Existing workers' compensation law generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment. Existing law provides that each inmate of a state penal or correctional institution shall be entitled to workers' compensation benefits for injury arising out of, and in the course of, assigned employment and for the death of the inmate if the injury proximately causes the death, subject to specified conditions. Existing law provides that whenever a person confined in a county jail, industrial farm, road camp, or city jail suffers injuries or death while working in the prevention or suppression of forest, brush, or grass fires, he or she shall be considered to be an employee of the county or city, respectively, for purposes of workers' compensation. This bill would provide that each inmate of a county, city, or city and county jail, industrial farm, or road camp shall be entitled to workers' compensation benefits for injury arising out of, and in the course of, assigned employment and for the death of the inmate if the injury proximately causes the death, subject to specified conditions.
Sponsored bills
This measure would urge Congress and the President to restore funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.
Existing law includes provisions criminalizing conduct involving obscene matter and child pornography, including making the distribution of this material criminal. Existing law defines the term "distribute" for purposes of crimes relating to obscene matter. This bill would include within this definition of "distribute" making available for access or possession over the Internet. The bill would also provide that nothing in the provisions criminalizing conduct involving obscene matter and child pornography shall be construed to permit an action against an interactive computer service, electronic communication service, or remote computing service, as defined, that is inconsistent with specified provisions of federal law. By revising the definition of existing crimes to expand their application, this 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 measure would designate that January 18, 2010, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America.
Existing law establishes the Workers' Compensation Administration Revolving Fund, the Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund, the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, and the Occupational Safety and Health Fund in the State Treasury and requires the Director of Industrial Relations to levy a separate surcharge upon all employers for purposes of deposit in those funds. Existing law also requires the director to levy and collect assessments from employers to be deposited in the Workers' Compensation Fraud Account in the Insurance Fund for the purposes of investigation and prosecution of workers' compensation fraud and the willful failure to secure payment of workers' compensation. Existing law requires the director to adopt reasonable regulations governing the manner of collection of these surcharges and assessments. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would require the Department of Industrial Relations to convene an advisory committee consisting of employers, injured workers, doctors, and other stakeholders when setting the assessments and surcharges in compliance with Sections 62.5 and 62.6 of the Labor Code.
The Public Employees' Retirement Law calculates service retirement allowances, in part, based on years of credited service. Members of the Public Employees' Retirement System may receive service credit for public service not otherwise subject to credit, upon payment of specified additional contributions. Existing law authorizes specified members of that system, including employees or officers of the state, the university, a school employer, or a contracting agency and certain legislative employees, to elect to make additional contributions and receive up to 5 years of additional retirement service credit, as defined, subject to specified limitations. This bill would require the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System to prepare a report on its study of members who have purchased additional retirement service credit, as specified, which was prepared as part of its systemwide actuarial investigation, and to file that report with specified committees of the Legislature, the Director of Finance, the Director of the Department of Personnel Administration, and the Legislative Analyst by February 1, 2010.
Existing law authorizes the plaintiff, in an action for the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, where it is proven by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant has been guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice, to recover damages for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant in addition to the actual damages. This bill would limit punitive damages in those actions to 3 times the award for compensatory damages. This bill would also provide, in a case involving injury or harm allegedly caused by a product, that the manufacturer, distributor, or seller of the product shall not be guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice if, at the time of manufacture, distribution, or sale, the product, or the aspect, component, warning, or absence of warning contained in or accompanying the product that allegedly caused the injury or harm, was either approved by, or in material compliance with, a statute or the standards, rules, regulations, requirements, or specifications of, a federal or state agency responsible for regulating, evaluating, or approving the product, except as specified. Existing law also provides that the measure of damages for the breach of an obligation not arising from contract is the amount that will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused. This bill would provide that in any action for injury based on negligence, the plaintiff shall be entitled to recover noneconomic losses, as provided, not to exceed $250,000.
(1) The Personal Income Tax Law, in modified conformity to specified provisions of the federal Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, allows an exclusion from a taxpayer's income for the discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness, as defined, if that debt is discharged after January 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2009, as provided. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 extended the operation of those federal provisions to debt that is discharged before January 1, 2013. This bill would provide further conformity to those federal acts, including allowance of the exclusion for debt that is discharged before 2013, as provided. (2) This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income persons are provided with health care services, including mental health services. Under existing law, the State Department of Mental Health is required to implement managed mental health care for Medi-Cal recipients through fee-for-service or capitated contracts with counties, counties acting jointly, qualified individuals or organizations, or nongovernmental entities. This bill would, subject to specified exceptions, commencing March 1, 2010, require the State Department of Mental Health to send a reimbursement claim to the Controller within 90 days after the receipt of a reimbursement claim from any fee-for-service county contractor, and would provide that interest shall accrue on an unpaid claim, as prescribed, commencing on the 91st day after receipt of the claim, except as provided.
Existing provisions of the California Constitution require the Governor to submit to the Legislature, within the first 10 days of each calendar year, a proposed budget for the ensuing fiscal year containing itemized statements for recommended state expenditures and estimated state revenues. In addition, the Constitution prohibits the Legislature from passing, and the Governor from signing, a Budget Bill that would appropriate from the General Fund a total amount that, when combined with all appropriations from the General Fund for that fiscal year made as of the date of the Budget Bill's passage, and the amount of any General Fund moneys transferred to a reserve account, exceeds estimated General Fund revenues for that fiscal year. The estimate of General Fund revenues is required to be set forth in the Budget Bill. This measure would require the Governor in his or her proposed budget to identify estimated total state resources available to meet recommended state expenditures and to further identify the amount of those resources that are anticipated to be one-time resources. The measure would prohibit passage of a Budget Bill that appropriates an amount that, when combined with prior appropriations and transfers to the reserve account, exceeds the estimate of General Fund revenues, transfers, and balances available from the prior fiscal year. The measure would require the estimate of General Fund revenues, transfers, and balances to be set forth in the Budget Bill. Existing provisions of the California Constitution establish the Budget Stabilization Account in the General Fund and currently require the Controller, no later than September 30 of each year, to transfer from the General Fund to the account a sum equal to 3% of the estimated amount of General Fund revenues for the current fiscal year. This transfer of moneys is not required, unless otherwise directed by the Legislature by statute, in any fiscal year to the extent that the resulting balance in the account would exceed 5% of the General Fund revenues estimate set forth in the Budget Bill for that fiscal year, as enacted, or $8,000,000,000, whichever is greater. This transfer of moneys also may be suspended or reduced for a fiscal year as specified by an executive order issued by the Governor no later than June 1 of the preceding fiscal year. Of the moneys transferred to the account in each fiscal year, 50%, up to an aggregate amount of $5,000,000,000 for all fiscal years, is deposited in the Deficit Recovery Bond Retirement Sinking Fund Subaccount and continuously appropriated to the Treasurer for the purpose of retiring deficit recovery bonds. All other moneys transferred to the account in a fiscal year are not deposited in the sinking fund subaccount and may, by statute, be transferred back to the General Fund. This measure would rename this account the Budget Stabilization Fund. This measure would also provide that the transfer of moneys from the General Fund to the Budget Stabilization Fund is not required in any fiscal year to the extent that the resulting balance in the fund would exceed 12.5% of the General Fund revenues estimate set forth in the Budget Bill for that fiscal year, as enacted, and would delete the alternative $8,000,000,000 limit on the fund. This measure would provide that, apart from a transfer made for the purpose of responding to an emergency declared by the Governor, as defined, or a loan to meet General Fund cash requirements which would be repaid within a fiscal year, the total amount that may be transferred from the Budget Stabilization Fund to the General Fund for any fiscal year shall not exceed the amount derived by subtracting the General Fund revenues, transfers, and balances available from the prior fiscal year for that fiscal year from the expenditure forecast amount for the current fiscal year, determined as total General Fund expenditures for the immediately preceding fiscal year adjusted for changes in population and the cost of living. This measure would require the Director of Finance, on or before May 29 of each year, to report to the Legislature and the Governor (1) an estimate of the amount of General Fund revenues, transfers, and balances available from the prior fiscal year for the current fiscal year, (2) the revenue forecast amount, as defined, for the current fiscal year, and (3) an estimate of specified General Fund obligations for the public schools that have not yet been funded by the state. This measure would provide that if, pursuant to a formula based on those figures, there are unanticipated revenues in the current fiscal year, those revenues may be used only for specified purposes, and in a specified order of priority.