Sen. Leland Yee

This measure would declare that an applicant's immigration status should not be the determining factor in deciding whether to approve a license to practice law, would commend Sergio C. Garcia for his hard work and success, and would also commend the State Bar of California for its efforts to admit Sergio C. Garcia to the State Bar of California.

The Corporation Tax Law imposes taxes measured by income and, in the case of a business with business income derived from or attributable to sources both within and without this state, apportions the business income between this state and other states and foreign countries in accordance with a specified 4-factor formula based on the property, payroll, and sales within and without this state, except that in the case of an apportioning trade or business that derives more than 50% of its gross business receipts from conducting one or more qualified business activities, as defined, business income is apportioned in accordance with a specified 3-factor formula. That law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, allows a taxpayer to apportion its business income in accordance with a single sales factor formula, except as provided, pursuant to an irrevocable annual election, as specified. That law also provides that sales of tangible personal property and sales of other than tangible personal property are in this state in accordance with specified criteria. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2012, would require a taxpayer, except as provided, to apportion its business income in accordance with a single sale factor and would allow a taxpayer to annually elect to apportion business income in accordance with the 4-factor formula, as provided. This bill also would revise the rules that determine whether a taxpayer is doing business in this state and would revise the provisions that determine whether sales other than tangible personal property occur in this state, including specific provisions for cable systems or networks. This bill would require any aggregate increase in revenues derived from its provisions less a specified amount, as provided, to be deposited into the Middle Class Scholarship Fund, which the bill would establish, and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, allocate those revenues for the purpose of increasing the affordability of higher education. This bill would become operative only if a specified measure is chaptered and establishes a middle-class scholarship program. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Existing law provides for a public postsecondary education system in this state. This system consists of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes these institutions to require that mandatory systemwide fees, among other fees, be paid by students at these institutions. This bill would establish the Middle Class Scholarship Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. The bill would provide that, commencing with the 2012–13 fiscal year, undergraduate students enrolled at the University of California or the California State University would receive a scholarship grant award credit that, combined with other publicly funded student financial aid, as defined, received by an eligible student, would be 60% of the amount charged that student for mandatory systemwide fees in that fiscal year if the student meets the following conditions: annual household income does not exceed $150,000; is a resident of this state or exempt from paying nonresident tuition; files specified financial aid forms; makes timely application or applications for publicly funded student financial aid, as defined, for which he or she is eligible; and meets prescribed eligibility requirements of the Cal Grant Program, except as specified, and attains at least a 2.0 high school or community college grade point average. The bill would provide that a student whose annual household income exceeds $150,000, and who otherwise meets the requirements, would receive a scholarship grant award credit that is reduced in accordance with prescribed calculations. The bill would require, in order for students enrolled in their respective segments to remain eligible to receive financial aid under the bill, the University of California and the California State University to maintain their respective institutional need-based grant programs at a level that, at a minimum, is equivalent to the level maintained during the 2011–12 fiscal year. The bill would continuously appropriate from the General Fund $150,000,000 to the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges for allocation to community college districts based on calculations of full-time equivalent credit, to be expended, after consultation with student representatives as specified, for the provision of scholarship grants to students to reduce the impact of enrollment fees or to help cover the cost of textbooks and other educational expenses. The bill would require the Student Aid Commission to report the amount of the scholarship grant award credit for each student to the Franchise Tax Board, and to report the aggregate amount of scholarship grant award credits to the Department of Finance. The bill would authorize the Student Aid Commission to determine if sufficient funding is available for purposes of the bill in the 2012–13 fiscal year and subsequent fiscal years, and would further authorize the commission to reduce scholarships proportionately if it determines that sufficient funding is not available. (2) Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Tax Relief and Refund Account, and provides that payments required to be made to taxpayers or other persons from the Personal Income Tax Fund are to be paid from that account. This bill, for fiscal years beginning with the 2012–13 fiscal year, would authorize an amount equal to a qualified student's scholarship grant award credit under the Middle Class Scholarship Program, as determined by the Student Aid Commission pursuant to the bill, to be refunded from the Tax Relief and Refund Account, thereby making an appropriation. (3) This bill would become operative only if AB 1500 of the 2011–12 Regular Session is chaptered. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would designate the interchange at Hazel Avenue and State Highway Route 50 in the County of Sacramento as the Senator Dave Cox Memorial Interchange. This measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering those costs, to erect those signs.

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 1 in the County of Los Angeles as the Honorable Jenny Oropeza Memorial Overcrossing. This measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering those costs, to erect those signs.

(1) Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is through contracts with various types of managed care plans. Existing law imposes a tax at a specified rate on the gross premiums of an insurer, as defined, and, until July 1, 2012, on the total operating revenue, as specified, of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, as defined. Existing law exempts from that tax the total operating revenue of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, if specified events occur before July, 1, 2012. Existing law continuously appropriates the revenues derived from the tax on Medi-Cal managed care plans for specified purposes. This bill would extend the imposition of the tax on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans until July 1, 2014, and would make other conforming changes. This bill also would authorize the Controller to loan funds in the Children's Health and Human Services Special Fund to the General Fund, as provided, until July 1, 2013. By extending the imposition of a tax whose revenues are continuously appropriated, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law requires, until July 1, 2012, every return required to be filed with the Insurance Commissioner pursuant to provisions governing taxes on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans to be signed by the insurer or the Medi-Cal managed care plan or an executive officer of the insurer or the plan and to be made under oath or contain a written declaration that is made under penalty of perjury. This bill would instead apply this signature requirement until July 1, 2013. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law creates the Healthy Families Program, administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB) , to arrange for the provision of health, vision, and dental benefits to eligible children pursuant to a federal program, the Children's Health Insurance Program. Under existing law, the Director of Health Care Services may contract with any qualified individual, organization, or entity to provide services to, arrange for, or case manage the care of Medi-Cal beneficiaries, subject to specified requirements. Existing law requires a Medi-Cal applicant or beneficiary to be informed of the managed care and fee-for-service options available regarding methods of receiving Medi-Cal benefits. Existing law provides for the transition of specified enrollees of the Healthy Families Program to the Medi-Cal program, to the extent that those individuals are otherwise eligible, no sooner than January 1, 2013. Existing law requires this transition to take place in 4 phases, as prescribed. This bill would repeal the provisions requiring the transfer of Healthy Families Program enrollees into the Medi-Cal program. (4) Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 provides that act becomes inoperative if any of its provisions are amended or repealed. This bill would repeal that provision and would provide that, notwithstanding Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011, the provisions of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 do not become inoperative upon the amendment or repeal of any provision of that chapter made by this bill. (5) This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. (6) 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) Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is through contracts with various types of managed care plans. Existing law imposes a tax at a specified rate on the gross premiums of an insurer, as defined, and, until July 1, 2012, on the total operating revenue, as specified, of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, as defined. Existing law exempts from that tax the total operating revenue of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, if specified events occur before July, 1, 2012. Existing law continuously appropriates the revenues derived from the tax on Medi-Cal managed care plans for specified purposes. This bill would extend the imposition of the tax on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans until July 1, 2014, and would make other conforming changes. This bill also would authorize the Controller to loan funds in the Children's Health and Human Services Special Fund to the General Fund, as provided, until July 1, 2013. By extending the imposition of a tax whose revenues are continuously appropriated, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law requires, until July 1, 2012, every return required to be filed with the Insurance Commissioner pursuant to provisions governing taxes on the total operating revenue of Medi-Cal managed care plans to be signed by the insurer or the Medi-Cal managed care plan or an executive officer of the insurer or the plan and to be made under oath or contain a written declaration that is made under penalty of perjury. This bill would instead apply this signature requirement until July 1, 2013. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law creates the Healthy Families Program, administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB) , to arrange for the provision of health, vision, and dental benefits to eligible children pursuant to a federal program, the Children's Health Insurance Program. Under existing law, the Director of Health Care Services may contract with any qualified individual, organization, or entity to provide services to, arrange for, or case manage the care of Medi-Cal beneficiaries, subject to specified requirements. Existing law requires a Medi-Cal applicant or beneficiary to be informed of the managed care and fee-for-service options available regarding methods of receiving Medi-Cal benefits. Existing law provides for the transition of specified enrollees of the Healthy Families Program to the Medi-Cal program, to the extent that those individuals are otherwise eligible, no sooner than January 1, 2013. Existing law requires this transition to take place in 4 phases, as prescribed. This bill would repeal the provisions requiring the transfer of Healthy Families Program enrollees into the Medi-Cal program. (4) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to impose a uniform quality assurance fee on each skilled nursing facility, with certain exceptions, in accordance with a prescribed formula. The formula is based on the determination of the projected net revenues, as defined, of skilled nursing facilities. Under existing law, the charge will cease to be assessed after July 31, 2013, and these provisions will be repealed on January 1, 2014. Existing law, the Medi-Cal Long-Term Care Reimbursement Act, requires the department to implement a facility-specific reimbursement ratesetting system for certain skilled nursing facilities. Reimbursement rates for freestanding skilled nursing facilities are funded by a combination of federal funds and moneys collected pursuant to the skilled nursing uniform quality assurance fee. Existing law also establishes the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund in the State Treasury, which is a continuously appropriated fund that contains moneys from the assessment of specified administrative penalties and set asides of General Fund moneys, for the purposes of making quality and accountability payments. Existing law provides that this rate methodology shall cease to be implemented after July 31, 2013, and that these provisions shall be repealed on January 1, 2014. This bill would modify the calculation of rates under the above-referenced rate methodology, and would extend the assessment of the charge, implementation of the rate methodology, and implementation of related provisions until July 31, 2015. By extending the period of time during which transfers are made to the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would also modify the amount of moneys to be deposited into the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund, by, among other things, requiring that specified set-asides under the rate methodology remain in the General Fund instead of transferring to the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality and Accountability Special Fund and increasing the amount of certain set-asides to be transferred to the fund. This bill would instead require that the quality and accountability payments be made beginning with the 2013–14 rate year. (5) Existing federal Medicaid law requires nursing facilities, as defined, to perform an assessment of each resident's functional capacity that is based on a uniform minimum data set, as specified. This bill would require nursing facilities, the State Department of Health Care Services, and the State Department of Public Health to perform various duties with respect to the federal government's nursing home quality initiative and this assessment. (6) Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 provides that act becomes inoperative if any of its provisions are amended or repealed. This bill would repeal that provision and would provide that, notwithstanding Section 92 of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011, the provisions of Chapter 11 of the First Extraordinary Session of the Statutes of 2011 do not become inoperative upon the amendment or repeal of any provision of that chapter made by this bill. (7) 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. (8) This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.

This measure would declare that the Legislature encourages school districts to include age-appropriate instruction related to child sexual abuse in their curriculum in order to help pupils understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate conduct in situations where child sexual abuse could occur, and to provide pupils with resources on how to handle these potentially dangerous situations.

This measure would proclaim September 25, 2012, as Voter Registration Day, and would encourage all eligible Californians to register to vote by that date.