BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 1328 (Hill) - Weights and Measures
Amended: May 5, 2014 Policy Vote: BP&ED 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 19, 2014 Consultant: Robert Ingenito
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1328 would (1) authorize the California
Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to adopt regulations
consistent with federal law to establish a uniform policy
relating to the use of dry or wet tare weight methods of
measurement for the retail sale of meat, poultry, and fish
products and (2) authorize CDFA to add up to two dollars for the
business license of a business using a point of sale (POS)
system for purposes of POS enforcement.
Additionally, the bill specified that a grocery store, as
defined, that displays a refund or no charge policy for
overcharged items, would not be fined or assessed any other
penalty until January 1, 2018 for the first item that is not in
compliance during an initial standard inspection.
Fiscal Impact:
CDFA preliminarily estimates that it would incur costs
of $500,000 in 2014-15 and $600,000 ongoing to implement
the POS-related provisions of the bill. These costs consist
of salary and related expenses to fund three positions.
CDFA estimates a total of 312,000 POS systems in the State;
thus, the $2 fee would generate $624,000 in new revenue
(Food and Agriculture Fund).
Costs to CDFA to adopt the regulations related to wet
tare/dry tare are unknown. It is currently unclear to what
extent additional regulations are needed beyond those
already in place.
Background: CDFA has general enforcement supervision current law
relating to weights and measures and measuring devices, and any
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state or county sealer has authority to administer specific
provisions of this law. The authority for weights and measures
registration fees was first enacted in 1982 to provide funding
for inspection activities. The law has been amended several
times to add additional devices and to adjust the schedule of
maximum fees. Under the law, the County Board of Supervisors
may authorize POS registration fees and establish inspection
fees not to exceed the actual cost of conducting the inspection.
The inspection process involves testing a representative sample
of items from a retail establishment and determining whether the
advertised price matches what the consumer is charged.
General Fund support for CDFA's Division of Measurement and
Science (DMS) was eliminated as a budget-balancing option in
2011-12. In response, roughly 20 counties (accounting for about
80 percent of population statewide) adopted price accuracy
programs.
In 2005, AB 889 (Ruskin, Chapter 529, Statutes of 2005) created
a statistical sampling method to test POS system accuracy. The
sampling method is currently partially based on the national
standard set forth in the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Handbook 130. However, AB 889 required a 100 percent
accuracy rate for POS inspections, while the national standard
requires 98 percent accuracy. Thus, California requires a lower
number of items to be sampled than federal guidelines, which
enables inspections to be conducted much more quickly and
efficiently and at a lower cost to the county and to the
retailer. In contrast, however, California law requires
compliance with all items scanned in the sample taken.
Proposed Law: SB 1328 would do all of the following:
Authorize CDFA to adopt regulations consistent with federal
law to establish a uniform policy relating to the use of dry
or wet tare weight methods of measurement for the retail sale
of meat, poultry, and fish products.
Authorize CDFA to adopt regulations imposing an additional
assessment of up to $2 dollars to obtain a business license
for a business using a POS system. The fee would be deposited
into the Food and Agriculture Fund. Upon appropriation by the
Legislature, the fees would be available to carry out the
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provisions relating to the use of POS systems.
Provide that, until January 1, 2018, a grocery store may be
issued a written violation but shall not be fined or assessed
any other penalty for the first item not in compliance during
an initial standard inspection, provided that:
o The grocery store has a policy to refund the amount
of the product, or to provide the product free of charge,
if the amount charged for the item is greater than the
price advertised, posted, marked, displayed or quoted.
o The grocery store posts a description of the policy
in a clear and conspicuous manner at each checkout
location.
Define "grocery store", to be a full-line, self-service retail
store with gross annual sales of $2 million or more that sells
a line of dry groceries, canned goods, nonfood items, and some
perishable items.
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Related Legislation:
SB 482 (Hill, Chapter 166, Statutes of 2013) extended
indefinitely the law authorizing a county to perform
inspections, and charge inspection fees for retail
point-of-sale systems, and to take enforcement actions for
violations of that law.
AB 889 (Ruskin, Chapter 529, Statutes of 2005)
authorized counties to inspect the pricing accuracy of
retail point of sale systems. That bill, among other
things, established until 2009, the authority for counties
to inspect the pricing accuracy of retail POS systems.
Staff Comments: Recent budget reductions to CDFA reduced General
Fund monies for this program by $500,000 annually. While CDFA
estimates there to be roughly 312,000 POS systems in the State,
a local estimate places the figure at less than 50,000. To the
extent that the actual number of POS systems is closer to the
local estimate, the $2 fee could be insufficient to cover CDFA's
costs.
The only costs that may be incurred by a local agency relate to
crimes and infractions. Such costs are not reimbursable by the
State under the California Constitution.