Priority Legislation

One of the primary functions of the California State Commanders Veterans Council is to collectively review legislation and policies that impact our state’s veterans. Each legislative cycle, the CSCVC Executive Committee considers and reviews legislation as guided by our membership-approved policy principles. Below are the current positions or legislative goals of the current session.

Assembly Bill AB 46 (Ramos) – Personal Income Taxes: Exclusion: Military Services and Retirement and Surviving Spouse Benefit Payment Act - SUPPORT

Summary: Would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2034, exclude from gross income retirement pay received by a taxpayer from the federal government for service performed in the uniformed services, as defined, during the taxable year. The bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2034, would also exclude from gross income annuity payments received by a qualified taxpayer, as defined, pursuant to a United States Department of Defense Survivor Benefit Plan during the taxable year. The bill would make related findings and declarations.

Assembly Bill AB 322 (Mathis) – Veteran and California National Guard Supplemental Orientation Act of 2023 - SUPPORT

Summary: Would, commencing no later than the 2025–26 academic year, require each campus of the California State University and the California Community Colleges, and would request each campus of the University of California, to include within first-year student and transfer student orientations the location and contact information of the campus point of contact for students who are veterans of the Armed Forces of the United States and members of the California State Guard and the California National Guard, and their dependents, make available in hard copy form at the location of the campus point of contact a document that includes information on polices, resources, and services for these students and their dependents, as specified, and post the document, along with other information available to these students and their dependents, on the campus’s internet website.

Assembly Bill AB 531 (Irwin) – Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2024 - SUPPORT

Summary: Would enact the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2024 to authorize the issuance of bonds in an amount not to exceed $600,000,000 to provide additional funding for the VHHPA. The bill would provide for the handling and disposition of the funds in the same manner as the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2014.

Assembly Bill AB 569 (Garcia) – California State University: Cybersecurity Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships Pilot Program - SUPPORT

Summary: Current law requires the office of the Chancellor of the California State University to select any number of California State University campuses, with preference given to campuses that have or are developing regional pipeline programs in cybersecurity with the California Community Colleges, to participate in the pilot program through an application and selection process. Current law requires each selected campus to create a pilot program with goals and metrics, measure the impact and results of its pilot program, and annually share the impact and results with the chancellor’s office. Current law requires the chancellor’s office to annually report the impact and results from each selected campus’s pilot program to the Legislature. This bill would require the chancellor’s office, on or before July 1, 2028, to submit a report to the Legislature on the pilot program, as provided.

Assembly Bill AB 718 (Ta) – Veterans: mental health - SUPPORT

Summary: The Department of Veterans Affairs, among other services, provides veterans and their dependents and survivors with assistance in processing service-related disability claims, assistance in obtaining affordable housing, and information about health ailments associated with military service. This bill would require the department to establish a program to fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, an academic study of mental health among women veterans in California, as specified. The bill would require the department to submit a report summarizing the findings and recommendations of the study to the Legislature no later than July 31, 2025.

Assembly Bill AB 883 (Mathis) – Business licenses: United States Department of Defense SkillBridge program. - SUPPORT

Summary: Existing law establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs under the direction of the Director of Consumer Affairs and sets forth its powers and duties relating to the administration of the various boards under its jurisdiction that license and regulate various professions and vocations. This bill would additionally require, on and after July 1, 2024, a board to expedite, and authorize a board to assist, in the initial licensure process for an applicant who supplies satisfactory evidence to the board that the applicant is an active duty member of a regular component of the Armed Forces of the United States enrolled in the United States Department of Defense SkillBridge program, as specified, and would provide that regulations to administer those provisions be adopted in accordance with the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. This bill contains other existing laws.

Assembly Bill AB 988 (Mathis) – Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act: veteran and military data reporting - SUPPORT

Summary: The Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act creates the 988 State Suicide and Behavioral Health Crisis Services Fund and requires the fees to be deposited along with other specified moneys into the fund. Current law provides that, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the funds be used for specified purposes and in accordance with specified priorities. Current law requires the Office of Emergency Services to require an entity seeking moneys available through the fund to annually file an expenditure and outcomes report containing specified information, including, among other things, the number of individuals served and the outcomes for individuals served, if known. This bill would require an entity seeking moneys from the fund to also include the number of individuals who used the service and self-identified as veterans or active military personnel in its annual expenditure and outcomes report.

Assembly Bill AB 1328 (Gipson) – Cosmetology Licensure Compact - SUPPORT

Summary: Would enact the Cosmetology Licensure Compact, the purpose of which is to facilitate the interstate practice and regulation of cosmetology. The compact would require the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology to grant a multistate license to practice cosmetology to an applicant who meets specified eligibility requirements, including holding an active and unencumbered license to practice cosmetology issued by the board in this state. The compact would require the state to recognize a multistate license issued by each member state as authorizing the licensee to practice cosmetology in this state. The compact would require the board to select a delegate to serve on the Cosmetology Licensure Compact Commission, a joint governmental agency consisting of all member states that have enacted the compact, and would enact specified provisions relating to the establishment, operation, powers, and duties of the commission. The compact would specify procedures for the adoption of rules by the commission for purposes of implementing and administering the compact and would state that the rules of the commission shall have the force of law, except as specified. The compact would require the board to take specified actions relating to the administration and enforcement of the compact, including receiving complaints about individuals practicing cosmetology and communicating investigative information about any adverse action to the other member states through a data system, as specified. The compact would authorize the board to charge a fee to grant a multistate license or for the renewal of a multistate license.

Assembly Bill AB 1350 (Soria) – Veterans: memorials - SUPPORT

Summary: Would create the Capitol Park Veterans Memorial Fund. The bill would continuously appropriate the fund to the Department of Veterans Affairs for the purpose of the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing memorials in the State Capitol. The bill would make the department responsible for administering the fund, including the prioritization of work, management of projects, and coordination with state and private bodies. The bill would require the department to prioritize memorials that do not have formal support from another body for their maintenance, including, but not limited to, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Assembly Bill AB 1361 (Hoover) – Property taxation: veteran’s exemption: preliminary application. SUPPORT

Summary: The California Constitution generally limits ad valorem taxes on real property to 1% of the full cash value of that property, defined as the county assessor’s valuation of real property as shown on the 1975–76 tax bill and, thereafter, the appraised value of the property when purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership occurs after the 1975 assessment, subject to an annual inflation adjustment not to exceed 2%. Existing property law, pursuant to the authorization of the California Constitution, provides a disabled veteran’s tax exemption on specified property, as described. Existing law sets forth procedures to claim property tax exemptions. This bill would authorize a county assessor to provide written or electronic determination of preliminary eligibility for the disabled veteran’s tax exemption

Assembly Bill AB 1452 (Mathis) – State Capitol: Iraq Afghanistan Kuwait Veterans Memorial monument - SUPPORT

Summary: Would authorize a nonprofit organization representing veterans of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait in consultation with the Department of General Services, to plan, construct, and maintain a monument to the veterans of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait on the grounds of the State Capitol. The bill would require the nonprofit organization to submit a plan for the monument to the Joint Rules Committee for its review and approval.

Senate Bill SB 73 (Seyarto) – Employment policy: voluntary veterans’ preference - SUPPORT

Summary: Would enact the Voluntary Veterans’ Preference Employment Policy Act to authorize a private employer to establish and maintain a written veterans’ preference employment policy, to be applied uniformly to hiring decisions, to give a voluntary preference for hiring a veteran over another qualified applicant. The bill would require a private employer with a veterans’ preference employment policy to annually report to the Civil Rights Department the number of veterans hired under the preference policy and any demographic information about those veterans that the employer obtained in response to the department’s reporting requirements. Under the bill, failure to submit that report would render any preference granted by the employer ineligible for the protections provided by this bill. The bill would require the department to report that information, in addition to the number of discrimination claims received based on an employer’s veterans’ preference employment policy, to specified legislative policy committees by July 1, 2026, and July 1, 2028.

Senate Bill SB 82 (Seyarto) - Property taxation: disabled veterans’ exemption: eligibility letters - SUPPORT

Summary: Current property tax law provides, pursuant to the authorization of the California Constitution, a disabled veteran’s property tax exemption for the principal place of residence of a veteran or a veteran’s spouse, including an unmarried surviving spouse, if the veteran, because of an injury incurred in military service, is blind in both eyes, has lost the use of 2 or more limbs, or is totally disabled, as those terms are defined, or if the veteran has, as a result of a service-connected injury or disease, died while on active duty in military service. This bill would require a county assessor to accept an electronically generated letter of service-connected disability, as defined, in lieu of an original letter of service-connected disability, at the discretion of the claimant, for purposes of verifying eligibility for the above-described exemption.

Senate Bill SB 289 (Menjivar) – Identification Cards - SUPPORT

Summary: Current law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue an identification card to an eligible applicant, and requires a fee of $26 to be paid upon the application to the DMV for the issuance of the identification card, except as specified. Current law prohibits the department from charging a fee for an original or replacement identification card issued to any person who can verify their status as a homeless person or homeless child or youth. This bill would additionally prohibit the department from charging a fee for an original or replacement identification card to an applicant who is a veteran of the United States Armed Forces and can provide the department with a specified veteran verification form.

Senate Bill SB 783 (Archuleta) - Veterans: Suicide - SUPPORT

Summary: Would authorize the Counties of Los Angeles and Nevada to create a veteran suicide prevention training pilot program to offer individuals in each county specialized training and certification in suicide prevention with military-connected populations. The bill would require the program to train individuals to identify indicators of elevated suicide risk and provide emergency crisis intervention and referrals for veterans, as specified.

Senate Bill SB 811 (Jones) - Teacher credentialing: Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact - SUPPORT

Summary: Current law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Under existing law, California is a party to The Interstate Agreement on Qualification of Educational Personnel, a compact designed to support the movement of teachers and other professional educational personnel among the states party to it, and to authorize specific interstate educational personnel contracts to achieve that end.This bill would ratify the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact, the purpose of which is to facilitate the mobility of teachers across the member states, with the goal of supporting teachers through a new pathway to licensure. The compact would, among other things, require member states, in their sole discretion, to make certain determinations about teacher licensure for teachers from other member states, as provided, and create and establish a joint public agency known as the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact Commission. This compact would only become effective if the compact statute is enacted into law in ten member states, as provided.

Senate Bill SB 871 (Archuleta) - Property taxation: homeowners’, veterans’, and disabled veterans’ exemptions - SUPPORT

Summary: The California Constitution and existing property tax law establish a veterans’ exemption in the amount of $4,000, as specified, for a veteran who meets certain military service requirements, and generally exempts from property taxation the same value of property of a deceased veteran’s unmarried spouse and parents. The California Constitution and existing property tax law establish a disabled veteran’s exemption in the amount of $100,000 or $150,000 for the principal place of residence of a veteran or a veteran’s spouse, as specified. Current property tax law establishing the homeowners’ exemption specifies that the exemption may not be applied to a property on which the owner receives the veteran’s exemption. This bill would remove this specification and would instead prohibit the application of the homeowners’ exemption to a property on which the owner receives another exemption, except for the veterans’ exemption or the disabled veterans’ exemption.

Senate Bill SB 873 (Bradford) – Prescription drugs: cost sharing - SUPPORT

Summary: This bill, commencing no later than January 1, 2025, would require an enrollee’s or insured’s defined cost sharing for each prescription drug to be calculated at the point of sale based on a price that is reduced by an amount equal to 90% of all rebates received, or to be received, in connection with the dispensing or administration of the drug. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to, among other things, pass through to each enrollee or insured at the point of sale a good faith estimate of the enrollee’s or insured’s decrease in cost sharing. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to calculate an enrollee’s or insured’s defined cost sharing and provide that information to the dispensing pharmacy, as specified. The bill would require the department and the commissioner to submit an annual report on the impact of these provisions to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, as specified. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on January 1, 2027. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

SCA 6 (Archuleta) - Property Taxation: veterans' exemption - SUPPORT

Summary: The California Constitution declares that all property is taxable and establishes or authorizes various exemptions from tax for real property, including a homeowners’ exemption in the amount of $7,000 of the full value of a dwelling unless the dwelling receives another real property exemption. If the Legislature increases the homeowners’ exemption, the California Constitution requires that the Legislature provide a benefit increase to qualified renters comparable to the average increase in benefits to homeowners. This measure would allow a dwelling that receives the veterans’ exemption or the disabled veteran’s exemption to also receive the homeowners’ exemption. The measure would authorize the Legislature to exempt property eligible for the veterans’ exemption in an amount up to the full value of the property. If the Legislature increases the homeowners’ exemption, the measure would require that the Legislature provide the same increase in the veterans’ exemption, except as limited by the full value of the property.