AB 156

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, the State Bar Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of attorneys by the State Bar of California, a public corporation. The State Bar is governed by a board of trustees, composed as prescribed, including a maximum of 6 public members who have never been licensees of the State Bar or admitted to practice before any court in the United States. Existing law subjects these public members to specified conflict-of-interest provisions, including prohibiting a public member from having, currently or within the 5 years immediately preceding their appointment, a prescribed relationship as or with an employer of a licensee of the board or a prescribed contractual relationship with a licensee of the board. This bill would exempt public members of the board of trustees from those prohibitions. (2) Existing law establishes the Court Reporters Board of California to license and regulate shorthand reporters, and defines the practice of shorthand reporting as the making by means of written symbols or abbreviations in shorthand or machine shorthand, of a verbatim record of any oral court proceeding, deposition, or proceeding before any grand jury, referee, or court commissioner, and the accurate transcription thereof. A violation of the provisions regulating shorthand reporters is a misdemeanor. Existing law prohibits the board from issuing a certificate for the practice of shorthand reporting by means of voice writing or voice recognition technology. This bill would repeal that provision and would define voice writing as a verbatim record or a proceeding using a closed microphone voice dictation silencer, steno mask, or similar device using oral shorthand and voice notes made by a certified shorthand reporter. The bill would expand the definition of the practice of shorthand reporting to include the making, by means of written symbols or abbreviations by voice writing of a verbatim record and the accurate transcription thereof, as specified, and make conforming changes to related provisions that specify the qualifications for admission to an examination required for a certificate. The bill would require the board to treat certificate holders equally regardless of the method of qualification and prohibit public employers from differentiating among certificate holders based upon the method of qualification, as specified. Existing law establishes that a person who holds a valid certificate as a shorthand reporter shall be known as a "certified shorthand reporter," and prohibits any other person, except as specified, from using that title or any words or symbols that indicate or tend to indicate that they are a certified shorthand reporter. This bill would further specify that use of the words "stenographer," or "reporter," or of the phrases "court reporter," "deposition reporter," or "digital reporter," in combination with words or phrases related to the practice of shorthand reporting, indicates, or tends to indicate, certification as a shorthand reporter. The bill would require the board to indicate on each certificate issued whether the certificate holder met the certified shorthand reporter examination requirements through the use of stenography, voice writing, or both, as specified, and would prohibit a certified shorthand reporter from providing shorthand reporting services other than by using the methodology indicated on their certificate. By changing the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law, the Debt Collection Licensing Act (DCLA) , prohibits a person from engaging in the business of debt collection in this state without first obtaining a license from the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation. The DCLA requires the commissioner to allow any debt collector that submits an application before January 1, 2022, to operate pending the approval or denial of the application. The DCLA requires the Department of Justice to transmit fingerprint images and related information received from the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of obtaining a federal criminal history records check and requires the Department of Justice to review the information returned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and compile and disseminate a response to the commissioner, as prescribed. This bill would require the commissioner to allow any debt collector that submits an application before January 1, 2023, to operate pending the approval or denial of the application. The bill would also authorize the commissioner to issue a conditional license to an applicant pending the receipt and review of the fingerprint images and related information, as described above. The bill would require a conditional license to expire under certain conditions, including upon issuance of an unconditional license. Existing law, the DCLA, authorizes the commissioner to deem an application for a license abandoned if the applicant fails to respond to any request for information required by the commissioner or department during an investigation of the application and requires the commissioner to notify the applicant, in writing, that if the applicant fails to submit responsive information within 60 days from the date the commissioner sent the written request for information, the commissioner is required to deem the application abandoned. This bill would revise the above-described notification to instead provide that the commissioner is authorized to deem the application abandoned. (4) The California Constitution generally prohibits the total annual appropriations subject to limitation of the state and each local government from exceeding the appropriations limit of the entity of government for the prior fiscal year, adjusted for the change in the cost of living and the change in population, and prescribes procedures for making adjustments to the appropriations limit. The California Constitution defines "appropriations subject to limitation" of the state to mean any authorization to expend during a fiscal year the proceeds of taxes levied by or for the state, exclusive of, among other things, state subventions for the use and operation of local government, except as specified. The California Constitution defines "appropriations subject to limitation" of an entity of local government to mean any authorization to expend during a fiscal year the proceeds of taxes levied by or for that entity and the proceeds of state subventions to that entity, except as specified, exclusive of refunds of taxes. Existing statutory provisions implementing these constitutional provisions establish the procedure for establishing the appropriations limit of the state and of each local jurisdiction for each fiscal year. Under existing law, revenues and appropriations for a local jurisdiction include subventions and with respect to the state, revenues and appropriations exclude those subventions. Existing law generally defines the term "state subventions" for these purposes as only including money received by a local agency from the state, the use of which is unrestricted by the statute providing the subvention. However, for fiscal years commencing with the 2020–21 fiscal year, existing law defines "state subventions" to additionally include money provided to a local agency pursuant to certain state programs and requires that money to be included within the appropriations limit of the local agency, up to the full appropriations limit of the local agency, as prescribed. This bill would instead require the additional money included in "state subventions" by the provision described above to be included within the appropriations limit of the local agency, up to the amount representing the difference between the total amount of proceeds of taxes of the local agency, calculated without application of the above-described provisions relating to the definition of "state subventions," and the full appropriations limit of the local agency, as prescribed. The bill would also make various technical and conforming changes. (5) Existing law, the Financial Information System for California (FISCal) Act, requires the Department of Finance, the Controller, the Department of General Services, and the Treasurer to collaboratively develop, implement, and utilize a single integrated financial management system for the state, as prescribed. The act establishes the Department of FISCal within the Government Operations Agency, as prescribed, and requires the Department of FISCal and the FISCal project office to exist concurrently during the phased implementation of the system. The act requires the Department of FISCal to incrementally assume responsibility of the system functionality as portions of the system are implemented and accepted. The act, upon full implementation of the system, requires the Department of FISCal to supersede the FISCal project office and perform all administration, maintenance, and operation of the system. This bill would revise and recast those provisions relating to the development and implementation of the system to instead relate to the development of enhancements to the system, and would remove references to the FISCal project office from the act. The bill would modify the powers and duties of the Department of FISCal by, among others, requiring on or before July 1, 2032, completion of specified roadmap activities, including working with the Department of Finance, the Controller, the Department of General Services, and the Treasurer to identify and implement additional products, interfaces, and add-ons to the system to enhance business transactions. The bill would make various changes to the system requirements, including expanding the system's state transparency component to allow the public to additionally have access, as specified, to information regarding nongovernmental cost fund expenditure data. Existing law requires the Department of Finance to report to the Legislature, on or before October 31 of each year beginning in 2020, specified information regarding the system, including an executive summary and overview of the system's status. This bill would instead require the Department of FISCal to provide these reports, as revised, on or before October 31, 2023, and annually thereafter. The bill would additionally require the Department of FISCal, commencing October 31, 2023, and biennially thereafter, to report on the status of planning for roadmap activities described above, as specified. The FISCal Act requires, throughout the development of, and until the completion of, the system, the California State Auditor's Office to independently monitor the system as the California State Auditor deems appropriate, including monitoring the contract for independent project oversight and independent verification and validation services relating to the system. This bill would impose specified evaluation and reporting requirements on the Controller to facilitate the integration of the state's accounting book of record, as specified. The bill would instead require the California State Auditor's Office to monitor and report annually to the Legislature regarding the Controller's progress toward transitioning the state's accounting book of record to the system and regarding the Department of FISCal's completion of the roadmap activities described above, as specified. Existing law establishes several funds in the State Treasury relating to FISCal, including the FISCal Internal Services Fund, which pays the costs of development, implementation, and other approved costs of the system. Former law authorized the Department of Finance to authorize loans from the General Fund to pay for the cost of the FISCal system, as specified. This bill would forgive a specified General Fund loan provided to FISCal in a specified amount. (6) Existing law identifies the bills constituting each budget act from the Budget Act of 2011 through the Budget Act of 2020. This bill would identify the bills constituting the Budget Act of 2021. (7) Existing law establishes within the Government Operations Agency the Office of Digital Innovation led by the Director of the Office of Digital Innovation who is required to be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the Governor. Existing law authorizes the Governor to appoint people to the office who are exempt from civil service and limits the total number of exempt positions in the office to 20. Existing law specifies that the office's mission shall be to deliver better government services to the people of California through technology and design and charges the office with fulfilling that mission by, among other things, collaborating with state entities to transform government services by measurably improving services using a deliberate, user-focused approach. Existing law creates the Digital Innovation Services Revolving Fund within the State Treasury and administered by the director, to receive all revenues from the sale of services rendered by the office and all other moneys properly credited to the office from any other source. Existing law authorizes the office to collect payments from state entities for providing services to client entities and requires the Controller to transfer amounts authorized by the office to the fund, as specified. This bill would change the name of the office to the Office of Data and Innovation, the name of the director to the Director of the Office of Data and Innovation, and the name of the fund to the Data and Innovation Services Revolving Fund. The bill would provide that, effective July 1, 2023, the office shall operate as a standalone entity that reports to the Government Operations Agency, as specified. The bill would change the mission of the office to that of delivering better government services to the people of California through technology and service innovation, data, and design and would revise the methods by which the office is required to fulfill that mission to include, among other things, using data-informed practices to measurably improve services. The bill would make the appointment of the director subject to confirmation by the Senate and would increase the number of exempt positions in the office to 22. The bill would also establish a Chief Data Officer in the office who would report to the director and be responsible for data practices within the state with an overarching goal to improve government data use. The bill would remove the authority of the office to collect payments from state entities for providing services to client entities and make other conforming changes. (8) The State Building Construction Act of 1955 authorizes the State Public Works Board, among other things, to construct public buildings, contract with other state agencies for the use of real property upon which to construct a public building, fix, alter, charge, and collect rentals and other charges for the use of public buildings or for the services rendered by the board, and issue certificates or revenue bonds to obtain funds to pay the cost of public buildings. The act requires all money received by the board to be deposited to the credit of the Public Buildings Construction Fund and requires subfunds, accounts, and subaccounts to be maintained within the fund for the operation of the board and the performance of its obligations as provided in the applicable resolution, indenture, or other agreement. Existing law also creates within the Public Buildings Construction Fund an Expense Account for the deposit of amounts received by the board from various sources and continuously appropriates from the Expense Account to the board the amount necessary to pay for administrative expenses and costs associated with implementation of the act. Existing law continuously appropriates any amount not to exceed the amount of unsold bonds that the board has, by resolution, authorized to be sold for carrying out this act from the General Fund to the Director of Finance, who is authorized to direct that any portion of that amount be deposited into a special account in the Public Buildings Construction Fund, to be used for financing the construction of public buildings, as prescribed. Existing law requires any amounts made available from the General Fund under this provision to the board to be repaid by the board to the General Fund from the proceeds received from the sale of bonds sold for the purpose of financing the public buildings. Existing law also requires these amounts to be repaid to the General Fund with interest at the rate that the Treasurer certifies would have been earned on those amounts if invested in the Surplus Money Investment Found. This bill would also authorize the board, in the above circumstances, to repay amounts to the General Fund from any other lawfully available source of funds. (9) Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2026, the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine in the Office of Planning and Research and requires the office to, among other things, develop, implement, and evaluate demonstration projects on precision medicine, as described, in collaboration with public, nonprofit, and private entities. Existing law authorizes the office to receive nonstate funds in furtherance of the initiative, as described, and requires the office to return unexpended nonstate funds to the source before January 1, 2026. Existing law authorizes up to 10% of any amount appropriated to the office for precision medicine to be used for administrative costs. This bill would also require the office to develop, implement, and evaluate nondemonstration projects on precision medicine in collaboration with public, nonprofit, and private entities. The bill would apply the 10% administrative costs limitation described above only to demonstration projects. This bill would instead require unexpended nonstate funds to be returned to the source before June 30, 2029, and the bill would extend the sunset provision to June 30, 2029. (10) Existing law establishes labor provisions specifically applicable to sheepherders, including authorizing an employer of a sheepherder to pay a specified monthly minimum wage as an alternative to paying the minimum wage for all hours worked to sheepherders employed on a regularly scheduled 24-hour shift on a 7-day-a-week "on-call" basis. Existing law provides that an employer, or any other person acting on behalf of the employer, who violates or causes to be violated those provisions is subject to a civil penalty of $50 for each underpaid employee for each pay period during which the employee was underpaid, plus an amount sufficient to recover the unpaid wages for an initial violation and $100 for any subsequent violation. Existing federal law governing immigration authorizes the importation of an alien as a nonimmigrant agricultural worker, known as an H-2A worker, if specified requirements are met, including that the employer furnishes housing, as specified. This bill would, among other things, prohibit an employer from crediting meals or lodging against the minimum wage owed to sheepherders pursuant to the provision described above and would require every employer to provide to each sheepherder not less than the minimum monthly meal and lodging benefits required to be provided by employers of sheepherders under the provisions of the H-2A visa program. The bill would also increase the civil penalties described above to $100 and $250, respectively. This bill would, until January 1, 2024, apply the labor provisions specifically applicable to sheepherders described above to goat herders and would require the Department of Industrial Relations to update Wage Order No. 14-2001 to be consistent with those provisions, as specified. (11) Existing law establishes the Youth Apprenticeship Grant Program, to be administered by the Division of Apprenticeship Standards, for the purposes of awarding grant funds to eligible applicants to provide funding for existing apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs or to develop new apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs to serve the target population and satisfy the goals and objectives of the grant program, as specified. Existing law requires the program to have an explicit focus on equity, and aims to ensure that race, income, geography, gender, citizenship status, ability, and other demographics and student characteristics no longer predict the outcomes of California's youth. Existing law requires, to measure success towards that goal, the grant program to, among other things, require demographic data to be cross-tabulated with labor force participation data and enrollment data among those demographic groups to assess parity to the public K–12 high school, community college, and 4-year university graduating cohort demographic distribution. This bill would revise and recast that provision to require the program to cross-tabulate demographic data with labor force participation data and enrollment data among those demographic groups to assess parity in relation to the public K–12 high school, community college, and 4-year university graduating cohort demographic distribution, comparing program completion rates with the attainment of educational degrees across groups. (12) Existing law establishes, from July 1, 2022, until June 30, 2025, the County Assessors' Grant Program and, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, authorizes a county assessor's joint powers authority to apply to the department, in the form and manner specified by the department. Existing law requires the Department of Finance to approve an application or memorandum of understanding that contains, among other things, a request for information technology-appropriate projects and programs related to the administration of the property tax system that includes the goals the joint powers authority seeks to achieve with the program funds. Existing law requires the department to, upon approval and by November 15, 2022, determine the grant amount and notify the State Controller's Office to remit payment to the joint powers authority. This bill would instead require the State Controller's Office to remit payment to a "lead county," defined as a county designated by the department to accept program funds on behalf of the joint powers authority. (13) Existing law authorizes specified state departments and authorities, upon determination that an advance payment is essential for the effective implementation of a program, to advance to a community-based private nonprofit agency, with which it has contracted for the delivery of services, funds not exceeding 25% of the annual allocation to be made to the agency during the fiscal year. This bill would, until July 1, 2025, authorize state agencies administering specified programs to advance payments to local agencies, nongovernmental entities, and other state agencies if certain criteria are met, including requiring advance payment recipients to provide an itemized budget, spending timeline, and workplan. The bill would limit the advance payment to a local agency or nongovernmental entity to 25% of the total grant amount awarded to that recipient, unless the administering state agency determines that the project requires a larger advance. The bill would require the recipient or any subrecipients to cooperate with audits by the Department of Finance related to the advanced payments, as specified. This bill would require the administering state agency to prioritize local agency or nongovernmental entity recipients and projects serving disadvantaged, low-income, and under-resourced communities or organizations with modest reserves and potential cashflow problems. The bill would also require local agency and nongovernmental entity recipients to submit additional documentation and progress reports on the spend-down of funds, and to demonstrate good standing with the federal Internal Revenue Service. (14) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act, to administer the California Guaranteed Income Pilot Program 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 that serve California residents who age out of the extended foster care program and pregnant individuals. This bill would establish the California Hope, Opportunity, Perseverance, and Empowerment (HOPE) for Children Trust Account Program to provide a trust account to an eligible child, defined to include minor California residents who are specified dependents or wards under the jurisdiction of juvenile court in foster care with reunification services terminated by court order, or who have a parent, Indian custodian, or legal guardian who died due to COVID-19 during the federally declared COVID-19 public health emergency and meet the specified family household income limit. The bill would create the HOPE for Children Trust Account Program Board, as specified, and would require the board to administer the program and the funds in alignment with the intent of the Legislature to create opportunities, economic autonomy, and hope, and to promote wealth and asset building for an eligible child and eligible youth to address California's record levels of inequality, among other things. The bill would establish the HOPE for Children Trust Account Fund in the State Treasury, and would continuously appropriate moneys in the fund to the board and Treasurer for implementation of the program. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require the Treasurer to convene a workgroup to advise the Treasurer on program design, including data sharing with relevant governmental agencies and departments, outreach to families of eligible children and to eligible youth, and the process for program enrollment and continuous measurement of outcomes of the HOPE trust accounts. The bill would require, on or before February 1, 2024, the board to submit a report to the Department of Finance and the Legislature that includes recommendations on a detailed plan for implementing the program and the anticipated number of HOPE trust accounts to be opened, among other things. The Personal Income Tax Law imposes taxes based upon taxable income at specified rates. Existing law, in modified conformity with federal income tax law, generally defines "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded. Existing law, beginning on or after January 1, 2015, in modified conformity with federal income tax law, allows an earned income tax credit, the California Earned Income Tax Credit, against personal income tax. The Personal Income Tax Law allows, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2019, a young child tax credit against the taxes imposed under that law. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, would exclude from gross income, for purposes of the personal income tax, funds deposited, any investment returns accrued, and any accrued interest, in a HOPE trust account, and any funds withdrawn or transferred from that account. The bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, would additionally provide that funds deposited, any investment returns accrued, and any accrued interest in a HOPE trust account, and any funds withdrawn or transferred from that account, are not earned income for purposes of eligibility for the California Earned Income Tax Credit and the Young Child Tax Credit. (15) This bill would make various nonsubstantive changes. (16) 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. (17) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.