BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 974
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 29, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 974
(Committee on Governance and Finance) - As Amended June 2, 2016
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Policy |Local Government |Vote:|9 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill enacts the Local Government Omnibus Bill of 2016,
which proposes twenty-one
non-controversial changes to existing laws governing the powers
and duties of local agencies.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Provisions authorizing state and local entities to request and
receive copies of military service records would require
SB 974
Page 2
county recorders to make those copies available to government
officials that provide veterans' benefit services. This
change in law technically constitutes a reimbursable state
mandate on county recorders. Staff notes, however, that
recorders are currently authorized to make those records
available to county offices that provide veterans benefits at
no cost. The expanded information sharing in this bill is not
expected to place significant burdens on county recorders, and
it is highly unlikely that reimbursement claims would be filed
as a result of this change.
2)The remaining provisions of this bill are expected to have
negligible fiscal impact.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. Each year local officials discover problems with the
state statutes that affect counties, cities, and special
districts, 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 around $18,000.
The Senate Governance & Finance Committee responds by
combining several of these minor topics into an annual omnibus
bill.
2)Background. This bill combines non-controversial changes to
state law that affect local agencies and land use. All of the
items have been vetted by interested parties and legislative
staff prior to inclusion in this omnibus measure, and if
opposition arises to any provision at any time, it will be
removed. This can be an efficient approach to enacting
SB 974
Page 3
numerous minor, technical, and consensus statutory changes in
a single policy area.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081