BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1401
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Date of Hearing: June 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
SB 1401 (Simitian) - As Amended: April 21, 2010
SENATE VOTE : 34-0
SUBJECT : Beverage containers: redemption payments
SUMMARY : Makes clarifying and technical changes to AB 8X 7
(Committee on Budget), Chapter 5, Statutes of 2010.
EXISTING LAW , under the California Beverage Container Recycling
and Litter Reduction Act (Bottle Bill):
1)Establishes refund value and redemption payments for beverage
containers.
2)Requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment for every
beverage container sold or offered for sale in the state to
the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (DRRR) and
DRRR is required to deposit those amounts in the California
Beverage Container Recycling Fund (Fund). The money in the
Fund is continuously appropriated to DRRR for the payment of
refund values and processing fees.
3)Requires DRRR to review the status of the Fund every three
months to ensure that funds are adequate to make expenditures
according the Bottle Bill and make specified determinations.
4)Authorizes funding for specified purposes to increase beverage
container recycling including public education and recycling
grants.
THIS BILL :
1)Requires that the status reports on the Fund include fund
balances and be posted on DRRR's Internet Web site.
2)Adjusts the timeline for the notifications and actions
required after DRRR review of the Fund status.
3)Makes technical and conforming changes.
SB 1401
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, this bill has
negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : This bill makes technical and clarifying changes to
provisions of AB8X 7 to address implementation issues raised by
DRRR.
AB8X 7 made changes to the Bottle Bill Program to address a
shortfall in program funding, including:
1)Accelerated California Refund Value payments by distributors
in order to provide a $100 million one-time revenue increase
in the current fiscal year.
2)Made program participants "whole" for the second half of FY
2010-11 by authorizing retroactive program payments to January
1, 2010.
3)Capped processing fee offsets made by DRRR to manufacturers
for the 2010 and 2011 calendar years at 2008 levels, resulting
in approximately $9 million in current year savings and $18
million in fiscal year savings.
4)Identified additional savings of approximately $28 million in
the current year and approximately $56 million in the fiscal
year by suspending various continuous appropriations for two
years.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Elizabeth MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092