Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency, and local governments to proclaim a local emergency, when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist, and authorizes the Governor or the local government to exercise certain powers in response to that emergency. Existing law grants immunity to the state and its political subdivisions for any claim based upon the exercise or performance, or the failure to exercise or perform, a discretionary function or duty on the part of a state or local agency or any employee of the state or its political subdivisions in carrying out the California Emergency Services Act. Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health, headed by the State Public Health Officer, and sets forth its powers and duties, including the administration of provisions relating to the prevention and control of communicable disease. Existing law authorizes the department to adopt and enforce regulations requiring strict or modified isolation, or quarantine, for any of the contagious, infectious, or communicable diseases, if in the opinion of the department the action is necessary for the protection of the public health. On March 4, 2020, the Governor proclaimed a state of emergency in response to the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Pursuant to specified provisions relating to the prevention and control, the State Public Health Officer ordered all individuals living in the state to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors, as outlined in the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's guidance on the essential critical infrastructure workforce. Pursuant to authority under specified provisions of the California Emergency Services Act, the Governor issued Executive Order No. N-33-20 requiring all residents to immediately heed those state public health directives. This bill, the Religion is Essential Act, would, during a state of emergency or local emergency, require the Governor or the local government to deem religious services to be an essential service and to be necessary and vital to the health and welfare of the public. The bill would prohibit the state and local government from taking a discriminatory action against a religious organization, as those terms are defined, and would require the state and local government to permit a religious organization to continue operating and engaging in religious services during a state of emergency to the same or greater extent that other organizations or businesses that provide essential services that are necessary and vital to the health and welfare of the public are permitted to operate. The bill would prohibit the state and local government from enforcing any health, safety, or occupancy requirement that imposes a substantial burden on a religious service unless the state or local government demonstrates that applying the burden to the religious service is essential to further a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. This bill would authorize a religious organization to assert a violation of these provisions as a claim against the state or a local government in a judicial or administrative proceeding or as a defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding, as specified. The bill would entitle a religious organization that successfully asserts a claim or defense to certain relief, as specified. The bill would make related findings and declarations. By imposing additional duties on a local government in the exercise of emergency powers, 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.
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Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a driver's license to an applicant when the department determines that the applicant is lawfully entitled to a license. Existing law allows an in-person applicant for a driver's license or identification card to request the word "VETERAN" be printed on the face of the driver's license or identification card, subject to certain requirements, including, among others, verification of veteran status, as specified, and payment of a $5 fee, which the department is authorized to increase by regulation in an amount not to exceed $15, as specified. Existing law prohibits a fee from being charged for that request if made by (1) a person who has been determined to have a current income level that meets the eligibility requirements for specified assistance programs, or (2) a person who can verify their status as a homeless person, in accordance with specified provisions. This bill would direct the department to discontinue the fee for printing the word "VETERAN" on the face of a driver's licence or identification card by July 1, 2022, and would repeal that fee provision on January 1, 2023. The bill would also make technical and conforming changes.
(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. Existing law authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. This bill would continuously appropriate $480,000,000 and $20,000,000 to the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention and the California Conservation Corps, respectively, for fire prevention activities, as provided. (2) The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law, until January 1, 2022, authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from the requirements of that act a person engaged in forest management whose activities are limited to the cutting or removal of trees on the person's property that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuelbreak for a distance of not more than 300 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted habitable structure, when that cutting or removal is conducted in compliance with certain requirements. This bill would extend the state board's authorization to provide for the above exemption indefinitely. The bill would extend the distance of the fuelbreak to not more than 500 feet. (3) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA projects or activities related to forest health and fuel reduction that involve thinning overgrown brushes or trees 10 inches or less in diameter by mechanical thinning, pile burning, prescribed fire, and grazing. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) 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 Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development for the purpose of advocating for the causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. This bill, the Keep California Working Act, would establish the Keep California Working Grant Program. The act would require the Small Business Advocate to administer the program and award grants, as specified, to small businesses and nonprofit entities that meet specified criteria, including that the entity has experienced economic hardship resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The act would specify that grant money awarded pursuant to the program may be used only for specified purposes, including payroll costs, health care benefits, paid sick, medical, or family leave, and insurance premiums. The act would appropriate $2.6 billion dollars to the Office of Small Business Advocate for those purposes. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally define "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provide various exclusions from gross income. This bill would exclude from gross income, for state income tax purposes, the amount of a grant awarded pursuant to the Keep California Working Grant Program. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill also would include additional information required for a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Sales and Use Tax Law, administered and enforced by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. Existing law authorizes the department to require the filing of reports by any person or class of persons with information relating to sales of tangible personal property, the storage, use, or other consumption of which is subject to the use tax, as specified. Existing law requires a retailer or purchaser subject to the sales and use tax to file, on or before the last day of the month following each quarterly period, a return for the preceding quarterly period. This bill, for reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2022, would require a qualified retailer, defined as a retailer whose annual qualified sales of tangible personal property transacted online exceeded $50,000,000 for the previous calendar year, to include with each tax return a schedule that reports for each local jurisdiction the gross receipts from the qualified sale of tangible personal property shipped or delivered to a purchaser in that jurisdiction. The bill would subject a qualified retailer who fails or refuses to timely furnish that schedule to a penalty of $5,000. The bill would define terms for its purposes.
Existing law, the Bill of Rights for State Excluded Employees, permits, among other things, excluded employee organizations to represent their excluded members in their employment relations, including grievances, with the state. That law defines excluded employees as all managerial employees, confidential employees, supervisory employees, and specified employees of the Department of Personnel Administration, the Department of Finance, the Controller's office, the Legislative Counsel Bureau, the Bureau of State Audits, the Public Employment Relations Board, the Department of Industrial Relations, and the State Athletic Commission. This bill would enact the Excluded Employee Arbitration Act to permit an employee organization that represents an excluded employee who has filed certain grievances with the Department of Human Resources to request binding arbitration of the grievance if specified conditions are met. The bill would require the designation of a standing panel of arbitrators and, under specified circumstances, the provision of arbitrators from the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service within the Public Employment Relations Board. The bill would then require the arbitrator to be chosen in a specified manner and would prescribe the duties of that arbitrator. This bill would grant a party to the arbitration the right to have a certified shorthand reporter transcribe the proceeding and would deem the transcription the official record of the proceeding. The bill would require a nonprevailing party, other than an excluded employee, to bear the costs of arbitration and would prohibit passing the costs of arbitration on to the excluded employee. The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2027.
(1) Existing law prohibits a person from using or operating, or assisting in using or operating, a boat, aircraft, net, trap, line, or other appliance to take fish for commercial purposes unless the person holds a commercial fishing license issued by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Existing law generally requires any person who engages in any business for profit involving fish to have a commercial fish business license issued by the department, and requires specialty licenses for specified classes of fish business. Existing law requires all fish taken or otherwise dealt with under the law to be exhibited upon demand to any person authorized by the department to enforce any law relating to the protection and conservation of fish. A violation of the Fish and Game Code or a regulation adopted pursuant to the code is a crime. This bill would require a person who holds a commercial fishing license or a commercial fish business license, upon request of an authorized agent or employee of the department, to immediately relinquish, at no charge, fish or parts of fish caught or landed in California to the department for the purpose of collecting a biological sample. Because a violation of this provision would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the Ocean Protection Council to make a grant, upon appropriation of funding by the Legislature, for the development and administration of a Dungeness crab task force. Under existing law, the task force is comprised of 21 voting members and 6 nonvoting members, with the voting members representing various fishing and crab processing interests. Existing law requires the task force, among other things, to make recommendations on various topics and requires these recommendations to be forwarded to the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Fish and Game Commission upon an affirmative vote of at least 23 of the task force members. Existing law also authorizes a proposed recommendation of the Dungeness crab task force regarding a modification to the Dungeness crab trap limit program to be transmitted to the Director of Fish and Wildlife and the Legislature if the recommendation receives an affirmative vote of at least 15 of the non-ex officio members of the Dungeness crab task force. This bill would revise the vote threshold for these purposes by requiring an affirmative vote of at least 23 of the voting members of the task force to forward or transmit a recommendation. (3) Existing law prohibits a person from using a vessel to take, possess, or land Dungeness crab for commercial purposes using Dungeness crab traps without a Dungeness crab vessel permit. Existing law prohibits the transfer of a Dungeness crab vessel permit except under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes, upon written approval of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the owner of a vessel to whom a Dungeness crab vessel permit has been issued to retain that permit upon the sale of that permitted vessel for the purpose of transferring the permit to another vessel to be purchased by that individual within one year of the time of sale of the vessel for which the permit was originally issued if certain requirements are satisfied. This bill would delete the requirement that the vessel to which the permit will be transferred be purchased by that individual within one year of the time of sale of the vessel for which the permit was originally issued, and would provide that if the permit is not transferred to a new vessel within one year of the sale of the permitted vessel, the permit shall become void by operation of law. Existing law authorizes, in the event of loss or destruction of a vessel for which a Dungeness crab vessel permit was issued, or serious damage that renders the vessel inoperable, and upon written approval of the department, the owner of the vessel to whom the permit was issued to retain the permit and to transfer the permit to another equivalent vessel during the period of 2 years after the loss or damage of the vessel for which the permit was originally issued. Existing law provides that, if the permit is not permanently transferred to another vessel owned by the person to whom the vessel permit was originally issued within 2 years of the loss or damage, the permit shall become void by operation of law. This bill would delete the requirement that the vessel to which the permit will be transferred be owned by the person to whom the vessel permit was originally issued. (4) Existing law prohibits a person from taking, possessing onboard, or landing Dungeness crab for commercial purposes from a vessel in any ocean waters for 30 days after the opening of those waters for the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season if the opening of the season for those waters has been delayed and the same vessel was used to take, possess onboard, or land Dungeness crab for commercial purposes, from ocean waters outside of the delayed waters, before the opening of the delayed waters for the season. This law is commonly referred to as "fair start." Existing law specifies the circumstances in which a delay has occurred for the purposes of the fair start law. Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, on or before November 1, 2020, to adopt regulations establishing criteria and protocols to evaluate and respond to potential risk of marine life entanglement, as prescribed. Upon the effective date of these regulations, existing law authorizes the Director of Fish and Wildlife to restrict the take of Dungeness crab pursuant to the criteria and protocols. This bill would specify that a delay in the opening of waters implemented pursuant to these criteria and protocols or a delay in the opening of waters in Oregon or Washington by a closure to prevent a risk of marine life entanglement constitutes a delay for purposes of the fair start law. (5) Existing law authorizes crab traps to be set and baited 64 hours prior to the opening date of the Dungeness crab season in Fish and Game Districts 6, 7, 8, and 9. Existing law also authorizes crab traps to be set and baited in advance of that opening date in those districts if no other attempt is made to take or possess Dungeness crab in those districts. Existing law also provides, except in Fish and Game Districts 6, 7, 8, and 9, that crab traps may be set and baited 18 hours in advance of the opening date of the Dungeness crab season if no other attempt is made to take or possess Dungeness crab. This bill would instead authorize crab traps to be set and baited 64 hours before the opening date of the Dungeness crab season regardless of the Fish and Game District. The bill would also make conforming changes. (6) Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, makes it unlawful to manufacture, sell, deliver, hold, or offer for sale adulterated food. Existing law prescribes when a food is adulterated, including if it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to the health of a person or other animal that may consume it. Existing law makes a violation of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law or a regulation adopted pursuant to that law a misdemeanor. Existing law authorizes the Director of Fish and Wildlife to order the closure of any waters or otherwise restrict the taking in state waters of any species of fish if the Director of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, in consultation with the State Public Health Officer, determines that the species or subspecies of fish is likely to pose a human health risk from high levels of toxic substances. Existing law requires the Director of Fish and Wildlife, upon receiving notification from the Director of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment that a human health risk no longer exists and a request to reopen those waters, to reopen those waters in a manner that promotes a fair and orderly fishery. A violation of the Fish and Game Code or a regulation adopted pursuant to the code is a crime. This bill would authorize a fishing vessel to transit closed waters in possession of species where take is otherwise restricted pursuant to those provisions if the vessel adheres to electronic monitoring requirements specified by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to issue an order authorizing the evisceration, as defined, of Dungeness crab or rock crab if the domoic acid for Dungeness crab or rock crab exceeds the allowable levels for viscera in certain areas when specified criteria exist. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to only authorize the evisceration of Dungeness crab or rock crab by a licensed processor, as defined, that also has a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plan approved by the State Department of Public Health for handling and preparing eviscerated crab. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to collect from a processor a fee of $350 for the cost of reviewing the processor's Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plan for handling and preparing eviscerated crab, to be deposited in the Food Safety Fund for expenditure by the State Department of Public Health, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the costs of reviewing the plans. The bill would also require the State Department of Public Health to establish labeling requirements for eviscerated crab, as specified, and to require the processor to maintain written recall procedures. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to consult with the Dungeness crab task force or a successor task force or committee to establish the criteria for the manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offering for sale of Dungeness crab or rock crab caught in areas subject to an evisceration order by the State Department of Public Health. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to publish notice of the proposed criteria, as specified, and make the criteria effective by operation of law as regulations 90 days after the notice is published. Because a violation of these regulations would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the Director of Fish and Wildlife, in accordance with specified requirements, to open waters that are otherwise restricted for the commercial take of Dungeness crab or rock crab during a time period when the State Department of Public Health authorizes the manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offering for sale of eviscerated Dungeness crab or rock crab pursuant to the above-described provisions. The bill would require the holder of a Dungeness crab vessel permit or rock crab permit to submit to electronic monitoring of the vessel while engaged in the take of Dungeness crab or rock crab, as specified. The bill would authorize a person who takes Dungeness crab or rock crab to sell or provide the Dungeness crab or rock crab only to a processor licensed and approved by the State Department of Public Health, as specified. The bill would require the Director of Fish and Wildlife, when evisceration procedures established pursuant to the bill are no longer in effect, to lift related restrictions in a manner that promotes a fair and orderly fishery. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (7) 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. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act contains various provisions regulating the application for, the issuance of, the suspension of, and the conditions imposed upon alcoholic beverage licenses by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Existing law generally provides that a violation of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act is a misdemeanor. Existing law authorizes the issuance of a caterer's permit, upon application to the department, to a licensee under an on-sale general license, an on-sale beer and wine license, a club license, or a veterans' club license, that authorizes the holder of the permit to sell alcoholic beverages at specified locations and events, including, among others, conventions, sporting events, and trade exhibits. Under existing law, licensees are required to first obtain consent from the department for sales of alcoholic beverages at each event in the form of a catering or event authorization. The department, pursuant to its powers and in furtherance of emergency declarations and orders of the Governor under the California Emergency Services Act regarding the spread of the COVID-19 virus, has prescribed temporary relief measures to suspend certain legal restrictions relating to, among other things, the expansion of a licensed footprint, sales of alcoholic beverages to-go, and delivery privileges. This bill would prohibit the issuance of a catering authorization for use at any one premises for more than 36 events in one calendar year, except as specified. This bill would authorize the department, for a period of 365 days following the end of the state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor on March 4, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to permit licensees to exercise license privileges in an expanded license area authorized pursuant to a COVID-19 Temporary Catering Authorization approved in accordance with the Fourth Notice of Regulatory Relief issued by the department, as specified. The bill would also authorize the department to extend the period of time during which the COVID-19 Temporary Catering Authorization is valid beyond 365 days if the licensee has filed a pending application with the department for the permanent expansion of their premises before the 365-day time period expires. The bill would make these provisions effective only until July 1, 2024, and repeal them as of that date. (2) Existing law, with exceptions, prohibits a licensee from having, upon the licensed premises, any alcoholic beverages other than the alcoholic beverage that the licensee is authorized to sell at the premises under their license, and makes a violation of this prohibition punishable as a misdemeanor. This bill would, as an exception to that prohibition, authorize a licensed manufacturer to share a common licensed area with multiple licensed retailers, subject to specified provisions, including, but not limited to, that (A) a licensee sharing the common licensed area with a licensed manufacturer is prohibited from selling or serving any alcoholic beverages that are manufactured, produced, bottled, processed, imported, rectified, distributed, represented, or sold by the manufacturer, as provided, (B) the licensed manufacturer may, in connection with the operation of the shared common area only, advertise or promote the common licensed area, provided that each retailer pays its pro rata share of the costs of such advertising or promotion, as specified, (C) no thing of value may be given or furnished by the manufacturer to the retailers, except as specified, (D) the manufacturer may have on the area of its licensed premises that encompass the shared common licensed area alcoholic beverages that would not otherwise be permitted on the manufacturer's licensed premises, as provided, (E) all licensees sharing the common licensed area are required to hold the same license type retailers, (F) all licensees holding licenses within the shared common licensed area are jointly responsible for compliance with all laws that may subject their license to discipline, and (G) the manufacturer maintains records necessary to establish its compliance, as specified. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires, during the next revision of the publication "Health Framework for California Public Schools," the Instructional Quality Commission to consider developing, and recommending for adoption by the State Board of Education, a distinct category on mental health instruction to educate pupils about all aspects of mental health. Existing law requires mental health instruction for these purposes to include, but not be limited to, specified elements, including reasonably designed and age-appropriate instruction on the overarching themes and core principles of mental health. This bill would require each school district, county office of education, state special school, and charter school that offers one or more courses in health education to pupils in middle school or high school to include in those courses instruction in mental health that meets the requirements of the bill, as specified. The bill would require that instruction to include, among other things, reasonably designed instruction on the overarching themes and core principles of mental health. The bill would require that instruction and related materials to, among other things, be appropriate for use with pupils of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds, pupils with disabilities, and English learners. The bill would require the State Department of Education to develop a plan to expand mental health instruction in California public schools on or before January 1, 2024.
Existing law, until January 1, 2025, authorizes local agencies, as defined, to use the design-build procurement process for specified public works with prescribed cost thresholds. Existing law requires specified information submitted by a design-build entity in the design-build procurement process to be certified under penalty of perjury. This bill would authorize the Paradise Irrigation District to use the design-build contracting process to award a contract for a water conveyance pipeline from the Town of Paradise to the City of Chico. The bill would authorize the Town of Paradise to use the design-build contracting process to provide for the provision of sewer treatment to the Town of Paradise, including for infrastructure connecting the Town of Paradise to an existing treatment facility. By expanding design-build authority to include additional projects, the bill would expand the scope of the crime of perjury, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Paradise Irrigation District and the Town of Paradise. 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.