BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           301 (Fuentes)
          
          Hearing Date:  07/06/2009           Amended: 04/01/2009
          Consultant:  Brendan McCarthy   Policy Vote: EQ 5-2
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          BILL SUMMARY: AB 301 would require applicants for an annual  
          bottled-water license to include information on the total volume  
          of water bottled or sold in the state, and source information.  
          This bill would require the Department of Public Health to  
          annually compile this information and make it available to the  
          public.
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                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2009-10      2010-11       2011-12     Fund
           
          Compiling and publicizing         $50         $40        
          $40General 
            information                                           
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          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense file. 
          
          Existing law requires water-bottling plants or bottled water  
          distributors to obtain a license from the Department of Public  
          Health.  The Department is required to collect fees for those  
          licenses.  Fees collected by the Department are required to be  
          sufficient to enforce the laws pertaining to bottled, vended,  
          hauled and processed water, as specified. (However, statute  
          gives the Department of Finance authority to adjust fee levels  
          only to reflect changes in the cost of living.)

          AB 301 would require applicants for a license as a  
          water-bottling plant or a private water source in the state to  
          provide to the Department, at the time of submittal of the  
          application, information pertaining to the total volume of water  
          bottled or sold either for wholesale or retail use; specify  
          whether the source of the water bottled or sold is a public or  
          private water agency or an artesian well, lake, river, spring,  










          or well; and the location of the source water and whether this  
          source is privately or publicly owned and operated. This bill  
          would require the Department to annually compile a listing of  
          the information reported by the applicants and make this  
          information available to the public. Costs to compile and report  
          this information would be about $40,000 annually, including one  
          half-time position. Start up costs would be about $30,000 in the  
          first year and would include a contract to modify the existing  
          licensing database to receive the new information. 

          Because existing fees are adjusted only to reflect changes in  
          the cost of living, additional program activities will not be  
          covered by fee revenues. Therefore, additional program  
          activities will likely require General Fund appropriations.
          
          This bill is similar to AB 2275 (Fuentes) of 2008 which was  
          vetoed by the Governor with a generic veto message applied to  
          bills passed before the budget was signed.