BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
416 (Florez)
Hearing Date: 5/28/2009 Amended: 5/6/2009
Consultant: Bob Franzoia Policy Vote: ED 5-2, Ag 3-1
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 416 would require a school district to make
every effort to purchase poultry and meat products that have not
been treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics, and require each
school district that purchases such products, or each school
district that does not know if the products have been so
treated, to report annually to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) the reasons those products were purchased,
along with certain other information. This bill would require
the SPI, commencing January 1, 2012, to compile these reports
annually. This bill would require the school district and SPI
reports to be available to the public upon request.
Additionally, state and local governments, when purchasing meat
supplies, would prefer meat supplies produced without the use of
medically important antibiotics as feed additives, potentially
imposing a state mandated local program. Finally, this bill
would, commencing January 1, 2105, prohibit a person from using
antibiotics for nontherapeutic use in any animal raised for
production of any human food product.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
State mandate $500 $1,000 $1,000 General*
(education, reporting)
SPI reporting $65 $130 $130 General
Prohibition on purchasing Unknown, major costs and cost
pressures General*
(state and school districts) ongoing
Prohibition on use of antibiotics Unknown, potentially
significant General**
(oversight and enforcement) costs
* Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
** Also Department of Food and Agriculture Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Current law requires K-12 schools and county superintendents of
schools to make available one nutritionally adequate meal,
defined as a meal that qualifies for reimbursement under the
National School Lunch Program, to each needy student every
school day and authorizes a child nutrition entity to apply to
the State Department of Education (SDE) for available federal
and state funds.
There are approximately 1,000 school districts in the state. If
each district incurred the minimum cost of $1,000 necessary to
claim reimbursement for state mandated costs
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SB 461 (Florez)
due to increased reporting requirements, reimbursements would be
$1 million. Additionally, to the extent poultry and meat
products not treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics are more
expensive, or even available, school meal costs would increase.
(When non classroom related expenses increase and the state does
not provide offsetting funding, school districts "borrow" from
other programs, a practice known as encroachment.)
This bill provides that commencing January 1, 2015, no person
shall use antibiotics for nontherapeutic use in any animal
raised for the production of any human food product. Generally,
prohibitions do not result in additional costs. However,
because this bill does not prohibit the shipment from other
states of poultry and beef products treated with nontherapeutic
antibiotics to California, it is unclear if the Department of
Food and Agriculture would need to provide some oversight and
enforcement.