Dave Jones 2007 Legislative Highlights
Updated June 18, 2007
Children’s Issues
AB 571 – Preschool – Numerous studies show that quality preschool makes a big difference in the future success of our children. This bill provides access to state preschool programs for all three- and four-year-old children from low-income families by 2011-12 and establishes a system of professional development for pre-kindergarten teachers. The bill is jointly sponsored by Children NOW, Preschool California and Fight Crime, Invest in Kids.
AB 176 – Child Support -- Child support is critical to the financial security of low-income children and helps lift families off of welfare and out of poverty. Unfortunately, for children on welfare, the state keeps all but $50 of the child support their parents pay each month. AB 176 will increase the amount families can keep from $50 per month to $100 per month for families with one child and $200 for families with two or more children. It is estimated that this will increase the support paid to children by $38 million a year. The federal government has agreed to match some of these funds as well.
AB 1118 – Reducing, then Eliminating, Child Poverty – A disproportionate share of children in California live in poverty, which increases the chance they will not be successful later in life. AB 1118 will set a goal for the State of California to cut child poverty in half by 2017 and end it entirely by 2027. The bill also establishes the California Child Poverty Council to develop a plan to achieve these goals and track our progress. This is modeled after a 1999 effort in the United Kingdom and more recent efforts in Connecticut, Minnesota and New York City. The numerical goals set in the UK have been very important in driving a significant reduction in child poverty over the last five years.
AB 1219 – Sacramento Children’s Museum – Sacramento is one of the only major metropolitan areas without a children’s museum. Children’s museums are places where families and children can learn through play. The bill authorizes State Parks to enter into an operating agreement with a qualified non-profit to build and operate a children’s museum in Old Sacramento. The bill also provides for exchanges of land between the City of Sacramento and State Parks, and St. Francis High School and the California National Guard.
AB 273 – Foster Care Health and Dental Visits – Over 80,000 California children are in foster care. They often have unmet physical and mental health needs. This bill requires annual preventive health examinations and semi-annual dental examinations for all children in foster care. In addition, AB 273 expands extended medical coverage to all youth removed from the home who are currently excluded from extended Medi-Cal eligibility.
Consumer Protection and Privacy
AB 779 – Data Breach Notification, Identification, and Restitution – As consumer data breaches and identity theft grow in scope and quantity, consumers need to know exactly who is failing to adequately protect their personal information. For example, TJ Maxx stores parent company allowed 45.6 million credit card numbers to be stolen electronically. AB 779 would enhance consumer protection by properly identifying the entity responsible for the data breach, require better data protection by retailers and allow for reimbursement of relevant costs to credit unions and community banks stemming from the data breach.
AB 690 – Consumer Protection for Water Company Ratepayers – The Fruitridge Vista Water Company, serving south Sacramento, increased its customers rates by 42%. AB 690 would prohibit water corporations from establishing rates in excess of their cost of providing service plus a reasonable rate of return. It would exclude expenses or capital contributed by developers, public agencies, or ratepayers in the rate base, thereby enhancing ratepayer and consumer protection. AB 690 would also more equitably allocate proceeds relating to groundwater contamination compensation.
AB 1168 - Protecting Social Security Numbers – Government agencies are releasing social security numbers, which can be used for identity theft. AB 1168 would protect consumers from identity theft by prohibiting local government agencies from releasing to the public records that contain more than the last four digits of a social security number. The bill would also require universities and colleges in California to truncate SSNs in their electronic student and employee records. Further, the bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to truncate SSNs on lien abstracts that it files as public documents. Finally, the bill would allow the Secretary of State’s office to stop certain financial documents from being filed with the office as public records if they contain any more than the last four digits of an SSN.
AB 1298 – Omnibus Privacy Protection – AB 1298 would protect consumers’ medical records by extending the state’s existing medical privacy laws to the emerging electronic medical records industry. AB 1298 also requires businesses and state agencies that release a consumer’s medical information or health insurance information to an unauthorized person to notify the consumer of that data breach. Finally, AB 1298 would protect California’s groundbreaking law allowing consumers to freeze access to their credit report by clarifying that credit reporting agencies do not have to freeze information derived from public records. This final provision stems from a recent court decision which threatens to eliminate the “freeze access” law without this change.
Health Care Reform
AB 1554 – Health Care Affordability – Health insurers are using California as an ATM. Californians have suffered from annual double digit health insurance premium increases enabling insurance companies to make billions in profits. As California contemplates universal health care coverage, AB 1554 ensures that this coverage will be affordable to all by requiring health insurers and health plans to get prior approval from the state before raising rates.
AB 853 – Licensure of In-Home Senior Care Providers – As our seniors population grows, more seniors are relying on home care to allow them to stay in their homes. Some unscrupulous home care agencies/workers are taking advantage of this vulnerable population. AB 853 would require agencies that provide non-medical in-home senior care services to seek licensure from the Department of Social Services. The bill would require these agencies to screen employees for criminal histories, create solid consumer complaint procedures, and provide ongoing training and supervision to in-home aides.
Access to Justice
AB 1723 – Access to justice - This bill implements the primary recommendation of the California Commission on Access to Justice to help close the nearly $400 million "justice gap" between the legal needs of poor people and the legal services available to meet those needs by substantially increasing funding for legal services programs as the result of higher bank interest rates on lawyer trust accounts, without increasing the state budget.
AB 159 – Judgeships - This bill authorizes 50 new superior court judgeships. This bill is necessary in order to help close a substantial "judicial gap" caused by a shortage of judges, resulting in delays that hurt people trying to get their day in court.
AB 1727 –Probate Omnibus - This is a follow-up to my successful AB 1363, the Omnibus Conservatorship and Guardianship Reform Act of 2006, which overhauled California's troubled conservatorship system. This bill will ensure those reforms, critical to the financial, physical and emotional well-being of vulnerable and dependent adults, are properly implemented. The bill also seeks to enact a legislative proposal made by Chief Justice Ronald George to eliminate additional requirements for caregivers to receive testamentary gifts when those gifts predate their role as caregivers. This will help ensure that the testamentary wishes of dependent adults are carried out for caregivers with whom they have a pre-existing personal relationship, while still helping prevent abuse in the case of other caregivers.
Environment and Air Quality
AB 842 – Reducing Greenhouse Gases from Sprawl - This bill will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of time people have to spend in their cars by using infrastructure bond funding as an incentive to get local governments to adopt land use and transportation plans that reduce vehicle miles traveled.
AB 233 – Children’s Breathing Rights Act – This bill makes California’s air cleaner by strengthening the enforcement of existing diesel emission regulations, including anti-idling regulations. The bill requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt a coordinated enforcement plan of diesel emission regulations which includes increased education efforts, outreach efforts to enforcing agencies, and in-house enforcement officers. It prohibits new registrations of pre-1994 heavy-duty diesel vehicles in California and prevents the DMV from renewing the registration of heavy-duty diesel vehicles under citation by CARB until the owner has cleared that citation.
Affordable and Healthy Housing
AB 987 – Affordable Housing Covenants/Standing to Enforce – This bill preserves affordable housing. Under California's Community Redevelopment Law, a redevelopment agency must devote 20% of its "tax increment" revenue to affordable housing. The agency is also required to record affordability covenants and restrictions to ensure that the housing remain affordable. If and when such covenants are breached, only the redevelopment agency or some other government entity has legal standing to bring an action to enforce the affordability covenants. This bill would change recording requirements to provide better notice of the existence of the affordability restrictions and give standing to bring an enforcement action to low or moderate income persons most directly affected by the breach of a covenant.
AB 414 – Double Zoning Reform – This bill helps cities and counties make sure they are meeting their housing needs. AB 414 addresses the use of double-zoning in designating sites for affordable housing under state Housing Element law. Unlike mixed-use zoning, double-zoning creates an “either or” situation, where the parcel may be used for housing or commercial purposes. More often than not, these parcels are developed for exclusively commercial purposes. AB 414 discourages this practice by limiting the amount of double-zoned sites a jurisdiction can use to meet its lower-income housing needs.
AB 437 – Public Health Officers and Improved Planning – Health experts agree that the design of our communities impact our health. AB 437 would authorize local health officers to engage in local land use and transportation planning, statutory authority for which they currently do not have. The bill is intended to interject public health considerations (e.g., obesity, asthma) into city/county housing, land use, and transportation planning and approvals.
Public Safety
AB 951 – Alcohol Ban on the American River – Rafters drinking alcohol on the American River during three summer weekends have led to fights, near riots, near drownings and other unsafe behavior. AB 951 bans alcohol on the American River in Sacramento over these summer holiday periods (Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day weekends) for the stretch of the American River from Hazel Avenue to Watt Avenue.
Tax Reform
AB 21 – Earned Income Tax Credit – Many California families work hard but still live in poverty. The EITC helps make work pay by providing a tax credit to low income working families. AB 21 would provide low-income working families with a refundable tax credit equal to 15% of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. For example, a family with two children and an income of less than $37,783 would be eligible for a credit of up to $707, and because it is “refundable,” the credit would be available even if the family had no income tax liability in California. The measure also states the Legislature’s intent to close unfair or outmoded tax expenditures (special exemptions to tax law that tend to favor narrow interests) and tax loopholes.
Flood Prevention and Protection
AB 930 – SAFCA Regional Flood Easement – AB 930 would facilitate regional plans for and utilization of non-structural improvements to prevent floods in developed areas by encouraging the State, local agencies, and landholders to frame voluntary agreements that will pass local muster and stand up over time.
AB 70 – Flood Liability – AB 70 encourages cities and counties to make better decisions about development in a flood plain by requiring that cities and counties share financial responsibility based on their comparative fault. |
