Existing provisions of the California Constitution require the state to apply a minimum amount of funding for each fiscal year for the support of school districts and community college districts. Existing law provides that, for purposes of those minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts, appropriations for deficiencies and prior year adjustments are deemed appropriations in the fiscal year in which the deficiencies or prior year adjustments occurred, unless otherwise provided by law. Existing law, the Quality Education Investment Act of 2006, authorizes school districts and other local educational agencies to apply to the Superintendent of Public Instruction to receive funding to allocate to elementary and secondary schools and charter schools that are performing as specified, to improve academic instruction and pupil academic achievement. The department is required to perform, or contract with an independent evaluator to perform, various reports and evaluations, as specified, including a report to the Legislature and the Governor regarding a final evaluation. In that report, the department is required to make recommendations to continue, modify, or terminate the program by January 1, 2014, based upon the results in meeting the specified measurements. This bill would specify criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of pupil-counselor ratios in that report.
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The California Constitution provides that the electors may propose statutes or amendments to the state constitution through the initiative process by presenting to the Secretary of State a petition that sets forth the text of the proposed statute or amendment to the Constitution and is certified to have been signed by a certain number of electors. This measure would prohibit an initiative measure that would result in a net increase in state or local government costs other than costs attributable to the issuance, sale, or repayment of bonds, from being submitted to the electors or having any effect unless and until the Legislative Analyst and the Director of Finance jointly determine that the initiative measure provides for additional revenues in an amount that meets or exceeds the net increase in costs.
Existing law does not provide a system of universal health care coverage for California residents. Existing law provides for the creation of various programs to provide health care services to persons who have limited incomes and meet various eligibility requirements. These programs include the Healthy Families Program administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, and the Medi‑Cal program administered by the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and health insurers by the Department of Insurance. This bill would establish the California Healthcare System to be administered by the newly created California Healthcare Agency under the control of a Healthcare Commissioner appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate. The bill would make all California residents eligible for specified health care benefits under the California Healthcare System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services. The bill would provide that a resident of the state with a household income, as specified, at or below 200% of the federal poverty level would be eligible for the type of benefits provided under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require the commissioner to seek all necessary waivers, exemptions, agreements, or legislation to allow various existing federal, state, and local health care payments to be paid to the California Healthcare System, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds. The bill would create the Healthcare Policy Board to establish policy on medical issues and various other matters relating to the system. The bill would create the Office of Patient Advocacy within the agency to represent the interests of health care consumers relative to the system. The bill would create within the agency the Office of Health Planning to plan for the health care needs of the population, and the Office of Health Care Quality, headed by a chief medical officer, to support the delivery of high quality care and promote provider and patient satisfaction. The bill would create the Office of Inspector General for the California Healthcare System within the Attorney General's office, which would have various oversight powers. The bill would prohibit health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies from being issued for services covered by the California Healthcare System. The bill would create the Healthcare Fund and the Payments Board to administer the finances of the California Healthcare System. The bill would create the California Healthcare Premium Commission (Premium Commission) to determine the cost of the California Healthcare System and to develop a premium structure for the system that complies with specified standards. The bill would require the Premium Commission to recommend a premium structure to the Governor and the Legislature on or before January 1, 2013, and to make a draft recommendation to the Governor, the Legislature, and the public 90 days before submitting its final premium structure recommendation. The bill would specify that only its provisions relating to the Premium Commission would become operative on January 1, 2011, with its remaining provisions becoming operative on the date the Secretary of California Health and Human Services notifies the Legislature, as specified, that sufficient funding exists to implement the California Healthcare System. The bill would require that system to be operative within 2 years of that date and would provide for various transition processes for that period. The bill would extend the application of certain insurance fraud laws to providers of services and products under the system, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by revising the definition of a crime. The bill would enact other related provisions relative to budgeting, regional entities, federal preemption, subrogation, collective bargaining agreements, compensation of health care providers, conflict of interest, patient grievances, independent medical review, and associated matters. 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 establishes the Health Science and Medical Technology Project, administered by the State Department of Education to provide competitive grant funds to California public schools to enhance existing or establish new health-related career pathway programs. This bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature regarding California's aerospace workforce and trends in California's high schools. The bill would create a pilot preapprentice aerospace machining program, administered by the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency to provide career technical education to high school pupils in the form of machining and related curriculum that can be applied to various manufacturing industries in California, including, but not limited to, aerospace manufacturing, as specified. The program would be funded by a combination of private nonprofit and public funds, as specified, that would be deposited into the Machinist Investment Fund, which would be created by this bill. The bill would provide that implementation of the program would be contingent upon receipt of sufficient federal funding. Grants would be competitively awarded to community colleges based upon specified criteria, including their ability to address the existing local and regional industry manufacturing needs, while providing meaningful career technical education opportunities for at-risk youth. The bill would require the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges system to develop preapprenticeship curriculum in aerospace technology, and machining technology generally. The model curriculum would be required to result in the issuance of a certificate of completion stating that the holder has completed curriculum that meets specified criteria. The bill would specify that, consistent with federal guidelines, each community college shall complete an evaluation of its participation in the pilot program on or before the end date of the grant award, and submit the evaluation to the Chancellor's office by that date. The Chancellor's office would be required to compile the information provided by the participating community colleges, and to submit an evaluation to the Legislature by December 1, 2013. The bill would provide that its provisions would remain in effect until January 1, 2015.
This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to consider the removal of commercial, economic, and financial restrictions relating to agricultural sales to Cuba.
Existing law sets forth various powers and duties of the Secretary of Food and Agriculture and the Department of Food and Agriculture. Existing law, the Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995, requires the department to establish and oversee an environmental farming program to provide incentives to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat, and requires the secretary to convene a Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming for the purpose of providing advice and assistance to federal, state, and local government agencies on issues relating to air, water, and wildlife habitat. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions. This bill would require the secretary to establish and convene the California Agricultural Climate Benefits Advisory Committee to advise the state board on strategies to support agricultural activities that reduce global warming impacts that may negatively impact agriculture and the rest of the state. The provisions of this bill would become inoperative on July 1, 2013, and would be repealed on January 1, 2014.
This measure would memorialize the Legislature's support of legislation currently pending in the United States Congress that would protect the Pacific Coast from new offshore oil drilling. This measure would also memorialize the Legislature's opposition to the proposed expansion of oil and gas drilling off the Pacific Coast and any federal energy policies and legislation that would weaken California's role in energy siting decisions due to those policies.
Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 (Greene Act) , requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding, and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition. The Greene Act requires all school facilities purchased or newly constructed pursuant to the act for use, in whole or in part, by pupils who are individuals with exceptional needs, as defined, to be designed and located on the schoolsite so as to maximize interaction between those individuals with exceptional needs and other pupils as appropriate to the needs of both. This bill would require, as a condition of receiving approval by the State Department of Education for the project, the school district or county office of education to provide written confirmation or documentation that each has conferred with the other, as specified, and certify that the project includes appropriate facilities, which may include, but are not limited to, the necessary classrooms, toilet rooms, and medical therapy facilities for pupils who are individuals with exceptional needs with due consideration for identifying and planning for the least restrictive environment that supports the education of these pupils or certify that the project site has dedicated acreage of sufficient size and in an appropriate location to support the construction of appropriate facilities, which may include, but are not limited to, classrooms, toilet rooms, and medical therapy facilities in the future by the district or the county office of education, unless the applicant school district or county office of education certifies that the district and the county office of education have conferred and determined that there are no special education facilities needs.
Existing law specifies information that must be included in the statewide ballot pamphlet for each state measure to be voted upon. This bill would require the Secretary of State to include in the ballot pamphlet a list of the 5 highest contributors of $50,000 or more to each primarily formed committee supporting each state measure, as well as the total amount of their contributions, as of 110 days before election day. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, generally provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. The act also provides that, notwithstanding this requirement, the Legislature may amend specified provisions to add to the ballot pamphlet information regarding candidates or other information. This bill, which would permit or require additional information to be included in the ballot pamphlet, would therefore require a majority vote.
The California Constitution conditions the imposition of a special tax by a city, county, or special district upon the approval of 23 of the voters of the city, county, or special district voting on that tax, and prohibits these entities from imposing an ad valorem tax on real property or a transactions or sales tax on the sale of real property. This measure would alternatively condition the imposition, extension, or increase of a parcel tax, as defined, by a school district, community college district, or county office of education upon the approval of 55% of its voters voting on the proposition, if the proposition meets specified requirements. This measure would also make conforming changes to related provisions.