BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 245
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Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 245 (Rubio) - As Amended: August 7, 2012
Policy Committee: Jobs and Economic
Development Vote: 6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill re-establishes the Office of Military Support (OMS)
within the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) for
the purpose of serving as a clearinghouse for state activities
related to the military, including base closures. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Requires OMS to be the lead agency on the planning and
coordination of all matters related to base retention and
conversion.
2)Requires the governor to appoint a Governor's Advisor on
Military Affairs (AMA), who will be responsible for the
operations of OMS.
3)Requires OMS to solicit and accept funds from industry,
foundations or other sources to help support its operations.
4)Authorizes OMS to establish a Military Advisory Committee
(MAC) to advise the OMS on military-related matters including,
but not limited to, active U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
installations and defense conversion issues.
5)Authorizes OPR, with input from OMS, to establish a military
support grant program to provide moneys to communities with
military bases to assist them with the development of a
retention strategy.
FISCAL EFFECT
SB 245
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Costs of approximately $1 million for the Governor's Office of
Planning and Research.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose : According to the author, over 230,000 active duty
and civilian personnel are currently employed by the
Department of Defense and California receives close to $60
billion of the Department's direct expenditures. The author
argues while the military has always been an important
participant in California's economy, in today's current
economic downturn the military's role is even more crucial and
the Legislature must take a leadership role in preserving the
state's relationship with the military.
2)Background. According to the author, California currently has
over 30 active bases, with 237,000 active duty and civilian
defense personnel. Direct DOD expenditures in California are
over $59 billion, including employees, contracts and capital
investments.
Military spending was once much more important to the
California economy. With the end of the cold war, there was a
significant reduction in military spending. One of the
results was the closure of 29 major bases in California with
the loss of 100,000 military and civilian jobs. To help
address the subsequent issues, California had an office
similar to that proposed in this bill. The office was
eliminated in 2009.
The White House has called for two new Base Realignment and
Closure (BRAC) rounds which presumably would lead to
recommendations for base closures and realignments. DOD
intends to use the potential savings from the closures to
offset Congress' 10-year DOD budget savings target of $487
billion. Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees
have produced 2013 spending bills, however, that do not
include the administration's request to establish a BRAC in
2013.
3)Related legislation. AB 342(Atkins) directs OPR to serve as
the state's liaison to the U.S. Department of Defense in order
to facilitate coordination regarding issues that are of
significant interest to the state and the department,
particularly with regard to any proposed federal Base
SB 245
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Realignment and Closure actions. The bill is pending on the
Senate Floor.
4)Previous legislation.
a) SB 1698 (Ashburn) Chapter 681, Statutes of 2006,
extended the authority for the Office of Military and
Aerospace Support (OMAS) until January 1, 2009,
b) SB 926 (Knight and Ashburn) Chapter 907, Statutes of
2004 transferred OMAS to the Business, Transportation and
Housing Agency (BTH) and provided a January 1, 2007 sunset
date for the office.
c) SB 1099 (Pete Knight), Chapter 425, Statues of 1999,
codified an executive order which established the
predecessor to OMAS in the Trade and Commerce Agency.
d) SB 458 (Hart), Chapter 445, Statues of 1993, codified
the executive order designating Trade and Commerce Agency
as the lead coordinating agency.
5)History. SB 245 was not heard in the Senate; it was a
gut-and-amend in the Assembly Jobs Committee.
6)There is no registered opposition to this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081