The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65) prohibits any person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from discharging or releasing such a chemical into any source of drinking water, except as specified. Existing law prohibits the sale of expanded polystyrene packaging material by a wholesaler or manufacturer. Existing law prohibits a person from selling a plastic product in this state that is labeled with the term "compostable," "home compostable," or "marine degradable" unless, at the time of sale, the plastic product meets the applicable ASTM International standard specification. This bill would prohibit, on and after January 1, 2020, a person, as defined, from selling or offering for promotional purposes in this state a personal care product containing synthetic plastic microbeads, as specified. The bill would exempt from those prohibitions the sale or promotional offer of a product containing less than 1 part per million (ppm) by weight of synthetic plastic microbeads, as provided. The bill would make a violator liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 per day for each violation. The bill would authorize the penalty to be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in any court of competent jurisdiction by the Attorney General, to be retained by that office. The bill would make these moneys available to the office of the Attorney General, upon appropriation, for the purpose of enforcing these provisions. The bill would prohibit a city, county, or other local public agency from adopting, amending enforcing, or otherwise implementing an ordinance, resolution, regulation, or rule relating to the sale or offering for promotional purposes of personal care products that contain synthetic plastic microbeads.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides that a law enforcement official has discretion to cooperate with federal immigration officials by detaining an individual on the basis of an immigration hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody only if the continued detention of the individual on the basis of the immigration hold would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or any local policy, and only under other specified circumstances. This bill would prohibit a local law enforcement agency from seeking custody of a previously convicted felon who is being detained or incarcerated by another law enforcement agency if the felon is scheduled for deportation or transfer to federal authorities for deportation proceedings unless there is an outstanding felony warrant, and the agency has confirmed that the prosecutorial authority with jurisdiction to prosecute the felony has a current intent to prosecute that felony. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law, enforced by the Labor Commissioner, regulates the terms and conditions of employment, including wages. Existing law prohibits an employer from discharging, or in any manner discriminating against, an employee for taking time off to perform emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to willfully refuse to pay wages due, as specified, or to falsely deny an amount or validity of an amount owed, as specified. This bill would require a private or public fire department with volunteer firefighters that receives federal reimbursement for personnel costs associated with firefighting in which its volunteer firefighters have participated to pass through to those volunteers an amount equivalent to 20% of the annual compensation paid to a full-time firefighter employed by the department, as specified. By increasing the duties of local officials, and expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
The Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Act of 2006 authorizes bonds in the amount of $4,090,000,000 for the purposes of financing disaster preparedness and flood prevention projects and makes $3,000,000,000 available, upon appropriation to the Department of Water Resources, for the evaluation, repair, rehabilitation, reconstruction, or replacement of levees, weirs, bypasses, and facilities of the State Plan of Flood Control, for improving or adding facilities to the State Plan of Flood Control to increase levels of flood protection in urban areas, and to reduce the risk of levee failure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Budget Act of 2015 appropriates $300,000,000 to the Department of Water Resources for these and other specified flood protection-related activities. This bill would make available, of the moneys appropriated to the department by the Budget Act of 2015, $110,000,000 for the upgrade of the levee system of Reclamation District No. 17 to provide urban level of flood protection. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for Reclamation District No. 17. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill, under both laws, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2016, and before January 1, 2021, or an earlier date in the event of a specified occurrence, would allow a credit to a taxpayer participating in a lawn replacement rebate program, as defined, in an amount equal to 25% of the costs paid or incurred by the taxpayer to replace conventional lawn on the qualified taxpayer's property during that taxable year, not to exceed $1,500, as specified. The bill would make findings and declarations in this regard. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing federal law, the Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, provides for the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems, commonly known as drones, into the national airspace system by September 30, 2015. Existing federal law requires the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to develop and implement operational and certification requirements for the operation of public unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace system by December 31, 2015. Existing state law generally regulates the use of surveillance technology by a law enforcement agency. This bill would specifically authorize a law enforcement agency to use an unmanned aircraft system if the use of the unmanned aircraft system complies with certain conditions, including, among others, protections against unreasonable searches guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the California Constitution, federal law applicable to the use of an unmanned aircraft system by a law enforcement agency, and state law applicable to a law enforcement agency's use of surveillance technology that can be attached to an unmanned aircraft system. The bill would prohibit a law enforcement agency from using an unmanned aircraft system to conduct surveillance of private property unless the law enforcement agency has obtained a search warrant, the person or entity with the legal authority to grant access to the private property grants the law enforcement agency permission to access the property, or an exigent circumstance exists. The bill would define law enforcement agency and unmanned aircraft system for these purposes. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
Existing provisions of the California Constitution establish the University of California as a public trust under the administration of the Regents of the University of California. The University of California system includes 10 campuses, which are located in Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. This bill would express findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to the role of the University of California with respect to access to health care in the San Joaquin Valley. The bill would appropriate $1,855,000 from the General Fund to the regents each fiscal year, commencing with the 2016–17 fiscal year, for allocation to the University of California to support expansion of the San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education, as specified.
Existing law creates various programs designed to award funds to local government entities to provide assistance with law enforcement, including programs that aid in the apprehension of career criminals and the prosecution of high technology theft. Existing law limits the service and compensation of retired public employees, including local law enforcement officers, upon reemployment by public agencies. This bill would establish the Postretirement Law Enforcement Officer Cold Case Grant Program for the purpose of funding the hiring of a retired law enforcement officers whose employment would be dedicated to work on unsolved cases, as specified. The program would require the Department of Justice to administer the program and to establish the guidelines it deems necessary for this purpose. The bill would require funds received by applicants to be used to fund officer positions. The bill would also prohibit these funds from supplanting local funds and require local administrative costs associated with a position funded by the grant program to be absorbed by the applicant. The bill would prohibit a single grant award from exceeding an unspecified amount. The bill would except a law enforcement officer whose position is funded by a grant from specified limitations on postretirement activities and compensation, as specified. The bill would appropriate an unspecified amount from the General Fund for the purpose of supporting the grant program.
Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when income is derived directly from real property acquired and operated by the state as a wildlife management area, as defined, to pay annually to the county in which the property is located an amount equal to the county taxes levied upon the property at the time title to the property was transferred to the state, and any assessments levied upon the property by any irrigation, drainage, or reclamation district. This bill would appropriate $19,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make payments to counties for unpaid amounts under these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing federal law provides for the allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states. Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program under which, through a combination of state and county funds and federal funds received through the TANF program, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association of California, no later than July 1, 2017, to design and implement a 5-year pilot project under which monetary grants are provided to organizations operating programs that assist individuals receiving CalWORKs benefits achieve economic independence. The bill would require the department, in developing the pilot project, among other things, to develop a competitive review process for all grant proposals submitted, to develop eligibility requirements for organizations seeking a grant, and to develop an ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of an organization receiving grant funding in teaching its program participants the skills necessary to achieve economic independence. The bill would authorize the department to enter into an agreement with an academic institution or other entity with sufficient expertise for the purpose of creating, performing, or both creating and performing the evaluation. The bill would authorize an organization receiving a grant to utilize the funds in any reasonable manner, as long as the funds are expended in furtherance of the organization's program or other requirements established by the department. The bill would require organizations receiving grant funding to contact the county welfare department upon being notified of the grant and to make a good faith effort to coordinate their programs with CalWORKs requirements. The bill would require the department, or the academic institution or other entity the department contracted with, to send a report evaluating the effectiveness of the programs funded by the grants to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature by December 31, 2021. The bill would appropriate $50,000,000 from the General Fund for the purpose of funding these provisions. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2022, and would repeal them on January 1, 2023.