BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1156
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1156 (V. Manuel Pérez)
As Amended May 13, 2013
Majority vote
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 7-1 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Achadjian, Levine, Alejo, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Bradford, Gordon, Mullin, | |Bradford, |
| |Rendon | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, |
| | | |Ammiano, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Melendez |Nays:|Harkey, Bigelow, |
| | | |Donnelly, Linder, Wagner |
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SUMMARY : Excludes improvements on land from the total assessed
value of land used to determine the weighted vote of a landowner
in the Palo Verde Irrigation District. Specifically, this bill :
1)Excludes the assessed value of improvements on the land from
the total assessed value
of land used to calculate a landowner's weighted vote in the
Palo Verde Irrigation District (PVID).
2)Requires PVID to hold a public hearing about the changes to
the weighted vote system.
3)Requires PVID to provide public notice by placing an
advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation, and by
first-class mail to each landowner voter in the district, as
specified.
4)Provides that if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that this bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those
costs shall be made pursuant to current law governing state
mandated local costs.
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5)Makes findings and declarations.
6)Makes other non-substantive and technical changes.
EXISTING LAW establishes the Palo Verde Irrigation District Act,
and specifically:
1)Authorizes any person, firm, or corporation owning any real
property and improvements, or any interest in real property
and any improvements to vote in any election pertaining to the
affairs of the district.
2)Provides one vote for each $100 of assessed valuation or
fraction greater than $50 for each qualified property owner.
Determines the total number of votes any voter is entitled to
cast by dividing the total assessed value of all parcels owned
by the voter by 100.
3)Requires the assessed valuation to be the equalized assessment
roll of the district preceding the election.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill is keyed a state reimbursable mandate.
However, it is unclear if the district is an entity eligible for
reimbursement and if a claim would be large enough to meet the
minimum set by the Commission on State Mandates.
COMMENTS : PVID was established in 1923 and is comprised of
mostly farmland occupying about 189 square miles of territory in
Riverside and Imperial Counties. PVID contains approximately
131,298 acres and manages and delivers water to land within its
jurisdiction. PVID is governed by a seven-member board of
trustees elected at large among owners of property within
district. Current law limits voting rights in PVID to
landowners and establishes a weighted vote system based on the
assessed value of real property, including improvements made by
landowners. The weighted vote system provides one vote for each
$100 dollars
of assessed property, including improvements and divides the
total assessed value by 100 to determine the number of votes for
each landowner.
This bill makes changes to the weighted vote system in PVID and
deletes the assessment
AB 1156
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of improvements to property from the total assessed value used
to calculate each landowners weighted vote. Under this bill the
assessed value of land alone would be used by the calculation in
current law to determine each landowner's weighted vote. This
bill requires PVID to hold a public hearing about the changes to
the weighted vote system. Prior to the public hearing PVID
would also have to provide specified public notification by
placing an advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation,
and by first-class mail to each landowner voter. This bill is
sponsored by PVID.
According to the sponsor, "Given the size and the abundance of
sunshine in the geographic location of the PVID, it has been
identified as a preferred location for solar development. The
PVID was identified in the 2011 programmatic environmental
impact statement of the United States Department of Energy and
the Interior identified the region as an area available for
solar development."
According to the Association of California Water Agencies in
support, "These new solar projects typically utilize a few
thousand acres of land but the solar equipment can be worth
billions of dollars. Because of the relatively high value of
the improvements compared to the size of the land being used,
the landowner of a solar project built under these terms would
have a disproportionate share of the district's votes. This
bill would ensure that the votes of irrigated landowners would
not be diluted by any potential large solar projects in the
district's service area." According to the author and sponsor
none of these projects have been developed in PVID yet.
The California Constitution provides that the right to vote or
serve in elected office may not be conditioned on a
landownership qualification. However, in 1973, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled in Salyer Land Co. v. Tulare Water District, that
the California statute requiring a landownership qualification
did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.
Constitution. The court ruled there was no violation because
those districts don't exercise normal governmental authority and
their activities disproportionally affect landowners.
California's 93 irrigation districts function under a range of
statutes that are a hybrid of registered voter and
landowner-voter type districts. In general, registered voters
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are eligible to vote in district elections, but board members
must be landowners of the district. Historically, the
Legislature has recognized landowners' special concerns for
irrigation districts' operations by creating unique separate
statutes that preserve the landowner requirement to vote in
districts that primarily deliver agricultural water. Some of
these districts have landownership, but not residency
requirements. Some districts, including PVID, Camp Far West
Montague, and Cordua Irrigation Districts use weighted votes in
their elections, based on the relative value of land under
ownership.
The Legislature may wish to note the intent of this bill as
expressed by the author and supporters is to "ensure voting
power is equally distributed among all landowners and does not
favor those with preferred sites for renewable energy
development". This bill does not just eliminate the assessment
of improvements for solar energy projects, it also eliminates
the assessment of any improvement made by any landowner. The
Legislature may wish to consider whether this bill will harm
individual landowners who make investments in their land, pay
increased assessments due to the improvements, but would not
have that investment go toward the calculation of their weighted
vote.
If the Legislature finds the expressed concern brought forward
by the author and sponsor as necessitating a change in statute,
the Legislature may wish to ask the author to consider a
different approach to accomplish the stated goal of ensuring
that voting power is equally distributed among landowners.
SB 614 (Wolk), pending in the Assembly, would delete the
landowner qualification in statute for most irrigation district
board members, but does not address the districts that have
unique statutes. SB 614 builds upon several legislative
attempts that have sought to limit landowner qualifications for
board directors. In 2000, the Legislature deleted the landowner
qualification for board members of irrigation districts that
provide electricity (SB 1939 (Alarcón), Chapter 1041, Statutes
of 2000). In 2006, the Legislature removed the landowner
requirement for irrigation districts that provide 3,000 or more
acre-feet of water to residential customers or that have more
than 3,000 customers (AB 159 (Salinas), Chapter 847, Statutes of
2006).
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Support arguments: Supporters argue that this bill will ensure
that voting power is equally distributed amongst all land
owners, and will not only favor those who have preferred sites
for solar energy development.
Opposition arguments: This bill may have unintended
consequences for current landowners in PVID that make
improvements to their land.
Analysis Prepared by : Misa Yokoi-Shelton / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958
FN: 0000744