(1) The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to exempt from taxation, in whole or in part, property that is used exclusively for religious, hospital, or charitable purposes, and is owned or held in trust by a nonprofit entity. Pursuant to that authority, existing law provides for a welfare exemption under which property used exclusively for an exempt purpose and owned and operated by specified entities, including foundations, limited liability companies, or corporations meeting certain statutory requirements, is exempt from taxation. Existing law, until the lien date in 2027, also provides that property used exclusively for the preservation of specified natural resources or open-space lands owned or operated by a specified entity meeting specified criteria is deemed to be included within the welfare exemption. This bill would provide that, for purposes of the exemption for property used exclusively for the preservation of specified natural resources or open-space lands, for the property tax lien dates for the 2026–27 fiscal year to the 2031–32 fiscal year, inclusive, property may be owned and operated by a federally recognized Indian tribe or a wholly owned subsidiary of a federally recognized Indian tribe meeting certain requirements. By expanding the duties of local tax officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law authorizes counties and cities and counties to impose a documentary transfer tax at a specified rate upon deeds, instruments, or other writings by which specified property is transferred. Existing law exempts certain transfers from the imposition of that tax, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2031, exempt from that tax the transfer of any deed, instrument, or other writing that makes effective a tribal land return transaction, as defined. (3) Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that 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) 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. (5) This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law imposes various taxes, including a tax on income, the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property, and real property. This bill would impose a tax on a social media platform provider, as defined, equal to an unspecified percentage of the annual gross receipts derived from the purchase of programmatic advertising for distribution on the provider's social media platform, as provided. The bill would require the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to administer the tax pursuant to the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime. By extending the application of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would create the Social Media Safety Trust Fund within the State Treasury and would require all moneys raised pursuant to these taxes be deposited into the fund. The bill would establish various accounts within the fund and would allocate moneys into those accounts for expenditure according to specified purposes, including an Education Account, Mental Health Care Account, Research and Development Account, and Social Services Account. The bill would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to administer those provisions. 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 authorizes the governing board of a school district that determines during a fiscal year that its revenues are less than the amount necessary to meet its current year expenditure obligations to request an emergency apportionment through the Superintendent of Public Instruction, subject to specified requirements. Existing law authorizes emergency apportionments to be provided through an interim loan from the General Fund and lease financing made available by the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, which is authorized to issue bonds for purposes of the emergency apportionments and related costs, or as an alternative to lease financing, as an emergency apportionment from the General Fund. Existing law prescribes the financing conditions on emergency apportionments, including the calculation of the interest rate. Existing law, notwithstanding any other law, authorizes the Inglewood Unified School District, through the State Department of Education, to request cashflow loans from the General Fund for a total of up to $55,000,000 for emergency operational purposes, as provided. Existing law requires the interest on these loans to be charged at the annual rate of return of the Pooled Money Investment Account, plus an additional 2%. This bill, notwithstanding any other law, and once the Inglewood Unified School District has successfully repaid at least 10 years of a General Fund cashflow loan made pursuant to those provisions, would authorize the school district to seek, and would require the Department of Finance to grant, a waiver of interest on that loan for the next succeeding fiscal year if specified conditions are met, including, among other conditions, that the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, in consultation with the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, determines that the school district is making substantial progress towards fiscal solvency and that a waiver of interest would help the school district to exit receivership, as provided. In each subsequent fiscal year, the bill would authorize the school district to seek, and would require the Department of Finance to grant, a subsequent waiver of interest for the applicable fiscal year if the school district again meets those same requirements. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Inglewood Unified School District. 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 establishes the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program, administered by the State Department of Education, with the purpose of encouraging, maintaining, and strengthening the delivery of high-quality career technical education programs. Existing law requires, for the 2021–22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, $300,000,000 to be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program. Existing law requires a grant applicant to demonstrate a proportional dollar-for-dollar match and sets that amount at $2 for every $1 received from the program. Existing law prohibits an applicant from being awarded an amount higher than the amount that the allocation formula determines them to be eligible to receive under the program. Existing law authorizes a grant recipient under the program to consist of one or more, or any combination, of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or regional occupational centers or programs operated by joint powers authorities or county offices of education, as provided. Existing law provides that an applicant receiving a grant from the program in a prior fiscal year is eligible to apply to receive a renewal grant if the applicant's career technical education program continues to meet specified requirements, as provided. This bill would delete the prohibition against an applicant being awarded more than the amount determined by the allocation formula and would provide, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, that the amount to be made available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the program to be the amount appropriated in the prior fiscal year as adjusted by a specified percentage, as provided. The bill would instead provide that an applicant receiving a grant from the program in a prior fiscal year is required to receive a renewal grant for 3 additional years, as provided. The bill would require, beginning with the 2025–26 fiscal year, up to 90% of the grants awarded pursuant to the program to be designated for renewal grants and up to 10% to be designated for grants for new applicants, unless otherwise determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. The bill would require the Superintendent to cease distribution of funding and recover previously distributed funding if certain conditions occur, including, among others, that the grant recipient did not implement the program substantively as was initially proposed, as provided.
Existing law appropriates $10,000,000 from the General Fund for the 2021–22 fiscal year to the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer the Dual Language Immersion Grant Program for the purpose of expanding access to quality dual language learning and fostering languages that English learners bring to California's education system. Under that program, the State Department of Education is required to award a minimum of 25 one-time Dual Language Immersion Grants over a period of 3 fiscal years of up to $380,000 per grant to an eligible entity to expand or establish dual language immersion programs. This bill would establish the Dual Language Immersion Education Instructional Materials Grant Program, to be administered by the Superintendent, for purposes of providing one-time grants of $100,000 to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to increase available instructional materials in partner languages for dual language immersion programs at one or more schoolsites, as provided. The bill would require a grant recipient to report to the department, on or before June 29, 2029, on how grant funds were expended, including a list of any materials obtained or developed. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, on or before December 31, 2029, that includes the data received from the grant recipients. The bill would make implementation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula (LCFF) , as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the LCFF to include, among other things, the sum of a base grant, supplemental grant, and concentration grant, if applicable, multiplied by average daily attendance, as provided. Existing law authorizes a school district or charter school to maintain a transitional kindergarten program. Existing law requires a school district or a charter school, as a condition of receipt of apportionment for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program, to ensure that, beginning with the 2025–26 school year, a child who will have their 4th birthday by September 1 of a school year be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school. Under existing law, pursuant to the LCFF, school districts and charter schools receive, as funding for transitional kindergarten, the sum of a base grant, a supplemental grant, a concentration grant, if applicable, and a transitional kindergarten add-on, multiplied by transitional kindergarten average daily attendance, as provided. Under existing law, school districts that receive local revenues that exceed the LCFF amount do not receive a specified apportionment of LCFF funds, as provided, and are known as "basic aid school districts" or "excess tax entities." Existing law, notwithstanding those provisions, requires charter schools and school districts, including basic aid districts, to receive a minimum level of state-aid funding, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, require the minimum level of state funding for basic aid districts to include both the above-described sum of the LCFF base, supplemental, and concentration grants for transitional kindergarten, and an unspecified add-on amount for transitional kindergarten, multiplied by transitional kindergarten average daily attendance, as provided. Existing law provides for the funding of necessary small schools and high schools, as specified. Existing law requires that funding to be based on, among other things, the necessary small school's average daily attendance and the number of full-time teachers, as specified. Existing law requires these necessary small school amounts to be added to the LCFF calculations for school districts with necessary small schools, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate funding for pupils attending transitional kindergarten in certain necessary small schools, as provided. The bill would require this allocation to include, for any average daily attendance generated by pupils attending a transitional kindergarten program in the necessary small school, the sum of the above-described LCFF base grant, supplemental grant, and concentration grant, if applicable, and transitional kindergarten add-on amounts, as provided. The bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, appropriate the amount of funding necessary to implement the required allocations for the applicable fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to necessary small schools under these provisions. Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue "Have a Heart, Be a Star, Help our Kids" special license plates and imposes additional fees, as specified, for their issuance, renewal, replacement, and transfer. Existing law requires that those additional fees be deposited in the Child Health and Safety Fund, less specified amounts. Existing law requires that 50% of the funds derived from "Have a Heart, Be a Star, Help Our Kids" license plates be available, upon appropriation, to the State Department of Social Services for administering various provisions related to childcare licensing, as specified. Existing law requires that, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the balance be available, as described, for programs that address other categories of potential childhood injury, as specified. Existing law requires counties to create local childcare resource and referral programs to identify childcare resources and establish a referral process for parents, among other things. Existing law also creates the California Children and Families Commission, to promote, support, and improve early childhood development. Existing law provides for funding to county commissions that develop, adopt, promote, and implement local early childhood development programs consistent with specified goals and objectives. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2027, increase the fees for the initial issuance and renewal of the "Have a Heart, Be a Star, Help Our Kids" license plates. The bill would, commencing July 1, 2027, allocate, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, 50% of the fees collected before July 1, 2027, to state and local childcare provider licensure, oversight, recruitment, training, and development, and the remainder to childcare safety and health, as specified. Of the fees collected on or after July 1, 2027, the bill would allocate 50% for programs that address specified child health and safety concerns and the remainder of the funding would be allocated for specified child abuse prevention purposes.
(1) Existing law, the Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act, establishes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) in the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. Existing law, among other things, authorizes the I-Bank to issue bonds, make loans, and provide financial assistance for various types of projects that qualify as economic development or public development facilities. This bill would enact the Community Stabilization Act. The bill would require the I-Bank to develop and administer a program to issue a security, and to cease issuing a security on January 1, 2030. The bill would specify that the purpose of the program is to help stabilize property values in disaster-affected areas by allowing qualified investors, as defined, to purchase tradable securities, with the funding allocated to qualifying investment entities that purchase and manage residential land until it can be resold at fair market value. The bill would require profits from the land investments to be shared among investors and the I-Bank according to certain percentages, with qualifying investment entities being reimbursed for their administrative costs. This bill would establish various requirements for the security, including that it be tradeable, comply with specified municipal bonding requirements, and that it be funded by investments made by qualified investors using funds available pursuant to the federal Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. The bill would require the security to repay the investment upon a liquidity event and within 7 years of the purchase of an investment property, and would describe a liquidity event as the refinance or sale of the investment property. This bill would require funds raised from the purchase of the security to be deposited in the Community Stabilization Fund, which would be created by the bill, and would require all moneys in the fund to be continuously appropriated to the I-Bank. The bill would require the I-Bank to allocate moneys in the fund to qualifying investment entities to be invested in the Counties of Los Angeles and Ventura and in those areas that are covered by a state of disaster declared by the Governor. The bill would require a qualifying investment entity to meet prescribed requirements, including that it be a specified entity, including, among others, a nonprofit organization, as provided. The bill would also impose various requirements on the qualifying investment entity relating to the purchase, maintenance, and sale of the investment property, including, among other things, limiting the purchase of property to residential property that has been damaged or destroyed by the wildfires that began on January 7, 2025, in the Counties of Los Angeles and Ventura, as specified. The bill would require the I-Bank to submit a final report on the program to the Legislature, the Governor, and the Department of Finance no later than January 1, 2034, as specified. By establishing a new continuously appropriated fund, the Community Stabilization Fund, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Los Angeles and Ventura. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and sets forth its powers and duties relating to enforcement of civil rights laws and assistance to communities in resolving disputes, disagreements, or difficulties relating to discriminatory practices. This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature and commencing on or before the later of either July 1, 2026, or one year after the date of the appropriation, would require the department to create and implement statewide and regional radio, social media, and television campaigns for the purposes of discouraging discrimination. The bill would require the department to convene a working group to develop a plan to implement the campaigns above. The bill would exempt the working group from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law, the California Farmland Conservancy Program Act, establishes within the Department of Conservation the California Farmland Conservancy Program. Existing law authorizes the program to offer financial assistance, including grants or contracts, for projects and activities on agricultural lands, as defined, that support agricultural conservation and sustainable land management. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force, to establish the Farmland Access and Conservation for Thriving Communities Program in the department to provide financial and technical assistance to support agricultural land acquisition and protection. The bill would require the department, subject to specified requirements, to provide financial assistance under the program to qualified entities for the purpose of acquiring agricultural lands to transfer or provide long-term leases to qualified farmer participants, as specified. The bill would establish the Farmland Access Fund in the State Treasury and would make moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for program expenditures. The bill would authorize the department to contract with one or more nonprofit organizations to administer the program. The bill would make the operation of the program contingent upon the Legislature making an appropriation for purposes of the program.
