BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 625
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
625 (Bonta) - As Amended May 6, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the State Controller, the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI), and the head of the affected school
district's governing board, or their respective designees, to
meet, prior to each audit of a school district that has received
AB 625
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an emergency apportionment, to discuss the terms and the
timeline under which it will proceed with an audit.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Minor/absorbable costs to the State Controller's Office (SCO)
and the California Department of Education (CDE) to meet prior
to each audit.
COMMENTS:
Purpose. This bill is sponsored by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to address the issue of late SCO audits for school
districts in receivership. According to information provided by
CDE, only 4 out of the 38 SCO audit due dates were met on time.
The late audits have delays ranging from 43 to 961 days (more
than two and a half years). Late audits can cause several
problems for school districts, including: A lower credit rating,
resulting in higher interest rates (a credit rating agency did
not give the Oakland Unified School District credit rating at
all, due to the absence of a current audit); difficulty in
projecting financial needs, because the current financial
condition is not known; or compounded audit exceptions, because
problems are not identified in time to be corrected prior to the
next year's audits.
Late audits occur for multiple reasons. There may be issues
locating old records, particularly in districts that have
experienced excessive staff turnover due to being in
receivership. In other cases, the delay could be due to failure
to submit information. The SCO was also not adequately staffed
in some years. The goal of this bill is to foster communication
and collaboration between the two agencies so issues can be
identified and future delays can be prevented.
AB 625
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Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081