BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1462|
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CONSENT
Bill No: SB 1462
Author: Senate Governance and Finance Committee
Amended: 4/9/14
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/24/14
AYES: Wolk, Knight, Beall, DeSaulnier, Hernandez, Liu, Walters
SUBJECT : Local government: omnibus bill
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill, the Local Government Omnibus Act of 2014,
proposes four noncontroversial changes to state laws governing
local governments' powers and duties.
ANALYSIS : 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 and
Finance Committee, Chapter 210) which contained 12
noncontroversial statutory changes, avoiding about $200,000 in
legislative costs. Although this practice may violate a strict
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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.
This bill, 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 and Professions Code Section 6300, et seq.,
enacted by AB 691, Mathews, 1891, and recodified by SB 364,
Kenny, Chapter 452, Statutes of 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 and Professions
Code Section 6348.4, as amended by SB 113, Senate Local
Government Committee, Chapter 332, Statutes of 2009). The
Council of California County Law Librarians wants the
Legislature to give law library trustees more flexibility in
managing libraries' real property.
This bill allows a board of trustees to lease, rent, or license
real property, with proceeds going to the law library fund.
[See section 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
Section 5903, as enacted by AB 939, Johnston, Chapter 1389,
Statutes of 1986). Existing 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.).
This bill clarifies that local bond issuers may also determine
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the final maturity date or dates of the bonds. [See section 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, Chapter 1575, Statutes
of 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 of 2013 (SB 184, Governance and
Finance Committee, Chapter 210, Statutes of 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.
This bill corrects this omission by inserting a reference to a
clerk of a county. [See section 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 and Taxation Code
Section 670 and Section 671, as amended by AB 3701, Kapiloff,
Chapter 1100, Statutes of 1974).
This bill replaces the antiquated name, "State Association of
County Assessors," with the correct association name,
"California Assessors' Association." [See sections 5 and 6 of
the bill.]
Comments
This bill 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 three other bills, the Committee's measure
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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 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/25/14)
California Assessors' Association
California Public Securities Association
Council of California County Law Librarians
AB:e 4/25/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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