BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
Senator Patricia Wiggins, Chair
BILL NO: SB 406 HEARING: 4/15/09
AUTHOR: DeSaulnier FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 4/13/09 CONSULTANT: Detwiler
PLANNING ADVISORY AND ASSISTANCE COUNCIL
Background and Existing Law
Proposition 84 enacted "The Safe Drinking Water, Water
Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal
Protection Bond Act of 2006," and authorized $5.4 billion
in state bonds. One purpose is "Revitalizing our
communities and making them more sustainable and livable by
investing in sound land use planning, local parks and urban
greening." $580 million is available for those purposes
with $90 million specifically set aside for "planning
grants and incentives."
The Strategic Growth Council awards and manages these
grants (SB 732, Steinberg, 2008). The six-member Council
consists of the:
Director of the Governor's Office of Planning and
Research (OPR).
Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency.
Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Secretary of the Business, Transportation and
Housing Agency.
Secretary of the California Health and Human
Services Agency.
Plus, a public member, appointed by the Governor.
The Strategic Growth Council coordinates the state's
activities and programs to improve air and water quality,
improve natural resources protection, increase the
availability of affordable housing, improve transportation,
meet the goals of California Global Warming Solutions Act
("AB 32"), encourage sustainable land use planning, and
revitalize community centers. The Council must comment on
the state's five year infrastructure plan and OPR's State
Environmental Goals and Policies Report.
OPR is the state's comprehensive planning agency,
responsible for helping local and regional officials with
land use planning. Located within the Office of the
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Governor, OPR is supposed to coordinate state agencies'
planning activities. Every four years, OPR must prepare a
State Environmental Goals and Policies Report, a 20- to
30-year look ahead at state growth and development. The
State Environmental Goals and Policy Report must be
consistent with the state's planning priorities to:
Promote infill development and equity.
Protect environmental and agricultural resources.
Encourage efficient development patterns (AB 857,
Wiggins, 2002).
The Planning Advisory and Assistance Council (PAAC) is
OPR's advisory panel, meeting at least twice a year to
offer advice and help shape the State Environmental Goals
and Policies Report. OPR's Director appoints the PAAC
members:
Three city representatives, nominated by the League
of California Cities.
Three county representatives, nominated by the
California State Association of Counties.
One representative from each of the regional
planning districts designated by OPR; at least two
from metropolitan area planning organizations and at
least from a nonmetropolitan planning organization.
One representative of Indian tribes with
reservations in California.
Cities and counties have formed joint powers agencies
called councils of government (COGs) to conduct areawide
studies and implement various regional planning
requirements, particularly regional housing needs
assessments and regional transportation plans. Many COGs
are federally recognized metropolitan planning
organizations (MPOs), although there are institutional
permutations. For example, in the nine-county San
Francisco Bay region, the Association of Bay Area
Governments (ABAG) is the COG that prepares the regional
housing needs assessment, but the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC) is the region's MPO.
There is increasing legislative and public support for
linking land use decisions to transportation policy to help
reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from vehicles. A new
state law requires the California Air Resources Board to
assign each MPO a GHG emissions reduction target, and then
requires each MPO to prepare a "sustainable communities
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strategy" as a component of its regional transportation
plan (SB 375, Steinberg, 2008). This strategy will serve
as a blueprint for communities to achieve the region's GHG
emissions reduction target. If the sustainable communities
strategy does not achieve the reduction target, the MPO
must prepare an alternative planning strategy.
Those concerned about long-term efforts to link housing,
transportation, and other regional concerns want to create
more opportunities to connect these policy discussions to
practical programs that will help local officials create
sustainable communities.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 406 affects the duties, membership, and funding
for the Strategic Growth Council and the Planning Advisory
and Assistance Council, funded by revenues from a new motor
vehicle license surcharge.
I. Strategic Growth Council . SB 406 requires the
Strategic Growth Council to consult with and coordinate its
recommendations with the Planning Advisory and Assistance
Council (PAAC) within the Governor's Office of Planning and
Research (OPR). [See 4 of the bill.]
II. Planning Advisory and Assistance Council . SB 406
changes the PAAC's membership to:
Three city representatives, nominated by the League
of California Cities.
Three county representatives, nominated by the
California State Association of Counties.
Seven representatives of regional planning
organizations:
o One from the Southern California
Association of Governments.
o One who is a member of the governing
bodies of both the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission and the Association of Bay Area
Governments.
o One from the San Diego Association of
Governments.
o One from the Sacramento Area Council of
Governments.
o One from the San Joaquin Valley Regional
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Policy Council.
o One from the other metropolitan planning
organizations or councils of governments,
nominated by the California Association of
Councils of Governments.
o One from a regional transportation
planning agency that is neither a metropolitan
planning organization nor a council of
governments, nominated by the California
Association of Councils of Governments.
One member of the State Air Resources Board.
One member of the California Transportation
Commission.
One member of the State Energy Resource
Conservation and Development Commission.
One member appointed by the Assembly Speaker.
One member appointed by the Senate Rules Committee.
One representative of Indian tribes with
reservations in California.
The bill assigns the PAAC five new duties:
Work with the Strategic Growth Council to
facilitate the implementation of regional blueprint
projects.
Facilitate coordination between regional blueprint
plans and state growth and infrastructure funding
plans by developing recommendations to state agencies,
including the:
o Strategic Growth Council.
o State Department of General Services.
o State Allocation Board.
o State Department of Housing and Community
Development.
o California Transportation Commission.
o California Housing and Finance Agency.
Receive reports, including the state's five-year
infrastructure plan.
Report to the Legislature on how state agencies
implement the state's planning priorities.
Report to the Legislature on regional performance
measures that evaluate each region based on the PAAC's
criteria for improving the regions' employment,
environmental protection, education, housing, and
mobility.
SB 406 directs the PAAC to start performing these new
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duties when it receives sufficient funding from
metropolitan planning organizations, councils of
government, or county transportation commissions and
subregional councils of government jointly preparing
subregional sustainable communities strategies. [2]
III. Motor Vehicle License Surcharge . SB 406 authorizes a
metropolitan planning organization, council of governments,
or a county transportation commission and a subregional
council of governments jointly preparing a subregional
sustainable communities strategy to adopt a resolution
imposing a surcharge of up to $2 on a motor vehicle
registered to an owner within its jurisdiction.
In jurisdictions with populations greater than 300,000, if
the surcharge is more than $1, all amounts above $1 must
pay for grants to cities and counties for planning and
projects related to implementing a regional blueprint plan.
In the San Francisco Bay region, the surcharge resolution
must be jointly adopted by both the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area
Governments. MTC and ABAG must agree on how to divide the
revenue.
Within the Southern California Association of Governments,
the surcharge resolutions must be jointly adopted by a
county transportation commission and a subregional council
of governments. The county transportation commission and
the subregional council of governments must agree on how to
divide the revenue.
The regional and subregional agencies must use the
surcharge revenues solely for a sustainable communities
strategy or a regional blueprint plan to identify land use
strategies to reduce the use of motor vehicles and motor
vehicle emissions. However, the regional and subregional
agencies must send 5% of their revenues to the Planning
Advisory and Assistance Council. [3]
The bill includes provisions for the State Department of
Motor Vehicles to administer the new vehicle license
surcharge, including provisions for registrations, exempt
vehicles, and the Department's expenses. [5]
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Comments
1. Connecting the dots . California's arrangement for
statewide functional planning, regional planning
coordination, and local comprehensive planning is certainly
not the product of sustained organizational development.
With more than 40 statewide plans, scores of regional and
subregional entities, and 538 local general plans, the
result is a swirling mass of institutions and ad hoc
arrangements. For more than 70 years, state law has
required cities and counties to adopt and follow
comprehensive general plans that balance competing values
within each community. At the regional level, there are
commissions and COGs that struggle to make sense out of
topics that are larger-than-local. Within state
government, the Legislature conceived of OPR and its PAAC
as the hub in a wagon wheel arrangement, with the state
departments' functional plans serving as the spokes, and
the State Environmental Goals and Policies Report at the
rim, holding all the parts together. When these
institutions don't produce results, legislators create new
entities such as last year's Strategic Growth Council. SB
406 dives into this institutional alphabet soup and
connects the new Strategic Growth Council to OPR's PAAC.
The bill adds state agencies to the PAAC while giving
specific seats to certain COGs and MPOs. It's a brave
attempt to make sense out of a long-range planning effort
that nearly defies description.
2. Permit plates to play for plans ? Achieving successful
long-range planning needs a dedicated revenue stream.
Unlike other states, California invests no State General
Funds to support local comprehensive planning. Cities and
counties must rely on their own budgets, augmented by local
fees. COGs rely on mixes of federal funds and members'
dues. Although Proposition 84 offers $90 million in local
and regional planning support, it's hardly enough to
properly plan for a state with 38 million residents that
will have 50 million residents shortly after 2030. SB 406
allows regional agencies to raise the revenues they need by
imposing a new vehicle license surcharge. Californians
already pay several license surcharges for freeway
emergencies, abandoned cars, vehicle theft programs, and
some regional air quality efforts. The Committee may wish
to consider whether tacking on yet another vehicle license
surcharge makes sense during the current recession.
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3. No little plans ! One of America's first city planners,
Daniel Burnham, famously challenged his colleagues: Make
no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood
and probably will not themselves be realized. SB 406 makes
no plans at all, merely facilitating coordination,
requiring more consultation, inserting state officials on
the PAAC, and commissioning more reports to the
Legislature. For example, the PAAC must grade the regions
on their residents' education and employment --- topics
that fall far outside the PAAC members' purview. Why
should a member of the Air Resources Board judge school
performance in the San Joaquin Valley? While sweeping away
the current tangled thicket of planning duties and starting
over is politically impractical, the Committee may wish to
consider whether SB 406 further entangles state, regional,
and local officials without a clear outcome. What's the
result that legislators want?
4. Planning and performance . To make California's wagon
wheel planning structure work, OPR must prepare and the
Governor must issue the State Environmental Goals and
Policy Report every four years. In 1972, Governor Reagan
issued the first State Environmental Goals and Policy
Report. In 1978, Governor Brown issued his version, An
Urban Strategy For California . Governors Deukmejian and
Wilson issued none. In November 2003, OPR prepared a State
Environmental Goals and Policy Report, a month after the
recall election, but Governor Davis never endorsed it. The
Schwarzenegger Administration has not issued a Report. The
Committee may wish to consider whether the new vehicle
license surcharge funds permitted by SB 406 will be
sufficient to renew state officials' interest in producing
and implementing a State Environmental Goals and Policies
Report.
5. Failed oversight . The new Strategic Growth Council and
OPR's PAAC are merely the current incarnations of the state
governments' earlier failed attempts to supervise
long-range planning. The first State Planning Commission
appeared in 1934, followed by a separate State Planning
Board in the Department of Finance (1935), combined into
the State Reconstruction and Re-Employment Commission
(1943), and abolished in 1947. A new State Office of
Planning within the Department of Finance had its own
Planning Advisory Committee (1959), followed by a
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Coordinating Council on Urban Policy (1963), an
Intergovernmental Council on Urban Growth (1965), the
California Council on Intergovernmental Relations (1969),
and the re-named Planning Advisory and Assistance Council
(1970). The PAAC hasn't met for years. The Committee may
wish to consider whether augmenting the PAAC and giving it
access to new license surcharge revenues will improve the
state's oversight of planning efforts.
6. Back to Rules . The Senate Rules Committee referred SB
406 to the Senate Local Government Committee for its first
policy review, but the bill must go back to the Rules
Committee for a second look. Should the Assembly Speaker
and Senate Rules Committee appoint members --- perhaps even
legislators --- to the Planning Advisory and Assistance
Council which is part of the Office of the Governor. Won't
that interfere with the separation of powers? Further,
should another policy committee review the Vehicle Code
amendments that allow another surcharge on vehicle
licenses?
Support and Opposition (4/9/09)
Support : California Association of Councils of Government,
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees AFL-CIO.
Opposition : California New Car Dealers Association,
California Taxpayers' Association.