BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2298 (Ma) - Metal Theft Task Force Program.
Amended: August 6, 2012 Policy Vote: Public Safety 5-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 2298 would require the Board of State and
Community Corrections (BSCC) to establish, administer, and
regularly evaluate the Metal Theft Task Force Program, to
provide grants to regional task forces for the purposes of
enhancing the capacity of local law enforcement and prosecutors
to deter, investigate, and prosecute metal theft and related
recycling crimes. This bill would establish the Metal Theft Task
Force (MTTF) Fund, to consist of funding from federal, industry,
and citizen sources, to be made available upon appropriation by
the Legislature. The provisions of this bill would become
operative on January 1, 2015.
Fiscal Impact:
Significant one-time and ongoing costs potentially in excess
of $500,000 to $1 million to the BSCC for personnel and
equipment costs to implement and administer the statewide
program. Any costs in excess of those determined "actual and
necessary administrative costs," would be borne by the General
Fund.
Additional one-time costs potentially in excess of $500,000 to
$1 million for the mandated development of a statewide
database on metal theft and recycling crimes. Costs would be
dependent on the parameters and complexity of the database.
Ongoing costs in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars for
maintenance and quality control. As the bill restricts funding
for development and maintenance to up to 10 percent of MTTF
Funds, any excess costs would be borne by the General Fund.
Major funding from the newly established MTTF Fund in the tens
of millions of dollars, consisting of funds from the federal
government, industry, and citizen sources, would be required
to support the activities of regional task forces statewide.
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Potential future major cost pressure on the 2011 Local Revenue
Fund, as a 'citizen source' of funding to support the initial
and ongoing activities of the program.
Potential future cost-savings statewide to the courts, state
prison/county jail systems, and law enforcement, as well as to
businesses in the form of reduced economic loss, to the extent
the operation of the program results in savings realized
through crime prevention, crime suppression, and prosecutions
resulting from the program.
Background: This bill makes the following uncodified findings
and declarations: "The theft of metal is a serious problem in
California. Losses due to metal theft are not limited to just
the value of the metal taken, but frequently the cost of
repairing or replacing the infrastructure, component, or item
from which the metal has been removed greatly exceeds the value
of the metal itself. The United States Department of Energy
estimates that metal theft costs United States businesses
approximately one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) annually."
Under existing law, the Central Valley and Central Coast Rural
Crime Prevention Programs serve 13 counties (Fresno, Kern,
Kings, Madera, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San
Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, and Tulare),
for the operation of rural crime prevention task forces to
strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies in rural
areas to detect and monitor agricultural- and rural-based
crimes, including metal theft. Chapter 43/2012, the Public
Safety Realignment budget trailer bill, deleted the sunset on
both programs, thereby making the programs operative
indefinitely. Additionally, Chapter 43/2012 allocates a portion
of funds deposited into the Enhancing Law Enforcement Activities
Subaccount of the 2011 Local Revenue Fund to these two programs
for Fiscal Year 2012-13 and thereafter.
Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community
Corrections (BSCC) commencing July 1, 2012, as the successor
entity to the Corrections Standards Authority and independent
from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The
mission of the BSCC includes providing statewide leadership,
coordination, and technical assistance to promote effective
state and local efforts and partnerships in the state's adult
and juvenile criminal justice system.
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Existing law enumerates specified duties for the BSCC including
collecting and maintaining available information and data about
state and community correctional policies, practices,
capacities, and needs, including prevention, intervention,
suppression, supervision, and incapacitation, as they relate to
adult corrections, juvenile justice, and gang problems. Notably,
the BSCC is the principal state entity responsible for
facilitating issues under the recent implementation of 2011
Public Safety Realignment and has been tasked with the
collection and analysis of data regarding the implementation of
local criminal justice realignment plans and other outcome-based
measures, as specified.
Proposed Law: This bill seeks to provide local law enforcement
and district attorneys with the tools necessary to successfully
interdict the commission of metal theft and related metal
recycling crimes. Specifically, this bill:
Requires the BSCC to establish the Metal Theft Task
Force Program.
Provides that administration of the overall program and
the evaluation and monitoring of all grants made pursuant
to the program be performed by the BSCC.
Establishes the MTTF Fund within the State Treasury, the
funds of which would be available upon appropriation by the
Legislature for the purposes as set forth in the bill.
Provides that the MTTF Fund shall consist of moneys
deposited from the federal government, industry, and
citizen sources.
Requires the MTTF Fund to be administered by the BSCC,
and provides that the BSCC may adopt regulations as needed
to administer the provisions of the bill.
Requires moneys appropriated to the BSCC for the program
to be expended to fund programs that enhance the capacity
of local law enforcement and prosecutors to deter,
investigate, and prosecute metal theft and related
recycling crimes.
Provides that after deduction of the BSCC's actual and
necessary administrative costs, MTTF Funds shall be
expended to fund programs to enhance the capacity of local
law enforcement and prosecutors to deter, investigate, and
prosecute metal theft and related recycling crimes.
Specifies that funds distributed under this program to
be expended for the exclusive purpose of deterring,
investigating, and prosecuting metal theft and related
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recycling crimes.
Provides that up to 10 percent of the funds may, upon
appropriation, be used for developing and maintaining a
statewide database on metal theft and related recycling
crimes for use in developing and distributing intelligence
information to participating law enforcement agencies.
Requires the BSCC to develop specific guidelines and
administrative procedures for the selection of regional
task forces to receive funds under the program, as
specified.
Provides that priority shall be given to regional task
forces outside of the 13 counties funded under the rural
crime prevention programs authorized under existing law.
Provides that the guidelines shall include specified
selection criteria to be considered by the BSCC in awarding
grant funds such as the number of metal theft or related
recycling crimes filed and investigated in the prior year,
the number of victims involved, the aggregate monetary loss
suffered by the victims, local funds available to assist
the regional task force, and the number of licensed
recycling facilities in the region.
Requires each regional task force that has been awarded
funds, upon reapplication for funds in each successive
year, to submit a detailed accounting of funds received and
expended, as specified.
Requires the BSCC to regularly review the effectiveness
of the program in deterring, investigating, and prosecuting
metal theft and related recycling crimes and requires the
BSCC to present a report to the Governor and Legislature,
as specified.
Provides that the program will not be implemented until
the Department of Finance determines that sufficient funds
have been deposited in the MTTF Fund, to be established
under this bill, to implement the provisions of the bill
and funds have been made available upon appropriation of
the Legislature.
Delays the operative date of the provisions of the bill
to January 1, 2015.
Prior Legislation:
AB 2768 (Poochigian) Chapter 327/1996 created the Rural Crime
Prevention Program, a three-year pilot program, which authorized
the County of Tulare to enter into a joint-powers agreement to
share resources, personnel hours, and information regarding
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rural crimes, including metal theft.
AB 374 (Matthews) Chapter 719/2002 extended the operation of the
Rural Crime Prevention Program to July 1, 2005, and renamed the
program the Central Valley Rural Crime Prevention Program.
SB 44 (Denham) Chapter 18/2003 authorized the counties of
Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and San
Benito, until July 1, 2010, to develop the Central Coast Rural
Crime Prevention Programs modeled on the Central Valley Rural
Crime Prevention Programs, to be administered by the county
sheriff's office in Monterey County and by the district
attorney's office in each of the other four counties.
AB 186 (Maze) Chapter 755/2008 extended the operation of the
Central Valley Rural Crime Prevention Program to January 1,
2012.
SB 121 (Denham) Chapter 31/2009 extended the operation of the
Central Coast Rural Crime Prevention Programs to July 1, 2013,
and repeals these provisions January 1, 2014.
SB 1023 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) Chapter 43/2012,
among other provisions, deleted the provisions repealing the
authorization for the Central Valley Rural Crime Prevention
Program and Central Coast Rural Crime Prevention Program,
thereby making the programs operative indefinitely.
Staff Comments: The provisions of this bill are not operative
until January 1, 2015, and the program will not be implemented
until the Department of Finance determines that sufficient funds
have been deposited in the MTTF Fund to implement the provisions
of the bill and funds have been made available upon
appropriation of the Legislature.
If implemented, this bill will impose substantial new duties on
the BSCC, the costs of which would likely not be fully covered
by the newly created MTTF Fund. The BSCC would be required to
establish and provide administrative oversight for an entirely
new statewide program, and would be required to develop specific
guidelines and administrative procedures for the selection of
regional task force grantees. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation
of all grants issued under the program, as well as at least one
report to the Legislature and Governor would also be required.
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Although not mandated, it is likely the BSCC would also develop
regulations to administer the provisions of this bill, resulting
in additional one-time workload.
The BSCC has indicated the operational costs to implement and
administer the program will likely be in excess of $300,000 per
year for staffing and operating expenses. Staff notes that based
on comparisons with funding proposed for the start-up and
implementation of prior programs covering only regions of the
state, the costs may likely be upwards of $500,000 to $1 million
to implement and administer the statewide program.
This bill provides for the deduction of the BSCC's "actual and
necessary" administrative costs from available MTTF Funds. While
the determination of actual administrative costs is relatively
clear, the bill does not specify what would constitute
"necessary" costs, what entity would make that determination, or
how that determination would be made. As a result, there could
be exposure to the General Fund for any administrative costs
deemed to be unnecessary.
This bill requires the development and maintenance of a
statewide database on metal theft and related recycling crimes
for use in developing and distributing intelligence information
to participating law enforcement agencies. The bill does not
specify the entity responsible for the development and
maintenance of the database, but it is assumed this
responsibility would be placed on the BSCC. As the bill provides
that only up to 10 percent of MTTF Funds may, upon
appropriation, be used for the database, any additional costs
would be charged against the General Fund. It is also not clear
how the 10 percent threshold would be determined - for example,
up to 10 percent of funds appropriated in any one year or up to
10 percent of total funds in the MTTF Fund in any one year.
Costs to develop the database are unknown at this time but are
likely to be in excess of $500,000 to $1 million, and would be
dependent upon the size and complexity of the database, the
amount of data to be collected, access and interconnectivity
issues with law enforcement agencies, among other issues.
Ongoing costs to maintain, monitor, and perform quality control
on the database would likely incur costs in the low hundreds of
thousands of dollars annually for staffing and associated
operating expenses.
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It is estimated that funding in the tens of millions of dollars
would be required to support the activities of the regional task
forces to ensure law enforcement and prosecutors are equipped
with the necessary personnel and tools to successfully combat
metal theft and related recycling crimes. This bill establishes
the MTTF Fund to consist of funds from the federal government,
industry, and citizen sources. However, it is unclear how the
moneys for the fund would be obtained. To the extent the BSCC is
tasked with engaging with the federal government or other
potential grantors to solicit funding, as well as grant writing,
in order to obtain the necessary funding to implement and
sustain the program, additional workload would be placed on the
BSCC.
Staff notes the term 'citizen sources' is also unclear. While
funds from private citizens would be a clear source of funding
for the MTTF Fund, certain public funds or fees/taxes could also
be considered 'citizen sources.' The Local Revenue Fund 2011,
which is funded with a portion of state sales tax and vehicle
license fee revenues, could likely be considered a citizen
source of funding. As a result, despite some level of funding
from federal and industry sources to the MTTF Fund, there could
be major cost pressure on the Local Revenue Fund 2011 (LRF) to
support the initial and ongoing activities of the program. As
noted earlier in this analysis, the Central Valley and Central
Coast Rural Crime Prevention Programs are annually funded
through the LRF. This bill's provisions additionally require the
BSCC to give priority to regional task forces outside of those
13 counties funded under the rural crime prevention programs,
directing future MTTF funding to those counties not already
being served through existing regional crime prevention
programs.
Proposed Author Amendments: The proposed author amendments make
various technical changes.