Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from this tax, including an exemption for retail items sold by thrift stores operated by nonprofit organizations, if the purpose of that thrift store is to obtain funding for medical, hospice, or social services provided to individuals with HIV or AIDS by the nonprofit organization, as provided. This exemption will be repealed January 1, 2019. This bill would extend the operation of this exemption until January 1, 2029. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill, by automatically incorporating the amendments made to the Sales and Use Tax Law by the bill, would also extend the operation of the exemption indefinitely for those local sales and use taxes and transactions and use taxes. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
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Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law governs temporary and permanent disability indemnity payments. Existing law prohibits a disability indemnity payment from being made by any written instrument unless it is immediately negotiable and payable in cash, on demand, without discount, at some established place of business in the state. Existing law establishes in the Department of Industrial Relations the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation to conduct a continuing examination of the workers' compensation system and of the state's activities to prevent industrial injuries and occupational diseases. Existing law authorizes the commission to conduct or contract for studies it deems necessary to carry out its responsibilities and to issue an annual report on the system. This bill would, until January 1, 2023, authorize an employer, with the written consent of the employee, to deposit disability indemnity payments for the employee in a prepaid card account that meets specified requirements, including, among other things, allowing the employee reasonable access to in-network automatic teller machines. The bill would require employers to provide all necessary aggregated data on their prepaid account programs to the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation upon request, and would require the commission to issue a report on or before December 1, 2022, to the Legislature regarding payments made to those prepaid card accounts, as specified.
Existing law establishes the segments of postsecondary education in this state, including the University of California administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University administered by the Trustees of the California State University, the California Community Colleges administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and independent institutions of higher education. Existing provisions of the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program set forth the requirements for status as a "qualifying institution" whose students are eligible, if as individuals they meet pertinent program requirements, to receive Cal Grant awards. Existing law provides for licensing and regulation of various professions in the healing arts, including physicians and surgeons, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, educational psychologists, clinical social workers, and licensed professional clinical counselors. This bill would require the Trustees of the California State University and request the Regents of the University of California, to have one full-time equivalent mental health counselor per 1,500 students enrolled at each of their respective campuses to the fullest extent consistent with state and federal law. The bill would define mental health counselor for purposes of this provision. The bill would require those institutions, on or before January 1, 2020, and every 3 years thereafter, to report to the Legislature how funding was spent and the number of mental health counselors employed on each of its campuses, as specified. The bill would require each campus of those institutions to, at least every 3 years, conduct a campus survey and focus groups to understand student needs and challenges regarding, among other things, their mental health, would require each campus of those institutions to collect data on attempted suicides, as specified, and would require that data, without any personally identifiable information and collected in accordance with state and federal privacy law, to be included in the report to the Legislature. This bill would require its provisions to be implemented only upon the enactment of an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for its purposes.
(1) Existing law, the Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) , vests the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System with the responsibility of administering the Public Employees' Retirement System. PERL provides that data filed by a member or beneficiary with the board is confidential, subject to certain exceptions, and is to be used only for carrying PERL into effect. This bill would specify that the confidentiality provisions, described above, apply to the Public Employees Medical and Hospital Care Act, which the board also administers, and would make conforming changes to account for this and to account for school district and university employer categories currently in effect. The bill would authorize the confidentiality of provisions of records connected to the beneficiary of a member or retired member who is or was employed by the entity. The bill also would authorize data to be used in connection with related reporting and notice obligations. (2) PERL prescribes a process by which an agency that is a contracting member of the system may terminate its contract, including requiring the adoption by the relevant governing body of a resolution giving notice of intention to terminate and adopting an ordinance or resolution not less than one year thereafter terminating the contract. PERL prescribes analogous processes for joint contracts with counties and trial courts and for contracts that were made pursuant to an ordinance adopted by a vote of the electorate. This bill would require terminating entities, as described above, to notify past and present employees who are members, former members, or retired members of the system, within 30 days of the adoption of the resolution giving notice of intention to terminate and, with regard to contracts that were approved by the electorate, to make notification of a pending vote to terminate at least 90 days before the date of the vote. The bill would require that the ordinance or resolution terminating the contract be adopted not less than 90 days and not more than one year after the system's receipt of the resolution giving notice of intention to terminate. The bill would prohibit the termination effective date from being earlier than the date of adoption of the ordinance or resolution terminating the contract. The bill would require the board to provide contact information in a specified format to contracting agencies for the purpose of providing notice to past employee members, former members, and retired members and would prescribe a process in this regard. The bill would immunize contracting agencies for failure to provide notice if the contact information is incomplete or incorrect.
Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to include, among other subjects, the social sciences. Existing law encourages instruction in the area of social sciences for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, that may include instruction on the Vietnam War, including a component drawn from personal testimony of Southeast Asians who were involved in the Vietnam War and men and women who contributed to the war effort on the homefront, as specified. Existing law requires the State Board of Education, with the assistance of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to establish a list of textbooks and other instructional materials that highlight the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the state board. This bill would require the commission to develop and submit to the state board, on or before December 31, 2022, and the state board to adopt, modify, or revise, on or before March 31, 2023, a model curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience and a model curriculum relative to the Cambodian genocide, as specified, for use in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The bill would encourage a school district, charter school, or county office of education that maintains kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, that does not otherwise offer a standards-based curriculum relative to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, Vietnamese boat people, and the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, or that does not otherwise offer a standards-based curriculum relative to the Cambodian genocide, to offer a course of study based on the respective model curriculum. The bill would require the model curricula to be developed with participation from specified entities and individuals. The bill would provide that implementation of its provisions is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute. The bill would require the commission to develop a model curriculum in Hmong history and cultural studies, as provided. The bill would require the commission, on or before December 31, 2022, to submit the model curriculum to the state board for adoption, and would require the state board to adopt, modify, or reject the model curriculum on or before March 31, 2023. The bill would require the Superintendent, following the adoption of the model curriculum, to post the model curriculum on the State Department of Education's Internet Web site for use on a voluntary basis by educators. The bill, beginning in the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum, would encourage local educational agencies, as defined, to use the model curriculum to provide instruction in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would provide that implementation of its provisions is subject to the receipt of grants, donations, or other financial support from private or public sources for its purposes, including, but not limited to, an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to fix the length of the schoolday for the several grades and classes of the schools maintained by the school district in accordance with specified provisions of law. This bill would require the schoolday for middle schools and high schools, including those operated as charter schools, to begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. by July 1, 2021, or the date on which a school district's collective bargaining agreement that is operative on January 1, 2019, expires, whichever is later, except for rural school districts. To the extent the bill imposes new duties on school districts and charter schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would encourage the State Department of Education to post specified information on its Internet Web site, including research on the impact of sleep deprivation on adolescents and the benefits of a later school start time, and to advise school districts of this posting. 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.
Existing law prohibits a person, among others, from making or disseminating in any advertising device, or in any manner or means whatever, including over the Internet, any statement concerning real or personal property or services that is untrue or misleading, as specified. This bill would require the Attorney General, subject to receipt of sufficient private funds, as specified, to establish an advisory group consisting of at least one member of the Department of Justice, as well as Internet-based social media providers, civil liberties advocates, and First Amendment scholars to study the problem of the spread of false information through Internet-based social media platforms, and draft a model strategic plan for Internet-based social media platforms to use to mitigate this problem. The bill would require the Attorney General, by December 31, 2019, to present the results of the study and the model strategic plan to the Legislature and specified legislative committees. The bill would repeal its provisions, if sufficient private funds are not received by December 31, 2021.
Existing law, the California Cigarette Fire Safety and Firefighter Protection Act, prohibits a person from selling, offering, or possessing for sale in this state cigarettes that are not in compliance with certain requirements, including the requirement that the cigarettes are tested by the manufacturer in accordance with prescribed testing methods. Existing law provides an exception to the above prohibition for a person or entity that manufactures or sells cigarettes if the cigarettes are or will be stamped or metered for sale in another state or are packaged for sale outside of the United States. This bill would delete the above exception to the prohibition. The act provides that any cigarettes that have been sold or offered for sale that do not comply with a certain performance standard shall be deemed contraband and subject to seizure and disposal by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration or a law enforcement agency. This bill would instead provide that any cigarettes that have been sold or offered for sale that do not comply with a certain performance standard shall be deemed contraband per se and subject to seizure and disposal by the department or a law enforcement agency. The act provides that, upon discovery by the department or a law enforcement agency that a person offers or possesses for sale, or has made a sale of, cigarettes in violation of specified provisions of the act, the department or that law enforcement agency may seize those cigarettes. This bill would instead provide that, upon discovery by the department or a law enforcement agency that a person offers or possesses for sale, or has made a sale of, cigarettes in violation of specified provisions of the act, the department or that law enforcement agency may seize and dispose of those cigarettes as contraband per se. This bill would make various conforming and nonsubstantive changes.
Existing law, the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , provides for the licensure and regulation of commercial cannabis activity. Existing law requires a licensed distributor to arrange for a testing laboratory to obtain a representative sample of each cannabis batch at the distributor's premises for testing and, upon issuance of a certificate of analysis by a licensed testing laboratory, conduct a quality assurance review before distribution to ensure the labeling and packaging conform to the legal requirements. Existing law authorizes cannabis and cannabis products fit for sale to be transported only from the distributor's premises to the premises of a licensed retailer, microbusiness, or nonprofit. This bill would require that transportation to be for the purpose of retail sale. The bill would also authorize a licensed distributor to transport cannabis or cannabis products that are fit for sale to the premises of another licensed distributor for further distribution. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes milk standards for market milk and cream. Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, upon the request of any interested person, to grant a temporary standard for a new milk product or a new product resembling a milk product for an initial period of one year, as provided. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions or the regulations for its enforcement a misdemeanor. This bill would define "ultra-filtered milk products" and would authorize the secretary to establish milk standards for ultra-filtered milk products sold in California. The bill would require ultra-filtered milk products to meet all standards and requirements for market milk, except as provided, and would require ultra-filtered milk products to be labeled in accordance with applicable federal laws. The bill would require that the term "ultra-filtered" be included in the product name on the product label. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would create 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.