(1) The Cal Grant Program establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C awards, and the Cal Grant T awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law establishes the total number of Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards granted annually at 22,500 and the maximum tuition award amount for each Cal Grant A and B award for new students attending private nonprofit postsecondary educational institution at $9,084 for the 2014–15 award year and $8,056 for the 2015–16 award year and each award year thereafter. This bill would increase the total number of Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards granted annually to 30,000 and would increase the maximum tuition award amount for Cal Grant A and B for students at private nonprofit postsecondary educational institutions to $9,084 for the 2015–16 award year and each award year thereafter. (2) Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as 2 of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. This bill would establish, commencing with the 2015–16 academic year, the Graduation Incentive Grant program to provide eligible matriculating undergraduate students of California State University with financial need attending a campus of the California State University with financial aid for up to 3 college years, as specified. The bill would specify the eligibility criteria and the award amounts of the Graduation Incentive Grant program. The bill would require the California State University to make an annual report, containing specified data about the program, to the Legislature. The program would only be operative in a fiscal year if the Trustees of the California State University determine that sufficient funding has been provided for purposes of the program for that fiscal year in the annual Budget Act or another statute. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funds, for the 2015–16 fiscal year, to the University of California to eliminate a specified tuition increase and to appropriate funds to both the University of California and the California State University to provide additional course offerings and support services for students.
Sponsored bills
This measure would recognize May 2015 as Better Hearing and Speech Month.
Existing law, commencing January 1, 2014, prohibits a person from discharging from nonvehicular sources air contaminants or other materials that cause injury, detriment, nuisance, or annoyance to the public, or that endanger the comfort, repose, health, or safety of the public, or that cause injury or damage to business or property, as specified. Under existing law, a person who violates this provision is guilty of a misdemeanor, as specified, or is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $10,000, unless that person alleges by affirmative defense and establishes that the act was not the result of intentional or negligent conduct, in which case that person is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $1,000. A person who violates this provision and who acts negligently, knowingly, willfully and intentionally, or with reckless disregard, is liable for a civil penalty in a greater amount, as specified. This bill would make a person who violates this provision liable for a civil penalty of not more than $100,000, as specified, if the violation results from a discharge from a stationary source required by federal law to be included in an operating permit program established pursuant to Title V of the federal Clean Air Act, the discharge results in a severe disruption to the community, the discharge contains or includes one or more toxic air contaminants, as specified, and 100 or more people are exposed to the discharge. The bill would prohibit this provision from applying if the violation is caused by unforeseen and unforeseeable criminal acts, acts of war, acts of terrorism, or civil unrest. The bill would require moneys collected pursuant to this provision to be expended in support of air quality programs. The bill would require that the recovery of a civil penalty under these provisions precludes prosecution of a misdemeanor for the same offense.
Existing law requires the Board of State and Community Corrections to collect and maintain available information and data about state and community correctional policies, practices, capacities, and needs, as specified. Existing law requires the board, in consultation with certain individuals, including a county supervisor or county administrative officer, a county sheriff, and the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to develop definitions of specified key terms in order to facilitate consistency in local data collection, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based programs. This bill would enact the Criminal Justice Reinvestment Assessment Grant Program of 2014. The bill would require the grant program to be administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections for the purpose of establishing and implementing reporting systems to identify and expand programs that provide proven, evidence-based, local programming opportunities for the successful reintegration of offenders into society. The bill would authorize the board to award grants to assist counties with the creation or expansion of infrastructure that allows each county to consistently collect and report specified criminal justice information. The bill would require each local community corrections partnership, on or before June 1, 2014, to report to the board on the county's capacity to collect and report the data required. The bill requires the board to review each assessment and to prioritize and award grants to the counties. The bill would require each county to report specified data to the board, on or before January 1, 2015, and annually thereafter, pertaining to offenders sentenced as felons to serve in local correctional facilities and felons released from prison to community supervision. The bill would require the board to summarize these data and report the summaries to the Governor and the Legislature, on or before May 15, 2015, and annually thereafter. By imposing data collection and reporting duties on local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would appropriate an undetermined sum to the board for purposes of funding the grants. The bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature regarding criminal justice realignment. 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. The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes various health research grant programs, including the Cancer Research Program, the Breast Cancer Research Program, and the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program. This bill, the California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in Neuroscience (Cal-BRAIN) Act of 2014, would request the Regents of the University of California to establish the Cal-BRAIN program to leverage California's research assets and the federal BRAIN Initiative's funding opportunities to accelerate the development of brain mapping techniques, including the development of new technologies, in order to achieve certain goals. The bill would additionally request the University of California to convene certain stakeholders to develop a governing structure for the Cal-BRAIN program designed to do specified tasks, and to provide information about the program through an Internet Web site. These provisions would only be implemented to the extent that adequate funding is appropriated to the University of California, as specified.
Existing law, known as the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006, which was approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, among other things, authorized the issuance of $7,329,000,000 in bonds, the proceeds of which are to be allocated, in accordance with a schedule, for the construction and modernization of school facilities. Existing law authorizes the Legislature to adjust, under certain conditions, the funding amounts for the school facilities projects authorized pursuant to those provisions. This bill would prohibit the funds identified for the repair or replacement of seismically vulnerable school facilities under the act from being transferred from the Seismic Repair Subaccount of the New Construction Account for use for any purpose other than seismic repair, reconstruction, or replacement. The bill would require, in the event that the Budget Act of 2014 includes a transfer of the unencumbered funds remaining in the High Performance Schools Account to the New Construction Account or to the Modernization Account, the transferred funds to be used only for new construction or modernization projects that promote the use of designs and materials in new construction and modernization projects that include the attributes of high-performance schools, as specified. The bill would specify that the amounts to be expended for certain school facilities projects may not be adjusted until the projects eligible for the remaining unencumbered funds as of January 1, 2015, have had an opportunity to participate in the priority funding process established by the State Allocation Board. The bill would declare that it is consistent with, and furthers the purposes of, the act.
The Sales and Use Tax Law exempts from the taxes imposed by that law the sales of food products, nonalcoholic beverages, and other tangible personal property made or produced by an organization, as defined, but only if sold on an irregular or intermittent basis and the organization's profits from the sales are used exclusively in furtherance of the purposes of the organization. The Corporation Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal income tax laws, exempts the income of various types of organizations from taxes imposed by that law. This bill would revise the Sales and Use Tax Law exemption for those organizations, as provided. This bill would also provide, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, that an organization that is a public charity youth organization that discriminates on the basis of gender identity, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or religious affiliation is not exempt from the taxes imposed by that law. 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 bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
This measure would designate Monday, May 5, 2014, as California Peace Officers' Memorial Day, urge all Californians to use that day to honor California peace officers, and recognize specified California peace officers who were killed in defense of their communities.
Existing law provides funding for various career technical education programs, including regional occupational centers and programs, specialized secondary programs, partnership academies, and agricultural career technical education programs. This bill would require county superintendents of schools and school districts, subject to existing expenditure requirements for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 fiscal years for the purpose of regional occupational centers or programs, to comply with specified requirements, including, among others, certifying to the State Department of Education that each course within a sequence is aligned with the California Career Technical Education Standards and, where appropriate, the Common Core State Standards. The bill would require the Superintendent to incorporate various factors and quality indicators into the accountability measures for regional occupational centers and programs, and would require the Superintendent to develop an evaluation instrument to evaluate the programs within each county office of education and school district commencing with the 2014–15 school year. By imposing new requirements on specified county superintendents of schools and school districts, 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, 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 establishes various public social services programs to provide protection, care, and assistance to the people of the state in need of those services, by providing appropriate aid and services to the needy and distressed. Existing law establishes homeless youth emergency service pilot projects in the Counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Clara, and San Francisco. This bill would create the Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program. This bill would require that moneys appropriated by the Legislature for the purposes of the program be allocated proportionally by the State Department of Social Services to each county that elects to establish a program based on the number of homeless youth in the county, which is to be used to establish and operate the program in the county. The bill would authorize a county to join with one or more other counties for the purpose of pooling their respective allocations and establishing a program for those counties. The bill would require each program to solicit proposals from and contract with nonprofit organizations for the purpose of providing basic material needs assistance to homeless youth in the county or counties as directed by the entity administering the program and would require contracted nonprofit organizations to consult with the children and family commission of the county or counties, as specified, if the entity administering the program elects to include homeless youth from birth to 5 years of age, inclusive, in its program. The bill would enact other related provisions.