Other legislation of note enacted included SB 148 (Scott) providing additional bases for the suspension, revocation, or placement or reasonable conditions on an alcohol beverage retail license which is designed to address repeated public safety problems often associated with nuisance liquor stores; SB 263 (Speier) enhancing the Sellers of Travel Law requiring anyone who sells land or water based transportation to comply with the law, establishing conditions for the sale of travel discount programs, and requiring immediate suspension of the registration of a seller of travel who has been convicted of a felony violation of the law; SB 1136 (Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee) allowing the use of hedging contracts, such as interest rate swaps for state general obligation bonds; SB 1141 (Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee) allowing the sale of additional Tobacco Settlement Bonds backed by the state’s residual interest in future Tobacco Settlement revenues; SB 1198 (Florez) deleting wagering limits from the list of items that are considered an expansion of gambling pursuant to the current moratorium on the expansion to gaming existing in a local city or county entity; SB 1207 (Alarcon) allowing a corporation to amend its bylaws to allow the use of majority (rather than plurality) voting to elect a member of the board of directors of a publicly-traded California corporation in an uncontested election; SB 1436 (Figueroa) enhancing the state’s technical assistance to small businesses by enhancing the state’s Internet information for small businesses and requiring the designation of agency-level small business liaisons; SB 1490 (Ducheny) requiring the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau to adopt regulations that establish minimum standards of maintenance for endowment care cemeteries under it jurisdiction; SB 1513 (Romero) providing new authority for the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency to undertake international trade and investment activities and directing the development of a comprehensive international trade and investment policy for California; SB 1524 (Speier) providing that any Armenian Genocide victim, or heir or beneficiary, who resides in this state and has a claim arising out of a financial institution’s failure to pay or turn over deposited assets, or turn over looted assets, may bring an action or continue a pending action in any court of competent jurisdiction in this state, as specified; SB 1548 (Murray) allowing a beer manufacturer, a licensed beer and wine importer general or a licensed beer and wine wholesaler to instruct consumers regarding beer and allowing for the furnishing of a tasting at a retail on-sale licensee allowed to sell beer; SB 1550 (Figueroa) establishing a regulatory scheme for professional fiduciaries; SB 1629 (Speier) enacting the Federal Laboratory Contracting Act; SB 1636 (Ackerman) allowing the recovery of costs by a prevailing party, in specified circumstances relating to the litigation of a claim for misappropriation of trade secrets; SB 1698 (Ashburn) extending the sunset on the Office of Military and Aerospace Support for two years; SB 1805 (Florez) providing a source of funding for race track safety improvements such as installation of a polytrack-like surface at the major thoroughbred race tracks; AB 273 (Baca) prohibiting the sale, purchase, and use of any vaporized form of alcohol produced by an alcohol vaporizing device; AB 339 (Harman) enacting the Uniform Limited Partnership Act of 2008; AB 409 (Yee) enhancing the ability of the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology abilities to suspend a license issued where an establishment has violated health and safety laws related to manicure and pedicure equipment; AB 546 (Garcia) making it unlawful for any person to use a state-owned or state-leased computer to access, view, download, or otherwise obtain obscene matter, except as specified; AB 768 (Nation) requiring manufacturers or distributors of touch-screen devices used for purposes of self-service check-in by January 1, 2009 to offer for availability touch-screen check-in devices that enables the visually impaired to independently enter personal information that is necessary to process the transaction; AB 790 (Yee) enhancing the ability of the Department of Real estate to take action on real estate licensees or applicants who knowingly make false representations; AB 839 (Torrico) permitting the nonprofit organizations to conduct fundraisers using controlled games; AB 1210 (Levine) establishing the International Genocide Memorial Commission to oversee building of a memorial to California’s genocide survivors on the grounds of the Capitol; AB 1302 (J. Horton) modifying the conditions under which a state agency may adopt emergency regulations; AB 1620 (Klehs) changing the license fee structure for cardrooms licensed by the California Gambling Control Commission; AB 1794 (DeVore) eliminating the January 1, 2007 sunset date for the investment authorization for a local agency, as defined, to invest their funds, under proscribed circumstances, in eligible investments; AB 1973 (Bermudez) making a number of changes to the Gambling Control Act relating to new table fees for the problem gambling programs, the hours of operation, the moratorium on the expansion of gambling, and the eligibility requirements of two members of the Gambling Control Commission; AB 2098 (Liu) establishing the Electronic Funds Transfer Task Force for the purpose of developing a plan to implement a new electronic payment dispersal system; AB 2140 (Hancock) authorizing a city, county, or a city and county to adopt a local hazard mitigation plan (HMP) with the safety element of its general plan, and creates incentives for local governments to adopt HMPs; AB 2160 requiring the state to identify and develop appropriate financing and project delivery mechanisms to facilitate state and private sector commercial building projects that are energy and resource efficient; AB 2220 (Vargas) enhancing consumer protections against fraudulent practice of household goods carriers; AB 2264 (Pavley) requiring the Department of General Services, in consultation with the Energy Commission to establish a minimum fuel economy standard for the purchase of all state fleet vehicles powered by internal combustion engines using fossil fuels; AB 2330 (Arambula) requiring the Office of Small Business Advocate to have a study prepared by October 1, 2007, regarding the cost impact of state regulations on small businesses; AB 2351 (Maze) prohibiting a governing body of a city or county from granting, or paying contributions for, service credit for an elected officer or member of the board of supervisors if that service has not actually been performed; AB 2372 (Pavley) granting the California Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Commission the authority to sanction public entities that repeatedly violate provisions of the California Uniform Public Construction Accounting Act; AB 2456 (Nakanishi) enhancing the collection efforts relative to the final obligations assessed against Contractor’s State Licensing Board licensees by the Franchise Tax Board; AB 2541 (Matthews) requiring the sate to pay a penalty for the late payment of a grant; AB 2591 (Keene) requiring the Department of Finance to collect data of uncollected debt from the Board of Equalization, Franchise Tax Board, State Lands Commission, Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of General Services, Department of Real Estate, and the Department of Corporations; AB 2592 (Leno) modifying the conditions and terms of appointees and elected members of the California Travel and Tourism Commission and providing a stable funding source for the commission; AB 2751 (Wyland) prohibiting a fee on a development project from including costs attributable to existing deficiencies in public facilities; AB 2753 (De La Torre) restricting an elected official who is subject to recall from expending city funds or participating in any action; AB 2897 (Daucher) strengthening the law concerning revoked contractor licensees who still are conducting business under different names; AB 2941 (Koretz) prohibiting the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System from investing public retirement funds in a company within business operation in the Sudan; AB 2951 (Goldberg) allowing public agencies that provide utility services to change public agencies rates, charges, surcharges, or fees on the same basis as comparable nonpublic users, except for “capital facilities fees”; and AB 3021 (Nunez) establishing the California-Mexico Border Relations Council to coordinate all border activities of state agencies.
Vetoed legislation of note included SB 740 (Romero) making it unlawful for specified individuals to use public resources for the creation of news video release in specified instances; SB 832 (Perata) extending the sunset date for split-recovery of punitive damages awards; SB 1253 (Migden) designating zinfandel as the historic wine of California; SB 1281 (Romero) requiring state contractors to pay their employees for up to five days of actual jury service; SB 1397 (Lowenthal) enacting the Athletic Trainers Certification Act; SB 1523 (Alarcon) requiring a city, county, or city and county to prepare an economic impact report before approving a proposed development project that would include building of a superstore retailer; SB 1737 (Figueroa) regulating the offering and fulfillment of consumer rebates; SB 1745 (Kuehl) placing employers and employees on notice that it is against the public policy of California to discharge or take other adverse employment action against an individual in employment because he/she is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking; SB 1765 (Escutia) allowing victims of the 1930s repatriation of individuals of Mexican descent to bring a civil action for damages; SB 1818 (Alarcon) establishing that a big box retailer must be ordered to pay attorney’s fees and litigation expenses to a local governmental entity if the retailer acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner by bringing an action against the local ordinance, rule, regulation, or initiative measure that regulated zoning; AB 252 (Dymally) establishing the Digital Arts Studio Partnership Program; AB 695 (Mullin) requiring retailers that use a return authorization system to disclose information about it at specified locations; AB 1337 (Ruskin) enacting the Green Building Act of 2006 to establish green building standards for the construction and renovation of state buildings; AB 2570 (Arambula) requiring the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency to develop a strategy to attract new private investments to the state and requiring public pension funds with assets over $4 billion to report annually on the value of their investments in California’s historically underserved areas of the state; AB 2578 (Frommer) requiring the Department of General Services to transfer specified state lands to the California Hope Public Trust; AB 2595 (Arambula) requiring the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and the California Workforce Investment Board to establish a Logistics Workers Training Initiative; AB 2762 (Levine) allowing 16 federally recognized Indian tribal entities to participate in the Southern California Association of Governments; AB 2862 (Ridley-Thomas) requiring the Department of Consumer Affairs to adopt regulations to regulate the care and handling of companion animals sold to the general public at retail outlets; and AB 2927 (Leno) ensuring the public knows how to go about making public records requests pursuant to the California Public Records Act by requiring any state agencies to post this information.