Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue special license plates under a special interest license plate program, as specified, and authorizes organizations, including veterans' organizations, to participate in that program. Existing law authorizes any person who is the registered owner or lessee of a vehicle to apply for a special interest license plate that has a distinctive design or decal that honors all veterans or veterans who served in a particular war or armed conflict. Under existing law, these special interest license plates are subject to fees for issuance, renewal, or personalization that are additional to those required for nonspecialized license plates. Existing law requires that the revenue from those additional fees, less the department's costs, be deposited in the Veterans Service Office Fund, and further requires that money in the Veterans Service Office Fund be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Department of Veterans Affairs for allocation and disbursement to counties for the operation of county veterans service offices. This bill would instead require, commencing January 1, 2019, the Department of Motor Vehicles to cease production of the special interest veteran license plates and decals described above. The bill would require, commencing January 1, 2019, the department to commence production of a special interest license plate with the descriptive message "Veteran." The bill would authorize the special interest license plates bearing the descriptive message "Veteran" to be issued only after all remaining special interest veteran plates produced before January 1, 2019, have been issued. The bill would apply the existing additional fees for issuance, renewal, or personalization of the special interest veteran license plates to the new special interest license plates produced commencing January 1, 2019.
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This measure would honor the men and women who have served and are serving in our nation's military, and would recognize the month of May 2018 as National Military Appreciation Month.
Existing law imposes an excise tax on motor vehicle fuel (gasoline) and requires these taxes to be deposited in the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account. Existing law requires the moneys attributable to the excise tax on gasoline related to specified off-highway motor vehicles and off-highway vehicle activities to be transferred monthly from the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account to the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund. With respect to the portion of those moneys attributable to an increase in the excise tax as a result of the elimination of the sales tax on gasoline effective July 1, 2010, existing law instead requires those moneys to be transferred to the General Fund. With respect to the portion of those moneys from a $0.12 per gallon increase in the excise tax commencing November 1, 2017, and future inflation adjustments from that increase, existing law instead requires those funds to be transferred to the State Parks and Recreation Fund, to be used for state parks, off-highway vehicle programs, or boating programs. Existing law also requires the Controller to withhold $833,000 from the monthly transfer to the Off Highway Vehicle Trust Fund, and transfer that amount to the General Fund. This bill would, on June 30, 2019, eliminate the requirement that the Controller withhold $833,000 from the monthly transfer to the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund and transfer that amount to the General Fund. The bill would thereby transfer this amount monthly to the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which health care services are provided to qualified, low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care plans. Existing law requires the department to determine rates of payment for services provided under this chapter for Medi-Cal beneficiaries enrolled in these plans, as specified. This bill would authorize the department to determine either a separate reimbursement rate for each stage of HIV disease, or a blended rate that covers a person at any stage of the disease. Existing law authorizes the Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles to establish a commission for the provision, or arrangement for the provision, of health care services under the Medi-Cal program in all or a portion of the geographic area of the county, on a coordinated managed care basis. This bill would make a beneficiary with HIV disease who is required to enroll in a Medi-Cal managed care plan in the County of Los Angeles eligible to enroll in a plan that provides comprehensive services to persons with HIV disease in the county. This bill would define "HIV disease" to include any stage of HIV infection, as identified by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Existing law authorizes a Purple Heart recipient to apply for special license plates inscribed with the Purple Heart insignia to be issued for a vehicle that is owned or coowned by the Purple Heart recipient. The law authorizes an applicant for the Purple Heart license plate who qualifies as a disabled veteran to apply also for a distinguishing placard to be used in conjunction with the Purple Heart license plate for specified special parking privileges. This bill would require a state agency with a parking facility that is available to private persons who conduct business with the agency to reserve a parking space free of charge for the exclusive use of any vehicle that displays a Purple Heart special license plate.
Under existing law, the Department of Water Resources operates the State Water Resources Development System, known as the State Water Project, in accordance with the California Water Resources Development Bond Act to supply water to persons and entities in the state. Under existing law, the State Water Project is comprised of the State Water Facilities, as defined in the bond act, and additions determined by the department to be necessary and desirable. This bill would establish within the Natural Resources Agency the State Water Project Commission, consisting of 9 members appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate, including one member nominated by the Butte County Board of Supervisors. By imposing a new duty on the Butte County Board of Supervisors, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would transfer authority over and relating to the State Water Project from the department to the commission, as specified. 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.
(1) Under existing law, the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in this state are the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law, known as the Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of these 3 public postsecondary educational segments. No provision of the Donahoe Higher Education Act is applicable to the University of California except to the extent that the regents act, by appropriate resolution, to make that provision applicable. Existing law prohibits the Regents of the University of California, the Trustees of the California State University, and the governing board of a community college district from making or enforcing a rule subjecting a student to disciplinary sanction solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or other communication that is protected by specified provisions of the United States Constitution and the California Constitution. This bill would enact the Campus Free Expression Act. The bill would declare that the outdoor areas of public postsecondary educational institutions are traditional public forums for purposes of free expression legal analysis under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Sections 2 and 3 of Article 1 of the California Constitution. The bill would provide that a public postsecondary educational institution may maintain and enforce reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions only when those restrictions are narrowly tailored in service of a significant institutional interest, employ clear, published, content-neutral, and viewpoint-neutral criteria, and provide for ample alternative means of expression. The bill would require these restrictions to allow for members of the campus community to lawfully, spontaneously, and contemporaneously distribute literature and assemble. The bill would further require that a person who wishes to engage in expressive activity on the campus of a public postsecondary educational institution be permitted to do so freely, as long as that person's conduct is not unlawful and does not materially and substantially disrupt the functioning of the institution or the lawful activities of another person. This bill would authorize the Attorney General and a person whose right to engage in expressive activity was infringed through a violation of these provisions to bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction within one year after the date that a cause of action accrues, as specified. The bill would require a court that finds a violation of these provisions to award aggrieved persons damages of no less than $500 for an initial violation, plus $50 for each day the violation remains ongoing, which shall accrue starting on the day after the complaint is served on the institution. The bill would set the maximum damages that an aggrieved person, or set of aggrieved persons, may receive in a case or cases stemming from a single controversy at $5,000. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2024. To the extent that this bill would impose new duties on community college districts for implementation of its provisions, the bill would constitute a state-mandated local program. (2) 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.
The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows various deductions in computing the income that is subject to the taxes imposed by that law, including miscellaneous itemized deductions that are allowed only to the extent that the aggregate amount of those deductions exceeds 2% of adjusted gross income. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, would allow as a deduction under that law an amount equal to the amount of federal income tax paid, as defined, by an individual for that taxable year, as specified. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.