Existing law establishes the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, which requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and administer a grant program to allocate funds for capital improvement projects for the development of a qualifying infill project or qualifying infill area, as those terms are defined. 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 exempt from the requirements of CEQA a project financed pursuant to the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, and would make all legal actions, proceedings, and decisions undertaken or made pursuant to the program exempt from CEQA. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to the program by renumbering a code section and updating erroneous cross-references.
Sponsored bills
Existing law prescribes certain penalties for the illegal sale or purchase of abalone taken by a person required to be licensed, as specified. Existing law prescribes certain penalties for the illegal take, possession, import, export, sale, purchase, barter, trade, or exchange of a bird, fish, mammal, reptile, amphibian, or part of any of those animals, or the illegal take or possession in the field of more than 3 times the daily bag limit, or the illegal possession of more than 3 times the legal possession limit, of those animals. Existing law prescribes certain penalties for the knowing violation and conviction of certain provisions involving trophy deer, elk, antelope, bighorn sheep, or wild turkey. This bill would prohibit, if the court grants probation to a person punished pursuant to the above provisions, the period of probation from exceeding 3 years. Because this bill would extend the maximum period of probation that may be granted pursuant to these provisions, and thereby would increase the penalty for 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 Healthy Youth Act requires school districts, defined to include county boards of education, county superintendents of schools, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind, and, commencing with the 2019–20 school year, charter schools, to ensure that all pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, receive comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education, as specified. The act authorizes a school district to provide that education earlier than grade 7 with age-appropriate and medically accurate information. The act requires each school district to notify parents and guardians of pupils about its plan to provide sexual health education and HIV prevention instruction for the upcoming school year and to inform them, among other things, that the written and audiovisual educational materials used in comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education are available for inspection. This bill would require the governing board of a school district to adopt a policy at a publicly noticed meeting specifying how parents and guardians of pupils may inspect the written and audiovisual educational materials used in comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education, including that the materials, including updates or changes to the materials, are made available, within prescribed timeframes, at each schoolsite and, except as provided, publicly posted on the school district's internet website or, if applicable, on a school district's parent or guardian portal, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, 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, beginning on or after January 1, 2015, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, allows an earned income tax credit against personal income tax, and a payment from the Tax Relief and Refund Account for an allowable credit in excess of tax liability, to an eligible individual that is equal to that portion of the earned income tax credit allowed by federal law as determined by the earned income tax credit adjustment factor, as specified. The law provides that the amount of the credit is calculated as a percentage of the eligible individual's earned income and is phased out above a specified amount as income increases. This bill, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2022, would authorize a taxpayer to elect to have the amount of the credit calculated based on the taxpayer's earned income for the taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2019, and before January 1, 2020, the taxpayer's earned income for the taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2021, or the taxpayer's earned income for the next taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2022. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account and provides that payments required to be made to taxpayers or other persons from the Personal Income Tax Fund are to be paid from that account, including any amount to be paid as an earned income tax credit in excess of any tax liabilities. By increasing the amount of the California Earned Income Tax Credit to be paid with funds from the Tax Relief and Refund Account, and thus, authorizing new payments from that account for additional amounts in excess of personal income tax liabilities, this bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs and provides for the denial, suspension, and revocation of licenses for specified conduct. Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application, issuance, and suspension of alcoholic beverage licenses. The act provides the grounds upon which the department may suspend or revoke licenses. This bill would prohibit the Department of Consumer Affairs, a board within the Department of Consumer Affairs, except within the healing arts, and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control from revoking a license for failure to comply with any COVID-19 emergency orders unless the board or department can prove that lack of compliance resulted in transmission of COVID-19. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Tourism and Marketing Act, establishes a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation named the California Travel and Tourism Commission under the direction of a board of commissioners composed of 37 members, including the Director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. This bill, the California Tourism Recovery Act, would require the commission to, upon a determination by the State Department of Public Health that it is safe to resume travel in California, implement a strategic media and jobs recovery campaign known as the "Calling All Californians" program for the purpose of reversing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the travel and tourism industry in California, as specified. The bill would require the commission to report to the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2024, regarding the cost of the program and the impact of the program on the tourism industry in California. The bill would require, only upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Controller to transfer $45,000,000 to the commission for the purpose of implementing the "Calling All Californians" program.
Existing law prescribes different characteristics applicable to property ownership. With regard to community property held by spouses, if the property is expressly declared to be community property with right of survivorship in the transfer document, existing law requires that, upon the death of one of the parties, the property passes to the survivor without probate administration, in the same manner as property held in joint tenancy. Existing law applies these provisions to instruments created on and after July 1, 2001. This bill would require, with regard to property held by spouses described in an instrument created before July 1, 2001, stating only that the property is held as community property, that title be presumed to be held as community property with right of survivorship, absent other stipulations to the contrary.
Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate, within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, and establishes the duties and functions of the Director of the Office of Small Business Advocate including, among other duties, representing the views and interests of small businesses before other state agencies whose policies and activities may affect small businesses. Existing law requires each state agency that significantly regulates small business or that significantly impacts small business to designate at least one person who is required to serve as a small business liaison. This bill would require a state agency to establish a policy, by January 1, 2023, that provides for the reduction or waiver of civil penalties for a violation of a regulatory or statutory requirement by a small business if the violation did not involve willful or criminal conduct and did not pose a serious health, safety, or environmental threat. The bill would require the policy to include various factors the state agency would be required to consider when making a determination as to whether to reduce or waive the civil penalty. The bill would authorize the state agency to update the policy to reflect current issues and conditions affecting small businesses and the state agency. This bill would require the state agency to post a current copy of the policy on the state agency's internet website and to annually post a utilization report that contains specified information about enforcement actions and penalty reductions and waivers. The bill would require a state agency to notify the Office of Small Business Advocate of certain events relating to its policy and annual report. This bill would make the bill's provisions operative only upon the Legislature making an appropriation to implement these provisions.
Existing law establishes the Elderly Parole Program for the purpose of reviewing the parole suitability of inmates who are 50 years of age or older and who have served a minimum of 20 years of continuous incarceration, as defined, on their sentence. Existing law exempts from eligibility a person who was sentenced pursuant to the Three Strikes Sentencing law, a person who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or death, and a person who was convicted of the first-degree murder of a peace officer or a person who had been a peace officer, as provided. This bill would additionally exempt from eligibility for that program specified sex offenders.
Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance, including property insurance. Existing law prohibits the cancellation of a policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 1990, that insures against loss of or damage to specified real property, and prohibits nonrenewal of those policies solely on the grounds of corrosive soil conditions if the policy or renewal policy contains an existing exclusion for payment of loss for corrosive soil conditions. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.