October 2, 2016

Signed

AB 21 (Wood). Medical Marijuana: Support – Signed. Fixed the inadvertently enacted March 1, 2016 deadline for localities to have cultivation ordinances in place, otherwise the California Department of Food and Agriculture would have become the sole licensing authority for medical marijuana cultivation. Eliminating the deadline appropriately allows counties to utilize existing approval processes and timelines when considering their own approach to regulating the cultivation of medical marijuana. 

AB 1142 (Gray). Surface Mining: Support – Signed.  Clarifies and improves the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) to ensure complete reclamation plans, appropriate financial assurances, proper inspections and clear authority and processes. 

AB 2516 (Wood). Medical Marijuana: Support – Signed. Establishes within the Medical Cannabis Regulatory and Safety Act (MCRSA) a new medical marijuana cultivator license type for small cultivation operations. CSAC supported AB 2516 because the creation of a new license for small cultivators will bring parity between local schemes and the state framework.

AB 2594 (Gordon). Stormwater Resources: Support – Signed. Authorizes a public entity that captures stormwater in accordance with a stormwater resource plan, to use the captured water before it reaches a natural channel under specified circumstances. CSAC supported this measure because it provides needed clarification to existing law regarding the capture of stormwater, thus giving counties added assurance that they can move forward with stormwater capture projects that increase local water supply and improve water quality.

AB 2693 (Dababneh). Property Assessed Clean Energy Program (PACE): Support – Signed.  Enhances PACE programs by including more robust disclosure and education requirements for property owners.  CSAC supported this measure because it will help ensure that property owners can make educated decisions about what choices they have and what products best to fit their needs.

AB 2679 (Cooley). Medical Marijuana: Support – Signed. Provides a criminal defense within the collective model for medical cannabis manufactures if these industry actors conform to a variety of manufacturing standards.  This provision is necessary to ensure the safety of manufacturing a variety of medical marijuana products that pose danger to communities.

SB 93 (DeLeon). Budget Act of 2015: Support – Signed. Expedites the assessment and the cleanup of the residential properties contaminated by Exide Technologies. This measure will help thousands of low-income families in the affected communities whose lives have been significantly impacted by Exide.

SB 209 (Pavley). Surface Mining: Support – Signed. Updates provisions of SMARA, affecting mining operator reporting fees and penalties, and local agency intermittent borrow pit operations.  This is the companion measure to AB 1142 (Gray).

SB 1229 (Jackson). Pharmaceutical waste: Support – Signed. Encourages pharmacies to host secure drug take-back bins by establishing a duty of care for the proper oversight of secure drug take-back bins, and provides limited civil and criminal liability immunity for pharmacies hosting drug take-back bins if they meet that duty of care. CSAC viewed this bill as a positive step toward encouraging pharmacies’ good-faith participation in take-back programs that have the potential to reduce the presence of a wide variety of drugs in the waste stream.

SB 1383 (Lara). Short-Lived Climate Pollutants: Neutral – Signed.   Requires the California Air Resource Board (CARB) to approve a comprehensive strategy to reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants in the state to achieve, from 2013 levels, a 40% reduction in methane, a 40% reduction in hydrofluorocarbon gasses (HFCs), and a 50% reduction in anthropogenic (i.e., non-forest) black carbon, by 2030. CSAC, along with our local government partners, negotiated amendments to the bill that included more workable timeframes for implementation and resulted in us removing our opposition to the bill. 

Vetoed

AB 1588 (Mathis). Water and Wastewater Loan/Grant Program: Support – Vetoed. Would have authorized the State Water Resources Control Board to establish a program to provide funding to counties and qualified nonprofit organizations to award low-interest loans and grants to eligible applicants for drinking water and wastewater treatment improvements. CSAC supported this measure because it would have made financial assistance available to individual homeowners who rely on their own groundwater wells. 

SB 1188 (McGuire). Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT): Support – Vetoed. Would have reversed a change in the PILT statue that was made by the Department of Finance last year, making the program permissive rather than required. This measure would have helped ensure that PILT payments are made to counties both today and in the future.