BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1350|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
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|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1350
Author: Kehoe (D)
Amended: 4/19/10
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE : 8-1, 4/13/10
AYES: Pavley, Cogdill, Huff, Kehoe, Lowenthal, Padilla,
Simitian, Wolk
NOES: Hollingsworth
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Public Lands: records and uses
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill modifies the State lands Commission's
real property reporting requirements imposed by AB 22 X4 to
provide sufficient, but not extraneous, information to the
Department of General Services in order for an appropriate
inventory to be maintained, as specified.
ANALYSIS : The State Lands Commission (SLC) has
jurisdiction and management control over certain
Californian public lands received by the state from the
United States. These lands are of two distinct types -
sovereign and school lands. The sovereign or public trust
lands are tide and other submerged lands, including
navigable waterways, within the state's borders. The
state's power and authority to control these lands when
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acting in the public trust is absolute. The legislature
may grant administrative authority to manage tide and
submerged lands to local entities, such as cities and
ports. However, the lands remain subject to the public
trust and to the oversight authority of the state through
the SLC.
The school lands were granted to the state by an Act of
Congress on March 3, 1853 (c. 145, 10 Stat. 244) for the
specific purpose of providing support to public education.
Approximately 470,000 acres of school lands - typically
isolated and primarily in desert and forested areas -
remain. In the1980s, the Legislature (School Land Bank Act,
c. 879, Stats. 1984) placed the school lands into a
statutory trust and designated the SLC as the trustee. The
legislature declared that the school trust lands inventory
was depleted and that it was in the best interest of the
state for the remaining lands to be fully developed and
proactively managed to provide an economic base for the
public school system. Currently about 25 percent of the
total school land acreage is leased for revenue-generating
purposes. All net revenues from the school trust lands are
credited to the California State Teacher's Retirement
System (c.1213, Stats. 1983).
This bill modifies the SLC's real property reporting
requirements imposed by AB 22 X4 to provide sufficient, but
not extraneous, information to DGS in order for an
appropriate inventory to be maintained. Specifically, this
bill:
1.Exempts reporting of public trust land information to
DGS.
2.Requires the SLC to provide the following information to
DGS for non-public trust lands:
A. The location of the property and additional
relevant property-related data.
B. The date of acquisition (if available).
C. How the property was acquired and cost (if
available).
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D. A description of the current and projected future
uses of the property (if available).
E. A description of each major structure on the
property.
3.Requires the SLC to report the location and size of the
property alone for school trust lands.
4.Requires that SLC report all relevant real property not
previously identified to DGS by July 1, 2011 and updates
its record of these real property holdings, reflecting
any changes occurring by December 31 of the previous year
of July 1 of each year.
This bill further explicitly declares the SLC's
jurisdiction over the state's tide and submerged lands, and
the SLC's ability to grant lands, subject to the public
trust, to local and regional public entities. The bill
declares that this affirms existing law.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/4/10)
California Association of Port Authorities
Pacific Merchant Shipping Association
State Lands Commission
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
"The State Lands Commission is unique in that it manages
millions of acres of public trust lands and school trust
lands that cannot be declared surplus. Because of the
nature of the Commission's lands, many of the reporting
requirements cannot be ascertained without expensive title,
survey and boundary work. This work will inevitably become
obsolete as the tides, accretion, and erosion change
boundary lines. This bill would tailor the Commission's
reporting requirements so that the state can maintain a
central inventory of the state's real property holdings
without costing the state additional money.
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"With regard to the state's public trust lands, the
legislature has granted these lands to over 80 cities,
counties and harbor districts. Granted lands are managed
by the grantee pursuant to statute and common law, much of
which is not codified. This bill would codify several
common law principles."
CTW:DLW:do 5/4/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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