Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when income is derived directly from real property acquired and operated by the state as a wildlife management area, as defined, to pay annually to the county in which the property is located an amount equal to the county taxes levied upon the property at the time title to the property was transferred to the state, and any assessments levied upon the property by any irrigation, drainage, or reclamation district. This bill would appropriate $19,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties for unpaid amounts under these provisions. The bill would also appropriate $2,000,000 annually, beginning with the 2014–15 fiscal year, from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties under these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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This measure urges the President of the United States of America to use his executive powers to call for the release of Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi from prison in Mexico.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing state board regulations require specified entities to comply with a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, and require additional specified entities to comply with that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015. This bill instead would exempt categories of persons or entities that did not have a compliance obligation, as defined, under a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, from being subject to that market-based compliance mechanism through December 31, 2020. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law establishes the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program, which requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to award a grant, for the purpose of purchasing or leasing agricultural career technical education equipment, to an applicant school district that operates an agricultural career technical education program and that meets specified requirements. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to annually adopt or update a local control and accountability plan that contains specified information. This bill would continuously appropriate the sum of $4,134,000 in each fiscal year beginning with the 2015–16 fiscal year from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes of funding the Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Program. The bill would require the Superintendent to award a grant to a school district that, in addition to meeting the existing requirements, demonstrates how the expenditure of the grant funds will be consistent with its adopted local control and accountability plan. The bill would also express various findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to agricultural career technical education. (2) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
Existing law requires the state to have the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas, as defined. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to collect a fire prevention fee not to exceed $150 to be charged on each structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law specifies that the fire prevention fee determined to be due by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is due and payable at the time it becomes final, and imposes a specified civil penalty for each 30-day period during which the fee remains unpaid. This bill would eliminate the specified civil penalty imposed for unpaid fire prevention fees.
Existing law prohibits a city or county within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley from approving a discretionary permit or other discretionary entitlement, or a ministerial permit that would result in the construction of a new residence, for a project that is located within a flood hazard zone, unless the city or county finds, based on substantial evidence in the record, that certain criteria is met. This bill would prohibit a city or county within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley from approving a discretionary permit or entitlement that would result in the construction of a new building or construction that would result in an increase in allowed occupancy for an existing building for a project that is located within a flood hazard zone unless the city or county finds that the construction meets the criteria referenced above. Existing law authorizes the Department of Water Resources to administer funding, from various sources, for flood risk reduction projects. This bill would authorize the Department of Water Resources to provide reimbursement to funding recipients that execute a funding agreement under the Urban Flood Risk Reduction Projects program for expenditures associated with continued funding of a project initiated under the Early Implementation Project program and incurred after July 1, 2014, and before the execution of the funding agreement, but no later than July 1, 2015. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law prohibits a person from being tried or adjudged to punishment while that person is mentally incompetent. Existing law establishes a process by which a defendant's mental competency is evaluated and by which the defendant receives treatment, including, if applicable, antipsychotic medication, with the goal of returning the defendant to competency. Existing law credits time spent by a defendant in a state hospital or other facility as a result of commitment during the process toward the term of any imprisonment for which the defendant is sentenced. This bill would, similarly, prohibit a person from having his or her probation, mandatory supervision, postrelease community supervision, or parole revoked while that person is mentally incompetent. The bill would establish a process by which the person's mental competency is evaluated and by which the defendant receives treatment, including, if applicable, antipsychotic medication, with the goal of returning the person to competency. If a defendant is found mentally incompetent during postrelease community supervision or parole revocation hearings, the bill would require the court to dismiss the pending revocation matter and return the defendant to supervision, in which case the bill would allow the court, using the least restrictive option that will meet the mental health needs of the defendant, to modify the terms and conditions of supervision to include appropriate mental health treatment, refer the matter to a local mental health court, reentry court, or other collaborative justice court available for improving the mental health of the defendant, or, if there are no other reasonable alternatives to the establishment of a conservatorship to meet the mental health needs of the defendant, refer the matter to the public guardian of the county of commitment to initiate conservatorship proceedings, as specified. By increasing the duties of local officials, including the county mental health director and county public guardian, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. If a person subject to parole due to a conviction for an offense of first or 2nd degree murder or a registerable sex offense in which one or more of the victims of the offense was a child under 14 years of age is found mentally incompetent, the bill would require the court to order the person to undergo treatment to restore mental competency. If his or her mental competency is not restored, the bill would establish procedures for his or her supervision or referral, as specified. The bill would also make conforming changes. If a conservatorship is established for a defendant or parolee pursuant to the above-described provisions, the bill would prohibit the county or the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from compassionately releasing the defendant or parolee or otherwise causing the termination of his or her supervision or parole based on the establishment of that conservatorship. (2) During the pendency of an action in a case in which the defendant has been charged with a misdemeanor, if the defendant's behavior leads the judge to conclude that the defendant is mentally disordered and incompetent to stand trial, existing law requires the judge to state the conclusion in the record and inquire of the attorney for the defendant whether, in the opinion of the attorney, the defendant is mentally disordered. Existing law requires the court to order the defendant to be referred for evaluation and treatment, as specified, if counsel for the defendant informs the court that he or she believes the defendant is or may be mentally disordered. This bill would repeal those provisions. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1370 of the Penal Code, proposed by AB 2186 and AB 2625, that would become operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are chaptered and become effective January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. (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, 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation is in full possession and control of the state highway system. Existing law provides for placement of signs on state highways, as specified. This bill would require the department to erect, at appropriate locations on highways in the state highway system, generic directional signs to each Veterans' Home of California, upon receiving funds from nonstate sources sufficient to cover the cost.
(1) Under existing law, when the Department of Motor Vehicles determines that an applicant is lawfully entitled to a driver's license, the department is required to issue that license to the applicant. Existing law specifies the contents of a driver's license and requires the application for a driver's license or identification card to contain a space for an applicant to indicate whether he or she has served in the Armed Forces of the United States and to give his or her consent to be contacted regarding eligibility to receive state or federal veterans' benefits. This bill would, commencing November 11, 2015, allow an in-person applicant for a driver's license or identification card to request the driver's license or identification card be printed with the word "VETERAN." The applicant would be required to present verification of veteran status to the Department of Motor Vehicles, on a form developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs in consultation with the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers and the Department of Motor Vehicles. The bill would require county veterans service offices to verify an applicant's veteran status for these purposes, as specified. The department would be required to print the word "VETERAN" on the face of a driver's license or identification card issued to a person who makes that request and presents that verification to the department. (2) Existing law establishes certain fee amounts for the applications for, and renewal of, driver's licenses and identification cards. This bill would require the department to charge an additional one-time fee of $5 to a person who requests that the person's driver's license or identification card be designated as provided above.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to establish a program for the development, provision, and evaluation of genetic disease testing. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Genetic Disease Testing Fund (GDTF) , consisting of fees paid for newborn screening tests and states the intent of the Legislature that all costs of the genetic disease testing program be fully supported by fees paid for newborn screening tests, which are deposited in the GDTF. Existing law also authorizes moneys in the GDTF to be used for the expansion of the Genetic Disease Branch Screening Information System to include cystic fibrosis, biotinidase, and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and exempts the expansion of contracts for this purpose from certain provisions of the Public Contract Code, the Government Code, and the State Administrative Manual, as specified. This bill would require the department to expand statewide screening of newborns to include screening for adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) as soon as ALD is adopted by the federal Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP) . By expanding the purposes for which moneys from the fund may be expended, this bill would make an appropriation.