Existing law requires a vehicle to display a license plate, issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles, with tabs that indicate the month and year the vehicle registration expires. Existing law authorizes the department to conduct a pilot program, until January 1, 2023, if certain conditions are met, to evaluate the use of alternatives to stickers, tabs, license plates, and registration cards. Under existing law, a person who alters, forges, counterfeits, or falsifies, among other things, a device issued pursuant to the pilot program, is guilty of a felony. This bill would require the department to establish a program authorizing an entity to issue alternatives to stickers, tabs, license plates, and registration cards under specified conditions that include, among others, approval of the alternative devices by the Department of the California Highway Patrol. The bill would make this authorization applicable to environmental license plates and specialized license plates displayed on an alternative device, as specified. The bill would allow the failure or malfunction of an alternative device to be deemed a correctable violation, as specified. The bill would require the provider of the device to build into the device a process for frequent notification if the device becomes defective and would require the provider to seek to replace defective devices as soon as possible. The bill would require an entity seeking approval to issue alternative devices or electronic vehicle registration cards to submit a business plan to the Department of Motor Vehicles, as specified. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations to carry out the program, including establishing reasonable fees to reimburse the department for the costs of implementing the program, reporting requirements, and to determine standards necessary for the safe use of alternative products, and would extend the existing authorization for a pilot program described above until the effective date of those regulations. The bill would make alteration, forgery, counterfeit, or falsification of a device issued pursuant to these provisions a felony. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would generally prohibit an alternative device from being equipped with GPS or other vehicle location tracking capability, but would allow tracking technology to be installed on alternative devices used by specified vehicles, including fleet and commercial vehicles. The bill would generally prohibit an employer from using an alternative device equipped with tracking technology to monitor employees, except the bill would allow an employer to use an alternative device to locate, track, watch, listen to, or otherwise surveil an employee during work hours if strictly necessary for the performance of the employee's duties. The bill would require the employer to first notify the employee that monitoring will occur, as specified, and would allow an employee to disable the alternative device's monitoring capabilities, including vehicle location technology, outside of work hours. The bill would impose civil penalties for a violation of these requirements and authorize the issuance of citations, as prescribed. The bill would also prohibit retaliation against an employee by an employer or a person acting on the employer's behalf for disabling an alternative device's monitoring capabilities outside of work hours, and would authorize an employee to file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner for a violation of that prohibition. The bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to, by no later than January 1, 2024, recall any alternative devices equipped with GPS or other tracking technology that have been issued, pursuant to the existing pilot program, to vehicles other than those specified vehicles, including fleet and commercial vehicles, for which GPS or other tracking technology is authorized. 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.
Sponsored bills
The California Constitution and Public Utilities Act vest the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities. Existing law establishes various committees and boards to advise the PUC on specified topics, including, among others, the Low-Income Oversight Board, and requires the PUC to work with community-based organizations to increase participation in programs for low-income customers, as specified. Existing law also establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) with various responsibilities with respect to developing and implementing the state's energy policies. This bill would require the PUC and Energy Commission to collaborate to develop and maintain a list of community-based organizations to help ensure adequate public outreach regarding available programs and incentives, as specified. The bill also would require the PUC and Energy Commission to work with existing committees, boards, and community-based organizations in developing the list.
Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions, and authorizes employees to elect exclusive bargaining representatives for these purposes. Existing law creates the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and prescribes its composition, duties, and powers. Existing law authorizes the board to hold hearings and conduct investigations and requires that certain procedures be the exclusive method of redressing unfair labor practices. Under existing law, any person who willfully resists, prevents, or interferes with a member of the board or its agents or agencies in the performance of their duties is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law requires the board to certify the results of an election conducted by secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative, unless the board determines there are sufficient grounds to refuse to do so. Existing law further provides that if the board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct that would render slight the chances of a new election reflecting the free and fair choice of employees, the labor organization shall be certified as the bargaining representative for the bargaining unit. This bill would refer to the election by secret ballot process as a polling place election. The bill would establish alternative procedures to the polling place election and authorize a labor organization to be certified as the exclusive bargaining representative of a bargaining unit through either a labor peace election or a non-labor peace election, as prescribed, dependent on whether an employer enrolls and agrees to a labor peace election for labor organization representation campaigns. The bill would provide that a labor peace election or a non-labor peace election permits a bargaining unit to summarily select a labor organization as its representative for collective bargaining purposes without using the existing polling place process. Under the bill, a labor peace election would be a mail ballot election and a non-labor peace election would establish a process for the submission of a petition with proof of majority support, subject to certification by the board. Among other provisions, the bill would require for both alternative procedures that an employer respond to the board with regard to a petition, including providing a specified list of employees to the board. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would establish a schedule for agricultural employers to indicate to the board whether they agree to a labor peace compact, defined to mean an agreement by the employer to, among other things, make no statements for or against union representation to its employees or publicly, in any written or oral form, at any time during employee hire, rehire, or orientation, or after certain documents regarding organization are filed with the board. The bill would prohibit a labor peace compact from prohibiting an employer from communicating truthful statements to employees regarding workplace policies or benefits, as specified. The bill would require the board to develop an online web-based labor peace election process that will allow employers to indicate their labor peace choice online, and that will allow labor organizations to see whether a specific agricultural employer has agreed to a labor peace election campaign. This bill would repeal the above provisions on January 1, 2028. This bill would prescribe civil penalties to be imposed upon an agricultural employer who commits an unfair labor practice in an amount not to exceed $10,000 for each violation, and would increase that sum to an amount not to exceed $25,000 for specified violations. The bill would require the board to consider specified factors in determining the amount of a civil penalty pursuant to these provisions. The bill would also authorize the board to impose personal liability for these penalties upon a director or officer of an employer in certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes a person aggrieved by the final order of the board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought for an unfair labor practice, to obtain a review of the order in a specified court of appeal by filing in the court a written petition requesting that the order of the board be modified or set aside. This bill would require an employer who appeals or petitions for a writ of review of any order of the board involving make-whole, backpay, or other monetary awards to employees, to post an appeal bond in the amount of the entire economic value of the order, as specified, and would provide for the bond to be forfeited under specified conditions. This bill would state that its provisions are severable. 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.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for its physical development, and the development of certain lands outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law requires that the housing element include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable and available for residential development. If the inventory of sites does not identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of all households pursuant to specified law, existing law requires the local government to rezone sites within specified time periods and that this rezoning accommodate 100% of the need for housing for very low and low-income households on sites that will be zoned to permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily residential use by right for specified developments. This bill, the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022, would deem a housing development project, as defined, an allowable use on a parcel that is within a zone where office, retail, or parking are a principally permitted use, if specified conditions are met, including requirements relating to density, public notice, comment, hearing, or other procedures, site location and size, consistency with sustainable community strategy or alternative plans, prevailing wage, and a skilled and trained workforce. The bill would authorize an interested party, including a labor organization that represents workers in the geographic area of the project, to bring an action for injunctive relief against a developer or prime contractor that proceeds with a project in violation of specified bidding requirements. This bill would require a development proponent to provide written notice of their pending application to each commercial tenant on the parcel when the application is submitted and provide relocation assistance to each eligible commercial tenant, as described. The bill would require a local agency to require that a rental of any unit created pursuant to the bill's provisions be for a term longer than 30 days. This bill would authorize a local agency to exempt a parcel from these provisions if the local agency makes specified written findings supported by substantial evidence, as provided. The bill would specify that it does not alter or affect the application of any housing, environmental, or labor law applicable to a housing development authorized by these provisions, including, but not limited to, the California Coastal Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, the Housing Accountability Act, obligations to affirmatively further fair housing, and any state or local affordability laws or tenant protection laws. The bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to undertake at least 2 studies of the outcomes of these provisions that include specified information, including, among other things, the number of projects built and the number of units built. The bill would provide that these provisions become operative on July 1, 2023, and would repeal the provisions on January 1, 2033. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022 address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. The Housing Accountability Act, which is part of the Planning and Zoning Law, prohibits a local agency from disapproving, or conditioning approval in a manner that renders infeasible, a housing development project, as defined for purposes of the act, for very low, low-, or moderate-income households or an emergency shelter unless the local agency makes specified written findings based on a preponderance of the evidence in the record. That act states that it shall not be construed to prohibit a local agency from requiring a housing development project to comply with objective, quantifiable, written development standards, conditions, and policies appropriate to, and consistent with, meeting the jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need, except as provided. That act further provides that a housing development project or emergency shelter shall be deemed consistent, compliant, and in conformity with an applicable plan, program, policy, ordinance, standard, requirement, or other similar provision if there is substantial evidence that would allow a reasonable person to conclude that the housing development project or emergency shelter is consistent, compliant, or in conformity. The bill would provide that for purposes of the Housing Accountability Act, a proposed housing development project is consistent, compliant, and in conformity with an applicable plan, program, policy, ordinance, standard, requirement, or other similar provision if the housing development project is consistent with the standards applied to the parcel pursuant to specified provisions of the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022. The Planning and Zoning Law, until January 1, 2026, also authorizes a development proponent to submit an application for a multifamily housing development that is subject to a streamlined, ministerial approval process, as provided, and not subject to a conditional use permit, if the development satisfies specified objective planning standards, including a requirement that the site on which the development is proposed is zoned for residential use or residential mixed-use development, or has a general plan designation that allows residential use or a mix of residential and nonresidential uses, with at least 23 of the square footage of the development designated for residential use. Under that law, the proposed development is also required to be consistent with objective zoning standards, objective subdivision standards, and objective design review standards in effect at the time the development is submitted to the local government. This bill would permit the development to be proposed for a site zoned for office or retail commercial use and that meets the requirements of the above-described Middle Class Housing Act of 2022. The bill would also provide that a project shall be deemed consistent with objective zoning standards, objective design standards, and objective subdivision standards if the project is consistent with the applicable provisions of the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022 and if none of the square footage in the project is designated for hotel, motel, bed and breakfast inn, or other transient lodging use, except for a residential hotel, as defined. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65913.4 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2668 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2668 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. By expanding the crime of perjury and imposing new duties on local agencies with regard to local planning and zoning, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, to establish resource adequacy requirements for all load-serving entities, defined as including electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators. Existing law requires the resource adequacy program to achieve certain objectives, including, among other objectives, maximizing the ability of community choice aggregators to determine the generation resources used to serve their customers. This bill would revise and recast the objectives of the resource adequacy program. The bill would require the commission to analyze, compile, and publish on its internet website an annual report on the compliance status of load-serving entities. Existing law requires the commission to determine and authorize the most efficient and equitable means for ensuring that community choice aggregators can determine the generation resources used to service their customers. This bill would additionally require the commission to determine and authorize the most efficient and equitable means for ensuring that electric service providers can determine the generation resources used to serve their customers. The bill would also require the Independent System Operator to ensure that the cost of backstop procurement and associated greenhouse gas attributes are equitably allocated. This bill would require the commission, in coordination with the Independent System Operator, in a new or existing proceeding, to develop a pilot program for aggregated customer-sited zero-emission distributed energy resources, as defined, to assess the value of potential energy exports from those resources for purposes of fulfilling the requirements of the resource adequacy program, as specified. The bill would exclude from participation in the pilot program customers taking service under a customer-generator tariff unless the customer is only compensated in a specified manner. The bill would authorize the commission to allocate certain funds to carry out the pilot program and would specify the resources eligible to participate in the pilot program, as provided. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 380 of the Public Utilities Code proposed by SB 1158 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1158 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. To the extent that certain provisions of this bill would require an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission to implement, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes. 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) The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission and authorizes the commission to exercise ratemaking and rulemaking authority over all public utilities, as defined, subject to control by the Legislature. The Public Utilities Act requires the commission to determine whether each proceeding is a quasi-legislative, an adjudication, a ratesetting, or a catastrophic wildfire proceeding. Existing law requires the commission to establish a "quiet period" during the 3 business days before the commission's scheduled vote on a decision in a ratesetting case, and authorizes the commission to establish a quiet period during other specified periods of a ratesetting case and during the 3 business days before the commission's scheduled vote on a decision in a catastrophic wildfire proceeding, as specified. Existing law authorizes the commission to meet in closed session during the quiet period of a ratesetting case and at any point during the pendency of the catastrophic wildfire proceeding, as specified. This bill would revise and recast these provisions relating to quiet periods and the authority for closed session commission meetings during ratesetting cases and catastrophic wildfire proceedings. (2) Existing law establishes the California Solar Initiative, a program providing ratepayer funded incentives for eligible solar energy systems adopted by the Public Utilities Commission, as provided. Existing law requires, on or before June 30 of each year, the commission to submit to the Legislature an assessment of the success of the program. This bill would repeal that requirement on January 1, 2024. (3) Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to require every electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, wireless telecommunications service provider, electric service provider, and telephone corporation with annual gross California revenues exceeding $25,000,000, and their regulated subsidiaries and affiliates, to annually submit a detailed and verifiable plan for increasing procurement from women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises, as specified. Existing law requires the commission to require every electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, wireless telecommunications service provider, electric service provider, and telephone corporation with gross annual California revenues exceeding $15,000,000, but not more than $25,000,000, to annually submit data in a simplified form to the commission on its procurement from women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises, as specified. Existing law requires each community choice aggregator with gross annual revenues exceeding $15,000,000 to annually submit a report to the commission regarding its procurement from women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises, as specified. Existing law requires the commission, by September 1 of each year, to report certain information relative to those activities undertaken in the implementation of those plans. This bill would require the commission to also include in the report the progress of activities undertaken by electric service providers with gross annual California revenues exceeding $25,000,000, by community choice aggregators with gross annual revenues exceeding $15,000,000, and by electrical corporations, gas corporations, water corporations, wireless telecommunications service providers, electric service providers, and telephone corporations with gross annual California revenues exceeding $15,000,000, but not more than $25,000,000. (4) Existing law requires the commission to require every electrical, gas, water, wireless telecommunications service provider, and telephone corporation with gross annual revenues exceeding $25,000,000, and their commission-regulated subsidiaries and affiliates, to implement an outreach program to inform and recruit women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises to apply for procurement contracts. This bill would additionally require the commission to require every electric service provider with gross annual California revenues exceeding $25,000,000, and their commission-regulated subsidiaries and affiliates, to implement an outreach program for that recruitment. (5) Existing law makes it a crime for any person or corporation to falsely represent a business as a women, minority, disabled veteran, or LGBT business enterprise in the procurement, or attempted procurement, of contracts from an electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, wireless telecommunications service provider, or telephone corporation with gross annual revenues exceeding $25,000,000, or a commission-regulated subsidiary or affiliate, as provided. This bill would additionally make it a crime for any person or corporation to falsely represent a business as a women, minority, disabled veteran, or LGBT business enterprise in the procurement, or attempted procurement, of contracts from an electric service provider with gross annual California revenues exceeding $25,000,000, or a commission-regulated subsidiary or affiliate, or from an electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, wireless telecommunications service provider, electric service provider, and telephone corporation with gross annual California revenues exceeding $15,000,000, as provided. (6) Existing law authorizes eligible corporations to consider certain measures to include women-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses, disabled veteran-owned businesses, and LGBT-owned businesses and small businesses in all phases of contracting in contract procurement. This bill would instead authorize eligible corporations to consider certain measures to include women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises and small businesses in all phases of contracting in contract procurement. (7) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act, or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because certain of the above provisions would be codified in the act and would require action by the commission, a violation of which would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
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. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, exempt from CEQA a university housing development project, as defined, carried out by a public university, as defined, on real property owned by the public university if the project meets certain requirements, including that each building within the project is certified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum or better by the United States Green Building Council, that the project's construction impacts are fully mitigated, and that the project is not located, in whole or in part, on certain types of sites, including a site that is within a special flood hazard area subject to inundation by a 1% annual chance flood or within a regulatory floodway as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as provided. The bill, with respect to a site that is within a special flood hazard area subject to inundation by a 1% annual chance flood or within a regulatory floodway, would prohibit a local government from denying an application on the basis that a public university did not comply with any additional permit requirement, standard, or action adopted by that local government applicable to the site if the public university is able to satisfy all applicable federal qualifying criteria in order to demonstrate that the site meets these criteria and is otherwise eligible to be exempt from CEQA pursuant to the above requirements. By imposing additional duties on local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that a university housing development project is not exempt from CEQA if, among other things, the project would require the demolition of specified housing or a historic structure that is listed on a national, state, or local historic register. The bill would require the public university to hold at least one noticed public hearing to hear and respond to public comments before determining that the university housing development project is exempt under the bill's provisions. The bill would require the lead agency, before the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for each building within a project, to obtain the LEED certification of the building, and to make a determination that all construction impacts of the project have been fully mitigated and issue a notice of that determination. The bill would require the lead agency to file the LEED certification and the notice with the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk of the county in which the project is located. The bill would require the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk to make the certification and notice available to the public. To the extent that this bill would impose additional duties on a local agency, including the county clerk, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
(1) Existing law authorizes the payment of unemployment compensation benefits and requires that they be made in accordance with regulations of the Director of Employment Development. Existing law generally requires the Employment Development Department to promptly pay benefits if claimants are eligible or to promptly deny benefits if they are ineligible. Existing law prohibits payment of unemployment compensation benefits for services performed by a person who is not a citizen or national of the United States, unless that person is an individual who was lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time the services were performed, was lawfully present for purposes of performing the services, or was permanently residing in the United States under color of law at the time the services were performed, as specified. This bill would establish, until January 1, 2026, the Excluded Workers Pilot Program, to be administered by the Employment Development Department upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of providing income assistance to excluded workers who are ineligible for the existing state or federal benefits administered by the department and who are unemployed. The bill would make individuals eligible to receive $300 per week for each week of unemployment, if the Director of Employment Development makes certain findings, as defined and specified. The bill would require the department to promulgate regulations to implement the program, including regulations providing for an application process, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from requesting or compelling certain information from individuals in connection with administering the program and would prohibit the department from retaining specified documents for longer than necessary to administer benefits. The bill would also prohibit, except as specified, disclosures of personal information, as defined. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2025, to submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature that makes recommendations for establishing a permanent unemployment insurance benefit program for workers excluded from the unemployment insurance system based on their immigration status, as specified. (2) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law establishes an Independent System Operator (ISO) as a nonprofit public benefit corporation and, among other things, requires the ISO to ensure efficient use and reliable operation of the electrical transmission grid, as specified. The Public Utilities Act requires the commission to implement and enforce standards for the maintenance and operation of facilities for the generation of electricity owned by an electrical corporation or located in the state to ensure their reliable operation. Existing law requires the ISO to maintain records of generation facility outages and to provide those records to the Electricity Oversight Board and the commission on a daily basis. This bill would require the commission to implement and enforce standards for the maintenance and operation of facilities for the storage of electricity owned by an electrical corporation or located in the state. The bill would require the ISO to maintain records of storage facility outages and to provide those records to the commission on a daily basis. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state, including telephone corporations, and to fix just and reasonable rates and charges for public utilities. Existing law establishes the state's 6 universal service funds in the State Treasury, including the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund and the California High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund, and provides that moneys in each of the state's universal service funds are the proceeds of rates and are held in trust for the benefit of ratepayers and to compensate telephone corporations for their costs of providing universal service. Moneys in the funds may only be expended to accomplish specified telecommunications universal service programs, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act or upon supplemental appropriation. Existing law, until January 1, 2023, requires the commission to maintain the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund (the CHCF-A program) to provide universal service rate support to small independent telephone corporations, as defined, in certain amounts in furtherance of the state's universal service commitment to the continued affordability and widespread availability of safe, reliable, high-quality communications services in rural areas of the state. Existing law, until January 1, 2023, requires the commission to develop, implement, and maintain a suitable, competitively neutral, and broad-based program to establish a fair and equitable local rate support structure aided by universal service rate support to telephone corporations serving areas where the cost of providing services exceeds rates charged by providers, as determined by the commission (the CHCF-B program) . This bill would extend the CHCF-A program and CHCF-B program requirements to January 1, 2028. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order or direction of the commission is a crime. Because the CHCF-A program and CHCF-B program, that are extended under the provisions of this bill, are within the act and a decision or order of the commission implements the programs' requirements, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.