BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 1612
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   March 28, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                  AB 1612 (Lara) - As Introduced:  February 7, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              Business and 
          Professions  Vote:                            8 - 0 

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires state agencies, when adopting building 
          standard regulations that impact housing, to disclose 
          information on costs and benefits of the regulation used by the 
          state agency to perform the required economic analysis. In 
          addition, this bill exempts model codes from the Health and 
          Safety Code from the requirements of this legislation, unless a 
          request is made to examine specific sections of the code. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          On-going GF costs of up to $25,000 for the workload associated 
          with the affected departments, including the California 
          Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), the 
          Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), the 
          California Energy Commission (CEC), the Division of the State 
          Architect (DSA), and the Department of Water Resources
          (DWR), providing the additional information required if 
          requested for model codes. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . The author argues that under current law state 
            agencies include boilerplate language in their economic impact 
            statement that declare the agency has determined there will be 
            no significant impacts on businesses due to the proposed 
            legislation. The author believes that more detail should be 
            required so that businesses and individuals affected will know 
            what it will actually cost to comply with a proposed 
            regulation.









                                                                  AB 1612
                                                                  Page  2

            AB 1612 would require a state agency that develops a 
            regulation that impacts housing to include in their initial 
            statement of reasons the estimated cost of compliance and the 
            related assumptions used in determining that estimate.

           2)Prior Legislation  . SB 643 (Correa) of 2011, a substantially 
            similar bill that did not contain the exemption for the model 
            codes was held on this committee's Suspense File.



          Analysis Prepared by  :    Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 
          319-2081