BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 123 (Corbett) - Environmental and land use courts.
Amended: May 2, 2013 Policy Vote: Judiciary 4-3
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 13, 2013 Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 123 would require the Judicial Council,
commencing July 1, 2014, to direct the creation of an
environmental and land use division within two or more superior
courts within each of the six appellate districts to process
civil proceedings brought pursuant to CEQA or specified subject
areas including air quality, biological resources, climate
change, hazards and hazardous materials, land use planning, and
water quality. In addition, this bill:
Requires the Judicial Council to, by rule of court,
establish appropriate standards and protocols for the
division, as specified, including educational requirements
and other qualifications for specialized judges assigned to
the division.
Increases the fees for the issuance, renewal, retention,
duplication, and transfer of environmental license plates by
$10.
Requires the Controller to transfer $10 of each fee
collected for an environmental license plate on and after
January 1, 2014, to the Environmental and Land Use Court
Support Account newly created within the California
Environmental License Plate Fund (ELP Fund) for use, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, by the Judicial Council to
supplement funding for the operation of the division, as
specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Major first-year costs to the courts potentially in excess
of $14 million (General Fund*) to establish and staff at
least 12 environmental and land use divisions within the
superior courts, partially offset by funds transferred from
the ELP Fund. Ongoing staffing costs upwards of $7 million
for 0.5 judicial officers for each of the new courts
required by the bill.
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One-time educational program development costs of $2.4
million (General Fund*), based on a per subject area cost of
$400,000 in the areas of air quality, biological resources,
climate change, hazards and hazardous materials, land use
planning, and water quality. Ongoing educational program
delivery costs of $55,000 to satisfy the continuing judicial
education requirements.
One-time costs of about $100,000 (General Fund*) to adopt
12 new rules of court and seven new forms, including staff
time for development and additional costs for translations.
Potential ongoing net increased revenues to the ELP Fund
of $9.1 million to the extent a $10 increase is imposed on
the issuance, renewal, retention, and duplication fees for
environmental license plates. This estimate assumes no
change in the annual number of license plates of 915,000
(excluding transfers).
To the extent the higher fee has the effect of reducing
the number of environmental license plates issued by 10
percent, overall revenues to the ELP Fund would increase by
$4.7 million, however, $8.2 million would be transferred to
the newly created Environmental and Land Use Court Support
Account. The funds remaining would reflect a net decrease of
$3.5 million in ELP funds available for existing projects
and programs currently supported by these funds.
One-time programming costs to the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) potentially in excess of $200,000 (Motor
Vehicle Account) to accommodate the fee increase.
*Trial Court Trust Fund
Background: The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),
enacted in 1970, requires state and local agencies to follow a
set protocol to disclose and evaluate the significant
environmental impacts of proposed projects and adopt feasible
measures to mitigate those impacts. The environmental review
process required by CEQA consists of: 1) determining if the
activity is a project, 2) determining if the project is exempt
from CEQA, and, 3) performing an initial study to identify the
environmental impacts and, depending on the findings, prepare a
Negative Declaration (no significant impacts), Mitigated
Negative Declaration (significant impacts but project is revised
to avoid or mitigate those impacts), or an Environmental Impact
Report (significant impacts).
To enforce the requirements of CEQA, a civil action may be
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brought under several code sections to attack, review, set
aside, void or annul the acts or decisions of a public agency
for noncompliance with CEQA. Superior courts in all counties
with a population of more than 200,000 are required to designate
one or more judges to develop expertise in CEQA so that they
will be available to hear and quickly resolve CEQA actions,
which are given preference over all other civil actions.
In order to further expedite those proceedings and provide more
consistent rulings, this bill seeks to create at least twelve
environmental and land use divisions within the superior courts
to hear cases relating to CEQA, the environment, and land use.
Proposed Law: SB 123 would require the Judicial Council to
direct the creation of environmental and land use divisions
within at least 12 of the 58 superior courts of the state to
process civil proceedings brought pursuant to CEQA or specified
subject areas including air quality, biological resources,
climate change, hazards and hazardous materials, land use
planning, and water quality. In addition, this bill requires the
Judicial Council to, by rule of court:
Identify statutes in those specified areas that would be
within the jurisdiction of the environmental and land use
court.
Establish appropriate standards and protocols for the
environmental and land use court division to accomplish the
objectives of consistency, expediency, and expertise,
including educational requirements and other qualifications
for specialized judges assigned to the division.
In order to supplement funding for the operation of the
environmental and land use court division, this bill:
Increases the fees for the issuance, renewal, retention,
and duplication of environmental license plates by $10
(transfers are not included).
Requires the Controller to transfer $10 of each fee
collected for an environmental license plate on and after
January 1, 2014, to the Environmental and Land Use Court
Support Account newly created within the California
Environmental License Plate Fund (ELP Fund) for use, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, by the Judicial Council to
supplement funding for the operation of the division, as
specified.
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Related Legislation: AB 515 (Dickinson) 2013 would establish a
CEQA compliance division of the superior court in a county in
which the Attorney General maintains an office and would vest
the division with original jurisdiction over actions of
proceedings brought pursuant to CEQA and joined matters related
to land use and environmental laws. This bill is pending in the
Assembly Committee on Judiciary.
AB 900 (Buchanan/Gordon) Chapter 354/2011 enacted the Jobs and
Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of
2011, and established specified judicial review procedures for
the judicial review of environmental impact report and approvals
granted for a leadership project related to the development of a
residential, retail, commercial, sports, cultural,
entertainment, or recreational use project, or clean renewable
energy manufacturing project..
SB 292 (Padilla) Chapter 353/2011 established expedited judicial
review procedures and required implementation of specified
traffic and air quality mitigation measures under CEQA for the
proposed downtown Los Angeles football stadium and convention
center project.
Staff Comments: The Judicial Council has indicated that by
condensing all CEQA, land use and other specified environmental
cases into a minimum of 12 new CEQA and land use courts, and
requiring that those courts develop and maintain expertise to
hear and resolve these cases, would put pressure on the 12
courts to hear a caseload currently managed by 58 courts.
It is estimated that approximately 200 CEQA cases are filed each
year, however, the number of land use and other environmental
case filings that would be covered under the provisions of this
bill is unknown. It is very difficult to estimate the precise
burdens the 12 new environmental and land use courts will face.
Given the tremendous range of complexity of CEQA cases, and
taking into consideration the statewide caseload that would be
condensed into 12 specialty courts, there will be a need for
additional judges and their full complement of staff attorneys
and clerks. Assuming no more than three of the most complex CEQA
cases each year (3 cases X 500 hours = 1500 hours each year), 30
relatively "simple" CEQA cases (30 cases X 10 hours = 300 hours
each year), and 167 annual CEQA cases requiring 80 or more hours
of judicial officer time (167 cases X 80 hours = 13,360 hours
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each year), using the standard judicial work year of 1720 hours
(215 days at 8 hours per day), the Judicial Council estimates
nearly 9 full-time dedicated judges would be required to handle
this specialized caseload.
New Judicial Officers Needed: The annual cost for a new
judgeship is $1.19 million, including wages, benefits and
operating expenses and equipment (OE&E) for the judge as well as
staff including research attorney, judicial/legal secretary, and
court reporters. Assuming 0.5 new judicial officers for each of
the new courts required by the bill, the costs are estimated at
$7.14 million annually. Start-up/first year costs of these six
positions is estimated to be more than double the ongoing annual
costs as a result of the one-time costs associated with
facilities and the start-up costs for OE&E.
Judicial Officer Education: This bill requires that the Judicial
Council establish "appropriate standards and protocols?including
educational requirements and other qualifications for
specialized judges assigned to the [environmental and land use
court] division." The council's Center for Judiciary Education
and Research, using the curriculum development costs for its
current CEQA education program as a model, calculates that the
land use and environmental training components of the bill could
cost the branch $2.4 million in first-time educational program
development costs (not including costs associated with updating
the curriculum) per subject area ($406,000 for curriculum
development in the areas of air quality, biological resources,
climate change, hazards and hazardous materials, land use
planning, and water quality), and $55,000 each year for
educational program delivery to satisfy requirements for
continuing judicial education.
Rules of Court and Forms: The changes required by the bill will
necessitate the adoption of as many as 12 new rules of court and
seven new forms. Taking into consideration the staff time
involved in the rule and form process, plus additional expenses
for the translation of forms, one-time costs are estimated at
nearly $100,000. This cost estimate does not include the time of
committee members, commentators, court staff, or others who
contribute to the development and review process.
Statutory Research to Establish Jurisdiction: This bill also
requires the Judicial Council to identify the statutes within
the stated subject areas (CEQA, air quality, biological
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resources, climate change, hazards and hazardous materials, land
use planning, and water quality) that will be within the
jurisdiction of the new environmental and land use court
divisions. No cost estimate for the research time necessary to
meet this mandate has been completed, but costs could be
significant.
This bill proposes to supplement funding for the operation of
the environmental and land use court division by increasing the
existing fee for environmental license plates by $10. Funds
would be used for judges, staff attorneys, court support staff,
an annual training program covering the legal issues within the
jurisdiction of the division, and general operating costs of the
division.
The California Environmental Protection Program, which is
overseen by the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency,
receives approximately $43 million in annual revenues (after
about $2 million is transferred to the DMV for reimbursement of
its administrative costs) from the sale of personalized motor
vehicle license plates by the DMV. Revenues are deposited in the
California Environmental License Plate (ELP) Fund and expended
across over 20 different departments and agencies to support
various programs and projects. Funds expended must meet one or
more of specified environmental purposes. The Governor's Budget
reflects a 2013-14 year-end balance of $8.7 million in the ELP
Fund, with projected operational and project/program
expenditures of $42 million.
The existing fee for the issuance of an environmental license
plate is $48. The renewal or duplication fee is $38 for these
license plates. This bill proposes to increase the issuance fee
by $10 to $58, and increase the renewal/duplication fee to $48.
The DMV indicates approximately 915,000 specialized license
plates are in circulation (not including transfers, which are
not included in the fee increase). While the increased fee could
potentially result in a net increase in fee revenue to the ELP
Fund, it is unknown to what degree the higher fee could result
in fewer license plates issued or renewed. To the extent the
higher fee has the effect of reducing the number of
environmental license plates issued by 10 percent, overall
revenues to the ELP Fund would increase by $4.7 million,
however, $8.2 million would be transferred to the newly created
Environmental and Land Use Court Support Account, which would
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reflect a net decrease of $3.5 million in ELP funds available
for existing projects/programs.
In order to effectuate the fee increase, the DMV is estimated to
incur one-time reprogramming costs potentially in excess of
$200,000 (Motor Vehicle Account).