California Bills

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. One of the methods by which these services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care plans. This bill would establish a process that would permit an eligible Medi-Cal beneficiary to receive fee-for-service Medi-Cal, if available, as an alternative to plan enrollment for a prescribed period of time if the beneficiary meets specified criteria. This bill would provide that these provisions shall not apply to a beneficiary who is enrolled in a county organized health system. This bill would require the department to develop a process to track a beneficiary who has been denied a request for exemption from plan enrollment and to notify the plan, if applicable, of the denial, including information identifying the provider.

Existing law provides that except to the extent that the Probate Code provides applicable rules, the rules of practice applicable to civil actions, including discovery proceedings and other proceedings, as specified, apply to, and constitute the rules of practice in, proceedings under that code. Existing law provides that all issues of fact joined in probate proceedings shall be tried in conformity with the rules of practice in civil actions. Existing law also requires that an affidavit or verified petition be received as evidence when offered in an uncontested proceeding under the Probate Code. This bill would recast those provisions to provide more specificity for applicable rules for probate proceedings. This bill would also require that an affidavit or verified petition be received as evidence when offered in accordance with specified provisions.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to establish cafeterias in the schools under its jurisdiction, and authorizes the money received for the sale of food or for any services performed by the cafeterias to be paid into the county treasury to the credit of the "cafeteria fund" of the particular school district. Existing law requires the cafeteria fund to be used only for those expenditures authorized by the governing board of the school district as necessary for the operation of school cafeterias, including, but not limited to, expenditures for the lease or purchase of additional cafeteria equipment for the central food processing plant, vending machines and their installation and housing, and computer equipment and related software. Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district with an average daily attendance of over 100,000 to allow as an expenditure from the cafeteria fund or account a share of money agreed upon pursuant to a contract, which is generated from the joint sale of items between the cafeteria and an associated student body student store. Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to establish an account for each cafeteria established in a school of the school district, or for all cafeterias established in the schools of the school district, in one or more banks, and requires all receipts of the cafeteria, or cafeterias, as the case may be, derived from the sale of food to be deposited in the account and only expended for specified purposes. This bill, notwithstanding the provision referenced above relating to school districts with an average daily attendance of over 100,000, would authorize the Grossmont Union High School District and the Sweetwater Union High School District to allow as an expenditure from their respective cafeteria funds or accounts a portion of any funds that accrue from the joint sale of items involving a school cafeteria and an associated student body student store as determined pursuant to an agreement entered into between the school cafeteria and the associated student body organization of that school. The bill would require this agreement to meet specified requirements. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Grossmont Union High School District and the Sweetwater Union High School District.

Under existing law, the Robert W. Crown California Children's Services Act, the State Department of Health Care Services and each county administer the California Children's Services Program (CCS program) for treatment services for persons under 21 years of age diagnosed with severe chronic disease or severe physical limitations, as specified. Existing law generally limits eligibility for CCS program services to persons in families with an annual adjusted gross income of $40,000 or less. Under existing law, the department, or any designated local agency administering the program, is responsible for providing medically necessary occupational and physical therapy to eligible children, as specified. Existing law requires that specified assessments and therapy treatment services rendered to a child referred to a local education agency for an assessment or a disabled child or youth with an IEP be exempt from financial eligibility standards and family repayment requirements. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. 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. Existing law also provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. 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. This bill would provide 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. This bill would provide that the transition would take place in 4 phases, as specified, for individuals enrolled in either a Healthy Families Program plan that is also a Medi-Cal managed care plan (Phase 1) or enrolled in a Healthy Families Program plan that is a subcontractor of a Medi-Cal managed care plan or other specified plans (Phase 2 and Phase 3) , or for individuals residing in a county that is not a Medi-Cal managed care county (Phase 4) . This bill would require the department to exercise certain options under federal law to provide benefits to optional targeted low-income children, as described, and seek appropriate federal approvals and state plan amendments, in order to implement the Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal program transition and Medi-Cal program expansion provided for in the bill. This bill would require MRMIB to coordinate with the department to implement these provisions, and would make related changes. This bill would make related changes to the California Children's Services Program provisions. By increasing county responsibilities with respect to determining Medi-Cal eligibility, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides that reimbursement for clinical laboratory or laboratory services under the Medi-Cal program, as defined, may not exceed 80% of the lowest maximum allowance established by the federal Medicare Program for the same or similar services. This bill would, upon federal approval, change the rate methodology for clinical laboratory or laboratory services, as specified. This bill would also require that rates for clinical laboratory or laboratory services be reduced by 10% until federal approval is obtained for this new rate methodology. This bill would appropriate $400,000 from the Managed Care Fund to the Department of Managed Health Care for administration, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Los Angeles and Sacramento. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

The Ralph C. Dills Act, administered by the Public Employment Relations Board, authorizes state employees to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations, as specified. Existing law authorizes an employee organization to become the exclusive representative of an appropriate unit for purposes of meeting and negotiating, as specified. Existing law requires the Governor, or his or her representative, as properly designated by law, to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations, and to consider fully any presentation that is made by an employee organization on behalf of its members prior to arriving at a determination of policy or course of action. This bill would provide that the Ralph C. Dills Act applies to employees of the Judicial Council, including employees of the Administrative Office of the Courts. The bill would require the Administrative Director of the Courts to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and would identify matters excluded from the scope of representation. The bill would require the Public Employment Relations Board, in determining appropriate bargaining units, to not include Judicial Council employees in a bargaining unit that includes other employees.

(1) The Administrative Procedure Act generally sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. The act requires every state agency subject to the act to submit, with the notice of the proposed adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation, an initial statement of reasons for proposing the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation, which is required to include, among other things, a description of any reasonable alternatives that would lessen any adverse impact on small business and the agency's reasons for rejecting those reasonable alternatives. This bill would clarify the nature of the reasonable alternatives an agency is required to include in its initial statement and would require an agency to include any reasonable alternative submitted by the public or the Office of the Small Business Advocate in the statement. This bill would require the initial statement to include an assessment of whether there are similar or related state regulations that have been adopted and require an agency to determine whether there are opportunities to coordinate and harmonize compliance activities to reduce regulatory burdens on small businesses, as provided. (2) Existing law requires various topics to be listed in the State Administrative Manual. This bill would require the Department of General Services to provide in the State Administrative Manual guidance on procedures that facilitate the review of existing regulations and the implementation of new and modified regulations, as specified. (3) Existing law creates the Office of Small Business Advocate to represent the views and interests of small businesses before state agencies. This bill would clarify the nature of this function by requiring the advocate to comment on, and gather input from small businesses on, reasonable alternatives to proposed and existing regulations.

Existing law grants to various local entities the right, title, and interest of the State of California in and to certain tidelands and submerged lands in trust generally for purposes of commerce, navigation, and fisheries, and for other public trust purposes. This bill would specify that the preparation of a sea level action plan for all of its legislatively granted public trust lands shall be among the management priorities of a local trustee of granted public lands, as defined. The bill would require a local trustee whose gross public trust revenues, as defined, exceed $250,000 to prepare a sea level action plan for those lands by July 1, 2013, but would specify that all other local trustees may, but are not required to, prepare a plan. The bill would require the plan to include, among other things, an assessment of the impact of a range of sea level rise on granted public trust lands, an estimate of the financial cost of this impact, and strategies to prevent or mitigate damage to development and infrastructure and to protect and enhance habitat. This bill would require the State Lands Commission to exempt a local trustee of granted public trust lands from the requirement to prepare a sea level action plan or grant a deadline extension if the revenues derived from its granted public trust lands and assets or funding to it from other sources are not sufficient to pay for the cost of developing the plan.

The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, measured by sales price. That law, with certain exceptions, defines a retailer as a seller who makes any retail sale of tangible personal property and as a person who makes more than 2 retail sales of tangible personal property during any 12-month period, and defines a retail sale as a sale of tangible personal property for any purpose other than resale in the regular course of business. Existing law, from September 6, 2011, to January 1, 2022, provides that a qualified itinerant vendor, as defined, is a consumer, and not a retailer, of tangible personal property owned and sold by the qualified itinerant vendor, except for alcoholic beverages or items sold for more than $100, so that the retail sale subject to tax is the sale of tangible personal property to the qualified itinerant vendor. This bill would apply this provision beginning on and after January 1, 1986. This bill would make findings regarding the public purpose served by the bill. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing law authorizes districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to state sales and use taxes are incorporated into these laws. Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code provides that the state will reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill.

Existing law encourages and authorizes all state agencies to cooperate with federally recognized California Indian tribes on matters of economic development and improvement for the Indian tribes. Existing law provides that cooperation by state agencies with federally recognized California Indian tribes on those matters may include certain activities, including, among others, providing information on programs to assist Indian tribes. Existing federal law requires the Secretary of the Interior to publish a list of all federally recognized Indian tribes in the federal register. This bill would add to the nonexclusive list of topics that state agencies may cooperate with federally recognized Indian tribes by consulting on a government-to-government basis, in a respectful and meaningful manner, with respect to a fee-to-trust land acquisition application, as specified. The bill would prohibit a state agency from opposing specified fee-to-trust land acquisition applications. The bill would define a federally recognized Indian tribe as a tribe appearing on the list published by the Secretary of the Interior.

(1) Existing law requires the driver of a schoolbus to activate a flashing amber light warning system on the approach to a schoolbus stop where pupils are loading or unloading from the schoolbus and to operate flashing red signal lights and a stop signal arm at all times when the schoolbus is stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading pupils. Existing law also requires a schoolbus driver to load or unload pupils only at a schoolbus stop designated for pupils by the school district superintendent or authorized by the superintendent for school activity trips. This bill would also authorize the director, head, or principal of a private school to designate schoolbus stops for loading or unloading pupils or for school activity trips. Existing law prohibits a schoolbus driver from activating the amber warning light system or the flashing red signal lights and stop signal arm at a location determined by a school district, with the approval of the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to present a traffic or safety hazard. This bill would also make this prohibition applicable to locations determined by private schools to present a traffic or safety hazard. (2) Existing law prohibits any person from stopping, parking, or leaving a vehicle standing, among other places, on a crosswalk, except for a bus engaged as a common carrier or a taxicab stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading passengers, pursuant to a city ordinance. Existing law authorizes a transit system and a school district to enter into an agreement, by ordinance, for the loading or unloading of passengers alongside curb spaces designated for the loading or unloading of passengers of the transit system buses. This bill would authorize a transit system to enter into an agreement with a private school for the same purposes. The bill would also prohibit a schoolbus stop at a location otherwise prohibited by law, and other specified locations, without the approval of, and authorization by, the Department of the California Highway Patrol. (3) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to designate a schoolbus stop at a place where there is not a clear view of the stop from a distance of 200 feet in each direction along a highway, if it is necessary for the safety of pupils being transported to and from schools, and the stop is authorized and approved by the Department of the California Highway Patrol. This bill would require, where there is not a clear view of a schoolbus stop from a distance of 200 feet in each direction along a highway, or where there is not a clear view of a schoolbus stop from 500 feet in each direction along the main portion of a highway and the speed limit is more than 25 miles per hour, that the stop may only be authorized annually by the Department of the California Highway Patrol upon the request of a school district superintendent or the director, head, or principal of a private school.