BILL ANALYSIS
ACR 170
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Date of Hearing: June 30, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
Cathleen Galgiani, Chair
ACR 170 (Nielsen) - As Amended: June 14, 2010
SUBJECT : Williamson Act.
SUMMARY : Recognizes the accomplishments and benefits of the
California Land Conservation Act of 1965, known as the
Williamson Act (WA). Specifically, this bill :
1)States AB 2117, authored by John Williamson, was signed into
law on July 16, 1965, by Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, and
created the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, which
has become known nationwide as the WA.
2)States that WA has been the most effective farm and ranch land
preservation program in California, protecting over 16.5
million acres or nearly one third of privately owned
California lands.
3)States that WA promotes food security, encourages agricultural
industries and jobs, complements efforts to slow urban sprawl
without costly public infrastructure, and promotes
environmental quality and resources values.
4)States WA achievements, under a cost-effective incentive based
program, serving an agricultural community that exceeds a $100
billion, with nearly 500,000 jobs being generated from the
$36.2 billion farmgate value, produced by over 400 state grown
commodities.
5)States that without WA land use protections, the abundance of
production from California's nearly 81,500 farms and ranches
would be significantly less, and that WA benefits the
environment and quality of life by preserving open space and
wildlife habitat and watersheds.
6)States that WA has served to benefit intergenerational
transfers of agricultural enterprises to young farmers and
ranches.
7)Resolves that the Assembly and Senate recognizes and
celebrates the 45th Anniversary of the California Land
ACR 170
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Conservation Act of 1965 and that the State acknowledges and
appreciates the partnership with the cities and counties, in
addition to the landowners, that participate in WA, making it
the most effective and successful farm, ranch and open space
protection tool in California's history.
FISCAL EFFECT : Legislative Counsel has keyed this bill
"non-fiscal."
COMMENTS : The WA conserves agricultural and open space land
under a three-part scheme that involves voluntary contracts that
enforceably restrict land uses, reduces property tax
assessments, and state subventions to make up for the lost
property tax revenues. The California Constitution allows for
the preferential assessment of open space lands for property tax
purposes when the land use has an enforceable restriction. This
is the constitutional basis for WA's scheme for giving
landowners property tax breaks.
State subventions to participating counties and cities were
significantly reduced several years ago and have been all but
eliminated in the current fiscal budget and in the proposed
budget currently under consideration. Legislative efforts to
backfill the budget shortfalls have been unsuccessful to date.
Due to the loss of subventions to backfill the local property
tax revenues, many of the participating counties and cities are
considering withdrawing from the program. Such actions could
have detrimental economic impacts to many farmers and ranchers,
by increasing their cost, causing the lost of any marginal
profitability they have and thereby their ability to remain in
business.
ACR 170 reiterates the benefits of WA to agriculture, the
environment, local government and the economy of California.
There are no other programs that have shown the cost effective
benefits to the state and local economies as this program does.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Regional Council of Rural Counties
Opposition
None on file.
ACR 170
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Analysis Prepared by : Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084