BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1179
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 15, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
K.H. "Katcho" Achadjian, Chair
AB 1179 (Bocanegra) - As Amended: January 6, 2014
SUBJECT : Strategic Growth Council.
SUMMARY : Adds the Superintendent of Public Instruction or his
or her designee to the membership of the Strategic Growth
Council.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) and requires
the SGC to manage and award financial assistance to Councils
of Governments (COGs), Metropolitan Planning Organizations
(MPOs), Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs),
cities, counties, and Joint Powers Authorities (JPAs) to
develop, adopt, or implement a regional plan or other planning
instrument consistent with a regional plan that improves air
and water quality, improves natural resource protection,
increases the availability of affordable housing, improves
transportation, meets the goals of AB 32, and encourages
sustainable land use.
2)Defines the membership of the SGC to include the secretaries
from the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, the
Transportation Agency, the Health and Human Services Agency,
the Environmental Protection Agency, the Natural Resources
Agency, the director of the Governor's Office of Planning and
Research, and a public member appointed by the Governor.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed fiscal.
COMMENTS :
1)This bill adds the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI),
or his or her designee, to the membership of the SGC. This
bill is author-sponsored.
The current membership of the SGC includes the secretaries
from the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, the
Transportation Agency, the Health and Human Services Agency,
the Environmental Protection Agency, the Natural Resources
AB 1179
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Agency, the director of the Governor's Office of Planning and
Research, and a public member appointed by the Governor.
2)According to the author, "In recent years, the state has taken
significant steps to better align statewide transportation,
energy, and land use infrastructure investments in order to
promote sustainability, efficient use of resources, and
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions levels. Evidence of
this shift was seen with the passage of SB 732 (Steinberg,
2008) which established the California Strategic Growth
Council (SGC), a cabinet level committee tasked with
coordinating the activities of member state agencies to
improve air and water quality, protect natural resources and
agriculture lands, increase the availability of affordable
housing, promote public health, improve transportation,
encourage greater infill and compact development, revitalize
community and urban centers, assist state and local entities
in the planning of sustainable communities, and meeting the
goals of AB 32 (Núñez, 2006).
"However, despite the importance of schools as community
infrastructure and their impact on the state's sustainable
communities priorities, the state's K-12 facility program
remains wholly disconnected from these broader efforts to
align infrastructure investments around a common set of goals.
Schools, Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), and the School
Facilities Program (SFP) have been virtually left out of
California's state policy framework on sustainable communities
planning. At the state planning level, there is no K-12
infrastructure investment representation on the SGC.
"In 2010, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
created the Schools of the Future Initiative to provide
recommendations in the area of School Facility Program Reform,
among others. Subsequently, in 2012 the California Department
of Education commissioned a report by the University of
California Berkeley, Center for Cities and Schools that
analyzed and expanded upon many of these recommendations.
This bill seeks to implement one of the recommendations from
that report by placing the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, or his or her designee, on the Strategic Growth
Council."
3)Support arguments : Adding the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to the SGC will help to integrate K-12 school
AB 1179
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infrastructure investments in sustainable communities policy
and implementation.
Opposition arguments : Opponents argue that the addition of
the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the SGC continues
the layer of bureaucracy over which the taxpayers have no
oversight.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
California Right to Life Committee, Inc.
Analysis Prepared by : Debbie Michel / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958