BILL ANALYSIS
ACR 170
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
ACR 170 (Nielsen and Caballero)
As Amended August 2, 2010
Majority vote
AGRICULTURE 8-0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Galgiani, Tom Berryhill, | | |
| |Conway, Fuller, Hill, Ma, | | |
| |Mendoza, Yamada | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Recognizes the accomplishments and benefits of the
California Land Conservation Act of 1965, known as the
Williamson Act. 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 Williamson Act.
2)States that the Williamson Act 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 the Williamson Act 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 the Williamson Act achievements, under a cost-effective
incentive based program, serving an agricultural community
that exceeds $100 billion, with nearly 500,000 jobs generated
from the $36.2 billion farmgate value, produced by over 400
state grown commodities.
5)States that without the Williamson Act land use protections,
the abundance of production from California's nearly 81,500
farms and ranches would be significantly less, and that the
Williamson Act benefits the environment and quality of life by
ACR 170
Page 2
preserving open space and wildlife habitats and watersheds.
6)States that the Williamson Act 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
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 the Williamson
Act, 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 Williamson Act 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 the Williamson Act'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 loss of any marginal
profitability they have, and thereby their ability to remain in
business.
ACR 170 reiterates the benefits of the Williamson Act 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
ACR 170
Page 3
program does.
Analysis Prepared by : Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084
FN: 0005222