Wildfire Matters Review Committee. The bill requires the division of housing within the department of local affairs (division) to create a working group to identify emerging, promising, and best practices related to homeless outreach for the purpose of reducing wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface. The bill also establishes the reducing wildfire risk through homeless outreach grant program within the division. Grant recipients can use grant money to conduct outreach among individuals experiencing homelessness to reduce wildfire risk consistent with the emerging, promising, and best practices the working group identifies. The grant program prioritizes applications that take a collaborative approach and are founded in local knowledge and expertise. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
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Current law provides that the occasional sales of alcohol by way of public auctions do not require a liquor license or compliance with the reporting requirements for licensed liquor distributors or retailers, so long as: The previous owner of the alcohol beverages has not claimed the beverages or furnished instruction for their disposition; The seller obtained the beverages as part of the foreclosure of a lien; The seller salvaged the beverages; or The seller operates a charitable organization and received the beverages as donations. However, the excise tax on alcohol beverages is nonetheless applicable to those occasional sales even though the licensing and compliance requirements do not apply. Because it is not clear that the excise tax on alcohol beverages still applies to those occasional sales, it was mistakenly identified as a tax expenditure in the department of revenue's tax expenditure report and thus mistakenly evaluated by the office of the state auditor as part of that office's evaluation of the state's tax expenditures. The bill clarifies the exemption. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Current law requires an off-highway vehicle to have a certificate of title to be transferred unless: It was first transferred before July 1, 2014, and not subsequently transferred to an off-highway vehicle dealer; or It was used exclusively for agricultural purposes on private land. Section 2 of the bill requires all off-highway vehicle transfers to have a certificate of title on or after July 1, 2021, but the agricultural exemption is not changed. Section 1 exempts private transfers of off-highway vehicles from sales tax if the transfer occurred on or after July 1, 2014, and before July 1, 2021. Current law authorizes motor vehicle dealers, salvage pools, and insurers to electronically access the department of revenue's ownership and lienholder records to verify motor vehicle ownership and lienholding information to prevent fraud. Section 3 authorizes off-highway vehicle dealers to access this system to verify the same information on off-highway vehicles for the same reasons. Notwithstanding the requirement that an off-highway vehicle have a title to be purchased by a dealer, current law authorizes a dealer to purchase an off-highway vehicle that was initially sold before July 1, 2014, and was never titled. The dealer must obtain an affidavit from the owner and then use the affidavit to obtain a title. Section 4 extends this authorization and procedure to off-highway vehicles privately transferred on or after July 1, 2014, and before July 1, 2021.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill repeals the exemption for the sale or distribution of sacramental wines used for religious purposes from the excise tax on alcohol beverages. However, the bill maintains the current law that exempts religious organizations that distribute sacramental wines for religious purposes from needing to maintain a liquor license. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Tax Expenditure Evaluation Interim Study Committee. Under current law, the sales tax exemption for energy use exempts the sale and purchase of electricity, gas, fuel oil, steam, coal, coke, or nuclear fuel used in processing, manufacturing, mining, refining, irrigation, construction, telegraph, telephone, and radio communication, street and railroad transportation services, and all industrial uses, and newsprint and printer's ink used by newspaper publisher and commercial printers from state sales tax. The bill modifies this sales exemption to only apply when the energy is used by a metered machine.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill requires the state department of human services (department) to conduct a statewide needs assessment of the services provided by veterans community living centers, including changes to services necessitated by changing demographics of the veteran population, the advantages and limitations of providing services through existing veterans community living centers, and alternative models of care for providing services to veterans. The department is required to submit the final assessment to the state, veterans, and military affairs committees of the house of representatives and the senate on or before December 1, 2020. The department may enter into an agreement with a third party to conduct the assessment. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Under current law, the income tax credit for corporate crop and livestock contributions allows agricultural C corporations to claim an income tax credit of 25% of the value of the charitable crop or livestock contributions they make in a tax year, up to a maximum of $1,000. The bill eliminates the tax credit. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Current law allows a board of county commissioners to transfer money from the county general fund to the county road and bridge fund if the governor declares a disaster emergency in the applicable county. The transfers are allowed for 8 years following the date of the governor's declaration of a disaster in the county. The act clarifies that the 8 years begins the day after the date of the governor's final declaration of an emergency for the disaster, including all extensions to the declaration. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act amends the statutes that regulate the types and amounts of investments a domestic insurer may make, including investments in bonds and other evidences of indebtedness. Section 1 of the act clarifies the types of indebtedness that may be invested in and allows the domestic insurer to invest in the debts of an issuer that is in default in the payment of interest on the debt. Preexisting law allows a domestic insurer to invest in first-priority mortgage loans in the United States and Canada. In connection with this, section 2: Authorizes investment in lower-priority loans if the holder of the lower-priority loan holds the first-priority loan; Repeals the requirement that the mortgaged land have a building, be used for agriculture or pasture, or be income-producing; Expands the requirement that improvements to the land have fire insurance to a requirement that these improvement have casualty insurance; and Authorizes domestic insurers to acquire mortgage loans for land located in other foreign jurisdictions that have a sovereign debt rating of "1" from the securities valuation office of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners if these assets do not exceed 10% of the domestic insurer's investments. Preexisting law allows a domestic insurer to invest in real estate for income. In connection with this, section 3 broadens the current definition of "real estate", which covers fee simple ownership and leasehold estates, to include all interests in property, including mineral estates. Preexisting law allows a domestic insurer to invest in preferred or common stock in businesses within the United States and Canada. In connection with this, section 4: Broadens current law to allow investment in equity interests of businesses other than preferred or common stock, but limits the aggregate value of all equity interests that may be admitted assets to 10% of the company's admitted assets; Repeals the requirement that the business not be in arrears as to dividends for the last 3 years; Repeals the requirement that any sinking fund for preferred stock must be current; Repeals the requirement that a corporation had net earnings available for dividends on its outstanding common stock in each of the 3 fiscal years immediately preceding the date of acquisition; Repeals the requirement that common stock must be registered on a national securities exchange or regularly traded on a national or regional basis; Exempts mutual funds, open-end index funds, or exchange-traded index funds from a prohibition on investing, in one company, more than 2% of the insurer's assets in common stock or 5% of these assets in any stock; Limits the amount of equity that is not listed on a nationally registered securities exchange or securities market to 5% of the domestic insurer's assets; and Authorizes a domestic insurer to invest in equity interests in businesses created in other foreign jurisdictions that have a sovereign debt rating of "1" from the securities valuation office of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners if these assets do not exceed 3% of the domestic insurer's investments. Preexisting law allows a domestic insurer to invest in money market mutual funds. Section 9 requires the funds to comply with certain federal regulations and requires government-backed funds to meet certain standards of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under preexisting law, the executive director of the department of revenue was required to notify by first-class mail an alcohol beverage licensee of the license expiration date. The act authorizes the executive director to use any reasonable method to notify a licensee of a license expiration date, but the executive director must promulgate rules governing the notice. The act also authorizes the executive director to set and collect a fee for applications for license or permit renewals for all types of alcohol beverages, including fermented malt beverages. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)