Asm. Tom Torlakson

This measure would recognize the Lunar New Year 4708 celebration.

The California Constitution conditions the imposition of a special tax by a city, county, or special district upon the approval of 23 of the voters of the city, county, or special district voting on that tax, and prohibits these entities from imposing an ad valorem tax on real property or a transactions or sales tax on the sale of real property. This measure would alternatively condition the imposition, extension, or increase of a parcel tax, as defined, by a school district, community college district, or county office of education upon the approval of 55% of its voters voting on the proposition, if the proposition meets specified requirements. This measure would also make conforming changes to related provisions.

Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 (the Greene Act) , requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition and requires the board to adopt rules and regulations for the administration of the Greene Act. The Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 (2006 bond act) sets aside $100,000,000 of the proceeds of the bonds sold under that act for incentive grants under the Greene Act to promote the use of design and materials in new construction and modernization projects that include the attributes of high performance schools. Existing law authorizes a grant for new construction to be used for the costs of design and materials that promote the efficient use of energy and water, the maximum use of natural lighting and indoor air quality, the use of recycled materials and materials that emit a minimum of toxic substances, the use of acoustics conducive to teaching and learning, and other characteristics of high performance schools. A school district is required to certify, as part of its application for funding under the Greene Act, that it has considered the feasibility of using these characteristics of high performance schools. This bill would increase the amount of a modernization grant by $250,000 per schoolsite and the amount of a new construction grant by $150,000 per schoolsite if a school district incorporates the use of high performance design and materials, and if the project is able to achieve one of 2 specified objectives. This increase would be provided from the $100,000,000 set aside for this purpose in the 2006 bond act. The bill would require the State Allocation Board to adopt, and the Office of Administrative Law to process, emergency regulations to implement these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would declare February 23, 2010, to be Spay Day USA 2010 in California, and would request that Californians observe that day by having their dogs and cats spayed or neutered and by providing voluntary services or other support to organizations that provide spay and neuter services.

This measure would urge various state and private entities to withhold financial support of Arizona businesses in response to recent Arizona state laws relating to illegal immigration.

Existing law requires various state agencies to administer programs relating to water supply, water quality, and flood management in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This bill would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal, as defined, that conveys water from a diversion point in the Sacramento River to a location south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, unless expressly authorized by the Legislature. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to complete an economic feasibility analysis prior to the enactment of a statute authorizing the construction of a peripheral canal. The bill would prohibit the construction and operation of a peripheral canal from diminishing or negatively affecting the water supplies, water rights, or quality of water for water users within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, or imposing any new burdens on infrastructure within, or financial burdens on persons residing in, the Delta or the Delta watershed.

This measure would declare February 19, 2010, as a Day of Remembrance in order to increase public awareness of the events surrounding the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district maintaining secondary schools to establish and maintain classes for adults, provided these classes meet specified requirements. This bill, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes, would require the Legislative Analyst's Office, by January 1, 2012, to report to the Legislature on various issues concerning adult education program funding, as specified. The bill would require the State Department of Education and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to provide data requested by the Legislative Analyst's Office for the purposes of this report, or to provide assistance to the Legislative Analyst's Office to obtain the data if the data is not readily available.

This measure would memorialize the President and the Congress of the United States to enact the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which would make supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and state and local fiscal stabilization.

Existing law establishes the partnership academies program as a school-business partnership program to provide occupational training to educationally disadvantaged high school pupils. Under existing law, the Superintendent of Public Instruction is required to award grants to school districts maintaining high schools to plan, establish, and maintain these partnership academies. Existing law requires the surcharge imposed on the consumption of electricity in the state to be transferred to the Energy Resources Programs Account in the General Fund, which is available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for ongoing energy programs and projects. This bill would require the Controller annually to allocate $8,000,000 from the Energy Resources Program Account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for expenditure in the form of local grants to be allocated pursuant to the existing provisions for creating and maintaining partnership academies. The bill would require a grantee to implement or maintain a partnership academy that focuses on employment in clean technology businesses and renewable energy businesses and provides skilled workforces for the products and services for energy or water conservation, or both, renewable energy, pollution reduction, or other technologies. The bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to develop guidelines, that would be exempted from the Administrative Procedure Act, to ensure that programs receiving grants reflect current state energy policies and priorities as well as provide skills and education linked to the needs of relevant industries. The bill would authorize a school district to apply for planning grants for implementing a partnership academy and would allow the Superintendent to expend up to 5% of the funds transferred to the Superintendent to pay the costs incurred in the administration of this program. The bill would require the State Department of Education in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to provide a report to the Legislature that includes a description of the curriculum and substance of the programs funded by grants awarded pursuant to these provisions, and specified data. The bill would provide that the bill's provisions would become inoperative on June 30, 2016, and, as of January 1, 2017, would repeal these provisions.