Existing law establishes the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) pilot program, which is administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections, to improve public safety and reduce recidivism by increasing the availability and use of social service resources while reducing costs to law enforcement agencies and courts stemming from repeated incarceration. Existing law requires the board to award grants, on a competitive basis, to up to 3 jurisdictions to establish LEAD programs and requires the board to establish minimum standards, funding schedules, and procedures for awarding grants. This bill would rename the program as the Alternatives to Arrest (ATA) pilot program. The bill would require the board to additionally award a grant or grants to the agency administering qualifying programs in the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles, as well as in other jurisdictions to be identified by the board. Existing law allows a person to be referred to services through a program by a law enforcement officer as an alternative to arrest and through a social contact referral by a law enforcement officer if they believe the person is at high risk of arrest in the future for specified crimes relating to controlled substances and prostitution. Existing law requires those social contact referrals to meet specified criteria, including, among other things, verification that the individual has had prior involvement with low-level drug or prostitution activity and that the individual does not have a pending case in drug court or mental health court. This bill would remove these requirements for social contact referrals and instead authorize them if, absent probable cause to arrest, the officer believes the person would benefit from case management services and is at high risk of arrest in the future and the person expresses interest in voluntarily participating in the program. The bill would expand the offenses eligible for referral as an alternative to arrest to include, among other things, specified disorderly conduct crimes, shoplifting, or other violations identified by the local jurisdiction with agreement of the police chief or sheriff, the city attorney or district attorney, and the implementing public health or behavioral health agency administering case management services. Existing law requires the Board of State and Community Corrections to contract with a nonprofit research entity, university, or college to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, as specified. Existing law also authorizes the board to contract with experts for the purpose of providing technical assistance to participating jurisdictions. Existing law appropriated $15,000,000 from the General Fund for the program and authorized the board to spend up to $550,000 for the purposes of the evaluation contract and technical assistance. This bill would repeal those provisions and would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature for these programs, that the funds be granted to the entity responsible for LEAD or ATA in the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles and agencies in other jurisdictions to be identified by the board. The bill would authorize the board to spend a portion of those funds on contracts with experts on the implementation of ATA or similar programs in other jurisdictions for the purpose of providing technical assistance to participating jurisdictions, as specified. The bill would require local jurisdictions to commit to using these funds and local resources to support ATA or LEAD planning, implementation, and services and not supplant local resources that had been previously dedicated to ATA or LEAD programs and services. The bill would require the board to report to the Legislature on the effectiveness of the program on or before September 1, 2031.
Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, subject to an appropriation, to administer the California Guaranteed Income Pilot Program, until January 1, 2028, to provide grants to eligible entities for the purpose of administering pilot programs and projects that provide a guaranteed income to participants. Existing law requires the department to prioritize funding for pilot programs and projects California residents who age out of the extended foster care program at or after 21 years of age or who are pregnant individuals. Existing law requires the department, in determining the methodology and manner of distributing grants, to ensure that grant funds are awarded in an equitable manner to eligible entities in both rural and urban counties and in proportion to the number of individuals anticipated to be served by an eligible entity's pilot program or project. This bill would require the department to also prioritize pilot programs and projects that serve California residents who are parents of children between zero to 5 years of age, inclusive, or who are victims of domestic violence. The bill would remove the requirement that grant funds are awarded in proportion to the number of individuals anticipated to be served by an eligible entity's pilot program or project, and would require preference to be provided for eligible entities in regions where eligible entities have not yet been awarded grant funds pursuant to this program.
Existing law, the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, establishes the California Department of Aging in the California Health and Human Services Agency and sets forth its mission to provide leadership to the area agencies on aging in developing systems of home- and community-based services that maintain individuals in their own homes or the least restrictive homelike environments. This bill would establish the Wildfire Mitigation Aging and Disability Grant Pilot Program to be administered by the California Department of Aging through specified area agencies on aging, including Planning and Service Areas 4, 29, and 33. Upon appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, the bill would award grants, based on specified criteria, to seniors and individuals with disabilities to mitigate against wildfires on properties they own that they would not otherwise be able to protect with existing resources. The bill would require the area agencies on aging to award grants on a competitive basis and would require applications to contain specified information, including proof of need. The bill would also authorize the grant funding to be used towards the costs associated with hiring contractors or other qualified service providers to perform wildfire mitigation activities. The bill would also require the area agencies on aging to retain specified information and report that information to the department upon the completion of the pilot program, including the number of applicants and the amount of money distributed. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on January 1, 2030, and would repeal these provisions on that date.
Existing law, the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 2025, beginning July 1, 2026, eliminates the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and instead establishes the Business and Consumer Services Agency and the California Housing and Homelessness Agency. The plan also, among other things, establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness as an independent entity within the California Housing and Homelessness Agency and renames the existing council as the California Interagency Executive Council on Homelessness, which it establishes within the California Interagency Council on Homelessness. Existing law requires the Interagency Council on Homelessness to set and measure progress toward goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California by setting specific, measurable goals aimed at preventing and ending homelessness among youth in the state, as provided. This bill would establish within the California Interagency Council on Homelessness the Office of Youth Homelessness Prevention (office) , with the mission of reducing youth homelessness in the state to functional zero, defined as the condition in which the number of youth experiencing homelessness does not exceed the capacity to provide youth with permanent housing. The bill would impose prescribed responsibilities on the office, including, by September 15, 2027, developing and overseeing the implementation of a comprehensive framework to reduce youth homelessness to functional zero containing specific and measurable goals, as provided. This bill would require the office, on or before December 15, 2027, to create and post on its internet website a publicly accessible dashboard tracking the office's progress toward these goals. The bill would require the office to consult with an advisory committee, as provided, and would require the Secretary of California Housing and Homelessness to appoint the members of the advisory committee by March 1, 2027. The bill would establish the Office of Youth Homelessness Prevention Fund and require that, upon appropriation, moneys deposited into the fund be made available to the council, as provided. The bill would require the office to submit a report on its progress toward achieving its goals to the Legislature and the council on or before December 15, 2027, and annually thereafter, as provided. This bill would make related findings and declarations.
Existing law establishes the California State Nonprofit Security Grant Program under the administration of the Director of Emergency Services to improve the physical security of nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of violent attacks or hate crimes due to ideology, beliefs, or mission. Existing law authorizes applicants to use grant funds for prescribed security enhancements, including security training. Existing law makes the operation of the program contingent upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act. This bill would instead establish the California State Nonprofit Security Grant Program to improve the physical security of nonprofit organizations and events hosted by nonprofit organizations that are at a high risk of violent attacks or hate crimes, as described above. The bill would also authorize the grant money to be used by applicants for security enhancements for security for onsite or offsite events hosted by a nonprofit organization, as defined and specified. The bill would prohibit these provisions from limiting a nonprofit organization without a physical site from being eligible for funding for offsite events, as specified. The bill would limit security for offsite events to $25,000 of the grant funds awarded. The bill would prohibit the Office of Emergency Services from imposing monetary and percentile limits on any individual eligible security enhancement, except as specified.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to develop a coordinated state strategy for addressing the health-related needs of women, as specified. This bill, the Rural Farmworker Women's Health Act of 2026, would require the department to, beginning January 1, 2028, and upon appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, establish a program to work with local nonprofit organizations who have a history of serving farmworker communities to provide free menstrual products in rural or agricultural communities. The bill would require the department to prioritize those communities with the highest rates of poverty.
The California Constitution generally limits the maximum rate of ad valorem tax on real property to 1% of the full cash value of the property and defines "full cash value" for these purposes as the appraised value of real property when purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership has occurred after the 1975 assessment. Pursuant to constitutional authorization, existing property tax law excludes from the definition of "newly constructed" for these purposes the construction or addition of any active solar energy system, as defined, through the 2025–26 fiscal year, including the construction of an active solar energy system incorporated by the owner-builder in the initial construction of a new building that the owner-builder does not intend to occupy or use. This bill would extend, for lien dates commencing on or after January 1, 2027, and before January 1, 2031, the above-described exclusion for the addition of customer-sited, active solar energy systems with a system size of less than or equal to 10 kilowatts and for customer-sited, active solar energy systems that are sited on the property of a public entity customer. The bill would require that, for active solar energy systems sited on the property of a public entity customer, tax savings be utilized to maintain the affordability of, or to reduce the cost of, future lease agreements. The bill would limit the exclusion for active solar energy systems incorporated by the owner-builder to buildings where the initial construction permit for the new building is dated before January 1, 2027. The bill would make conforming changes. By imposing additional duties on local tax officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires bills authorizing a new tax expenditure, as defined, 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 bills authorizing a new tax expenditure. 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 to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. 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 of, 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, including an exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or consumption of, farm equipment and machinery, and the parts thereof, purchased for use by a qualified person to be used primarily in producing and harvesting agricultural products. 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. Existing law excludes the tax exemption described above from being incorporated into certain local taxes pursuant to the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law. This bill would, until January 1, 2032, delete that provision. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would make an appropriation from the General Fund to the Controller to make the reimbursements to counties and cities. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific purposes 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 law establishes the California College Promise, under the administration of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, to provide funding, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to each community college meeting prescribed requirements. Existing law authorizes a community college to use that funding to waive some or all of the fees for 2 academic years for first-time community college students and returning community college students, as defined, who are enrolled in 12 or more semester units or the equivalent, or less for students certified as "full time," as specified, and who complete and submit either a Free Application for Federal Student Aid or a California Dream Act application, except that a student who has previously earned a degree or certificate from a postsecondary educational institution is not eligible for this fee waiver. This bill would prohibit a certificate awarded to a student by a postsecondary educational institution as part of a course sequence leading to an associate degree from making the student ineligible for that fee waiver.
The California Constitution provides that all property is taxable and requires that it be assessed at the same percentage of fair market value, unless otherwise provided by the California Constitution or federal law. The California Constitution and existing property tax law provide various exemptions from taxation, including, among others, a disabled veterans' exemption. Under existing law, the disabled veterans' exemption exempts from taxation part of the full value of property that constitutes the principal place of residence of a veteran, the veteran's spouse, or the veteran and veteran's spouse jointly, and the unmarried surviving spouse of a veteran, as provided, if the veteran incurred specified injuries or died while on active duty in military service, as described. Existing law exempts that part of the full value of the residence that does not exceed $100,000, or $150,000 if the household income of the claimant does not exceed $40,000, as adjusted for inflation, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2037, exclude service-connected disability payments from the definition of "household income" for purposes of the disabled veterans' exemption. The bill would also correct an erroneous cross-reference in the above-described provisions. By imposing additional duties on local tax officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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. 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 to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
