SB 5

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law requires the Controller to notify the Governor and the Pooled Money Investment Board when the General Fund is or will be exhausted. The Governor is then authorized to order the Controller to direct the transfer of all or any part of the moneys not needed in other funds or accounts, with specified exceptions, to the General Fund from those funds or accounts, as determined by the Pooled Money Investment Board. This bill would require that specified General Fund payments to be made in March 2010 would be paid no sooner than April 15, 2010, but no later than May 1, 2010, which would be carried out by the Controller. The bill would require the Controller, Treasurer, and Director of Finance, prior to the payment deferrals, to jointly review and compare the actual General Fund receipts and disbursements with the receipt and disbursement projections contained in the cashflow statements associated with the proposed 2010–11 Governor's Budget. The bill would require the payments that would otherwise be deferred to be made if sufficient cash is available, as specified, and would require the Department of Finance to notify the Joint Legislative Budget Committee of the payments. If payments are deferred, beginning April 1, 2010, the bill would require the Controller, Treasurer, and Director of Finance to review daily the actual cash receipts and disbursements in comparison to the receipt and disbursement projections associated with the proposed 2010–11 Governor's Budget. The bill would require the deferred payments to be made as soon as feasible, in a specified order, if sufficient cash is available to make all payments through April 15, 2010, including the payments otherwise subject to deferral, and maintain a prudent cash reserve. This bill would enact, until September 1, 2011, a cash management plan to authorize the Controller, Treasurer, and Director of Finance to defer General Fund payments for up to 60 or 90 days, as specified, beginning July 2010, for specific departments and programs subject to specific conditions. (2) Existing law requires specified transfers of General Fund revenue to the Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account in the Teachers' Retirement Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, on November 1 and April 1 of each fiscal year. This bill would revise those transfer dates to October 15 and April 15, respectively, of each fiscal year, and would specify that each payment be 50% of the annual appropriation. (3) Existing law requires state excise fuel tax revenues to be deposited in certain 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 cities, counties, and cities and counties for the transportation purposes authorized by Article XIX of the California Constitution. Existing law requires transfers of those revenues from the Highway Users Tax Account to counties or cities that would otherwise be made during certain months of 2009 and 2010 to instead be deferred and paid on or within 2 working days of April 28, 2010, with a specified exception. The bill would extend the deferral of apportionments from the Highway Users Tax Account in the Transportation Tax Fund to cities, counties, and cities and counties from July 2010 to March 2011, inclusive, and limit the amount of those deferrals to no more than $50,000,000 per month. (4) 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 January 8, 2010. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 8, 2010, pursuant to the California Constitution. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.