BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    






                         SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                              Gloria Romero, Chair
                           2009-2010 Regular Session
                                        

          BILL NO:       AB 1182
          AUTHOR:        Brownley
          AMENDED:       April 30, 2009
          FISCAL COMM:   Yes            HEARING DATE:  June 17, 2009
          URGENCY:       No             CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira

           SUBJECT  :  Public Postsecondary Education: mandated reports.
          
           SUMMARY  

          This bill eliminates some, and restructures and reorganizes  
          other, higher education reporting requirements of the  
          state's public universities and colleges to provide for  
          more effective, manageable, and transparent reporting to  
          the Legislature.  

           BACKGROUND  

          Current law establishes the three public postsecondary  
          education segments as the University of California (UC),  
          the California State University (CSU), and the California  
          Community Colleges (CCC).

          Current law and the annual budget act, via supplemental or  
          provisional reporting language adopted therein, requires  
          the three public postsecondary education segments to report  
          to the Legislature a combined average of approximately 115  
          reports per year.

           ANALYSIS
           
           This bill  revises current reporting requirements of the  
          University of California (UC), the California State  
          University (CSU), and the California Community Colleges  
          (CCC).  Specifically, it:

          1)   Eliminates 19 existing reporting requirements.

          2)   Moves 39 non-codified reporting requirements  
               (primarily required by the Supplemental Report of past  
               Budget Acts) into statute.




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          3)   Stipulates that 10 other non-codified reporting  
               requirements are no longer in effect.

          4)   Modifies 14 reporting requirements.

          5)   Authorizes the electronic submission reports, unless  
               otherwise specified.

          6)   Requires, unless otherwise specified, that reports  
               submitted to the Legislature by UC, CSU, and CCC be  
               delivered to the Senate and Assembly budget  
               subcommittees on education, the Senate Education and  
               Assembly Higher Education policy committees, the  
               Legislative Analyst's Office, the Office of the  
               Secretary of Education, and the Department of Finance.

          7)   Authorizes, unless otherwise specified, the submission  
               of these reports in Portable Document Format or  
               comparable electronic format.

          8)   Declares legislative intent that:

                    a)             The 2010-11 Budget Act incorporate  
                    modifications made by this bill to three required  
                    reports.

                    b)             Non-codified requests for reports  
                    from UC, CSU, and CCC adopted prior to 2008,  
                    including those taking the form of provisional or  
                    supplemental language in budget acts adopted  
                    prior to 2008, have been subsumed, where  
                    appropriate, within statute by this bill.

                    c)             Nothing in this bill shall prevent  
                    the Legislature from adopting new reporting  
                    requirements of any kind.

                    d)             UC, CSU and CCC are expected to  
                    fully respond to all statutory reporting  
                    requirements by the stated deadlines.

           STAFF COMMENTS  

           1)   Need for the bill  .   In order to promote transparency  
               and oversight, the Legislature has adopted various  




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               reporting requirements for the higher education  
               segments. Currently, the segments are required  
               collectively to provide an average of 115 reports each  
               year.  Some of these requirements have either become  
               obsolete or duplicative; others do not provide clear  
               direction to the segments as to the content of the  
               report.  Also, many of these requirements take the  
               form of provisional budget bill language that appears  
               in the budget act annually or supplemental report  
               language (SRL) from past budget acts.  The  
               applicability of the SRL in subsequent years is  
               unclear.  While the segments produce many of these  
               reports in a timely manner, some reports arrive late  
               or not at all.  This bill is intended to restructure  
               and reorganize existing reporting requirements to  
               provide greater clarity and prioritization for the  
               segments and more effective, manageable, and  
               transparent reporting to the Legislature.   
               Additionally, the provisions of this bill should  
               result in reduced reporting-related costs for the  
               public higher education segments.

           2)   Source of the bill  .  Last year a months-long process  
               involving legislative staff, the  Department of  
               Finance, the Legislative Analyst's Office, and the  
               California Public Postsecondary Education Commission  
               (CPEC) to review lists of reporting requirements  
               provided by the segments resulted in 

               AB 1821 (Brownley) which contained the work group's  
               consensus recommendations.  This bill contains theses  
               same provisions, but has omitted several which  
               involved reporting by the California Community  
               Colleges and were objectionable to the Governor due to  
               the creation of state reimbursable mandates. 

           3)   Prior legislation  . This bill is substantively similar  
               to AB 1821 (Brownley, 2008) which was vetoed by the  
               Governor. The Governor's veto message read, in  
               pertinent part:

               "While the intent to streamline reporting requirements  
               for the higher education segments is a laudable goal,  
               I understand this bill contains a drafting error.   
               Furthermore, as currently drafted, this bill would  
               likely result in significant state reimbursable  




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               mandated costs on the Community Colleges.  I would be  
               willing to sign a bill in the next session that  
               addresses these concerns and directing my Department  
               of Finance to work with the appropriate Legislative  
               staff to this end."
                     
                This bill has been amended to address the Governor's  
               concerns.

           SUPPORT  

          California Postsecondary Education Commission

           OPPOSITION

           None received.