Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a driver's license to an applicant when the department determines that the applicant is lawfully entitled to a license. Existing law allows an in-person applicant for a driver's license or identification card to request the word "VETERAN" be printed on the face of the driver's license or identification card, subject to certain requirements, including, among others, verification of veteran status, as specified, and payment of a $5 fee, which the department is authorized to increase by regulation in an amount not to exceed $15, as specified. Existing law prohibits a fee from being charged for that request if made by (1) a person who has been determined to have a current income level that meets the eligibility requirements for specified assistance programs, or (2) a person who can verify their status as a homeless person, in accordance with specified provisions. This bill would direct the department to discontinue the fee for printing the word "VETERAN" on the face of a driver's licence or identification card by July 1, 2022, and would repeal that fee provision on January 1, 2023. The bill would also make technical and conforming changes.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to submit an annual report to the Governor and both houses of the Legislature on the operations and accomplishments during the previous fiscal year of the housing programs administered by the department. Existing law requires that the report include, among other things, the number of units assisted by those programs and the number of individuals and households served and their income level. This bill would require the department, by March 1 of each year, to develop an annual summary report that discloses the amount of state, federal, and private funding spent on the development of affordable housing within the state, each city, and each county in the preceding calendar year. The bill would require the department to post the annual summary report on its internet website and make the report available to the public by March 15 of each year.
Existing law authorizes the governing boards of 2 or more school districts to enter into an agreement, for a term not to exceed 5 school years, for the interdistrict attendance of pupils who are residents of the school districts. Existing law, regardless of whether there is an agreement or permit, prohibits a school district of residence from prohibiting the transfer of a pupil who is a child of an active military duty parent to the school district of proposed enrollment if the school district of proposed enrollment approves the application for transfer. This bill would also prohibit a school district of residence from prohibiting the transfer of a pupil who is not receiving in-person instruction to a school district of proposed enrollment that is offering in-person instruction if the school district of proposed enrollment approves the application for transfer. The bill would define "in-person instruction" for its purposes to mean instruction under the immediate physical supervision and control of a certificated employee of the local educational agency while engaged in educational activities required of the pupil and to include both full-time and hybrid instructional models. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law defines the crime of burglary to include entering a vehicle when the doors are locked with the intent to commit grand or petit larceny or a felony. Existing law makes the burglary of a vehicle punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. This bill would make forcibly entering a vehicle, as defined, with the intent to commit a theft therein a crime punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed one year or imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. By creating a new 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.
Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of nurses by the Board of Registered Nursing in the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law requires a licensee under the act to apply for renewal of their license every 2 years and allows an inactive license to be reactivated, as specified. This bill would authorize the board to reduce as prescribed the renewal fee for a licensee who meets certain age and practice qualifications.
(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. Existing law authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. This bill would continuously appropriate $480,000,000 and $20,000,000 to the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention and the California Conservation Corps, respectively, for fire prevention activities, as provided. (2) The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law, until January 1, 2022, authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from the requirements of that act a person engaged in forest management whose activities are limited to the cutting or removal of trees on the person's property that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuelbreak for a distance of not more than 300 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted habitable structure, when that cutting or removal is conducted in compliance with certain requirements. This bill would extend the state board's authorization to provide for the above exemption indefinitely. The bill would extend the distance of the fuelbreak to not more than 500 feet. (3) 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. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA projects or activities related to forest health and fuel reduction that involve thinning overgrown brushes or trees 10 inches or less in diameter by mechanical thinning, pile burning, prescribed fire, and grazing. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development for the purpose of advocating for the causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. This bill, the Keep California Working Act, would establish the Keep California Working Grant Program. The act would require the Small Business Advocate to administer the program and award grants, as specified, to small businesses and nonprofit entities that meet specified criteria, including that the entity has experienced economic hardship resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The act would specify that grant money awarded pursuant to the program may be used only for specified purposes, including payroll costs, health care benefits, paid sick, medical, or family leave, and insurance premiums. The act would appropriate $2.6 billion dollars to the Office of Small Business Advocate for those purposes. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally define "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provide various exclusions from gross income. This bill would exclude from gross income, for state income tax purposes, the amount of a grant awarded pursuant to the Keep California Working Grant Program. 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. The bill also would include additional information required for a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law governs the duties of social workers in a variety of areas, including foster care, health care, mental health, and substance abuse treatment. Other existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist. This bill would require social workers, if they are deemed essential workers during a state of emergency declared by the Governor, to be included in the group of essential workers who are eligible to receive the first distribution of emergency materials, as determined by the state or a local governmental entity, including, but not limited to, all materials and protective gear deemed necessary to protect their health and safety. The bill, with regard to social workers, would authorize the state or a local governmental entity to establish within the first group of essential workers eligible to receive the emergency materials, further levels of distribution for specified classifications of social workers. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act of 2006 requires every retailer, as defined, to have in place a system for the acceptance and collection of used rechargeable batteries, defined to include lithium-ion batteries, for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal. The act requires the system for the acceptance and collection of used rechargeable batteries to include, at a minimum, specified elements, including, among others, the take-back of a used rechargeable battery at no cost to the consumer. The hazardous waste control laws, among other things, authorize the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the generation and disposal of hazardous waste. Existing law prohibits a person from intentionally disposing of or causing the disposal of a hazardous or extremely hazardous waste at a point not authorized by the hazardous waste control laws, as provided. Under existing department-adopted regulations, specified hazardous wastes, including certain batteries, are designated as "universal waste" and are regulated separately pursuant to universal waste management provisions. This bill would prohibit a person from knowingly disposing of a lithium-ion battery in a container or receptacle that is intended for the collection of solid waste or recyclable materials, unless the container or receptacle is designated for the collection of batteries for recycling pursuant to specified laws. The bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, on or before July 1, 2024, and in consultation with the Department of Toxic Substances Control, to develop a guidance document for use by local governments to better inform, educate, and increase public awareness regarding the proper handling and disposal of lithium-ion batteries and products that contain lithium-ion batteries, as provided. The bill would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in carrying out that requirement, to solicit and use any expertise available in other state agencies and would authorize the department to convene a specified working group to advise on the content, development, and promotion of the guidance document. The bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, before January 1, 2023, in consultation with relevant state agencies and stakeholders, to develop a model protocol that identifies best practices for the detection, safe handling, and suppression of fires that originate from discarded lithium-ion batteries or products that contain lithium-ion batteries on or in solid waste or recycling collection vehicles, transfer or processing stations, or disposal facilities, as provided. The bill would require a solid waste enterprise, before July 1, 2023, after consulting with the county fire marshal of every county in which the solid waste enterprise conducts solid waste collection operations, to adopt, or update if necessary, a protocol and arrange any necessary training for relevant employees that identifies procedures to follow under those same circumstances. By imposing new duties on county fire marshals, 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.
Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification or applicable security regulations established by the United States or the State of California, to refuse to hire or employ a person or to refuse to select a person for a training program leading to employment, or to bar or discharge a person from employment or a training program leading to employment, or to discriminate against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status of that person. FEHA provides that nothing in that act relating to discrimination on account of sex affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in employee selection or to give special consideration to Vietnam-era veterans. This bill would enact the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act to authorize a private employer to establish and maintain a written veterans' preference employment policy, to be applied uniformly to hiring decisions, to give a voluntary preference for hiring a veteran over another qualified applicant. The bill would require a private employer with a veterans' preference employment policy to annually report to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing the number of veterans hired under the preference policy and any demographic information about those veterans that the employer obtained in response to the department's reporting requirements. Under the bill, failure to submit that report would render any preference granted by the employer ineligible for the protections provided by this bill. The bill would require the department to report that information, in addition to the number of discrimination claims received based on an employer's veterans' preference employment policy, to specified legislative policy committees by July 1, 2025, and July 1, 2027. The bill would provide that the granting of a veterans' preference pursuant to the bill, in and of itself, shall be deemed not to violate any local or state equal employment opportunity law or regulation, including, but not limited to, the antidiscrimination provisions of FEHA. The bill would revise the existing veteran status provision in FEHA to remove references to discrimination on account of sex and to Vietnam-era veterans, and would, instead, provide that nothing in that act relating to discrimination affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in hiring decisions if the employer maintains a veterans' preference employment policy established in accordance with the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act. The bill would prohibit a veterans' preference employment policy from being established or applied for the purpose of discriminating against an employment applicant on the basis of a protected classification, as specified. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2028.