BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Bill No: SB
953
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Senator Roderick D. Wright, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
Staff Analysis
SB 953 Author: Strickland
As Amended: April 16, 2012
Hearing Date: April 24, 2012
Consultant: Art Terzakis
SUBJECT
Bureaucracy Realignment and Closure Act of 2013
DESCRIPTION
SB 953 enacts the Bureaucracy Realignment and Closure Act
of 2013 for the purpose of establishing an 8-member
commission and a process for realigning or closing outdated
or ineffective and inefficient governmental entities.
Specifically, this measure:
1. Establishes an 8-member Bureaucracy Realignment and
Closure Commission in state government, with a specified
membership, appointed by the Governor by April 1, 2013.
(Four members will be subject to confirmation by the
Senate.)
2. Stipulates that commission members shall serve without
compensation.
3. Requires each member of the commission to have had
management experience, as defined, prior to appointment;
requires the Governor to designate a chairperson of the
commission; and, authorizes the commission to employ an
executive secretary and other staff.
4. Specifies that none of the commission members shall be
employed with a governmental entity, been a party to a
contract with a federal, local or state governmental
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agency, been employed by an entity that is a party to an
ongoing contract with a government entity, or be a person
who, at the time of his/her appointment, qualifies as a
lobbyist.
5. Requires the commission to do all of the following: (a)
examine the current configuration of state bureaucracies,
along with their duties and responsibilities, to
determine if agency jurisdictions overlap or have become
obsolete; (b) propose realignment and closure of state
bureaucracies to reduce duplication; and, (c) submit a
report to the Governor and Legislature detailing the
commission's findings.
6. Specifies that beginning on January 1, 2013, the
Controller, the Director of Finance, the Legislative
Analyst, the Legislative Counsel, the Milton Marks
"Little Hoover" Commission and the State Auditor must
develop recommendations for the closure and realignment
of state agencies for consideration by the commission.
(Recommendations must be reported to the commission by
July 15, 2013)
7. Requires that by January 1, 2014, at least one
commission member is to have "visited" each state
bureaucracy considered for realignment or closure. Also,
requires the commission to conduct public hearings, as
specified, as part of its review process.
8. Requires the commission to submit its final
recommendations to the Governor and Legislature by July
16, 2014 and requires the Governor, by August 15, 2014,
to either approve the recommendations or return the
report to the commission for revision, whereby the
commission would have one month to return a revised
report to the Governor. (The commission is not required
to incorporate the Governor's recommendations.)
9. Establishes that, if the Governor rejects the revised
commission report, the process ends for the year, but
authorizes the commission to submit a revised report the
following year after consideration and public hearings.
10. Stipulates that if the Governor approves the list, then
a Governor's Reorganization Plan (GRP) must be prepared
and submitted to the Legislature. The GRP is then
SB 953 (Strickland) continued
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subject to existing law and rules regarding GRPs.
11. Provides that if the GRP becomes effective, the
Director of Finance must compute the savings in state
expenditures that are forecast to occur due to the
closure or realignment of state bureaucracies included in
the GRP and transmit this information to the Governor and
Legislature.
12. Sunsets this Act on June 30, 2015.
EXISTING LAW
Existing law, the State Government Strategic Planning and
Performance and Review Act of 1994 (AB 2711 - V. Brown,
Chapter 779/94), requires each agency, department, office,
or commission for which strategic planning efforts are
recommended to develop a strategic plan, as specified, that
identifies, among other things, the steps being taken to
develop performance measures to implement a performance
budgeting system or a performance review. The Act also
requires that these entities report to the Governor and the
Joint Legislative Budget Committee by April 1 of each year
on the steps being taken to develop and adopt a strategic
plan.
As stipulated in the Government Code, the Governor is
required to submit any reorganization plan to the Milton
Marks "Little Hoover" Commission on California State
Government Organization and Economy at least 30 days prior
to submitting the plan to the Legislature. The Little
Hoover Commission's role in the reorganization process is
only advisory -- it reviews and submits a report to the
Governor and the Legislature within 30 days of the Plan
being submitted to the Legislature. Existing law also
provides that any GRP becomes law after 60 days unless
either House of the Legislature adopts a resolution
rejecting the proposal.
BACKGROUND
Purpose of SB 953: The author believes that ineffective
and inefficient bureaucracies cost California taxpayers a
great deal of money. Thus, this measure is intended to
establish a commission, modeled after the federal military
base realignment and closure commission, to make government
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more efficient and cost effective. The federal military
base realignment legislation called for an independent
commission to examine which military bases should be closed
or downsized.
The author states that "budgets for individual
bureaucracies are not colossal, but when taken as an
aggregate amount, make a substantial impact on the state
budget. In the end, general good government considerations
lose out to entrenched, duplicative and over-bloated
bureaucratic establishments? Both bureaucracies and
military bases have an established constituency and
financial incentive to lobby for individual expansion and
growth."
The author believes that "if California can duplicate the
success of the federal base closure commission future
legislatures will be spared the specter of multi-billion
dollar budget deficits and future taxpayers can be spared a
bureaucracy that is currently spending a larger portion of
their earnings and delivering less with it than at any time
in history."
Opponents of this measure contend that sufficient tools are
available to the Legislature in order to review state
agencies and determine their effectiveness. For example,
each year, the budget subcommittees of both houses review
the budgets of every state agency. Opponents note that
additionally, the Department of Finance and the Legislative
Analyst regularly review the budgets and activities of
every agency in state government and make recommendations
to the Legislature. Opponents simply do not believe that
an additional layer of bureaucracy will unearth the waste,
fraud and abuse that some claim exists.
PRIOR/RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 2213 (Donnelly) 2011-12 Session. Would establish the
Bureaucracy Realignment and Closure Commission in state
government with a specified membership and beginning on
January 1, 2014, the Controller, the Director of Finance,
the Legislative Analyst, and the Milton Marks "Little
Hoover" Commission would be required to develop
recommendations for the closure or realignment of state
bureaucracies for consideration by the commission, as
specified. Also, the commission, not later than July 15,
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2015, would be required to submit a report of its final
recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature that
establishes a list of state bureaucracies that are proposed
to be realigned or abolished. (Pending in Assembly policy
committee)
SB 835 (Strickland) 2009-10 Session. Similar to SB 953
(Strickland) of 2012. Also, contained an appropriation of
$250,000 from the General Fund for the commission's first
year of operation and capped total expenditures by the
commission at $500,000.
(Died on the Senate Appropriations Suspense File)
SB 971 (McClintock) 2007-08 Session. Similar to SB 835
(Strickland) of 2010, SB 9 of 2003, SB 1428 of 2002, AB 86
of 1999, and AB 19 of 1997 all by Mr. McClintock. (Died on
the Senate Appropriations Suspense File)
SB 9 (McClintock) 2003-04 Session. Similar to SB 835
(Strickland) of 2010, SB 971 of 2007, SB 1428 of 2002, AB
86 of 1999, and AB 19 of 1997 all by Mr. McClintock. (SB 9
passed the Senate on a vote of 37-0; the measure was
eventually gutted in the Assembly and used for another
purpose)
SB 1750 (Battin) 2003-04 Session. Would have established a
12-member independent commission in state government to
review and recommend state property for divestiture.
(Failed passage in this Committee)
SB 1428 (McClintock) 2001-02 Session. Similar to SB 835
(Strickland) of 2010, SB 971 of 2007, SB 9 of 2003, AB 86
of 1999 and AB 19 of 1997 all by Mr. McClintock. (Failed
passage in Assembly Appropriations)
AB 86 (McClintock) 1999-2000 Session. Similar to SB 835
(Strickland) of 2010, SB 971 of 2007, SB 9 of 2003, SB 1428
of 2002 and AB 19 of 1997, all by Mr. McClintock. (Failed
passage in Assembly policy committee)
AB 19 (McClintock) 1997-98 Session. Similar to SB 835
(Strickland) of 2010, SB 971 of 2007, SB 9 of 2003, SB 1428
of 2002, and AB 86 of 1999, all by Mr. McClintock. (Failed
passage in Assembly policy committee)
SUPPORT: As of April 20, 2012:
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Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association
National Tax-Limitation Committee
National Federation of Independent Business/California
People's Advocate, Inc.
OPPOSE: As of April 20, 2012:
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
Professional Engineers in California Government
Sierra Club California
FISCAL COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
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