ensures sufficient auditor capacity, as well as timely reporting implementation, as required. The bill would further require the state board to contract with an emissions registry to develop a reporting and registry program to receive and make publicly available the required disclosures. This bill would require the state board, on or before July 1, 2026, to contract with the University of California, the California State University, a national laboratory, or another equivalent academic institution to prepare a report on the public disclosures made by reporting entities to the emissions registry. The bill would require, in preparing the report, consideration to be given to, at a minimum, greenhouse emissions from reporting entities in the context of state greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate goals. The bill would require the state board to provide the report to the emissions registry to post on a digital platform that would be required to be created by the emissions registry, and publicly accessible, to house the state board's report and the reporting entities' public disclosures. The bill would require the emissions registry to provide the state board's report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature. This bill would authorize the Attorney General to bring a civil action against a reporting entity, in the name of the people of the State of California, seeking civil penalties for violations of these provisions. This bill would make implementation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for its purposes.
Existing law governs the determination of child custody and visitation in contested proceedings. Existing law requires the court, for purposes of deciding custody, to determine the best interests of the child based on certain factors, including the nature and amount of contact with both parents, and consistent with specified findings, including that the court's primary concern must be to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the child. Existing law prohibits the ordering of family reunification services as part of a child custody or visitation rights proceeding. Existing law requires the Judicial Council to establish judicial training programs with instruction in all aspects of family law for those who perform duties in family law matters and in domestic violence for those who perform duties in domestic violence matters. This bill would specify that prohibited ordered family reunification services include reunification therapy, treatments, programs, workshops, or camps that are predicated on cutting off a child from a parent with whom the child is bonded or to whom the child is attached. The bill would require the Judicial Council's family law training program to be designed to improve the ability of judges and others who perform duties in family law matters to recognize and respond to child abuse, domestic violence, and trauma in all family victims and to make appropriate custody decisions that prioritize child safety and well-being and are culturally responsive. The bill would require the Judicial Council's domestic violence training program to include child abuse, and would include those who perform duties in child custody and visitation matters in the target audience for that training. The bill would require a judge assigned to family law matters involving child custody proceedings, as well as a judge, referee, commissioner, mediator, child custody recommending counselor, and evaluator involved in child custody proceedings, to participate in a program of continuing instruction in domestic violence, including child abuse.
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit for qualified renters in the amount of $120 for spouses filing joint returns, heads of household, and surviving spouses if adjusted gross income is $50,000, as adjusted, or less, and in the amount of $60 for other individuals if adjusted gross income is $25,000, as adjusted, or less. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to prepare a written report by April 1, 2023, on the number of taxpayers claiming the credit, and the average credit amount on returns claiming the credit.
This measure would proclaim the month of October 2022 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The General Corporation Law provides for the formation of domestic general corporations by the execution and filing of articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State. Under that law, the business and affairs of these corporations are generally managed by, and all corporate powers are exercised by or under, the direction of their boards of directors, and each director is elected by shareholder vote, with certain exceptions, as specified. Existing law requires the Secretary of State, upon receipt of any instrument for filing, to file and provide the date of endorsed filing, if that instrument conforms to law. Existing law permits an instrument that does not conform to law to be resubmitted in accordance with specified procedures. Existing law also permits an agreement, certificate, or other instrument relating to a domestic or foreign corporation filed under the General Corporation Law to be corrected with respect to any misstatement of fact contained therein, as provided. This bill, except as provided, would authorize otherwise lawful corporate actions, as defined, not in compliance, or purportedly not in compliance, with the General Corporation Law or the articles, bylaws, or a plan or agreement to which the corporation is a party in effect at the time of a corporate action, to be ratified, or validated by the superior court, in conformity with certain procedures. The bill would require, among other things, that the ratification of a corporate action pursuant to the bill's provisions be approved by the board and, as applicable, approved by the shareholders or approved by the outstanding shares in accordance with the General Corporation Law and the articles, bylaws, and any plan or agreement to which the corporation is a party in effect at the time of ratification, except as specified. The bill would require a corporation, if a corporate action ratified or validated would have required the filing of an instrument with the Secretary of State or if the ratification or validation would cause any instrument previously filed with the Secretary of State to be inaccurate or incomplete in any material respect, to file a certificate of ratification or certificate of validation to make, amend, or correct those instruments. The bill would also make conforming changes.
Existing law establishes the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to provide funding to certain entities to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies. Existing law requires the commission to give preference to those projects that maximize the goals of the program based on specified criteria and to fund specified eligible projects, including, among others, alternative and renewable fuel projects to develop and improve alternative and renewable low-carbon fuels. Existing law creates the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Fund, to be administered by the commission, and requires the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be expended by the commission to implement the program. This bill would revise and recast the program to expand the purpose of the program to include developing and deploying innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help reduce criteria air pollutants and air toxics. The bill would no longer require the commission to provide certain project preferences. The bill would delete the list of projects that the commission is required to make eligible for funding. The bill would authorize the commission to periodically review incentive programs, as provided. The bill would provide that the goals of the program shall be to advance the state's clean transportation, equity, air quality, and climate emission goals and would require the commission to ensure program investments support specified requirements. The bill would require the commission to expend at least 50% of the moneys appropriated to the program for projects that directly benefit or serve residents of disadvantaged and low-income communities and low-income Californians, and would require at least 50% of funding for tangible location-based investments to be expended in disadvantaged and low-income communities. The bill would delete various other requirements relating to the administration of the program. This bill would require the Strategic Growth Council to coordinate and convene at least 2 meetings each calendar year with specified state agencies and regional entities, if the regional entities choose to participate, to coordinate their implementation of sustainable transportation policies. The bill would require those state agencies and regional entities, on or before December 31, 2023, and each year thereafter, to collaboratively develop a summary of actions undertaken as part of the meetings and would require the summary to be publicly available on the Strategic Growth Council's internet website.
This measure would declare that a climate emergency threatens the state, the nation, the planet, the natural world, and all of humanity.
This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 39 in the City of Huntington Beach as the Officer Nicholas Vella Memorial Highway. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.
Existing law authorizes, and in some circumstances requires, a political subdivision to consolidate its elections with statewide elections. This bill would require an election for Orange County Board of Education that is determined by the plurality of the votes cast for that office, with no possibility of a runoff, and is consolidated with a statewide election to be consolidated with the statewide general election in November. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Orange County Board of Education. By adding to the duties of local elections officials, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.