AB 1749 (Mathis): CEQA: Exemption: Recycled Water Pipeline. Assembly Bill 1749 would extend the exemption, until January 1, 2019, from CEQA requirements on projects consisting of the construction or expansion of recycled water pipeline and directly related infrastructure within existing rights of way, and directly related groundwater replenishment under specified conditions and undertaken for the purpose of mitigating drought conditions for which a state of emergency was proclaimed by the Governor. Status: Awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2024 (Wood): Critical Access Hospitals: Employment. Assembly Bill 2024 would allow critical access hospitals to directly employ physicians and bill for their professional services. Status: Awaits action in the Senate. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2438 (Waldron): CEQA: Exemption: Recycled Water Pipelines. AB 2438 would, until January 1, 2020, exempt from CEQA a project for the construction and installation of a new pipeline or the maintenance, repair, restoration, reconditioning, relocation, replacement, removal, or demolition of an existing pipeline, not exceeding 8 miles in length, for the distribution of recycled water within a public street, highway, or right-of-way. Status: Awaits consideration on the Assembly Floor. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2678 (Gray): State-Designated Fairs: Funding. Assembly Bill 2678 would dedicate the State portion of the sales and use tax collected from transactions at fairgrounds except for Los Angeles to support small and medium sized fairs. Status: Placed on the Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2781 (Garcia): Supplemental Environmental Projects. Assembly Bill 2781 would direct 10 percent of all penalties collected by California Environmental Protection Agency boards, departments, and offices to fund environmental projects in disadvantaged communities using Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code for the definition (CalEnviro Screen) of a disadvantaged community (DAC). Status: Placed on the Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File. RCRC Position: Oppose
SB 867 (Roth): Emergency Medical Services. Senate Bill 867 would extend the sunset date on the Maddy Emergency Medical Services Fund and continue to allow counties to collect funds to support local emergency medical services. Status: Awaits action in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. RCRC Position: Support
SB 995 (Pavley): Well Standards. Senate Bill 995 would require the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to update well standards for certain types of wells based on existing knowledge. This bill would also require DWR to establish an advisory panel to identify critical gaps in existing knowledge about the best practices for well construction, alteration, maintenance, and destruction for these wells. Status: Awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support if Amended
SB 1170 (Wieckowski): Public Contracts: Water Pollution Prevention Plans: Delegation. Senate Bill 1170 would prohibit a public entity, charter city, or charter county from delegating to a contractor the development of a plan, as defined, used to prevent or reduce water pollution or runoff on a public works contract, except as provided. The bill would also prohibit a public entity, charter city, or charter county from requiring a contractor on a public works contract that includes compliance with a plan to assume responsibility for the completeness and accuracy of a plan developed by that entity. Status: Awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Oppose
SB 1188 (McGuire): Wildlife Management Areas: Payment of Taxes and Assessments. Senate Bill 1188 would return the ‘may’ to ‘shall’ in Fish and Game Code Section 1504 making future Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) payments required rather than permissive. Status: Placed on the Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense File. RCRC Position: Support
SB 1317 (Wolk): Conditional Use Permit: Groundwater Extraction Facility. Senate Bill 1317 would require a city or county overlying a basin designated as a high or medium priority basin to establish a process for the issuance of conditional use permits for the development of a groundwater extraction facility in order to prevent that facility from contributing to or creating an undesirable result. Status: Awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Oppose
SB 1396 (Wolk): Inner Coast Range Conservancy. Senate Bill 1396 would establish the Inner Coast Range Conservancy. The Inner Coast Range region as defined in the legislation includes all or part of the following counties: Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Tehama, Trinity and Yolo. Status: Awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Oppose Unless Amended
SB 885 (Wolk): Indemnity Agreements. Senate Bill 885 would eliminate the ability of a public agency to impose indemnity clauses in contract with engineers and architects for upfront legal defense costs against claims related to a project’s design work. Status: Gained passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee. RCRC Position: Oppose
SB 1250 (McGuire): Telecom: Rural Outage Reportings. Senate Bill 1250 would require telecommunications carriers to report rural 911 outages to state and local public safety agencies. Status: Placed on the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2149 (Bonilla): State Board of Equalization: Collection of Cash Payments. Assembly Bill 2149 would authorize the Board of Equalization to accept cash transactions on behalf of several state agencies charged with regulatory responsibility of medical marijuana. Status: Awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2243 (Wood): Medical Cannabis: Cultivation Taxation. Assembly Bill 2243 would impose State taxes on the cultivation of medical marijuana. Status: Awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2545 (Bonta): Medical Marijuana: Tribal Activities. Assembly Bill 2545 would authorize the State to enter into agreements with Native American tribes that seek to engage in commercial cannabis activities. Recent amendments would require those agreement to follow the same local and state licensure requirements as outlined in the recently-enacted medical marijuana regulatory framework. Status: Awaits consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support in Concept
AB 2686 (Mullin): Special Elections. Assembly Bill 2686 would provide counties the option of conducting special elections, under certain circumstances, to fill the vacancy of a State Senate, State Assembly, of Congressional district via all-mail balloting. Status: Awaits consideration in the Assembly. RCRC Position: Support