Existing law requires the governing board of each local educational agency to either provide for an audit of the books and accounts of the local educational agency or make arrangements with the respective county superintendent of schools to provide for that auditing. Existing law requires the governing board of each local educational agency, by January 31 of each year, to review, at a public meeting as an item on the agenda, the annual audit of the local educational agency for the prior year, any audit exceptions identified in that audit, the recommendations or findings of any management letter issued by the auditor, and any description of correction or plans to correct any exceptions or management letter issue, as provided. This bill would change the date by which the governing board or body of each school district, educational joint powers authority, county superintendent of schools, or charter school is required to review the above-described annual audit of the local educational agency at a public meeting from January 31 of each year to instead be within 45 days after the issuance of an audit report. The bill would additionally require the governing board or body of the local educational agency, at the public meeting described above, to accept or reject the annual audit report. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies or other local entities or officials, 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, 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.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the tax imposed by that law. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and before January 1, 2031, would allow a credit against those taxes in an amount equal to 50% of unreimbursed costs paid or incurred by a taxpayer for the purchase of durable medical equipment, as defined, for use by a qualifying dependent, as defined, during the taxable year. The bill would limit the credit to $5,000 per taxable year for each qualifying dependent. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill also would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing state sales and use tax laws impose 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. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2026, provide an exemption from the taxes imposed by the Sales and Use Tax Law for the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, hydrogen fuel, as defined. 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 laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. This bill would provide that the exemption created by the bill does not apply to local sales and use taxes or transactions and use taxes. Existing law imposes or dedicates certain state sales and use tax rates for local funding, including through the Local Revenue Fund 2011. This bill would provide that the exemption created by the bill does not apply to those state sales and use tax rates imposed or dedicated for local government funding, including those rates for which revenues are deposited into the Local Revenue Fund 2011. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would also include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law designates the State Water Resources Control Board as the agency responsible for administering specific programs related to drinking water, including, among others, the California Safe Drinking Water Act and the Emerging Contaminants for Small or Disadvantaged Communities Funding Program. This bill, which would become operative upon an appropriation by the Legislature, would enact a perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) mitigation program. As part of that program, the bill would create the PFAS Mitigation Fund in the State Treasury and would authorize certain moneys in the fund to be expended by the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes. The bill would authorize the state board to seek out nonstate, federal, and private funds designated for PFAS remediation and treatment and deposit the funds into the PFAS Mitigation Fund. The bill would continuously appropriate these funds to the state board for specified purposes. The bill would authorize the state board to establish accounts within the PFAS Mitigation Fund. The bill would authorize the state board to expend moneys from the fund in the form of a grant, loan, or contract, or to provide assistance services to water suppliers and sewer system providers, as those terms are defined, for multiple purposes, including, among other things, to cover or reduce the costs for water suppliers associated with treating drinking water to meet the applicable state and federal maximum PFAS contaminant levels. The bill would require a water supplier or sewer system provider to include a clear and definite purpose for how the funds will be used to provide public benefits to their community related to safe drinking water, recycled water, stormwater, or treated wastewater in order to be eligible to receive funds. The bill would require the state board to adopt guidelines to implement these provisions, as provided.
(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.
(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 School Choice Flex Account Act of 2025 and establish the School Choice Flex Account (SCFA) Trust, to be known as the SCFA Trust, as a fund within the State Treasury to be administered by the SCFA Trust Board. For the 2027–28 to 2030–31, inclusive, school years, the bill would authorize certain children eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to establish an SCFA or Special Education Flex Account (SEFA) , based on parent or guardian income. The bill would, beginning with the 2031–32 school year, authorize every child eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to establish an SCFA or SEFA. The bill would credit a deposit amount to the account of every eligible student enrolled in an eligible school for tuition and certain school expenses. The bill would specify the deposit amounts for the 2027–28 school year, and require the Department of Finance, beginning on July 1, 2028, to determine the SCFA and SEFA deposit amounts annually for the upcoming school year, as provided. The bill would require the Controller to transfer an amount of money from the General Fund to the SCFA Trust in those amounts. The bill would require any unused funds remaining in an SCFA or SEFA account on June 30 of each school year to be returned to the state for the benefit of elementary and secondary education, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would specify the membership of the SCFA Trust Board and would vest the SCFA Trust Board with certain powers and duties. The bill would establish 2 accounts within the SCFA Trust, the SCFA Trust Program Account and the SCFA Trust Administrative Account, and would continuously appropriate the moneys in the program account to the SCFA 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 SCFA or SEFA and submit an executed participation agreement. The bill would authorize the SCFA Trust Board to disburse funds from SCFAs or SEFAs to eligible schools, defined as private full-time day schools accredited by, or, except as provided, awaiting accreditation from, a regional accrediting agency recognized by the state or the United States Department of Education. The bill would specify the procedures for participating eligible schools to receive funds disbursed by the SCFA 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 SCFA 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, 2027, exclude from gross income any amounts received as distribution from an SCFA 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, 2027, and only if Senate Constitutional Amendment ____ of the 2025–26 Regular Session is approved by the voters at the statewide general election on November 4, 2026.
(1) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 provides for the adoption of rules, regulations, and procedures, under the administration of the Director of General Services, for the allocation of state funds by the State Allocation Board for the construction and modernization of public school facilities. The act permits a school district to apply for hardship assistance in cases of extraordinary circumstances. The act requires, for health and safety projects for school facilities that are determined by the Department of General Services to pose an unacceptable risk of injury to occupants in the event of a seismic event, a school district to demonstrate that certain conditions are satisfied, including that the school facilities are needed to ensure the health and safety of pupils if the health and safety of pupils is at risk. This bill would apply the above-described provisions to health and safety projects for school facilities that are determined by the Department of General Services to pose an unacceptable risk of injury to occupants in the event of a wildfire, flood, or other state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor, and would specify that the above-described condition includes ending the disruption to the delivery of educational services due to damage to, or destruction of, school facilities. The bill, for projects approved under these provisions, would authorize a school district to employ any project delivery method authorized under existing law to support concurrent coordination and approval by the State Department of Education, the State Architect, and the State Allocation Board for expedited permitting, approval, and construction processes, and would authorize those state agencies to use machine learning to automate nondiscretionary aspects of those processes. The bill would also authorize a school district to use machine learning to prepare documents and materials for the permitting process for these projects. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Education to take specified actions relating to the construction of school facilities, including to establish standards for use by school districts to ensure that the design and construction of school facilities are educationally appropriate and promote school safety. This bill would require the department, the Division of the State Architect, the Office of Public School Construction, and the State Allocation Board, beginning July 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, to engage the Government Operations Agency to collaboratively review the processes relating to school design and construction to identify short-term, intermediate, and long-term improvements that can be made to those processes. The bill would require those entities, on or before December 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, to submit a report to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature that identifies process changes to streamline how local educational agencies receive the approval required for school construction and secure state funding. The bill would require the report required on or before December 1, 2026, to also address specified priorities, including, among other things, implementation of specific timeframes for the Division of the State Architect to review submitted proposals and the development of an alternative project delivery method specific to the need to expedite school reconstruction and repair in the aftermath of an emergency.
Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA) within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, to advocate for causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require OSBA to allocate 90% of the moneys appropriated to the Small Business Recovery Fund, which would be created within the State Treasury, for purposes of a small business recovery grant program to provide competitive grants to small businesses, as defined, that are directly impacted by a state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor or other specified emergencies. The bill would require the funds to be used for, among other things, to support recovery and rebuilding efforts, and would require a grantee to match the amount of the grant awarded. The bill would require OSBA to award grants in amounts that range from $2,500 to $100,000, inclusive. This bill would require OSBA to allocate 5% of the moneys appropriated to the fund to the Small Business Technical Assistance Program administered by GO-Biz, for grants to small business technical assistance centers that provide direct service to disaster-affected areas, and 5% to the Capital Infusion Program administered by GO-Biz, to support increased demand for capital-related technical assistance in disaster areas. This bill would require the Director of the Office of Small Business Advocate to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature on the results of grant funds awarded for each state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor, as provided. This bill would repeal the Small Business Recovery Fund Act on January 1, 2032.
Existing law authorizes a local authority, by ordinance or resolution, to regulate the occupancy of a room or rooms, or other living space, in a hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, or other lodging for a period of less than 30 days. This bill would authorize a local agency, defined to mean a city, county, or city and county, to enact an ordinance to require a short-term rental facilitator, as defined, to report, in the form and manner prescribed by the local agency, the physical address, including 9-digit ZIP Code, of each short-term rental, as defined, during the reporting period. The bill would also authorize a local agency to request additional information, as provided, when the physical address is not sufficient for the local agency to identify a specific short-term rental. The bill would authorize the local agency to impose an administrative fine or penalty for failure to file the report, and would authorize the local agency to initiate an audit of a short-term rental facilitator, as described. The bill would require a short-term rental facilitator, in a jurisdiction that has adopted an ordinance, to include in the listing of a short-term rental any applicable local license number associated with the short-term rental and any transient occupancy tax certification issued by a local agency. The bill would state these provisions do not preempt a local agency from adopting an ordinance that regulates short-term rentals, short-term rental facilitators, or the payment and collection of transient occupancy taxes in a manner that differs from those described in the bill.
(1) Existing federal law, the Stephen Beck, Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (ABLE Act) , encourages and assists individuals and families to save private funds for the purpose of supporting eligible individuals with disabilities to maintain their health, independence, and quality of life by excluding from gross income distributions used for qualified disability expenses by a beneficiary of a Qualified ABLE Program established and maintained by a state, as specified. Existing law establishes the Qualified ABLE Program for purposes of implementing the federal ABLE Act in this state, and creates the California ABLE Program Trust with the purposes, powers, and duties of the trust to be vested in and exercised by the California ABLE Act Board. Existing law requires the board to segregate the moneys coming into the ABLE program trust into 2 funds: the program fund, which is continuously appropriated, for specified purposes of the act, and the administrative fund, which is available upon appropriation by the Legislature for administration of the act. Existing law requires all moneys paid by designated beneficiaries or eligible individuals in connection with ABLE accounts to be deposited, as received, into the program fund, promptly invested, and accounted for separately. Existing law grants the board the power to accept grants, gifts, appropriations, and other moneys from any unit of federal, state, or local government, among other specified entities, for deposit to specified funds. This bill would authorize the California ABLE Act Board to additionally accept grants, gifts, legislative appropriations, and other moneys from a philanthropic entity, and would specify that the program can receive legislative appropriations. The bill would authorize the board to target specific subgroups of eligible individuals, as specified, and would authorize the board to use those moneys received to encourage eligible individuals to create an ABLE account or maximize account participation by engaging public awareness about the program. By authorizing new uses of moneys in a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law requires the Franchise Tax Board to include, on a taxpayer's form instructions for filing a return, information about the ability of a taxpayer to directly deposit a portion of their refund into the Golden State Scholarshare College Savings Trust, as specified. This bill would additionally require the Franchise Tax Board to include, on a taxpayer's form instructions for filing a return, information about the ability of a taxpayer to directly deposit a portion of their refund into the California ABLE Program Trust.
