BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           301 (Fuentes)
          
          Hearing Date:  08/12/2010           Amended: 04/01/2009
          Consultant:  Brendan McCarthy   Policy Vote: EQ 5-2
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          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: AB 301 requires applicants for an annual  
          bottled-water license to include information on the total volume  
          of water bottled or sold in the state and source information.  
          This bill requires the Department of Public Health to annually  
          compile this information and make it available to the public.
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2009-10      2010-11       2011-12     Fund
           
          Compiling and publicizing         $50         $40        
          $40General 
            information                                           
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
          
          Existing law requires water-bottling plants or bottled water  
          distributors to obtain a license from the Department of Public  
          Health.  The Department is required to collect fees for those  
          licenses.  Fees collected by the Department are required to be  
          sufficient to enforce the laws pertaining to bottled, vended,  
          hauled and processed water, as specified. (However, statute  
          gives the Department of Finance authority to adjust fee levels  
          only to reflect changes in the cost of living.)

          AB 301 requires applicants for a license as a water-bottling  
          plant or a private water source in the state to provide to the  
          Department, at the time of submittal of the application,  
          information pertaining to the total volume of water bottled or  
          sold either for wholesale or retail use; specify whether the  
          source of the water bottled or sold is a public or private water  
          agency or an artesian well, lake, river, spring, or well; and  
          the location of the source water and whether this source is  
          privately or publicly owned and operated. The bill requires the  










          Department to annually compile a listing of the information  
          reported by the applicants and make that information available  
          to the public. Costs to compile and report this information  
          would be about $40,000 annually, including one half-time  
          position. Start up costs would be about $30,000 in the first  
          year and would include a contract to modify the existing  
          database to receive the new information. 

          Because existing fees are adjusted only to reflect changes in  
          the cost of living, additional program activities will not be  
          covered by fee revenues. Therefore, additional program  
          activities will likely require General Fund appropriations.
          
          This bill is similar to AB 2275 (Fuentes) of 2008 which was  
          vetoed by the Governor with a generic veto message applied to  
          bills passed before the budget was signed. 

          The proposed amendments would make technical changes and add  
          coauthors.