Existing law, known as the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program, establishes, among other programs, the Cal Grant A Entitlement Program, the Cal Grant B Entitlement Program, the California Community College Transfer Cal Grant Entitlement Program, and the Competitive Cal Grant A and B award program, under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs. This bill would, commencing with the 2014–15 academic year, entitle an otherwise eligible student who is a member or former member of the Armed Forces of the United States, as defined, who meets prescribed requirements, including, but not limited to, enrollment in a qualifying undergraduate certificate or degree program, to a Cal Grant A Entitlement Award or a Cal Grant B Entitlement Award. The bill also would require the commission to make preliminary awards to all applicants currently eligible for an award under the program, and would require each person who receives a preliminary award to affirm, in writing, that he or she meets specified requirements for eligibility in the program. The bill would require the commission to randomly select at least 10% of the new and renewal awards made under the program and verify that the student meets specified requirements for eligibility. The bill would require the commission to seek repayment of any funds found to be improperly disbursed under the program, and would require the commission to submit an annual report to the Legislature and the Governor regarding, among other things, the number of awards made under this program.
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Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments to be reduced by 1% or 5%, and provider payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 1%, for dates of service on and after March 1, 2009, and until June 1, 2011. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments and payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 10% for dates of service on and after June 1, 2011. This bill would instead, subject to federal approval, require that this payment reduction not apply to skilled nursing facilities that are a distinct part of a general acute care hospital for dates of service on or after June 1, 2011. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Under existing law, certain specified felonies are punished by imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years or, where the term is specified, for the term described in the underlying offense. Notwithstanding these provisions, existing law requires that a sentence be served in state prison where the defendant has a prior or current conviction for a serious or violent felony, has a prior felony conviction in another jurisdiction that has all of the elements of a serious or violent felony, is required to register as a sex offender, or has an aggravated white collar crime enhancement imposed as part of the sentence. This bill would additionally require a sentence to be served in state prison when the defendant is convicted of a felony and has 3 or more prior felony convictions.
Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before September 1, 2011, to adopt emergency regulations to establish a fire prevention fee in an amount not to exceed $150 to be charged on each habitable structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area, as defined, and requires that the fire prevention fee be adjusted annually using prescribed methods. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to collect the fire prevention fees, as prescribed, commencing with the 2011–12 fiscal year. Existing law establishes the State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund and prohibits the collection of fire prevention fees if, commencing with the 2012–13 fiscal year, there are sufficient amounts of moneys in the fund to finance specified fire prevention activities for a fiscal year. Existing law requires that the fire prevention fees collected, except as provided, be deposited into the fund and be made available to the board and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for certain specified fire prevention activities that benefit the owners of structures in state responsibility areas who are required to pay the fee. Existing law further requires the board, on and after January 1, 2013, to submit an annual written report to the Legislature on specified topics. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to repeal the state responsibility area fire prevention fees imposed by the above provisions.
Existing law establishes a variety of offenses relating to cruelty to animals. Existing law generally provides that a person that violates certain animal at-large provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction is required to be punished by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, by imprisonment of not less than 10 days nor more than 1 year, or by both the fine and imprisonment, as prescribed. This bill would require any person, with certain exceptions, who willfully or knowingly documents evidence of animal cruelty to provide a copy of the documentary evidence obtained to local law enforcement within 120 hours of documentation, and would make a violation of this requirement an infraction punishable by a fine of $250. The bill would provide that a person shall not be civilly or criminally liable for providing documentary evidence of suspected animal cruelty as required by the bill, or for providing a law enforcement agency with information about the person or employer suspected of animal cruelty. The bill would define animal cruelty for its purposes as any act involving an animal, as defined, or poultry, as defined, described in prescribed criminal offenses. The bill would enact other related provisions. Because a violation of the requirement to provide a copy of documentary evidence of animal cruelty to local law enforcement, as prescribed, would be an infraction, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.
(1) Existing law, the Open Enrollment Act, authorizes the parent of a pupil enrolled in a low-achieving school, as defined, to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district of enrollment, as defined, as specified. This bill would expand the act to authorize the parent of a pupil enrolled in a school district of residence, as defined, to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district other than their school district of residence. The Open Enrollment Act requires a school district of enrollment to ensure that pupils enrolled pursuant to the act are enrolled in a school with a higher Academic Performance Index than the school in which the pupil was previously enrolled and are selected through a random, unbiased process, except that pupils applying for transfer are required to be assigned specified priorities for approval. This bill would add a third priority for approval for pupils transferring from a school ranked in decile 2 on the Academic Performance Index. To the extent the bill would expand the duties of school districts under the Open Enrollment Act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district or a county board of education, as specified, after a public hearing on the matter, to request the State Board of Education to waive all or part of any section of the Education Code or any regulation adopted by the state board that implements a provision of the Education Code that may be waived, except for specified provisions. This bill would include additional specified provisions of the Education Code, relating to notice and procedures to apply and transfer schools pursuant to the Open Enrollment Act, that may not be waived. 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 establishes the Department of Human Resources for purposes of managing the nonmerit aspects of the state's personnel system. Existing law requieres the department to establish and adjust salary ranges for each class of position in the state civil service, subject to specified merit limits and except as specified. Existing law requires the salary range to be based on the principle that like salaries shall be paid for comparable duties and responsibilities. This bill would require the department to address salary compaction and parity concerns. The bill would also require the department, when it is determined that revenues do not allow the department to implement a salary determination to increase any excluded and exempt employee salaries in a given year, to provide to the Legislature existing data on the salary determination, including all salary compaction and parity determinations for supervisory and managerial employees.
Under existing law, Barry Keene Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Trust Fund Act of 1989, every owner of an underground storage tank is required to pay a storage fee for each gallon of petroleum placed in the tank. The fees are required to be deposited in the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund. The money in the fund may be expended by the State Water Resources Control Board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for various purposes, including the payment of claims of up to $1,500,000 per occurrence, as defined, to aid owners and operators of petroleum underground storage tanks who take corrective action to clean up unauthorized releases from those tanks and the payment of claims for certain 3rd-party injuries and damages. Existing law requires the board to pay a claim for the costs of corrective action to a person who owns property on which is located a release from a petroleum underground storage tank that has been the subject of a corrective action, and for which additional corrective action is required because of additionally discovered contamination from the previous release, if the person who carried out the earlier and completed corrective action was eligible for, and applied for, reimbursement pursuant to specified provisions, only to the extent that the amount of reimbursement for the earlier corrective action did not exceed the amount of $1,500,000. This bill would additionally impose as a requirement for that reimbursement that the subject tank has been removed. The bill would also require the board to pay a claim for the costs of corrective action to a person who owns property on which is located a release from a petroleum underground storage tank that has been removed if the site has been the subject of a corrective action, additional corrective action is required because of additionally discovered contamination from the previous release, the person who owns the property meets specified requirements and is required to perform corrective action pursuant to those provisions because of additionally discovered contamination, and the person who carried out the earlier and completed corrective action did not apply for reimbursement, as prescribed. This bill would become operative only if legislation is enacted in the 2013–14 Regular Session and becomes operative that extends the January 1, 2014, reversion date in a specified provision of the Health and Safety Code to a date that is after January 1, 2014, relative to petroleum underground storage tank fees.
Existing law, the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to contract with a landowner to limit the use of agricultural land located in an agricultural preserve designated by the city or county. Existing law defines several terms for purposes of the act. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the provision of law setting forth the definitions of the act.
Existing law requires a local educational agency to implement one of several specified interventions for a school not identified as a persistently lowest-achieving school that, after one full school year, is subject to corrective action, as specified, and fails to meet specified criteria and has a specified percentage of parents and legal guardians of pupils sign a petition requesting the local educational agency to implement at least one of 5 specified interventions. Existing law requires a local educational agency to implement the intervention option requested by the petition unless the agency makes a specified finding in a regularly scheduled public hearing. This bill would delete the provision excluding schools identified as persistently lowest-achieving schools, and would also make the provisions applicable to schools ranked in deciles 1 to 3, inclusive, of the Academic Performance Index. The bill would make technical changes by updating cross-references. By imposing additional duties on school districts, the 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 these statutory provisions.