Existing law requires the Governor to submit to the Legislature, within the first 10 days of each calendar year, a budget for the ensuing fiscal year. Under existing law, the budget is required to contain a complete plan and itemized statements of all proposed expenditures and all estimated revenues of the state for the ensuing fiscal year, together with a comparison with the actual revenues and expenditures for the last completed fiscal year, the estimated revenues and expenditures for the existing fiscal year, and the budgeted revenues and expenditures for the next fiscal year. Existing law further requires the Director of Finance to provide to the Legislature, on or before May 14 of each year, an estimate of General Fund revenues for the current fiscal year and the ensuing fiscal year, any proposals to reduce expenditures to reflect updated revenue estimates, and specified proposed adjustments to the Governor's Budget. This bill would instead require the budget submitted by the Governor to contain itemized statements, provisional language, performance measurement standards for state agencies and programs, recommended state expenditures, and a projection of anticipated state revenues, including revenues anticipated to be one-time revenues. In addition, the bill would require the budget to contain an estimate of the total resources available for the state expenditures recommended for the budget year and the succeeding fiscal year, and would further require the budget to contain a projection of anticipated state expenditures and anticipated state revenues for the 3 fiscal years following the fiscal year succeeding the budget year, along with budget-related plans and proposals for those 3 fiscal years. In the event recommended expenditures exceed estimated revenues, the Governor would be required to recommend reductions in expenditures or the sources from which the additional revenues should be provided and to include an estimate of the long-term impact that the expenditure reductions or additional revenues will have on the state economy. The Governor would also be required to submit with the budget any legislation necessary to implement appropriations contained in the budget, together with a 5-year capital infrastructure and strategic growth plan. If the Governor's budget proposes to create a new state program or agency, or to expand the scope of an existing state program or agency, resulting in a net increase in state costs during the budget year or the succeeding fiscal year, or proposes to reduce a state tax resulting in a net decrease in state revenue in the budget year or the succeeding fiscal year, the proposal would be required to be accompanied by a statement identifying state program reductions or sources of additional state revenue in an amount that is equal to or greater than the net increase in state costs or net decrease in state revenue. The bill would also require the Director of Finance to provide to the Legislature, on or before October 15 of each year, updated projections of state revenues and state expenditures for the current fiscal year and for the ensuing fiscal year. The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to establish an oversight process for evaluating and improving the performance of all state programs and to establish a schedule of review for all state programs, whether managed by a state or local agency.
Sponsored bills
Existing law provides that every voter, including a special absentee voter who is temporarily living outside of the United States or is called for military service within the United States, must return his or her ballot to the appropriate elections official by the close of the polls on election day to have that ballot counted. This bill would give a special absentee voter who is temporarily living outside of the territorial limits of the United States or the District of Columbia, or who is called for military service within the United States on or after the final date to apply for a vote by mail ballot, 6 days after the election to return his or her ballot by mail to the appropriate elections official and have it counted. This bill would require an elections official, not later than 30 days following the certification of each election, to report to the Secretary of State information regarding the number of applications for absentee ballots, the number of absentee ballots delivered, and the number of absentee ballots received before and after election day. The Secretary of State would then have 45 days following the certification of the election to compile the information received and report to the appropriate policy committees of each house of the Legislature. Because this bill would change the duties of elections officials, it 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 these statutory provisions.
Existing law specifies the respective powers and duties of the Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the Bay Area Toll Authority relative to the state-owned toll bridges in the Bay Area. Existing law specifies major capital projects on the bridges and other expenditures that may be funded from toll revenues. Existing law provides that the authority may increase the toll rates to provide funds for various purposes, including the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, rehabilitation, and seismic retrofit of these bridges. This bill would include, among the projects that may be funded from state-owned toll bridge revenues, a major project on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge consisting of a bicycle-pedestrian-maintenance pathway linking the pathway on the replacement eastern span with San Francisco, subject to certain conditions. The bill would provide that the project may be sponsored by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The bill would prohibit the Bay Area Toll Authority from increasing tolls to fund this project.
Existing law provides for the registration, certification, and licensure of various healing arts professionals, including, but not limited to, setting forth the scope of practice, establishing the regulatory boards, department, or bureaus, and setting forth the powers and duties of these entities. This bill would establish similar registration, certification, and licensure provisions relating to alcohol and other drug counselors to be administered by the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, and would authorize the department to commence issuing these licenses, registrations, and certificates on January 1, 2012, and would make conforming changes related to child, elder, and dependent adult abuse reporting provisions. The bill would make a violation of these provisions a misdemeanor, and would specify various unlawful acts related to its provisions. The bill would authorize the department to assess related fees, and would require deposit of the fees into the Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor License Fund, which the bill would establish for expenditure for the purposes of this bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature. By establishing 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.
(1) The California Cigarette and Tobacco Products Licensing Act of 2003 requires a retailer to obtain a license from the State Board of Equalization to engage in the sale of cigarette and tobacco products in this state, requires a retailer to obtain a separate license for each retail location, requires retailer licensees to pay a one-time license fee of $100, no renewal fee, and a reinstatement fee of $100 if the license is renewed after lapse, and authorizes the board to suspend or revoke the license of any retailer of tobacco products that is in violation of the act. Existing law requires all moneys collected pursuant to the act to be deposited in the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Compliance Fund, which is available for appropriation by the Legislature solely for the purpose of implementing, enforcing, and administering the California Cigarette and Tobacco Products Licensing Act of 2003. This bill would specify that a new license may not be issued to a retailer for a retail location that is located within 600 feet of a school, except as specified. This bill would prohibit the board from issuing a new license to a retailer for a retail location in an area of overconcentration, as defined. The bill would authorize the board to issue a new license if the local governing body of the area in which the applicant's premises are located, or its designated subordinate officer or body, determines that public convenience or necessity would be served by the issuance. The bill would require that determination to be made within 90 days of notification of a completed application, as specified, except that if the local governing body, or its designated subordinate officer or body, did not make a determination within 90 days the license would be deemed denied. The board would be authorized to issue a license if the determination is made within the 90-day period and the applicant shows that public convenience or necessity would be served by the issuance. The bill would set the renewal fee at $100. This bill would allow, under specified circumstances, a retailer to transfer an existing license to another person for continued use at the same location upon the sale or transfer of the business holding the license, if the business is in an area of overconcentration. This bill would require the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the State Department of Public Health to provide specified information to the board upon request. (2) Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Act or STAKE Act, establishes various requirements for retailers relating to tobacco sales to minors. Existing law also makes it a misdemeanor for a retailer to knowingly or under circumstances in which it has knowledge, or should otherwise have grounds for knowledge, sell, give, or in any way furnish a minor with tobacco products or paraphernalia. Under existing law, violation of the STAKE Act or the misdemeanor provision result in State Board of Equalization action, on a set schedule, relating to the licensure of the retailer when the youth purchase survey finds that 13% or more of youth are able to purchase cigarettes, and makes the board's authority inoperative when a youth purchase survey shows less than 13% of youth were able to purchase cigarettes. This bill would allow the board to take action relating to the licensure of retailers who have violated the STAKE Act and misdemeanor provisions at any time, would require the enforcing agency to notify the board of a conviction of a violation in a timely manner, and would require the board to take appropriate action upon that notification. This bill would delete the provision conditioning the board's authority to take action against retailers on the results of a youth purchase survey. This bill would also modify the schedule of actions taken by the board for violations. This bill would require the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the State Department of Public Health to provide specified information to the board upon request.
(1) Existing workers' compensation law generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment. This bill would provide that no workers' compensation claim shall be denied because the employee's injury or death was related to the employee's race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic characteristics. This bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would apply employment discrimination protections to workers' compensation law in order to prohibit the wrongful reduction or denial of workers' compensation benefits. (2) Existing law requires any physician who prepares a report addressing the issue of permanent disability due to a claimed industrial injury to address the issue of causation of the permanent disability, and requires that the report include an apportionment determination in order to be considered complete on the issue of permanent disability. This bill would prohibit race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic characteristics from being considered a cause or other factor of disability considered in any determination made pursuant to those provisions.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law provides that, unless certain determinations are made by the commission about the impact of federal action, the commission has no jurisdiction or control over classified telephone directories (commonly known as yellow pages) or commercial advertising included as part of a telephone corporation's alphabetical telephone directories (commonly known as white pages) . Existing law requires the commission to require all telephone corporations that are local exchange carriers to include in their telephone directory information concerning emergency situations that may affect the telephone network. This bill would require a telephone corporation or one of its affiliates to allow any telephone service subscriber to opt out of receiving a telephone directory published by a telephone corporation. The bill would prohibit telephone corporations from delivering directories to subscribers who opt out of receiving a directory and require that a directory contain clear and conspicuous language regarding opting out of receiving future directories and recycling of the directory. The bill would require each 3rd-party vendor, as defined, as a contractual condition for receiving telephone subscriber information from the telephone corporation that is to be incorporated into a telephone directory, to allow any telephone service customer to opt out of receiving a telephone directory published by the 3rd-party vendor, to not deliver directories to subscribers who opt out of receiving a directory, and to include clear and conspicuous language on the front cover of the directory regarding opting out of receiving future directories and recycling of the directory.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, or the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, tangible personal property, and requires that all revenues derived from that tax, except as provided, be deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the Retail Sales Tax Fund. Existing law establishes in state government the California Arts Council and imposes various duties on the council to foster arts development and to award grants and prizes to individuals and organizations in the arts, as provided. This bill would establish the Creative Industries and Community Economic Revitalization Act of 2010, which would create, in the State Treasury, the Creative Industries and Community Economic Revitalization Fund. The bill would require that 20% of all revenues derived from the payment of sales and use taxes that are remitted to the State Board of Equalization by the taxpayers engaged in specified lines of business, as provided, be deposited in the fund. The council would be authorized to expend the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to issue grants pursuant to the act. The bill would authorize a city, county, district, including, but not limited to, a regional park district, a joint powers authority, or a nonprofit arts organization deemed eligible by the council, to apply to the council for a local assistance program grant for organizational support. The council would be required, when issuing a grant, to encourage joint partnerships between applicants, and to submit an annual report to the Legislature that includes the status of each grant made pursuant to the act.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy covering prescription drug benefits to provide specified coverage to subscribers, enrollees, and insureds. This bill would require health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies that cover outpatient prescription drug benefits to provide coverage for a drug that has been prescribed for the treatment of pain and would prohibit those contracts and policies from requiring the subscriber, enrollee, or insured to first use another drug or product as specified. The bill would specify that these provisions do not apply to a health care service plan or health insurance policy purchased by the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements with respect to health care service plans would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law prohibits a person from selling a plastic bag or a plastic food or beverage container that is labeled as "compostable" or "marine degradable" unless that plastic bag or container meets certain American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard specifications or a standard adopted by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. Existing law prohibits the sale of a plastic bag or plastic food or beverage container that is labeled as "biodegradable," "degradable," "decomposable," or as otherwise specified. Existing law provides for the imposition of a civil penalty for a violation of these prohibitions. This bill would repeal those prohibitions and would instead prohibit the sale of a plastic product, as defined, labeled as "compostable" or "marine degradable" unless it meets those ASTM standard specifications or a standard adopted by the department, or unless the plastic product is labeled with a qualified claim for which the department has adopted an existing standard, and the plastic product meets that standard. The bill would prohibit the sale of a plastic product that is labeled as "biodegradable," "degradable," "decomposable," or as otherwise specified. The bill would provide for the imposition of a civil penalty for a violation of those prohibitions. The bill would state legislative findings and declarations regarding plastic litter.