SB 8

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Under the California Constitution, whenever the Legislature or a state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service on any local government, including school districts, the state is required to provide a subvention of funds to reimburse the local government, with specified exceptions. Existing law establishes a procedure for local governmental agencies to file claims for reimbursement of these costs with the Commission on State Mandates. These procedures require the Controller to pay any eligible claim by August 15 or 45 days after the date the appropriation for the claim is effective, whichever is later. This bill would change the date the Controller is required to pay any eligible claim to October 15 or 60 days after the date the appropriation for the claim is effective, whichever date is later. (2) Existing law authorizes the Director of Finance to reduce General Fund items of appropriation for state operations or suspend the effective date of cost-of-living adjustments or rate increases upon making certain determinations, according to specified criteria and subject to specified exceptions, and subject to submission to, and approval by, the voters at a statewide election of specified amendments to the California Constitution. This bill would prohibit the director from reducing amounts appropriated for collective bargaining agreements, as specified. The bill would specify that these provisions would only become operative if specified amendments to the California Constitution are submitted to, and approved by, the voters at a statewide election. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Personnel Administration to provide the extent to which, and establish the method by which, ordered overtime is compensated for state employees. This bill would prohibit paid or unpaid leave from being considered as time worked by the employee for the purpose of computing cash compensation for overtime or compensating time off for overtime. (4) Existing law provides that state employees are entitled to specified holidays. Existing law provides that any employee who may be required to work on any of those holidays, and who does work on any of those holidays, shall be entitled to be paid compensation or given compensating time off for that work in accordance with the assigned workweek group of the employee's classification. This bill, effective February 1, 2009, or the date these provisions take effect, whichever is later, would reduce the number of holidays to which state employees are entitled by eliminating the holidays commonly known as Lincoln Day and Columbus Day. The bill would provide that any state employee who works on any of those remaining holidays shall be entitled to receive straight-time pay and 8 hours of holiday credit. The bill would add provisions regarding the use of holiday credit and the holidays to which persons employed less than full time are entitled. (5) The Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Law allows senior citizens and disabled persons to file with the Controller a claim to postpone the payment of ad valorem property taxes, special assessments, and fees and other charges, where household income, as defined, does not exceed specified amounts. This bill would prohibit the filing of a claim for postponement on or after the effective date of the act, and would prohibit the Controller from accepting applications for postponement on or after that date. (6) Existing law requires state excise fuel tax revenues to be deposited in various accounts and to be allocated, in part, for various purposes, including the cost of collection and authorized refunds. Existing law requires the balance of these funds remaining after authorized deductions to be transferred to, and deposited monthly in, the Highway Users Tax Account in the Transportation Tax Fund. Existing law provides for annual and monthly apportionment by the Controller of specified revenues in the Highway Users Tax Account to counties and cities for the transportation purposes authorized by Article XIX of the California Constitution. This bill would require transfers of those revenues from the Highway Users Tax Account to counties or cities that would otherwise be made during certain months of 2009, to instead be made in May 2009, as specified. The bill would allow those counties or cities to make use of any cash balance in any county or city account that is designated for the receipt of state funds allocated for local streets and roads maintenance, including specified bond funds, during the period of this suspension, and the use of this cash would not be reflected as an expenditure of bond act funds, if the cash is replaced once this suspension is repaid in May 2009. (7) Existing law requires revenues from motor vehicle fuel taxes and diesel fuel taxes to be deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the Motor Vehicle Fund, and authorizes transfers to other accounts and funds, with the balance to be transferred to, and deposited monthly in, the Highway Users Tax Account in the Transportation Tax Fund. Existing law provides for annual and monthly apportionment by the Controller of specified revenues in the Highway Users Tax Account to counties and cities for the transportation purposes authorized by Article XIX of the California Constitution. In addition to other apportionments from the account, a sum equal to the net revenue of 11.5% of any per gallon tax in excess of $0.09 per gallon imposed under specified tax provisions is required to be apportioned among the counties, including a city and county, and an equivalent sum is required to be apportioned to cities, including a city and county, as specified. This bill would instead specify that a sum equal to $0.01035 per gallon from the motor vehicle and diesel fuel taxes is required to be apportioned among the counties, including a city and a county, and an equivalent sum is required to be apportioned to cities, including a city and county, as specified. This bill would make other technical and conforming changes. (8) Existing law authorizes counties and cities and counties to apply to the Controller to receive specified funding for certain booking or detention expenses. This bill, during the 2008–09 fiscal year, would require 50% of the funding from the Controller to be funded from the Local Safety and Protection Account, which would be continuously appropriated, and during the 2009–10 fiscal year would require those payments to be fully funded from that account, thereby resulting in an appropriation. (9) Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to allocate $168,713,000 among counties based on a specified allocation schedule for local probation purposes. This bill would instead require the Controller, commencing with the 2009–10 fiscal year and every fiscal year thereafter, to allocate 33.52% of the amount deposited in the Local Safety and Protection Account, to local jurisdictions that support juvenile probation activities, as specified. The bill would also require the Controller to allocate 6.50% of the amount deposited in the Local Safety and Protection Account, during the 2008–09 fiscal year, and 5.85% during the 2009–10 fiscal year and every year thereafter, to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to be allocated to counties that operate juvenile camps and ranches, as specified. (10) Existing law establishes within the agency or agencies designated by the Director of Finance a program of financial and technical assistance for law enforcement and district attorneys' offices, designated the High Technology Theft Apprehension and Prosecution Program, as specified. This bill would establish the High Technology Theft Apprehension and Prosecution Program in the California Emergency Management Agency, and would require the Controller to allocate 12.68% of the amount deposited in the Local Safety and Protection Account in the Transportation Tax Fund in the 2008–09 fiscal year, and 11.42% in the 2009–10 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, to the California Emergency Management Agency, to be allocated for various crime prevention programs, thereby resulting in an appropriation. (11) Existing law establishes in each county treasury, a Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund to receive all amounts allocated to a county to fund specified public safety programs. This bill would, commencing March 1, 2009, require the Controller to fund the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund from the Local Safety and Protection Account in the Transportation Tax Fund, thereby resulting in an appropriation. (12) Existing law annually appropriates from the General Fund to the Controller for allocation to county sheriff's departments, $500,000 to enhance law enforcement efforts in specified counties. This bill would, commencing with the 2008–09 fiscal year, instead, allocate 3.68% of moneys annually deposited in the Local Safety and Protection Account to be distributed evenly between specified county sheriffs departments on a quarterly basis, this resulting in an appropriation. (13) Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income persons are provided with a variety of health services. Existing law contains various provisions governing reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal providers and authorizes the department, notwithstanding any other provision of law, and to the extent not otherwise conflicting with federal law, to withhold, or direct the medical fiscal intermediary to withhold, payments for providers, as described, for a period of one month for a month ending prior to January 1, 2009. This bill would extend the date of this authority to withhold payment to a month ending prior to June 30, 2009. (14) Existing law specifies the manner in which state and federal funds are to be advanced to counties each month for certain public assistance programs. Existing law provides that the monthly advance of state general funds to counties for benefits or aid grants, administration, and for employment and support services shall be temporarily suspended for the months of July and August 2008 and shall resume on September 1, 2008, with the advances that would have been made in July and August to be paid not later than September 30, 2008. This bill would provide for the temporary suspension of monthly advance of state general funds to counties for benefits or aid grants, administration, and for employment and support services for certain months during 2009 and would provide for the resumption of those payments on September 1, 2009, with the advances that would have been made during those months or suspension to be paid not later than September 30, 2009. (15) Existing law requires the Board of Administration of the Public Employees Retirement System to approve health benefit plans and contract with carriers offering health benefit plans. This bill would require the board to defer the payment of the premium to a health benefit plan or dental care plan for an annuitant that is due for the months of February and March 2009 and to make those payments during the month of April 2009. (16) Existing law appropriates $2,500,000 to CaliforniaVolunteers, on an annual basis, for the purpose of funding grants to local and state-operated Americorps and Conservation Corps programs, up to 5% of which may be used for state-level administration costs. This bill would reduce the appropriation to $1,000,000 for the 2008–09 fiscal year and limit the amount used for administration to $125,000 and revise the dates on which this and a related appropriation to support this program become inoperative. (17) Existing law defines the current duties of the Treasurer and the Director of Finance and charges those officers with various responsibilities in connection with the financial affairs of the state. This bill would require the Treasurer and the Director of Finance, or designated deputies, to meet and confer in a public hearing on or before April 1, 2009, for the purpose of determining whether federal legislation has been enacted that will make available, by June 30, 2010, additional federal funds that may be used to offset not less than $9,100,000,000 in General Fund expenditures. If the Treasurer and the Director of Finance determine that federal funds in that amount have been made available, the bill would require them to notify the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the Controller of that determination in writing. The bill would provide that its provisions would be repealed on July 1, 2010. (18) Existing property tax law requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenue to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, and generally requires that each jurisdiction be allocated an amount equal to the total of the amount of revenue allocated to that jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, subject to certain modifications, and that jurisdiction's portion of the annual tax increment, as defined. Existing property tax law also reduces the amounts of ad valorem property tax revenue that would otherwise be annually allocated to the county, cities, and special districts pursuant to these general allocation requirements by requiring, for purposes of determining property tax revenue allocations in each county for the 1992–93 and 1993–94 fiscal years, that the amounts of property tax revenue deemed allocated in the prior fiscal year to the county, cities, and special districts be reduced in accordance with certain formulas. It requires that the revenues not allocated to the county, cities, and special districts as a result of these reductions be transferred to the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund in that county for allocation to school districts, community college districts, and the county office of education. This bill would, for the 2009–10 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, require the auditor of a qualified county, as defined, to increase the total amount of ad valorem property tax revenue otherwise required to be allocated to that county by the county equity amount, as defined, and to commensurately reduce the total amount of ad valorem property tax revenue otherwise required to be allocated to school entities in the county, as specified. This bill also would state the intent of the Legislature that a qualified county dedicate the revenues the county receives under the bill for public health and safety purposes. (19) Existing law requires the Director of Finance to make certain adjustments in one of the formulas used in computing the state's obligation under the California Constitution to provide funding for school districts and community college districts so as to ensure that the modifications in property tax revenue allocation requirements that were made by prior enactments do not have a net fiscal impact on school districts or community college districts, or upon the state's funding obligation to those districts. This bill would apply this adjustment requirement to the modifications in property tax revenue allocation requirements that are made by this bill. By imposing new duties on local officials in the annual allocation of ad valorem property tax revenues, this bill would impose a state–mandated local program. (20) Existing law authorizes redevelopment agencies to collect a property tax increment in a redevelopment project area for redevelopment purposes. This bill would revise the allocation of property tax increment revenues in the City of Glendora. (21) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (22) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 19, 2008. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution. (23) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.