Existing law generally regulates the rules governing insurance and insurance contracts. Existing law sets minimum standards of training, experience, skill, and compensation for claims reviewers and adjusters in specified insurance fields. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, require a property and casualty insurer to disclose to an applicant or insured if it uses artificial intelligence, as defined, to make decisions on, or make decisions that affect, applications and claims review, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, approved by the voters as Proposition 1A at the November 4, 2008, general election, provides for the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds for high-speed rail and related purposes. The California High-Speed Rail Act creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed train system in the state, with specified powers and duties. Existing law defines Phase 1 of the high-speed train system as the corridor of the high-speed train system between San Francisco Transbay Terminal and Los Angeles Union Station and Anaheim, and requires the authority to include information on Phase 1 as part of a biennial business plan, as provided. Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority Office of the Inspector General and prohibits the office from being a subdivision of any other governmental entity. Existing law authorizes the High-Speed Rail Authority Inspector General to initiate audits and reviews related to the delivery of the high-speed rail project and the selection and oversight of contractors, as provided. Existing law imposes other duties and responsibilities on the inspector general relating to the oversight of the High-Speed Rail Authority. This bill would require the inspector general to conduct an independent review of the economic and financial justification for the high-speed rail project, including a review and assessment of a specified benefit-cost analysis submitted by the High-Speed Rail Authority to the United States Department of Transportation. The bill would also require the inspector general to conduct an independent review of the ability of the high-speed rail project to operate without subsidy before the Legislature recommits to the full Phase 1 system. The bill would require the inspector general to consult with industry experts for these reviews, as provided.
(1) Existing law establishes a system of elementary and secondary education in this state. This system consists of the public and private schools that provide instruction in kindergarten and in grades 1 to 12, inclusive. This bill would enact the Education Flex Account Act of 2024 and establish the Education Flex Account (EFA) Trust, to be known as the EFA Trust, as a fund within the State Treasury to be administered by the EFA Trust Board. During the first 4 school years following the operative date of the act, the bill would authorize certain children eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten, or in an elementary or secondary school, in any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to establish an EFA or Special Education Flex Account (SEFA) , based on parent or guardian income. The bill would remove these income eligibility limits after 4 school years following the operative date of the act, thereby entitling every child eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten, or in an elementary or secondary school, in any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to establish an EFA or SEFA. The bill would specify that every child enrolled in an eligible school shall be entitled, pursuant to this act, to a credit to the child's account for tuition and elementary and secondary eligible education expenses, as defined. Commencing with the first fiscal year following the operative date of the act, the bill would require the Department of Finance to determine, on July 1 of each year, the annual EFA and SEFA deposit amounts for the upcoming school year. The bill would specify the procedure for calculating the EFA and SEFA deposit amounts and would require the Controller to transfer an amount of money from the General Fund to the EFA Trust equal to the sum of (1) the EFA deposit amount multiplied by the number of EFAs established, and (2) the SEFA deposit amount multiplied by the number of SEFAs established, as provided. The bill would require any unused funds remaining in an EFA or SEFA account on June 30 to be returned to the state for the benefit of elementary and secondary education, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would require the EFA Trust Board to be composed of specified members and would vest the EFA Trust Board with certain powers and duties. The bill would establish 2 accounts within the EFA Trust, the EFA Trust Program Account and the EFA Trust Administrative Account, and would continuously appropriate the moneys in the program account to the EFA Trust Board for purposes of the bill, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish a procedure for the parents and legal guardians of eligible students to apply to establish an EFA or SEFA and submit an executed participation agreement. The bill would authorize the EFA Trust Board to disburse funds from EFAs or SEFAs to eligible schools, defined as full-time private schools. The bill would specify the procedures for participating eligible schools to receive funds disbursed by the EFA Trust Board. (2) The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, amended the California Constitution to, among other things, set forth a formula for computing the minimum amount of revenues that the state is required to appropriate for the support of school districts and community college districts based on one of 3 tests in any given fiscal year, one of which is based on the percentage of General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts and community college districts, respectively, in the 1986–87 fiscal year, and 2 of which are based on, among other things, changes in enrollment. This bill would require the Legislature to recalculate that minimum education funding guarantee by including eligible students not enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school before the operative date of the act in those minimum funding guarantee calculations based on average daily attendance, as provided. The bill would also require the costs of providing EFA and SEFA deposit amounts for eligible students to be apportioned between the General Fund and the public school district in which those eligible students reside in the same ratio of General Fund and local property tax revenue that would have been used to educate those eligible students in their public school district. (3) The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity with federal law, generally defines "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provides various exclusions from gross income for purposes of computing tax liability. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, exclude from gross income any amounts received as distribution from an EFA or SEFA, as defined, as part of a participation agreement. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. (4) These provisions would become operative on January 1, 2025, only if Senate Constitutional Amendment ____ of the 2023–24 Regular Session is approved by the voters at the statewide general election on November 5, 2024.
Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt standards, rules, and regulations for school library services. Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to exclude from schools and school libraries all books, publications, or papers of a sectarian, partisan, or denominational character. This bill would require the governing board of a school district to exclude from schools and school libraries serving pupils in preschool, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, all books, publications, or papers that contain harmful matter, as defined. The bill would require the harmful matter to be removed on or before July 31, 2025. To the extent these provisions would add new duties on school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize a parent, guardian, or resident of a school district to commence a civil action to obtain appropriate injunctive and declaratory relief for violations of these provisions after the governing board of the school district's refusal to remove any harmful matter requested of it. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law provides for the civil commitment of criminal offenders who have been determined to be sexually violent predators for treatment in a secure state hospital facility, as specified. Existing law authorizes the conditional release of a sexually violent predator under specified circumstances, and requires the State Department of State Hospitals to make the necessary placement arrangements to place the person in a community, as specified. This bill would prohibit the department or its designee from placing a person who has been conditionally released in a community if the person does not have housing in a qualified dwelling, and would define "qualified dwelling" to mean a structure intended for human habitation by one person or a single family and that is not within 10 feet of another dwelling.
Existing law requires each department or agency that employs peace officer to establish a procedure to investigate complaints by members of the public against the personnel of the department or agency. This bill would require a form used during the complaint process to include a provision inquiring whether the complaint includes an allegation of racial or identify profiling and a space to describe the allegation. The bill would define "complaint" for these purposes to mean a report, given either in writing or verbally, that brings to the attention of a department or agency an incident during which the complainant perceives that a department or agency employee engaged in misconduct, as specified. The bill would require a department or agency to develop a process whereby a member of the public may submit a concern that a policy of the department could result in harm to an individual, as specified, and if the department or agency discovers conduct that could be a basis for a complaint, to report the conduct to a supervisor, as specified. By increasing duties on local law enforcement entities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for a person to file an allegation of misconduct against a peace officer knowing the allegation to be false. Existing law requires a law enforcement agency accepting an allegation of misconduct against a peace officer to require the complainant to read and sign a prescribed advisory. This bill would instead make it a misdemeanor to file an allegation if the person knowingly and intentionally makes a false statement that is material to the allegation of misconduct by the officer and is made in bad faith and with the intent that the false statement will be used as a wrongful basis to investigate a peace officer or to harass or otherwise harm the officer. The bill would make conforming changes in the prescribed advisory. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires the commission to require every residential unit in an apartment house or similar multiunit residential structure, condominium, or mobilehome park issued a building permit on or after July 1, 1982, with certain exceptions, to be individually metered for electrical and gas service. This bill would add an exception from the requirement that every residential unit be individually metered for electrical service for a multifamily site, as defined, that includes deployment of an electrical generation and energy storage facility and that meets specified requirements, including, among other things, that deployment of the electrical generation and energy storage facility is capable of providing backup electricity to the multifamily site using renewable energy resources, that the owner of the multifamily site does not increase rent in association with the costs of the deployment's components or lease agreement, that each tenant's electricity costs are less than what the effective fully bundled rate would have been if billed by the relevant load-serving entity, and that the owner bills the nonresidential meters and residential tenants for electricity usage directly, as measured by private submeters installed by the owner for each individual unit at the site, as specified. The bill would require the commission to authorize the use of a master meter in any building owned or operated by a local government, institution of higher education, private school, or religious institution. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the bill's provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical and gas corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for public utilities and requires those rates and charges to be just and reasonable. This bill would prohibit, except as provided, an electrical or gas corporation from recording various expenses associated with political influence activities, as defined, or with advertising, as defined, to accounts that contain expenses that the electrical or gas corporation recovers from ratepayers. The bill also would require an electrical or gas corporation, for each business unit of the corporation that performs work associated with political influence activities or advertising, to annually file with the commission a report containing specified information. The bill would require the commission to make the report publicly available. The bill would require the commission to assess a civil penalty against an electrical or gas corporation that violates the prohibition described above, or that fails or neglects to comply with any part or provision of any order, decision, decree, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission related to implementing the prohibition, as provided. The bill would require 34 of the moneys collected pursuant to any settlement or penalties collected by the commission for a violation of the prohibition to be deposited into the Zero-Emission Equity Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The bill would authorize the moneys in the Zero-Emission Equity Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated for purposes of assisting low-income households in transitioning to zero-emission appliances to mitigate air quality and public health impacts of using combustion appliances. The bill would require the balance of the moneys collected, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be used by the commission to increase resources for enforcing the bill's requirements. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires all water suppliers to increase the efficient use of water. Existing law establishes various water use objectives and restrictions, including urban water use objectives. Existing law requires the State Water Resources Control Board, in coordination with the Department of Water Resources, to adopt long-term standards for the efficient use of water, including standards for, among other things, a volume for water loss, and requires the board, when adopting the standards, to consider policies relating to urban water use objectives and proposed efficiency standards' effects on local wastewater management, developed and natural parklands, and urban tree health. This bill would delete the requirement that the board adopt standards, for purposes of urban water use objectives, for water loss and would instead require the board to consider the policies relating to urban water use objectives and proposed efficiency standards' effects on water loss. The bill would also set forth standards, policies, and procedures relating to water use objectives, generally, including, among other things, a prohibition against any water use objective established by the board that causes a reduction of more than 20% when compared to a water supplier's actual water use in 2023 or that exceeds a water use standard recommended by the department. The bill would also authorize any amount of water to be used for a variance from a water use objective and would prohibit any required minimum amount of water for a variance. The bill would impose additional duties on the board, including requiring the board to develop a self-certification process for water suppliers for purposes of validating the amount of water in a variance, as provided.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to adopt new, or expand existing, fixed charges, as defined, for the purpose of collecting a reasonable portion of the fixed costs of providing electrical service to residential customers. Under existing law, the commission may authorize fixed charges for any rate schedule applicable to a residential customer account, and is required, no later than July 1, 2024, to authorize a fixed charge for default residential rates. Existing law requires these fixed charges to be established on an income-graduated basis, with no fewer than 3 income thresholds, so that low-income ratepayers in each baseline territory would realize a lower average monthly bill without making any changes in usage. Existing law requires the PUC to continue the California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) program to provide assistance to low-income electric and gas customers with annual household incomes that are no greater than 200% of the federal poverty guideline levels, as specified. This bill would require the PUC to require each electrical corporation to offer default rates to residential customers with at least 2 usage tiers, as provided. The bill would eliminate the requirement that the fixed charges be established on an income-graduated basis as described above, repeal related findings and declarations of the Legislature, and authorize the commission to instead authorize fixed charges that, as of January 1, 2015, do not exceed $10 per residential customer account per month for customers not enrolled in the CARE program and $5 per residential customer account per month for customers enrolled in the CARE program. The bill would authorize the maximum allowable fixed charge to be adjusted by no more than the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the prior calendar year, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because certain provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the above-described requirements would be a crime, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides for the recall of local officers. Existing law requires a recall petition to contain, among other things, a copy of the notice of intention that includes the names of at least 10 recall proponents that appear on the notice and that are selected by the proponents. Existing law requires the elections official to verify the signatures on the recall petition and, if the elections official finds the signatures to be sufficient, to submit a certificate as to the sufficiency of the petition to the governing body at its next regular meeting. Within 14 days after the meeting at which the governing body receives the certificate of sufficiency, existing law requires the governing body to issue an order stating that an election will be held to determine whether or not the officer named in the petition should be recalled. This bill would authorize the proponents of a recall of a local officer to file with the elections official a notice withdrawing their petition at any time before the elections official submits the certificate of sufficiency to the governing body at its next regular meeting. The bill would require the elections official, upon receipt of the notice of withdrawal, to take no further action on the petition. The bill would provide that the withdrawal of a recall petition against a local officer does not bar the later filing of a new petition against that officer. The bill would define "proponents," for its purposes, to mean the 10 recall proponents listed on the copy of the notice of intention that appears on the recall petition, as specified. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt and implement motor vehicle emission standards, in-use performance standards, and motor vehicle fuel specifications for the control of air contaminants and sources of air pollution that the state board has found to be necessary, cost effective, and technologically feasible, as provided. Existing law also requires the state board to adopt standards and regulations, consistent with those requirements, for motor vehicles and off-road or nonvehicle engine categories, including, but not limited to, marine vessels, to the extent permitted by federal law. This bill would require the state board to exempt certain vessels from any provision of a standard or regulation that would require the retirement, replacement, or retrofit of the vessel. The bill would provide that the vessel would be exempt for a period not to exceed 15 years or until the cost to replace the vessel's internal combustion engine with a safe and reliable electric motor meets a specified threshold.
