BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                     SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
                            Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
          

          BILL NO:  SB 1462                     HEARING:  4/24/14
          AUTHOR:  Governance & Finance CommitteeFISCAL:  No
          VERSION:  4/9/14                      TAX LEVY:  No
          CONSULTANT:  Weinberger               

                      LOCAL GOVERNMENT OMNIBUS ACT OF 2014
          

          Proposes several changes to state laws governing local  
          governments' powers and duties. 


                           Background and Existing Law  

          Each year, local officials discover problems with the state  
          statutes that affect counties, cities, special districts,  
          and redevelopment agencies, as well as the laws on land use  
          planning and development.  These minor problems do not  
          warrant separate (and expensive) bills.  According to the  
          Legislative Analyst, in 2001-02 the cost of producing a  
          bill was $17,890.

          Legislators respond by combining several of these minor  
          topics into an annual "omnibus bill."  In 2013, for  
          example, the local government omnibus bill was 
          SB 184 (Senate Governance & Finance Committee) which  
          contained 12 noncontroversial statutory changes, avoiding  
          about $200,000 in legislative costs.  Although this  
          practice may violate a strict interpretation of the  
          single-subject and germaneness rules as presented in  
          Californians for an Open Primary v. McPherson (2006), it is  
          an expeditious and relatively inexpensive way to respond to  
          multiple requests.


                                   Proposed Law  

          Senate Bill 1462, the "Local Government Omnibus Act of  
          2014," proposes the following changes to the state laws  
          affecting local agencies' powers and duties:

           County law libraries' real property management  .  More than  
          120 years ago, the Legislature set up a system of county  
          law libraries (Business & Professions Code §6300, et seq.,  




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          enacted by AB 691, Mathews, 1891, and recodified by SB 364,  
          Kenny, 1941).  Each county law library has an appointed  
          board of trustees which supervises its operations and  
          finances.  Current law allows a county law library's board  
          of trustees to sell real property, with the proceeds going  
          to the law library fund (Business & Professions Code  
          §6348.4, as amended by SB 113, Senate Local Government  
          Committee, 2009).  The Council of California County Law  
          Librarians wants the Legislature to give law library  
          trustees more flexibility in managing libraries' real  
          property.  Senate Bill 1462 allows a board of trustees to  
          lease, rent, or license real property, with proceeds going  
          to the law library fund.  [See §2 of the bill.]

           Local Bond Issuers Determination of Taxable Bond Maturity  .   
          Most municipal bonds are tax-exempt, but the Legislature  
          has allowed state and local governments to issue taxable  
          revenue bonds.  To provide state and local governments with  
          the flexibility to access the market for taxable bonds,  
          state law allows government bond issuers to determine the  
          denominations, forms, redemption terms, and interest rates  
          of taxable bonds (Government Code § 5903, as enacted by AB  
          939, Johnston, 1986).  Current law allows a legislative  
          body to determine the "time or times" at which taxable  
          bonds are payable.  Bond finance practitioners believe that  
          this language could be interpreted narrowly to refer only  
          to how the bonds' principal and/or interest must be paid  
          (annually, semiannually, monthly, etc.).  Senate Bill 1462  
          clarifies that local bond issuers may also determine the  
          final maturity date or dates of the bonds. [See §3 of the  
          bill.]

           County Clerks and Infrastructure Financing Districts  .   
          Cities and counties can create Infrastructure Financing  
          Districts (IFDs) and issue bonds to pay for community scale  
          public works: highways, transit, water systems, sewer  
          projects, flood control, child care facilities, libraries,  
          parks, and solid waste facilities.  To repay the bonds,  
          IFDs divert property tax increment revenues from the city  
          or county that created the district and any other  
          consenting local governments -- but not schools -- for 30  
          years (SB 308, Seymour, 1990).  When they were enacted, the  
          statutes governing IFDs only used the term "city" because  
          the IFD statutes defined "city" as including a county and a  
          city and county.  To avoid any misperceptions that IFD law  
          doesn't apply to counties, the Local Government Omnibus Act  





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          of 2013 (SB 184, Governance & Finance Committee, 2013)  
          removed counties from the definition of a city and inserted  
          the term "county" throughout the statutes that govern IFDs.  
           Last year's bill omitted a reference to a county clerk in  
          one IFD statute.  Senate Bill 1462 corrects this omission  
          by inserting a reference to a clerk of a county. [See §4 of  
          the bill.]

           California Assessors' Association  .  The California  
          Assessors' Association, the statewide non-profit  
          professional association for County Assessors, was  
          previously known as the State Association of County  
          Assessors.  Two statutes still refer to the Association's  
          antiquated name (Revenue & Taxation Code §670 and §671, as  
          amended by AB 3701, Kapiloff, 1974).  Senate Bill 1462  
          replaces the antiquated name, "State Association of County  
          Assessors," with the correct association name, "California  
          Assessors' Association." [See §5 and §6 of the bill.]
            

                               State Revenue Impact
           
          No estimate.


                                     Comment  

           Purpose of the bill  .  SB 1462 compiles four  
          noncontroversial changes to state laws affecting local  
          agencies and land use into a single bill.  Sending a bill  
          through the legislative process costs around $18,000.  By  
          avoiding 3 other bills, the Committee's measure avoids more  
          than $50,000 in legislative costs.  Although the practice  
          may violate a strict interpretation of the single-subject  
          and germaneness rules, the Committee insists on a very  
          public review of each item.  More than 100 public  
          officials, trade groups, lobbyists, and legislative  
          staffers see each proposal before it goes into the  
          Committee's bill.  Should any item in SB 1462 attract  
          opposition, the Committee will delete it.  In this  
          transparent process, there is no hidden agenda.  If it's  
          not consensus, it's not omnibus.


                         Support and Opposition  (4/21/14)






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           Support  :  California Assessors' Association; California  
          Public Securities Association; Council of California County  
          Law Librarians.

           Opposition  :  Unknown.