BILL NUMBER: AB 495 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 6, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 3, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 21, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Campos
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
An act to add Article 6 (commencing with Section 12099.1)
12099) to Chapter 1.6 of Part 2 of Division 3
of Title 2 to the Government Code, relating to community investment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 495, as amended, Campos. Community investment.
Existing law authorizes the Governor's Office of Business and
Economic Development to, among other things, advance statewide
economic goals.
This bill would establish the California Community Investment
Initiative Program within the Governor'
s Office of Business and Economic development. The
initiative program would be governed by a
13 member Coordination and Oversight 14
member California Community Investment Council comprised of 6
citizens appointed by the Governor, 4 members of the Legislature, the
Treasurer, the Controller, and the Secretary of
the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, and the
Director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic
Development, as specified.
The initiative program would be
required to create a database of low-income neighborhoods, compile
and maintain an inventory of California public sector funding
resources and financing mechanisms, coordinate public sector
financial investment and public programs to assist low-income
communities to become business, development, and investment ready,
develop criteria for triple bottom-line equity funds, establish
overall triple bottom-line goals and standardized metrics for
economic, social, and environmental outcomes to be accepted by
eligible equity investment funds,
survey counties and cities to identify and inventory local
governments that want to partner with triple bottom-line
equity investment funds to invest in low-income
neighborhoods, establish and convene regular meetings of the
California Community Investment Network comprised of organizations
and institutions with expertise and resources to advise the
Coordination and Oversight California Community
Investment Council and eligible equity
investment fund managers, and report annually
biannually to the Legislature and the Governor
on the status and progress of the California Community Investment
Initiative and performance on goals and triple bottom-line outcomes,
as specified.
This bill would also make legislative findings and declarations.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
California Community Investment Initiative.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Despite having the largest state economy in the United States,
California has the highest poverty rate of any state, according
to the United States Census Bureau's new definition of poverty that
takes cost of living into consideration, with nearly a quarter
of its residents living in poverty.
(b) In this era of public budget constraints, public sector
dollars are insufficient to solve the problems of low-income
neighborhoods. Therefore, private sector market forces need to be
engaged to make substantial investments that produce a risk adjusted
market rate of return.
(c) Low-income neighborhoods constitute domestic emerging markets
with significant purchasing power and location efficiencies, but
suffer from social, public safety, broadband, and physical
infrastructure problems that contribute to market prejudices that
lead to disinvestment.
(d) To overcome these problems and market prejudices, low-income
neighborhoods need to become business, development, and
investment-ready through a partnership of government, private sector,
community, and the environmental leaders focused
on generating coordinated, focused, effective human services, public
safety, broadband, workforce, education, and physical infrastructure.
(e) A new class of real estate and business developments is
emerging that actively pursues economically, socially, and
environmentally responsible outcomes. These real estate and business
developments often are the result of investments from private sector
equity investment funds that generate
market-rate returns to investors, but are also legally
committed to improving economic, social ,
and environmental conditions and characteristics for the
existing residents in these neighborhoods. These private sector
investment mechanisms often are refereed
referred to as "triple bottom-line" equity
investment funds.
(f) Triple bottom-line equity investment
funds and the real estate and business developments resulting
from them are helping to reduce poverty and improve the social and
environmental dynamics of low-income neighborhoods. Triple
bottom-line equity investments can be encouraged
and the benefits from them can be enhanced and accelerated by
coordinated assistance from existing State of California programs and
funding resources.
(g) Many of these low-income
neighborhoods are at transit hubs or have the transit and mixed-use
characteristics in place to make development in them more climate
friendly than development elsewhere.
(h) The State of California should encourage responsible
businesses and real estate developments to locate and do business in
business and development-ready low-income neighborhoods in ways that
solve economic, social, and environmental problems rather than cause
them.
(i) To accomplish this, the State of California intends to
establish the California Community Investment Initiative to assist
low-income neighborhoods by encouraging private sector investment
consistent with the economic development and community improvement
strategies of the cities, counties, and regions where they are
located. It is the intent of the State of California that such
private sector investment is accomplished without permanent
displacement of existing residents in low-income neighborhoods.
SEC. 3. Article 6 (commencing with Section 12099.1)
12099) is added to Chapter 1.6 of Part 2 of
Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to read:
Article 6. California Community Investment Initiative
12099. For the purposes of this article, the following
definitions shall apply:
(a) "Poverty" means the supplemental poverty measure, established
by the United States Census Bureau in 2013 to incorporate cost of
living in the established rate of poverty.
(b) "Triple bottom-line investment funds" include, but are not
limited to, equity and debt investment vehicles that pursue market
and above market rates of financial return while at the same time
producing good jobs, affordable housing, and other economic, social,
and environmental benefits for the residents of the communities where
the investments are made.
12099.1. (a) The California Community Investment
Initiative Program is hereby established within
the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development
to encourage Development.
(b) The program shall be under the direct authority of the
director.
(c) The purpose of the program is to:
(1) Encourage private sector
investment in low-income neighborhoods to improve the economic,
environmental, and social conditions for the existing residents,
thereby helping improve the overall economic, environmental, and
social well-being for California. The
(2) Serve investors, employers, corporate executives, business
owners, and site location consultants who are considering low-income
neighborhoods for business investment and expansion.
(3) Coordinate state programs and funding resources that can be
used to address poverty reduction in California and to assist
low-income neighborhoods to become business, development, and
investment ready.
(d) The California Community
Investment Initiative Program shall be
supported and staffed by the Governor's Office of Business and
Economic Development using existing resources.
(e) In implementing the program, the director shall establish and
implement a process for establishing public education programs and
providing technical assistance to private sector investors.
(b)
(f) The California Community Investment
Initiative Program shall be governed by a
13 14 member Coordination and
Oversight California Community Investment
Council comprised of:
(1) Six persons appointed by the Governor, comprised of three
citizens members with private sector
business or investment expertise and three citizens
, two members with community development
expertise , and one representative of organized labor
.
(2) Four members of the Legislature, two from the Senate appointed
by the President pro Tempore of the Senate
Committee on Rules , one from each of the two political parties
with the most representatives in the Senate, and two from the
Assembly appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, one from each of
the two political parties with the most representatives in the
Assembly. The members shall have relevant program expertise
to contribute to the initiative. The members shall be
nonvoting members of the Coordination and Oversight
California Community Investment Council and
shall participate in the activities of the council only to the extent
that their participation is compatible with their respective
positions as Members of the Legislature.
(3) The Treasurer.
(4) The Controller.
(5) The Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing
Agency.
(6) The Director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic
Development, shall serve as chair of the council.
12099.2. The California Community Investment Initiative
Program shall do all of the following:
(a) Develop and annually update a database of low-income
neighborhoods in California by county and city with relevant
information about each neighborhood, including socioeconomic
demographic data, descriptions of pertinent characteristics to inform
private sector invests, investments
, such as local land use plans and zoning or other
development designations, and commitments from local governments to
support private sector investments. These neighborhoods shall be
known as California Community Investment Neighborhoods. The
Coordination and Oversight California
Community Investment Council shall adopt criteria for
whereby an eligible low-income neighborhood
can become a California Community Investment Neighborhood .
(b) Compile and maintain a current inventory of California public
sector funding resources and financing mechanisms that may be
allocated to or utilized in low-income neighborhoods with a
description of the amount of available funding, criteria for
allocation, and application and decisionmaking criteria. In
doing this, the California Community Investment Council
shall use the inventory of business incentives, public sector funding
resources, and financing mechanisms maintained by the
Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development and included
in the State of California Business Investment Guide. The
inventory shall assess include, but not be
limited to, an assessment of the role and impact of all of the
following entities and programs on low-income neighborhoods:
(1) California Department of Insurance Organized
Investment Insurance's California Organized Investment
Network .
(2) Federal and State Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program.
(3) California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation
Financing Authority.
(4) California Pollution Control Financing Authority.
(5) California Transportation Financing Authority.
(6) Industrial Development Finance Authority.
(7) The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.
(8) Health and Human Services Agency.
(9) State Department of Education.
(10) Natural Resources Agency.
(11) Energy Commission.
(12) Public Utilities Commission.
(13) Local transportation authorities and the Transportation
Agency, including all transportation funding proposed by the
Department of Transportation or allocated by the California
Transportation Commission for expenditure by state or metropolitan
planning organizations.
(14) Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund administered by the California
Environmental Protection Agency.
(15) California Pollution Control Financing Authority.
(16) Recycling Market Development Zone administered by CalRecycle.
(c) Coordinate public sector financial investment and public
programs to assist low-income communities that are eligible
California Community Investment Neighborhoods to become
business, development, and investment ready or complement
and to attract private sector triple bottom-line
equity fund investments. These programs shall
include at least , but not be limited to,
the following purposes:
(1) Economic development, including research and development,
manufacturing, small business, and entrepreneurship growth
and real estate development that generates in jobs.
(2) Housing rehabilitation and construction.
(3) School construction, education, and academic performance
improvement.
(4) Workforce preparation and training.
(5) Public safety, community policing, crime prevention,
rehabilitation, and probation.
(6) Public health, social services, and other human services.
(7) Mental health services.
(8) Alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and treatment.
(9) Recreation and community arts and music programs.
(10) Transportation and other mobility infrastructure, including
public transit, walkways, and bicycle paths.
(11) Other infrastructure, including water, sewer, solid waste,
recycling, and lighting.
(12) Broadband deployment for high-speed Internet access, other
information technology infrastructure, and smart grid.
(13) Energy efficiency, weatherization, and renewable energy
resources.
(14) Environmental quality, resource recycling, community gardens,
and local food sourcing services.
(15) Homeless facilities and services.
(d) Develop and adopt criteria for identifying eligible
triple bottom-line equity investments
funds that will serve as partners and invest in
enterprises and employers that generate permanent jobs, including
investments to assist in starting-up, locating, and expanding
employers in low-income neighborhoods. These criteria shall include
the spirit and intent of the preponderance of the following criteria
as refined and adopted by the Coordination and Oversight
California Community Investment Council:
(1) Commitment to locate investments in a low-income neighborhood.
(2) Generation of living wage jobs with benefits for low-income
residents.
(3) Projected multiplier effect for generation of additional
employment.
(4) Provision of employment benefits, such as health care,
retirement plans, profit sharing, and employee stock ownership.
(5) Commitment to local hiring and job training.
(6) Engagement of local, women, and minority business enterprises
as suppliers and contractors.
(7) Development and sponsorship of employee training programs,
including job training and financial education.
(8) Provision of onsite or nearby child care for children of
employees.
(9) Use of green building design, construction, renovation, or
operations.
(10) Implementation of energy and other resource efficiency,
recycling, or pollution prevention programs.
(11) Deployment of broadband high-speed Internet access and other
information technologies to support and increase productivity and
reduce impacts on the environment.
(12) Implementation of workplace safety or effective ergonomic
programs.
(13) Engagement with the local community through volunteer
organizations, local school support programs, and other community
initiatives.
(14) Production of economically, socially, or environmentally
beneficial products and services.
(15) Receipt of green business certification.
(16) Production of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),
Corporate Sustainability, and Creating Shared Value (CSV) reporting.
(e) Develop and adopt criteria for eligible triple bottom-line
equity investment funds that invest in
real estate developments to assist in constructing, expanding,
renovating, and rehabilitating buildings in low-income neighborhoods
that accommodate all allowed land use approved and permitted by the
local government land use regulations. The criteria shall include the
spirit and intent of the preponderance of the following,
as refined and adopted by the Coordination and Oversight
California Community Investment Council:
(1) Commitment to locate investments in a low-income neighborhood
that benefit low-income residents .
(2) Consistency of development with local government land use
plans and alignment with local government priorities.
(3) Generation of construction jobs with living wages and
benefits.
(4) Establishment of job training and apprentice programs for
local residents.
(5) Ownership or equity participation by a local, woman, or
minority developer or use of local, women, or minority business
enterprises as contractors or subcontractors.
(6) Construction of affordable housing, especially as part of a
larger mixed-income, mixed-use project to optimize synergies among
land uses.
(7) Generation of permanent living wage jobs.
(8) Retention or generation of permanent living wage jobs.
(9) Use of green construction materials and practices.
(10) Incorporation of energy efficiencies, waste reduction, and
renewable energy resources.
(11) Implementation of smart development practices deploying
broadband for high-speed Internet access for smart infrastructure and
smart buildings, optimizing the utility of a smart grid.
(12) Incorporation of a multimodal transportation system that
optimizes walking, bicycling, public transit, and other strategies to
reduce single-occupant vehicle trips.
(13) Design of development consistent with the concept and
principles for livable communities.
(14) Accommodation of green and clean technology employers.
(15) Implementation of low-impact development practices
incorporating native vegetation, soil preservation, water use
conservation, recycling and other efficiencies, and pervious
pavement.
(16) Incorporation of parks, recreational areas, open spaces, and
other environmental amenities.
(17) Accommodation of locations for small and local businesses.
(18) Establishment of space for neighborhood organizations,
community centers, child care centers, and other nonprofit
community-based organizations.
(19) Use of bioregional development practices connecting local and
regional sustainable food production with urban consumption.
(20) Acquisition of LEED certification for buildings and
neighborhoods.
(f) Establish overall triple bottom-line goals and standardized
metrics for economic, social, and environmental outcomes that shall
be accepted by all eligible equity investment
funds.
(g) Gather evidence and conduct public forums to identify a broad
array of incentives that will encourage triple bottom-line
equity fund investments in low-income neighborhoods and
take the following actions:
(1) Prepare a report to the Legislature and Governor.
(2) Establish incentives for which there is existing legal and
regulatory authority.
(3) Recommend appropriate amendments to existing laws and
regulations and work with the Legislature and the Governor to secure
adoption.
(h) Survey counties and cities to identify and inventory local
governments that want to partner with triple bottom-line
equity investment funds to invest in low-income
neighborhoods. This survey shall determine if the local government
has done any of the following:
(1) Approved within the last 10 years a general plan, specific
plan, or other land use plan or zoning regulation on which an
investor can rely to govern and control development.
(2) Identified local public funding or other resources that have
been or will be committed to the low-income neighborhood to
complement a triple bottom-line equity fund
investment.
(3) Designated a person to coordinate alignment of public
resources and implementation of development plans with a fund
manager.
(4) Established county and city school integrated human services
teams to serve the low-income neighborhood with goals and
accountability to increase employment, improve education, reduce
poverty, reduce crime, and improve health status.
(5) Committed to cooperate in and assist with monitoring and
tracking performance outcomes in the low-income neighborhoods.
(i) Establish and convene regular meetings of the California
Community Investment Network comprised of organizations and
institutions with expertise and resources to advise the
Coordination and Oversight California Community
Investment Council and eligible equity
investment fund managers.
(j) Report annually biannually to
the Legislature and the Governor on the status and progress of the
California Community Investment Initiative and performance on goals
and triple bottom-line outcomes pursuant to subdivision (f).
12099.3. (a) The California Community Investment
Initiative Program shall encourage significant
private sector commitment, cooperation, and collaboration to invest
private capital in low-income neighborhoods through eligible triple
bottom-line equity funds with the goal of obtaining at least one
billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) of new investment by triple
bottom-line investment funds in triple bottom- line real
estate developments and businesses located in low-income
California neighborhoods . The California Community Investment
Initiative Program shall give priority
consideration for award of state assistance from public resources
and programs , herein identified, to low-income
neighborhoods into which investments are being made by each
fund that is capitalized with at least one billion dollars
($1,000,000,000) in investment funds. The Coordination and Oversight
Council shall adopt criteria and a process for prioritizing
assistance to low-income neighborhoods into which investments are
being made by triple bottom-line equity funds that are capitalized
with less than one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) in investment
funds. that adopt and implement strategies to become
business, development, and investment ready and collaborate with the
California Community Investment Program to attract investment by
triple bottom- line funds.
(b) The Coordination and Oversight
California Community Investment Council shall adopt criteria
for an eligible triple bottom-line equity fund that shall include at
least the following:
(1) The fund shall be legally structured to comply with both the
spirit and intent of the preponderance of the relevant criteria
delineated in subdivisions (d) and (e) of Section 12099.2, as refined
and adopted by the Coordination and Oversight
California Community Investment Council, including triple
bottom-line goals and outcomes with explicit metrics.
(2) The fund shall be managed by a reputable fund manager with a
track record of experience and performance with triple bottom-line
funds.
(3) The fund shall be prepared by experienced personnel to lead
and manage implementation of coordinated state and local government
public funding or other resources. This shall be accomplished either
by the fund manager or through a contractual relationship between the
fund manager and an appropriate nonprofit organization.
(3) The fund shall attain a scale of at least one hundred million
dollars ($100,000,000) in capital.
(4) The fund shall be committed to working with relevant local
government jurisdictions to optimize the alignment of state public
funding and resources and local government funding and resources.
(5) The fund shall include experienced personnel to manage
coordination with appropriate state and local government public
funding or other resources. This shall be accomplished either by the
fund manager or through a contractual relationship between the fund
manager and an appropriate nonprofit organization.
(5)
(6) The fund shall be organized to track performance
and report metrics for triple bottom-line goals and outcomes.
(c) If requested by a local jurisdiction, the California Community
Investment Initiative shall provide technical assistance to review,
refine, and advise on local land use plans and zoning to increase
attraction of private investment by triple bottom-line equity funds.
(c) The California Community Investment Program shall give
priority consideration to working with triple bottom-line funds that
meet the criteria established by the California Community Investment
Council, with first attention to those funds with the largest amount
of capital. The California Community Investment Program in the
Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development shall assist
funds meeting these criteria to identify and make appropriate
investments in investment ready low-income communities and shall work
with these funds to coordinate all of the appropriate state and
local financial and programmatic resources to assist these
investments to succeed.