BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER
                             Senator Fran Pavley, Chair
                                2015 - 2016  Regular 

          Bill No:            AB 939          Hearing Date:    July 14,  
          2015
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          |Author:    |Salas                  |           |                 |
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          |Version:   |July 8, 2015    Amended                              |
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          |Urgency:   |No                     |Fiscal:    |No               |
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          |Consultant:|Dennis O'Connor                                      |
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                   Subject:  Groundwater sustainability agencies.


          BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
          Last session, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed SB  
          1168 (Pavley), SB 1319 (Pavley) and AB 1739 (Dickinson).  Those  
          three bills established the Sustainable Groundwater Management  
          Act (SGMA), and made other related changes to the California  
          Water Code.  Together, those bills created a comprehensive  
          program to achieve sustainable groundwater management in  
          California.

          Under the California Water Code, the singular includes the  
          plural, and the plural includes the singular.

          PROPOSED LAW
          
          This bill would make two changes to SGMA:

          1.Regarding what happens when a basin is upgraded to a high- or  
            medium-priority basin in the future, this bill would change  
            "agency" to "agency, or a combination of local agencies  
            overlying a groundwater basin."

          2.Regarding how a groundwater sustainability agency establishes  
            rates under SGMA and how soon the agency is required to make  
            available to the public data upon which the proposed fee is  
            based, this bill would change the time from "10 days" before  
            the hearing to "20 days."







          AB 939 (Salas)                                          Page 2  
          of ?
          
          

          This bill also includes chaptering instructions should both this  
          bill and SB 13 (Pavley) both become enacted.

          ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: None received
          
          ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: None received
          
          COMMENTS
          
           Is This A Spot Bill?   The author's office asserts it is not.

          SUPPORT: None Received 

          OPPOSITION: None Received 
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