California Air Resources Board

Summary

Authorizes a State agency administering a grant program or contract to provide advance payment to a recipient non-profit that qualifies under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. When allowing advance payment, the State agency must prioritize grant recipients and projects serving disadvantaged, low income, and under-resourced communities or organizations, and ensure the advance payment does not exceed 25 percent, although the State agency may exceed this cap. The bill allows grant recipients to provide moneys from the advance payment to subrecipients. Additionally, the bill requires the grant recipient to meet specified minimum requirements and allows the Department of Finance  to perform an advance payment audit.

View full bill text here

Summary

Would have been a general government budget trailer bill to the Budget Act of 2023 that would have made changes to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. The bill would have authorized State bodies to hold public meetings, subject to specified notice and accessibility requirements, through teleconferencing and making public meetings accessible telephonically or otherwise electronically to the public, as specified. The bill would have provided that a State body need not make available any physical location from which members of the public may observe the meeting and offer public comment. These Bagley-Keene provisions would have sunset on December 31, 2023. Was not heard in the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.

View full bill text here

Summary

Until January 1, 2030, requires cities and counties to administratively review applications for hydrogen fueling stations and allows for denials based only on health or safety impacts.

View full bill text here

Summary

Would have required CARB to conduct an assessment of the socioeconomic impacts, as defined, of a proposed rule or regulation with an economic impact of $10 million or more that will significantly affect air quality or emissions limitations. The bill also would have authorized CARB to contract with a third party to conduct the required assessment of socioeconomic impacts. The bill would have specified minimum standards for the assessment of socioeconomic impacts, and required CARB or a third-party contractor to include in the assessment of socioeconomic impacts, specified information and various economic analyses, along with the disproportionate impact of the proposed rule or regulation on specified race and ethnicities, as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals and women. The bill would have prohibited CARB from approving an assessment of socioeconomic impacts that fails to meet those requirements. The bill would have had similar provisions regarding third party contractor and disproportionate impact analysis for the local air districts. Held on suspense in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

View full bill text here

Summary

Would have required the Department of General Services to establish, by July 1, 2023, a State standard negotiated cost agreement for awarding State grants that are created on or after July 1, 2023, to grantees that do not have an existing negotiated indirect cost rate agreement and cost allocation policy approved by the federal government. The bill would have required any State grant program created on or after January 1, 2023, to require the State agency administering the grant to use the same terms as contained in the grantee’s existing negotiated indirect cost rate agreements and cost allocation policies approved by the federal government. The bill would have required a State agency administering those programs to use, on and after July 1, 2023, the same terms as contained in the grantee’s State standard negotiated cost agreement. The bill would have required these State agencies to authorize a grantee that is a nonprofit organization and that does not have an existing federal negotiated indirect cost rate agreement or existing State standard negotiated cost agreement to instead be compensated for indirect costs pursuant to specified methods. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

View full bill text here

Summary

Would have required a State agency that significantly regulates or impacts nonprofit corporations to designate a person to serve as a nonprofit liaison if the use of existing personnel and resources allows for performance of the duties of the nonprofit liaison. The bill would have established the nonprofit liaison’s duties, including responding to complaints by nonprofit corporations about the State agency and assisting nonprofit corporations with complying with the State agency’s regulations and relevant statutes. Was amended to focus on Department of General Services.

View full bill text here

Category:  Administrative Procedures

Summary

Would have added two environmental justice members, one appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules and one appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, to the South Coast Air Quality Management Board (AQMD). The bill would have also authorized South Coast AQMD Board to create a Labor Advisory Panel composed of six representatives whose members perform work in the South Coast Air Basin. The bill would have required the Labor Advisory Panel to provide feedback and input on all district permitting, rules, regulations, and planning issues that have the potential to impact the workforce in the South Coast Air Basin. The bill would have required the South Coast AQMD Board to select the members of the Labor Advisory Panel from nominations provided by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the Inland Empire Labor Council, and the Orange County Labor Federation. Failed passage on the Senate Floor.

View full bill text here

Summary

Would have required a State agency that receives and disburses funds provided under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act or other federal recovery funds to consider projects’ potential impact on specified goals, including restoring frontline communities and rapidly accelerating achievement of environmental justice and climate goals, as well as uplifting vulnerable workers by prioritizing high road employers. The bill would have required State agencies to document how proposed projects meet or align with the specified goals and requires the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to establish an internet website where the public can track the expenditure of federal ARP funds by the State and how funded projects meet the specified goals. Was not heard in Senate Governmental Organization Committee.

View full bill text here

Summary

Would have required, instead of authorized, a State agency to update its Standardized Regulatory Impact Analysis (SRIA) for a proposed major regulation to reflect any comments received from the Department of Finance (DOF) on the SRIA. The bill also would have required, if the proposed major regulation is updated following DOF’s comments, the State agency to take public comment for 30 additional days each time the regulation is updated and to update the SRIA and submit it to DOF for comment. The bill would have required DOF to adopt, by November 1, 2024, regulations for communicating the results of a SRIA in a standardized format. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

View full bill text here

Summary

Would have amended the Information Practices Act of 1977 (IPA) to expand the definition of personal information (PI) to include information that is reasonably capable of identifying or describing an individual, prohibit an agency from using records containing PI for any purposes other than those for which the PI was collected or generated, except as specified,

and make a negligent violation of IPA a cause for discipline, among other things.

View full bill text here

Governor’s Veto Message

To the Members of the California State Assembly:

I am returning Assembly Bill 2677 without my signature. This bill makes several changes to the Information Practices Act of 1977, including expanding the definition of personal information, limiting certain disclosures, and applying data minimization principles.

I commend the author for his commitment to data privacy and am supportive of expanding security protocols to further protect personal information collected by state agencies and businesses. However, I am concerned this bill is overly prescriptive and could conflict with the State's goal to provide person-centered, data driven, and integrated services. Additionally, this bill would cost tens of millions of dollars to implement across multiple state agencies that were not accounted for in the budget.

With our state facing lower-than-expected revenues over the first few months of this fiscal year, it is important to remain disciplined when it comes to spending, particularly spending that is ongoing. We must prioritize existing obligations and priorities, including education, health care, public safety and safety-net programs.

The Legislature sent measures with potential costs of well over $20 billion in one-time spending commitments and more than $10 billion in ongoing commitments not accounted for in the state budget. Bills with significant fiscal impact, such as this measure, should be considered and accounted for as part of the annual budget process. For these reasons, I cannot sign this bill.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom

View Governor’s veto message here