Existing law authorizes certain nontraditional insurers, including religious organizations meeting specified criteria, to insure against specified risks. Existing law authorizes these associations to insure against a specified list of losses, including, but not limited to, vandalism or malicious mischief, vehicles owned or operated by the insured or by any tenant of the described premises, falling trees, burglary and theft, and mysterious disappearance. This bill would remove insuring vehicles owned or operated by the insured or by any tenant of the described premises from the list of insurable losses and would add insuring against liability to the list of insurable losses. Existing law prohibits an association from writing insurance in excess of $10,000 on any one risk or in excess of $60,000 in any one city block within an incorporated city without immediately reinsuring all the excess amount. Existing law authorizes an association to write insurance for an amount not exceeding $60,000 on any one risk if the excess over $10,000 is reinsured, as provided. An association is not authorized to accept reinsurance but may reinsure risks if that reinsurance is by contracts and with reinsurers that meet the prescribed standards. This bill would delete the above-described provisions.
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Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer courses in specified areas of study, including social sciences. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the State Board of Education. This bill would require the commission to develop, and the state board to adopt, reject, or modify, a model curriculum in media literacy for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would require the commission to submit the model curriculum to the state board on or before January 1, 2019, and would require the state board to adopt, reject, or modify the model curriculum on or before March 31, 2019, in accordance with specified procedural requirements. The bill would require the State Department of Education to make available on its Internet Web site a list of resources and instructional materials on media literacy, including media literacy professional development programs for teachers.
Existing law vests exclusive jurisdiction over ungranted tidelands and submerged lands owned by the state to the State Lands Commission. Existing law confers the powers of the commission as to leasing or granting of rights or privileges to lands owned by the state upon a local trustee of granted public trust lands to which those lands have been granted. Existing law authorizes the commission to let leases for the extraction of oil and gas from coastal tidelands or submerged lands in state waters and beds of navigable rivers and lakes within the state in accordance with specified provisions of law. Existing law, notwithstanding those provisions or any other provision of law, prohibits a state agency or state officer from entering into any new lease for the extraction of oil or gas from the California Coastal Sanctuary, which includes certain state waters subject to tidal influence, unless either (1) the President of the United States has found a severe energy supply interruption and has ordered distribution of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the Governor finds that the energy resources of the sanctuary will contribute significantly to the alleviation of that interruption, and the Legislature subsequently acts to amend the law to allow the extraction, or (2) the commission determines that the oil or gas deposits are being drained by means of producing wells upon adjacent federal lands and the lease is in the best interest of the state. This bill would prohibit the commission and the local trustees of granted public trust lands from entering into any new lease or other conveyance or from entering into any lease renewal, extension, or modification that authorizes a lessee to engage in new or additional exploration, development, or production of oil or natural gas upon lands owned by the state and under the jurisdiction of the commission that are located seaward of the ordinary high water mark for tidal waterways and the ordinary low water mark for navigable nontidal waterways that would result in the increase of oil or natural gas production from federal waters. The bill would apply the exceptions applicable to the California Coastal Sanctuary to these provisions. The bill would authorize the commission to establish guidelines for the implementation of these provisions.
Existing law prohibits several forms of sexual battery, including among others, the touching of an intimate part of another person while that person is unlawfully restrained by the accused or an accomplice, if the touching is against the will of the person touched and is for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse. This bill would establish an additional sexual battery offense when an act of sexual intercourse is accomplished under certain circumstances, including, among others, when a person using a condom intentionally and without consent removes the condom prior to or during the act, when a person using the condom intentionally and without consent tampers with the condom and that condom is used during the act, or when the person intentionally and without consent uses a condom during the act that the person knows has been tampered with. The bill would provide that the offense is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year and a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, and by a fine not exceeding $10,000. The bill would make additional conforming changes. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated 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 Department of Transportation to contract with Amtrak for intercity rail passenger services and provides funding for these services from the Public Transportation Account. Existing law authorizes the department, subject to approval of the Secretary of Transportation, to enter into an interagency transfer agreement under which a joint powers board assumes responsibility for administering the state-funded intercity rail service in a particular corridor and associated feeder bus services. Existing law defines the boundaries of 3 intercity rail corridors, and requires the preparation of an annual business plan for the corridor by each participating joint powers board. This bill, at any time after an interagency transfer agreement between the department and a joint powers board has been entered into, would authorize the amendment of the agreement to provide for the extension of the affected rail corridor to provide intercity rail service beyond the defined boundaries of the corridor. The bill would require a proposed extension and intercity rail service expansion to be consistent with the State Rail Plan and to be approved through the business plan adopted by the joint powers board and then by the Secretary of Transportation, and would require the joint powers board to make a determination that the extension and intercity rail service expansion will not jeopardize or come at the expense of other existing intercity rail services.
Under existing law, the Department of Rehabilitation is required to provide various services to individuals with physical or mental disabilities who are found to be eligible therefor, including independent living services. Existing law provides for the operation of independent living centers, which are private, nonprofit organizations that provide specified services to individuals with disabilities, in order to assist those individuals in their attempts to live fuller and freer lives outside institutions. Under existing law, the department has the responsibility and authority for the encouragement of the planning, developing, and funding of independent living centers. Under existing law, each independent living center, except those centers that have been both established and maintained using specified federal funding as a primary base grant, is required to receive, to the extent funds are appropriated by the Legislature, at least $235,000 in base grant funds allocated by the department. This bill would delete the above exception for centers that were previously established and maintained with federal funding, thereby requiring those centers to also receive at least $235,000 in base grant funds allocated by the department. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
The Personal Income Tax Law provides for modified conformity to specified provisions of federal income tax law relating to the exclusion of the discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness, as defined, from an individual's income if that debt is discharged after January 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2014, as provided. Existing law limits the amount excludable from gross income to $500,000 or to $250,000 if the taxpayer is a married individual filing a separate return. The federal Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 extended the operation of those provisions to debt that is discharged before January 1, 2015. The federal Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 extended the operation of those provisions to debt that is discharged before January 1, 2017, and provides that its discharge provisions apply to specified written agreements entered into before January 1, 2017. This bill would conform to that additional discharge provision relating to specified written agreements and the federal extensions, some of which would be applied retroactively, and would limit the amount excludable under this provision to $250,000 or to $125,000 if the taxpayer is a married individual filing a separate return. The bill would discharge indebtedness for related penalties and interest and would make legislative findings and declarations regarding the public purpose served by the bill. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the Steven M. Thompson Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program (program) in the California Physician Corps Program within the Health Professions Education Foundation, which provides financial incentives, including repayment of educational loans, to a physician and surgeon who practices in a medically underserved area, as defined. Existing law establishes the Medically Underserved Account for Physicians, a continuously appropriated account, within the Health Professions Education Fund, to primarily provide funding for the ongoing operations of the program. Existing law requires the foundation and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to develop guidelines using specified criteria for selection and placement of applicants. Existing law defines "practice setting," for these purposes, to include a community clinic, as defined, a clinic owned or operated by a public hospital and health system, or a clinic owned and operated by a hospital that maintains the primary contract with a county government to fulfill the county's role to serve its indigent population, that is located in a medically underserved area and at least 50% of whose patients are from a medically underserved population. Existing law also defines "practice setting," for these purposes, to include a physician owned and operated medical practice setting that provides primary care located in a medically underserved area and has a minimum of 50% of patients who are uninsured, Medi-Cal beneficiaries, or beneficiaries of another publicly funded program that serves patients who earn less than 250% of the federal poverty level. This bill would instead require, for purposes of this definition, only until January 1, 2020, and only for program participants who enroll in the program on or after January 1, 2018, and before January 1, 2020, that the clinic or the physician owned and operated medical practice setting have at least 30% of patients, if the area is a rural area, as defined, or at least 50% of patients, if the area is not a rural area, who are from the above-described populations. By expanding the authorization for the use of moneys in the Medically Underserved Account for Physicians, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would require the foundation to prepare a study to determine the effect that the revised definition has on funding for loan repayment granted under the program during the calendar years 2018 and 2019. The bill would require the foundation to submit 2 reports of the study by March 1, 2019, and March 1, 2020, respectively, including program data for certain years and identifying specified information. This bill would also make conforming changes to related provisions.
Existing law provides that every tax, penalty, or interest on real property is a lien against the property assessed. Existing law also provides that every tax on improvements is a lien on the taxable land on which they are located. Existing law provides that a tax on personal property is a lien against any real property on the secured roll also belonging to the owner of the personal property in specified circumstances. Existing law authorizes the county tax collector to record a lien with respect to certain types of taxes on real and personal property with the county recorder. This bill would authorize the board of supervisors of a county to provide that a tax on real or personal property is not a lien against the property assessed or the assessee if the amount of the tax assessed against that property or assessee is less than an amount set by that ordinance or resolution, up to $200, excluding any interest, penalties, or other fees.
Existing law prohibits a pupil from being suspended from school or recommended for expulsion, unless the superintendent of the school district or the principal of the school in which the pupil is enrolled determines that the pupil has committed a specified act. Existing law requires the principal or superintendent to recommend the expulsion of a pupil for certain acts, including assault or battery upon any school employee, unless the principal or superintendent determines that expulsion should not be recommended under the circumstances or that an alternative means of correction would address the conduct. This bill would expand the act of assault or battery upon any school employee to include assault or battery upon a staff member contracted to provide services to pupils. The bill would require, if the principal or superintendent determines that expulsion should not be recommended under the circumstances or that an alternative means of correction would address a pupil's assault or battery upon any school employee or a staff member contracted to provide services to pupils, the governing board of the school district to, if the pupil's conduct resulted in serious bodily injury, transfer the pupil to another school in the school district, if any. By imposing additional duties on public school officials and 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 the statutory provisions noted above.