Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil

Existing law provides for the civil commitment of a person who is determined to be a sexually violent predator. Existing law establishes a procedure by which a person committed as a sexually violent predator may petition for conditional release and requires the court, if it makes a specified determination, to place the person on conditional release. Existing law generally requires that a person released on conditional release pursuant to these provisions be placed in the person's county of domicile prior to their incarceration unless extraordinary circumstances exist requiring placement outside the county, as specified. Existing law also prohibits the placement of a person released on conditional release within 14 mile of any public or private school, as specified. This bill would prohibit the placement of a person released on conditional release within 5 miles of federal land, as defined. Existing law defines a sexually violent predator as a person who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense and has a diagnosed mental disorder that makes the person a danger to others in that they are likely to engage in sexually violent criminal behavior. Existing law requires the State Department of State Hospitals to notify the sheriff or chief of police, or both, the district attorney, or the county's designated counsel under specific circumstances, including when it makes a recommendation to the court for community outpatient treatment for a person committed as a sexually violent predator. This bill, the Sexually Violent Predator Accountability, Fairness, and Enforcement Act, would require the State Department of State Hospitals to take specified actions regarding the placement of sexually violent predators in communities, including notifying the county's executive officer of the placement location, as specified, and preparing an annual report on, among other things, the number and location of sexually violent predators under department supervision. The bill would require the State Department of State Hospitals, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to report to the Governor and the Legislature the status of quarters available for placement of sexually violent predators, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires each person between 6 and 18 years of age not otherwise exempted to attend a public full-time day school or continuation school or classes in the school district where the residency of the person's parent or legal guardian is located. Existing law provides that a pupil complies with the residency requirements for school attendance in a school district if the pupil satisfies one of specified requirements. Existing law requires a school district to accept from the parent or legal guardian of a pupil reasonable evidence, to be established by documentation, that the pupil meets the residency requirements for school attendance in the school district, as provided. Existing law authorizes a school district to make reasonable efforts to determine that a pupil actually meets the residency requirements, as specified, if an employee of the school district reasonably believes that the parent or legal guardian of the pupil has provided false or unreliable evidence of residency. This bill would prohibit a school district from requiring updated proof of residency for a pupil who has been evicted or is a victim of violent crime or natural disaster, as defined, and whose parent or guardian previously established residency. The bill would explicitly prohibit a school district from seeking or imposing monetary, civil, or criminal penalties upon a pupil who has been evicted or is the victim of a violent crime or natural disaster, or that pupil's parent or guardian, for failing to update their proof of residency. Existing law requires local educational agencies to allow a pupil who is a child of a military family, as defined, and a pupil who is a migratory child, as defined, to continue attending the pupil's school of origin, regardless of changes in residency, as provided. This bill would require local educational agencies serving pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 8, inclusive, to allow a pupil who has been evicted or is the victim of a violent crime or natural disaster, as defined, to allow the pupil to continue their education in the school of origin through the duration of that academic school year. The bill would also require local educational agencies serving high school pupils to allow a pupil who has been evicted or is the victim of a violent crime or natural disaster to continue their education in the school or origin through graduation. By requiring local educational agencies to allow pupils who have been evicted or are victims of a violent crime or natural disaster who no longer satisfy the residency requirement to attend their schools of origin, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

The Charter Schools Act of 1992 authorizes the establishment, operation, and governance of charter schools. Existing law authorizes a charter school that has an approved charter to receive funding for nonclassroom-based instruction only if a determination for funding is made by the State Board of Education, as specified. This bill would replace the term "nonclassroom-based instruction" with "flex-based instruction" and define a "flex-based charter school" as a charter school that receives a determination for funding from the state board, as described above.. The bill would also make numerous nonsubstantive and conforming changes.

Existing law provides for the civil commitment of criminal offenders who have been determined to be sexually violent predators for treatment in a secure state hospital facility, as specified. Existing law authorizes the conditional release of a sexually violent predator under specified circumstances. Proposition 83 of the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, made various changes to the sexually violent predator civil commitment process. Proposition 83 permits the Legislature to amend its provisions, either by a 23 vote of the membership of each house, or by majority vote of the membership of each house if the amendments expand the scope of the application of the provisions of the proposition or increase the punishments or penalties provided in the proposition. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation that would prohibit a sexually violent predator from being released as a transient or without a fixed permanent address.

Existing law specifies the dimensions for license plates issued for motor vehicles, other than motorcycles. Existing law establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, including the Office of Tourism, which has a partnership with Visit California, a nonprofit organization with a mission to develop and maintain marketing programs that inspire travel to and within California. This bill would require that license plates issued to motor vehicles display the internet website for Visit California.

Existing law, until January 1, 2026, makes it a misdemeanor to commit organized retail theft. Existing law defines organized retail theft to include, among other acts, acting as an agent of another individual or group of individuals to steal merchandise from one or more merchant's premises or online marketplaces as part of an organized plan to commit theft. Under existing law, acts of organized retail theft that are committed on 2 or more separate occasions within a 12-month period and that have an aggregate value that exceeds $950 are punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. This bill would require the Milton Marks "Little Hoover" Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy to submit a report to the Legislature describing the reported retail thefts, as specified. This bill would also require state and local law enforcement to collect and provide data on retail theft to the commission, as specified. This bill would require the commission to issue its report to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2026. By imposing new duties on local entities, 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 the statutory provisions noted above.

The Personal Income Tax Law imposes taxes on taxable income, as provided. Under existing law, every employer who pays wages to a resident employee for services performed either within or without this state, or to a nonresident employee for services performed in this state, is required to deduct and withhold from those wages, except as provided, for each payroll, a tax computed in an amount substantially equivalent to the amount reasonably estimated to be due under the Personal Income Tax Law. Under existing law, every employer required to withhold those taxes is required to, for each calendar quarter, file a withholding report, a quarterly return, and a report of wages in a form prescribed by the Employment Development Department, and pay over the taxes required to be withheld. This bill would authorize an employer to claim, for the 2023 and 2024 calendar years, a COVID-19 regulatory compliance credit in a specified amount. The bill would require the credit to be claimed on the employer's last quarterly return, as described, for the relevant calendar year. The bill would require any amount claimed by an employer to be credited against employee personal income tax withholding amounts required to be remitted to the department for the last quarter of the relevant calendar year. This bill would provide that its provisions do not change the amount of personal income taxes required to be withheld from employees and required to be reported to the employee, the department, the Franchise Tax Board, and the Internal Revenue Service. The bill would specify that its provisions do not require additional taxes to be paid by the employee or otherwise alter the employee's tax liability under the Personal Income Tax Law. The bill would state that it is the intent of the Legislature that the operation of the bill's provisions not require an appropriation of moneys by reducing moneys remitted by the employer to the department that would otherwise be deposited in the General Fund. This bill would authorize the department to adopt rules and regulations that are necessary or appropriate to implement the bill. The bill would repeal its provisions on December 1, 2025.

Existing law provides that a person who is a registered sex offender or a person with a prior conviction for certain serious or violent felonies, such as a sexually violent offense, who also has a prior conviction for other specified offenses, including, among others, petty theft, grand theft, auto theft, and robbery, and who has served a term of imprisonment for the conviction in any penal institution, who is subsequently convicted of petty theft is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison for 16 months or 2 or 3 years. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to those provisions.

Existing state sales and use tax laws impose 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. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes, including an exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or consumption of, items and materials when used to modify a vehicle for physically handicapped persons. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, exempt from those taxes the gross receipts from the sale in this state, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state, of a dedicated snow removal vehicle, as defined, purchased by a local public agency. 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. This bill would make findings detailing the goals of the above-described tax expenditure and performance indicators for determining whether the tax expenditure meets those goals. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. This bill would provide that the exemption created by the bill does not apply to local sales and use taxes or transactions and use taxes. Existing law imposes or dedicates certain state sales and use tax rates for local funding, including through the Local Revenue Fund 2011. This bill would provide that the exemption created by the bill does not apply to those state sales and use tax rates imposed or dedicated for local government funding, including those rates for which revenues are deposited into the Local Revenue Fund 2011. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would be July 1, 2025.

Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an employee or officer of a public health facility to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult who is confined in a health facility. Existing law additionally makes it a misdemeanor for specified individuals, including an employee or officer of a public entity detention facility or an employee with a department, board, or authority under the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult by rubbing or touching the breasts or sexual organs of another, as specified. This bill would change the definition of sexual activity to also include the touching of the anus, groin, or buttocks. The bill would instead make it a misdemeanor or a felony, punishable in the county jail, for employees or officers of a public health facility or public entity detention facility and employees with a department, board, or authority under the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult, as specified. Existing law makes it punishable as either a misdemeanor or a felony for specified individuals, including an employee or officer of a public entity detention facility, to engage in sexual activity by engaging in sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, or sexual penetration, as defined, with a consenting adult who is confined in a detention facility. Existing law makes it punishable as either a misdemeanor or a felony for an employee with a department, board, or authority under the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as specified, to engage in sexual activity by engaging in sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, or sexual penetration, as defined, with a consenting adult who is an inmate, ward, or parolee. This bill would additionally make it punishable as either a misdemeanor or a felony, punishable in a state prison, for employees or officers of a public health facility to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult who is confined in a health facility by engaging in sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, or sexual penetration, as defined. By expanding the scope of crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires a person convicted of a felony violation of the above provisions who is employed by a department, board, or authority within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to be terminated, as specified, and prohibits that person from being eligible to be hired or reinstated by the department. This bill would instead require that a person convicted of any violation of these provisions be terminated and prohibited from being reinstated by the department. The bill would also require that a person convicted of any violation of these provisions who is employed by a public entity detention facility or a public health facility be terminated and made ineligible to be hired or reinstated by any public entity detention facility, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.