BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1179
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1179 (Bocanegra)
As Amended January 6, 2014
Majority vote
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 7-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-4
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|Ayes:|Achadjian, Levine, Alejo, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Bradford, Gordon, Mullin, | |Bradford, |
| |Rendon | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Melendez, Waldron |Nays:|Bigelow, Allen, Linder, |
| | | |Wagner |
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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 (Núñez), Chapter 488,
Statutes of 2006, 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.
AB 1179
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, there are minor absorbable costs for the Department
of Education.
COMMENTS : 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 Agency,
the director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Research,
and a public member appointed by the Governor.
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
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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."
Support arguments: Adding the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to the SGC will help to integrate K-12 school
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.
Analysis Prepared by : Debbie Michel / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958
FN: 0002988