This measure would declare the intent of the Legislature to ensure the preservation of home care and personal care services to seniors and people with disabilities through the In-Home Supportive Services program.
This measure would proclaim April 12 through April 18, 2010, as California Holocaust Memorial Week and would urge Californians to observe these days of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.
This measure would call upon the Congress and the President of the United States to repeal the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act.
This measure would request the United States Department of the Interior to complete, as soon as possible, its study of the Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
(1) The California Endangered Species Act (CESA) requires the Fish and Game Commission to establish a list of endangered species and a list of threatened species, and requires the Department of Fish and Game to recommend, and the commission to adopt, criteria for determining if a species is endangered or threatened. CESA authorizes the department to authorize the take of threatened species, endangered species, or candidate species by permit if certain requirements are met. CESA authorizes the department, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and, to the extent practicable, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Bureau of Land Management, to design and implement actions to protect, restore, or enhance the habitat of plants and wildlife that can be used to fully mitigate the impacts of the take of endangered, threatened, or candidate species (mitigation actions) resulting from certain solar thermal and photovoltaic powerplants in the planning area of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. This bill additionally would authorize the department to design and implement these mitigation actions for proposed wind and geothermal powerplants in the planning area subject to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. (2) Existing law requires the department to collect, and requires the owner or developer of an eligible project to pay, a one-time permit application fee of $75,000. Existing law requires the department to utilize the permit application fee to pay for all or a portion of the department's cost of processing incidental take permit applications pursuant to CESA. Existing law establishes the Renewable Energy Resources Development Fee Trust Fund as a continuously appropriated fund in the State Treasury to serve, and be managed, as an optional, voluntary method for developers or owners of eligible projects, as defined, to deposit fees sufficient to complete mitigation actions established by the department and thereby meet their requirements pursuant to CESA or the certification authority of the Energy Commission. The definition of eligible projects for purposes of these provisions and fees is limited to certain solar thermal powerplants and photovoltaic powerplants proposed to be constructed in the planning area subject to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. This bill would expand the definition of eligible projects to include wind and geothermal powerplants proposed to be constructed in the planning area subject to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. By expanding the purposes for which moneys in this continuously appropriated fund may be used, this bill would make an appropriation. (3) The Natural Community Conservation Planning Act authorizes the Department of Fish and Game to enter into agreements with any person or public entity for the purpose of preparing a natural community conservation plan, in cooperation with a local agency that has land use permit authority over the activities proposed to be addressed in the plan, to provide comprehensive management and conservation of multiple wildlife species. This bill would require the department to enter into one or more planning agreements with appropriate plan participants, including, but not limited to, the Energy Commission, one or more counties within the San Joaquin Valley, as defined, and other persons or public entities for the purpose of preparing one or more natural community conservation plans, if certain conditions are met with regard to the plan and the parties to the planning agreement. (4) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill, until January 1, 2014, would not require an EIR to analyze, or mitigate, where feasible, the environmental effect for an eligible renewable energy resource, including greenhouse gas emissions, not found to be significant under CEQA. The bill would authorize an applicant for a project to construct an eligible renewable energy resource that has an approved electricity purchase agreement to provide information to the lead agency regarding the environmental benefits of the project when comments may be received by the lead agency on a draft environmental impact report or negative declaration. The bill would authorize the lead agency to consider this information when making a finding under CEQA. The bill would repeal this exemption on January 1, 2014. (5) The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , and requires it to certify sufficient sites and related facilities that are required to provide a supply of electricity sufficient to accommodate projected demand for power statewide. The act grants the Energy Commission the exclusive authority to certify any stationary or floating electrical generating facility using any source of thermal energy, with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more, and any facilities appurtenant thereto. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to establish a process for certain applicants for certification of a solar thermal powerplant that is proposed to be constructed in the planning area subject to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, as defined, that allows the applicant to elect to pay additional fees to be used by the Energy Commission to contract with 3rd parties to assist the Energy Commission staff in performing the analysis otherwise performed by staff in determining whether or not to issue a certification. This bill would expand this process to any eligible renewable energy resource. The bill would require the Energy Commission , upon appropriation by the Legislature, to provide $7,000,000 in grants to qualified counties for the development or revision of rules and policies, including general plan elements, zoning ordinances, and a natural community conservation plan as a plan participant, to facilitate the development of eligible renewable energy resources, and their associated electric transmission facilities, on disturbed lands, as defined. The bill would require a general plan element or zoning ordinance that is adopted or revised pursuant to a grant to be completed within 2 years of receipt of the grant and be consistent with the conservation strategies of any natural community conservation plan, if one had been approved or is under development in the county. (6) This bill would provide that it would be operative only if SB 722 of the 2009–10 Regular Session is enacted and becomes effective on or before January 1, 2011.
(1) The California Constitution requires the Legislature to pass a budget bill by June 15 of each year for the fiscal year commencing on July 1. Existing law provides that no state officer or employee shall be deemed to have a break in service or to have terminated his or her employment, for any purpose, or to have incurred any change in his or her authority, status, or jurisdiction or in his or her salary or other conditions of employment, solely because of the failure to enact a Budget Act for a fiscal year prior to the beginning of that fiscal year. Under the California Constitution, money may be drawn from the Treasury only through an appropriation made by law and upon a Controller's duly drawn warrant. This bill would continuously appropriate from the General Fund and other specified funds to the Controller an amount necessary for the payment of compensation and employee benefits to state employees, as defined, for work performed on or after July 1 of a fiscal year for which no budget has been enacted. This bill would specify, if a memorandum of understanding is in effect that has been approved by the Legislature, that the compensation and contribution for employee benefits for represented state employees be at a rate consistent with the memorandum of understanding and, for state employees excluded from collective bargaining, at the rate approved by the Department of Personnel Administration prior to the commencement of the fiscal year for which a Budget Act has not been enacted. The bill would require, if a memorandum of understanding is not in effect for represented state employees and the department has not approved a compensation package for state employees excluded from collective bargaining, that the compensation and contribution for employee benefits for represented state employees and state employees excluded from collective bargaining be at the rate in effect at the expiration of the last fiscal year for which a budget was enacted. (2) Existing law establishes standards for the use of personal services contracts. Existing law prohibits the use of state funds to reimburse a state contractor for any costs incurred to assist, promote, or deter union organizing. For the purposes of that provision, "state contractor" is defined as any employer that receives state funds for supplying goods or services pursuant to a written contract with the state or any of its agencies. This bill would continuously appropriate from the fund from which a state contractor received compensation in the prior fiscal year to the Controller the amount necessary for payment of contract obligations to a state contractor that provides goods or services to the state until the Budget Act of that fiscal year is enacted. The bill would provide that if payments are made to a contractor pursuant to that provision, the first payment shall be made on July 15, with payments to be made on the 15th of each month thereafter until enactment of the Budget Act. (3) Under existing law, the California Department of Aging administers the federal Older Americans Act in California. Pursuant to this federal act and the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, the department allocates federal funds, in accordance with prescribed funding formulas, to area agencies on aging in order to provide an array of services to seniors. This bill would continuously appropriate from the General Fund, unallocated special funds, federal funds, and any other fund from which area agencies on aging are compensated to the Controller the amount necessary for the payment of the amount necessary to pay area agencies on aging the sums necessary for the administration of programs under their jurisdiction, including both state and federal funds used for the provision of services and program administration. The bill would provide that if payments are made to area agencies on aging pursuant to that provision, the first payment would be made on July 15, with payments to be made on the 15th of each month thereafter until enactment of the Budget Act. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law requires an operator of a store, as defined, to establish an at-store recycling program that provides to customers the opportunity to return clean plastic carryout bags to that store. This requirement is repealed on January 1, 2013. Existing law prohibits a city, county, or other local public agency from taking specified regulatory actions with regard to the recycling of plastic carryout bags. This bill would repeal those at-store recycling program requirements on January 1, 2012, and would repeal, on January 1, 2011, the provision preempting local regulatory action. The bill would, as of January 1, 2012, prohibit stores that have a specified amount of sales or retail floor space from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer. The bill would require these stores, from January 1, 2012, until June 30, 2013, to provide a specified type of reusable bag and after July 1, 2013, to only provide reusable bags that meet certain criteria. The bill would require these stores to make reusable bags available for purchase. The bill would allow a store, on and after January 1, 2013, to provide reusable bags to customers at no cost only when combined with a time limited store promotional program. The bill also would authorize a store, as of January 1, 2011, to provide recycled paper bags, but would require the store to charge the consumer, on and after January 1, 2012, the actual average cost of the recycled paper bag. The bill would require these stores, on and after January 1, 2012, to provide a plastic collection bin for its customers, for the purpose of collecting and recycling single-use plastic bags and reusable bags. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2013, additionally impose these prohibitions and requirements on convenience food stores, foodmarts, and certain other specified stores. The bill would, beginning January 1, 2013, require a reusable grocery bag producer to submit to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a biennial certification, including a certification fee established by the department, that certifies that each type of reusable grocery bag that is imported, manufactured, sold or distributed in the state and provided to a store for sale or distribution meets specified requirements. The bill would require the department to deposit the certification fees into the Reusable Bag Account, which would be established by the bill in the Integrated Waste Management Fund. The bill would require that moneys in the account be expended by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement the certification requirements. A violation of these certification requirements would be subject to an administrative civil penalty assessed by the department. The department would be required to deposit these penalties into the Penalty Subaccount, which the bill would create in the Reusable Bag Account, for expenditure by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement the certification requirements. The bill would require the department, by January 1, 2015, to submit a report to the Legislature regarding the implementation of the bill's provisions. The bill would repeal this report requirement on January 1, 2016. This bill would, as of January 1, 2011, preempt local regulations on the use and sales of reusable bags, single-use carryout bags, recycled paper bags, or other specified bags at stores, as defined. The bill would allow a city, county, city and county or the state to impose civil penalties for a violation of the bill's requirements, except for the certification requirements. The bill would require these civil penalties to be paid to the office of the city attorney, city prosecutor, district attorney, or Attorney General, whichever office brought the action, and would allow the penalties collected by the Attorney General to be expended by the Attorney General, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to enforce the bill's provisions. (2) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 creates the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Account and continuously appropriates the funds deposited in the subaccount to the department for making loans for the purposes of the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Program. Existing law makes the provisions regarding the loan program, the creation of the subaccount, and expenditures therefrom inoperative on July 1, 2011, and repeals them as of January 1, 2012. This bill would appropriate $2,000,000 from the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Account to the department for the purposes of providing loans and grants for the creation and retention of jobs and economic activity in the manufacture and recycling of plastic bags that use recycled content.
This measure would request the Congress of the United States to establish a comprehensive framework, including dedicated funding, for adapting our nation's wildlife, habitats, coasts, watersheds, rivers, and other natural resources and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change.
This measure would have the Legislature join the Congress of the United States in further acknowledging the service of Filipino World War II veterans in the Armed Forces of the United States by recognizing that these veterans should be reunited with their children during their golden years, and would request that the President and the Congress of the United States pass S. 1337 and H.R. 2412, which would exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas, thus allowing for family reunification.
Existing law, until January 1, 2013, and as applied to mortgages and deeds of trust recorded between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2007, that are secured by owner-occupied residential real property containing no more than 4 dwelling units, requires a mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent to contact the borrower, as defined, prior to filing a notice of default, in order to assess the borrower's financial situation and explore options for the borrower to avoid foreclosure. Existing law requires the notice of default to include a specified declaration from the mortgagee, beneficiary, or authorized agent regarding its contact with the borrower. This bill would, until January 1, 2013, extend those requirements for those types of dwellings to apply to mortgages or deeds of trust recorded prior to January 1, 2009, if the loans are required to be reviewed under federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) guidelines, or between January 1, 2003, and January 1, 2009, if the loans are not required to be reviewed under HAMP guidelines. The bill would require a mortgagee, beneficiary, or authorized agent, within a specified time period prior to the filing of a notice of default, to provide the borrower with written information regarding loan modifications and a specified notice regarding the borrower's rights during the foreclosure process, subject to specified exceptions. The bill would require an unspecified state entity to make that notice available in English and specified languages. The bill would further revise the borrower contact requirements described above by requiring a mortgagee, beneficiary, or authorized agent to make reasonable borrower solicitation efforts, as specified, to explore options for the borrower to avoid foreclosure. The bill would prohibit a mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent from filing a notice of default until the borrower has been evaluated and determined to be ineligible for a loan modification or the borrower has failed to submit an application prior to the passing of the deadline. The bill would specify minimum time periods in which the borrower may submit an application or supplemental information for a loan modification, and would require the mortgagee, beneficiary, or authorized agent, if it denies the application, to send a denial explanation letter within a specified time period. These requirements would not apply to a mortgagee, beneficiary, or authorized agent that has no loan modification option available to the borrower or to a grandfathered party, as defined. This bill would further require, until January 1, 2013, with respect to those properties described above, that a mortgagee, beneficiary, or authorized agent, concurrently with the filing of a notice of default, record a declaration of compliance that attests to specified facts relating to its borrower solicitation and foreclosure avoidance efforts, except as provided. The bill would authorize the borrower to bring an action within one year of the trustee sale to void the foreclosure or request an injunction if, among other things, the mortgagee, beneficiary, or authorized agent records a notice of default without completing reasonable borrower solicitation efforts, or to recover specified damages if the mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent fails to record a declaration of compliance or materially comply with specified provisions, if specified conditions exist. The bill would provide that a mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent shall have no civil liability if it satisfies specified requirements prior to the initiation of legal action by the borrower.
