2009-2010 Legislative Package

2008 Legislative summaries

2007 Legislative summaries

AB 47 – Foster Care Adoption Credit

AB 47 encourages the adoption of older foster youth and reduces the placement of foster youth into group homes by adjusting an existing tax credit limit to $5000.

Sponsors: County Welfare Directors Association (CWDA) and the John Burton Foundation for Children without Homes.

AB 129 – Confidential Taxpayers Communications

AB 129 safeguards taxpayers in tax court proceedings by conforming California with Federal law in order to provide taxpayers privileged communication with federally authorized tax practitioners like enrolled agents, actuaries, and certified public accountants.
 
Sponsors: California Society of Enrolled Agents and California Society of Public Accountants

AB 144 – Misuse of Disability Placards

AB 144 reduces the abuse of disability placards by allowing local authorities the option to crackdown on the illegal misuse with citations and penalties instead of with misdemeanor arrests. This will equip parking control officer with the enhanced ability to cite violators. The misuse of placards depletes the supply of parking for people with disabilities.
 
Sponsor: San Francisco Metro Transit Authority

AB 153 – High Speed Rail Clean-Up

AB 153 will provide the California High Speed Rail Authority the ability to move more efficiently in order for California to quickly break ground on the nation’s first high speed rail system by making several needed changes to the Authority’s governing powers.

Sponsor: High Speed Rail Authority

AB 245: Doctors Records

AB 245 will protect doctors and patients by requiring the Medical Board of California (MBC) to publish only factually proven information on accusations and investigations.
 
Sponsor: Union of American Physicians and Dentists

AB 258: Dominant Aggressor

AB 258 will prevent confusion for law enforcement on domestic violence charges by replacing the term “primary aggressor” with “dominant aggressor.”

Sponsor: California Partnership to End Domestic Violence

AB 311 – Airplane Assessments

AB 311 will extend the sunset on the statewide equitable valuation of certificated aircrafts, saving the State millions in administrative costs and increasing efficiency for both the airlines and State counties.

Sponsor: California Assessors Association

AB 338 – TIF for TOD

AB 338 allows local governments to use tax-increment financing to create transit-oriented development to helps communities deal with the potential negative externalities of unrestricted growth and sprawl such as growing traffic gridlock, commuting times, the loss of open space, and increased air and water pollution.

Sponsor: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)

AB 372 – Open Adoptions

AB 372 will help adoptees learn their identity by providing the adopted person over the age of 25 access with to their un-amended original birth certificate after 2010. Current law prevents adoptees from accessing their own birth certificate.

Sponsor California Adoption Reform Effort (CARE)

AB 384 – Unemployment Insurance Direct Deposit

AB 384 will assist unemployed workers make the most of their unemployment insurance benefits by allowing recipients the ability to receive their benefits through direct deposit or a debit card in order to avoid check cashing charges and provide the State greater cost savings and efficiency.

Sponsor: Author

AB 517 – Safe Body Art Act of 2009

AB 517 creates statewide standards for the regulation of persons engaged in the business of tattooing, body piercing and the application of permanent cosmetics in California.

Sponsors:
California Association of Environmental Health Administrators (CAEHA)
Health Officers Association of California (HOAC)
Association of Professional Piercers (APP)

AB 543 – Nurse Family Partnership

AB 543 will improve pregnancy outcomes of first-time families by establishing the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) pilot program to place nurses with low-income first-time parents in the first two years of infancy.

Sponsor: Nurse-Family Partnership

AB 606 – California Blueberry Commission

In response to the positive health benefits of blueberries and their high demand, AB 606 creates the California Blueberry Commission to allow the California blueberry industry to better adapt to the quickly expanding market by providing valuable market research and assistance to the State’s blueberry farmers. The commission will be 100% industry funded.

Sponsor: California Blueberry Association

AB 684 – Prompt Payments for Dentists

AB 684 will protect consumers and dentists by ensuring that dentists receive prompt payments from dental insurance plans by incrementally increasing the interest penalty for non-payment.

Sponsor: California Dental Association

AB 1000 – Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2009 (Paid Sick Days)

AB 1000 allows workers to earn paid sick days, which they can use for personal illness, to care for a sick family member and to recover from domestic violence or assault. Nearly 6 million Californians currently have no paid sick days. Workers who are employed by a small business with 10 or fewer employees may use 5 sick days per year and those who work for large employers, more than 10 employees, may use 9 sick days per year.

Sponsor: California Labor Federation and California ACORN

AB 1087 – Delivery Charges

AB 1087 will help small businesses and retailers streamline their accounting processes and reduce audit burdens by simplifying and clarifying the determination of sales taxes for delivery charges.

Sponsor: California Retailers Association

AB 1143 – Name Equality Act (AB 102) Clean Up Bill

AB 102 (Ma), signed by the Governor in 2007, allowed couples to obtain the surname of their choice when marrying or becoming domestic partners. AB 1143 is clean-up bill, making the process easier for County clerks by allowing one or both parties to change both the middle and last names by which that party wishes to be known after solemnization of the marriage.

Sponsor: California County Clerks

AB 1203 – Ferries & Prop B

AB 1203 ensures government efficiency by allowing the 25% waterborne element of the Transit System Safety, Security and Disaster Response program of Proposition 1B to be administered by way of an up-front grant allocation program, instead of a reimbursable grant program.

Sponsor: San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority (WETA) (Sponsor)
AB 1265 – Veterans Tax Exemption

AB 1265 will allow a qualified itinerant vendor, as defined, is a consumer, and not a retailer, of tangible personal property owned by a qualified itinerant vendor, except for alcoholic beverages, so that the retail sale subject to tax is the sale of tangible personal property to the qualified itinerant vendor.

Sponsor: Author

AB 1316 – Low Income Oversight Board

AB 1316 would provide low-income utility ratepayers more advocacy by allowing the Low-Income Oversight Board (LIOB) more watch dog authority within the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Sponsor: Latino Issues Forum

AB 1401 – Organic Farming

AB 1401 encourages the growth of organic farming in California by creating the Transition to Organics Fund, where farmers can apply for reimbursement for organic certification process.

Sponsor: Author

ACR 28 – Eating Disorders Awareness Week

ACR 28 declares February 22 through 28, 2009 and February 21 through 27, 2010 as Eating Disorders Awareness Weeks and urges the California Department of Public Health to undertake a study on eating disorders in California.

Sponsor: National Eating Disorders Association

AB 717 (Cook and Ma) Filipino WWII Veterans Awareness

AB 717 honors the role of our Filipino World War II veterans by encouraging curriculum instruction in schools to include their role in history and to preserve their efforts and their heroism.

Sponsor: Author

AB 1002 (Fong & Ma) Combating Human Trafficking
AB 1002 will help law enforcement better training to tackle human trafficking and provide human trafficking victims better access to health, legal, and housing services by creating the California Human Trafficking Trust Fund with proceeds from asset forfeiture.

Sponsor: Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)

AB 1020 (Emmerson & Ma) Dangerous Pool Drains

AB 1020 increases pool safety for our children by requiring that all public swimming pools be equipped with anti-entrapment devices or systems that meet federal requirements to prevent dangerous suction.

Sponsor: California Department of Public Health

Co-Authored Legislation

AB 1319 (Krekorian) – Advance Fee Talent Services Scam Prevention

AB 1319 (Krekorian) protects our consumers from advance fee talent services who unscrupulously prey on our families and kids by creating a comprehensive solution on regulating the industry to prevent further fraud.

Sponsor: Los Angeles City Attorney

SB 810 (Leno) – Single Payer Health Care

SB 810 (Leno) establishes the California Universal Healthcare System under which all California residents will be eligible for health care benefits.

Sponsor: California Nurses Association
Co-sponsor: California Teachers Association
 
AB 260 (Lieu)  – Predatory Housing Lenders

AB 260 (Lieu) protects homebuyers and homeowners by placing restrictions on subprime loans, prohibits various practices by lenders and brokers, and authorizes state regulatory agencies to suspend or revoke licenses of real estate lenders and mortgage brokers that violate lending laws.
 
Sponsor: California Labor Federation

SB 797 (Pavley & Liu) – Toxic Products – Bisphenol A

SB 797 (Pavley & Liu) protects our children from dangerous chemicals by prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or distribution of any bottle, cup, or beverage container intended for young children with above 0.1 parts per billions (ppb) of bisphenol A (BPA).

Sponsor: Environmental Working Group