BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 909
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 17, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 909 (Gray) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill establishes the Metal Theft Task Force Program (MTTFP)
to help local law enforcement deter, investigate, and prosecute
metal theft and related metal theft crimes. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC),
on or after January 15, 2015, to establish and administer the
MTTFP, including adoption of regulations and specific
guidelines and procedures for funding regional efforts.
2)Establishes the MTTF Fund (Fund) within the State Treasury.
Specifies the fund shall consist of moneys deposited into the
fund from the "federal government, industry, and citizen
sources."
3)States the MTTFP shall not be implemented until the Department
of Finance determines sufficient funds have been deposited in
the Fund to implement the program and until the Legislature
appropriates funds for this purpose.
4)Specifies that up to 10% of the funds may 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.
5)Requires the BSCC to develop specific guidelines and
administrative procedures for the selection of regional task
forces to receive funds.
AB 909
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6)Requires the BSCC to regularly review program efficacy, and
provide the Legislature and the governor an annual report, as
specified.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)To the extent "federal government, industry, and citizen
sources" fund the MTTFP Fund, there would be commensurate
program development, administrative and evaluation
expenditures, likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,
with grants to actually fund the local proposals presumably
well in excess of development, administrative and evaluation
costs.
2)The state currently provides more than $500 million in direct
subsidies to local law enforcement, including the Central
Valley and Central Coast Rural Crime Prevention Programs, at
almost $4 million per year. These two programs are charged
with developing "rural crime prevention programs which contain
a system for reporting rural crimes that enable the swift
recovery of stolen goods and the apprehension of criminal
suspects." AB 909 specifies that the counties not funded by
the existing rural crime prevention programs receive MTTFP
funding priority. The 13 counties currently-funded are:
Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Monterey, San Joaquin,
San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Benito,
Stanislaus and Tulare.
COMMENTS
Rationale . The author cites the well-known scourge of metal
thefts that the author contends particularly plagues farmers and
ranchers. According to the bill sponsor, the California Farm
Bureau, "California Farmers are seeing a sharp increase in the
rate of metal theft. Thieves strip copper wires from pumps and
steal other metal such as sprinkler heads and irrigation pipes
from farms. The cost of replacing copper wire on an irrigation
pump ranges from $1,500 to $4,000. When the irrigation pump is
damaged in the theft the repair costs can reach tens of
thousands of dollars. Yet this cost only covers repair of the
pump, not the cost of potential crop damage caused by lack of
irrigation while the pump was unusable.
"Metal theft is not only impacting California's farmers and
ranchers, utilities throughout the state are seeing utility
AB 909
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lines cut and stripped of copper wire and construction companies
are losing wire and pipe to thieves. Cities and counties are
seeing copper wiring stripped from traffic lights raising
significant public safety concerns."
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081