AB 157

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. Existing law, operative on January 1, 2023, recodifies and reorganizes the provisions of the act. Existing law exempts specified types of records related to a public bank from disclosure under the act, including, among others, due diligence materials that are proprietary to the public bank. This bill would exempt specified information and records of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank from disclosure under the act. The bill would apply that exemption to the bank solely in relation to the administration of the Climate Catalyst Revolving Loan Fund Act of 2020, the Venture Capital Program, and the financing of economic development facilities and public development facilities under certain circumstances. The bill would prescribe the characteristics of the information to which the exemption would and would not apply and would provide for the maintenance of the exemption after a certain date. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. (2) Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, to advocate for causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. Existing law prescribes the duties and functions of the Small Business Advocate, who is also the Director of the Office of Small Business Advocate. Existing law establishes the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program within the office, which until January 1, 2024, provides grants to qualified small businesses affected by COVID-19 in order to support their continued operation. This bill, until January 1, 2025, would establish the California Small Agricultural Business Drought Relief Grant Program in the Office of Small Business Advocate, under the authority of its director. The purpose of the program would be to provide grants to qualified small agricultural businesses that have been affected by severe drought. The bill would prescribe various definitions for its purposes, including that of a qualified small business. The bill would authorize the office to contract with a fiscal agent, as defined, to carry out the program, and would require the office to allocate grants to qualified small agricultural businesses that meet the requirements, upon appropriation of grant funds by the Legislature. The bill would prescribe the criteria for specific grant amounts, which would be based on the loss or decline in annual gross receipts or gross profits, which would be established by comparing the 2022 taxable year to the 2019 taxable year, as specified. The bill would provide for the recapture of grants if grantees fail to meet required criteria. The bill would require that grant moneys be used only for costs to maintain the business through the drought, and would specify certain authorized costs in this regard. This bill would require the office to conduct marketing and outreach for equitable awareness and the distribution of grants, as specified. The bill would authorize applicants for grants to self-identify race, gender, and ethnicity and require this information, as well as information on grant amounts awarded, to be posted on the department's internet website. The bill would require the office to provide specified, categorical information to the Legislature regarding the number of grants and dollar amounts awarded. The bill would authorize the office and the Franchise Tax Board to adopt regulations to implement its provisions without regard to the Administrative Procedure Act. (3) Existing federal law requires the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to support the development of at least 4 regional clean hydrogen hubs that demonstrably aid the achievement of a specified clean hydrogen production standard, that demonstrate the production, processing, delivery, storage, and end-use of clean hydrogen, and that can be developed into a national clean hydrogen network to facilitate a clean hydrogen economy. Existing federal law authorizes the Secretary of Energy to make grants to each regional clean hydrogen hub to accelerate commercialization of, and demonstrate the production, processing, delivery, storage, and end-use of, clean hydrogen. This bill would authorize GO-Biz, until July 1, 2025, to undertake measures that are necessary or useful to prepare and submit an application to receive funding from the regional clean hydrogen hubs program established by the Secretary of Energy or to otherwise participate in the regional clean hydrogen hubs program. The bill would require grants made from any funding received from the regional clean hydrogen hubs program to be used as specified. The bill would require GO-Biz to submit an annual report regarding the status of an application submitted to receive funding from the regional clean hydrogen hubs program and the status of any partnerships entered into, as described. The bill would also require GO-Biz to consult with and coordinate clean hydrogen-related efforts with relevant stakeholders, as described. (4) Existing law authorizes an airport operated by a city and county to require a rental car company to collect a fee from its customers on behalf of the airport for the use of an airport-mandated common use busing system or light rail transit system operated for the movement of passengers between the terminal and a consolidated on-airport rental car facility. Existing law, operative on January 1, 2023, ends the authorization for an airport to impose a customer facility charge when the bonds used for financing are paid, except as specified. This bill would instead make the provisions that will end the authorization to impose the charge when the bonds used for financing are paid operative on January 1, 2024. The bill would also make other conforming changes. (5) Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to, among other things, administer various programs intended to fund the acquisition of property to develop or preserve affordable housing, including the Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program (FIHPP) and the Multifamily Housing Program (MHP) . Existing law creates the FIHPP for the purpose of preserving affordable housing and promoting resident ownership, or nonprofit organization ownership, of residential real property and requires the program to be administered by the department to provide loans, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to eligible borrowers to pay the acquisition costs and associated transaction costs of certain real property purchased through a trustee's sale, as specified, subject to a preforeclosure intervention sale, as defined, or subject to a foreclosure risk intervention sale. This bill would additionally authorize HCD, upon appropriation, to provide grants to eligible borrowers under its provisions for these purposes. Existing law creates the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Fund (the Fund) , administered by HCD and continuously appropriated for, among other things, making deferred payment loans for specified housing rehabilitation programs. Existing law requires HCD to contract with one or more fund managers to manage the FIHPP until June 30, 2026, as specified. Existing law requires funds not committed to fund managers as of December 31, 2025, or any funds returned from fund managers after December 31, 2025, to be made available for affordable housing preservation loans, as specified. This bill would remove that date limit for returned funds and require uncommitted or returned funds to be additionally made available for the MHP. By expanding the uses and deposits of moneys in a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. Existing law requires FIHPP fund managers to deposit all repayments of program funds, including loan principal and any interest collected, and any interest earned on the funds, into the Fund. Existing law authorizes the department to use funds to provide technical assistance, as specified. This bill would instead require fund managers to deposit unused program funds into separately maintained reuse accounts for the purposes of the program, as specified. The bill would require fund managers use funds held in those reuse accounts to administer loans and grants to pay for repairs, maintenance, or improvements on properties acquired pursuant to the program, among other purposes. The bill would remove the authority to use the funds for providing technical assistance, as specified. Existing law defines the term "nonprofit corporation," as specified. Existing law requires a borrower or grantee that receives funds from a loan or grant made pursuant to the FIHPP ensure that all vacant units are restricted as specified. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. (6) Existing law requires HCD to administer various programs intended to promote the development of housing, including the MHP, pursuant to which HCD provides financial assistance in the form of deferred payment loans to pay for the eligible costs of development for specified activities. Existing law also establishes the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) within HCD with the primary purpose of meeting the housing needs of persons and families of low or moderate income. Existing law establishes various objectives of CalHFA, including, among others, reducing the cost of mortgage financing for accessory dwelling units, as specified. This bill would require CalHFA to convene a working group to develop recommendations to assist homeowners in qualifying for loans to construct accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units on their property and to increase access to capital for homeowners interested in building accessory dwelling units. The bill would require the working group to include specified representatives and to explore different opportunities to mitigate risks for lenders, including, but not limited to, loan guarantees, mortgage insurance, managed escrow, and rental income guidelines. The bill would require the working group to finish developing recommendations by July 1, 2023, for CalHFA to consider in the next update of its accessory dwelling unit guidelines. (7) Existing law establishes the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, which requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and administer a grant program to allocate those funds to eligible applicants, as defined, to fund capital improvement projects that are an integral part of, or necessary to facilitate the development of, a qualifying infill project or qualifying infill area, as those terms are defined, pursuant to specified requirements. This bill would expand the definition of "capital improvement project" for purposes of the program, to include adaptive reuse. In this regard, the bill would define "adaptive reuse" to mean the repurposing of building structures for residential purposes, such as former office use, commercial use, or business parks. This bill would expand the grant program to fund capital improvement projects that are an integral part of a catalytic qualifying infill area, as defined. The bill would define "catalytic qualifying infill area" as a contiguous area or multiple noncontiguous parcels located within an urbanized area that meet specified requirements, including the area constitutes a large catalytic investment in land that will accommodate a mix of uses, including affordable or mixed-income housing. The bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a selection process for awarding grants for catalytic infill areas that meets specified requirements, including minimum threshold requirements for applicants, mandatory information required in an application for funding, and application ranking procedures. The bill would authorize the department to ensure a reasonable distribution of funds that considers differing population sizes and geographic location, as specified. The bill would require the department, by January 1, 2024, to submit a report to the relevant fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature that includes, among other things, data on the catalytic qualifying infill area projects funded under the program. Existing law requires the department to adopt guidelines for the operation of the program that include performance standards and authorize the reversion of grant awards if the awardee has not substantially met the performance standards This bill would require those performance standards to include timelines for commencement of construction of a capital improvement project, completion of a capital improvement project, and commencement and completion of associated housing development on an identified infill site. The bill would also require the department to require recipients of funds to report on progress of capital improvement projects, including, but not limited to, substantiation of grant expenditures and housing outcomes, as specified. (8) Existing law generally requires public contracts to be awarded by competitive bidding pursuant to procedures set forth in the Public Contract Code, subject to certain exceptions. Former law, repealed as of January 1, 2022, authorized the Department of General Services to purchase and equip heavy mobile fleet vehicles and special equipment for use by the Department of Transportation by means of best value procurement, as defined, using specifications and criteria developed in consultation with the Department of Transportation. Former law established requirements for bid evaluation and protest procedures. Former law limited the total value of vehicles and equipment purchased through this best value procurement authorization to $50,000,000 annually. Former law required the Department of General Services to prepare a prescribed evaluation with regard to this process, including a recommendation on whether the process should be continued, to be posted on the Department of Transportation's internet website. This bill would reenact those best value procurement provisions for heavy mobile fleet vehicles and special equipment, omitting the $50,000,000 annual cap included in former law. The bill would revise the requirement for a prescribed evaluation included in former law and would instead require the department to post on its internet website, by March 1, 2024, a prescribed report including a description of its use of the best value procurement method. The bill would make its provisions inoperative on June 30, 2025, and would repeal them on January 1, 2026. (9) Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish contracts for electronic programs that allow qualified private industry partners to provide services that include processing and payment programs for vehicle registration and titling transactions. Existing law authorizes the department to establish the maximum amount that a qualified private industry partner may charge its customers. This bill would require the department, on or before September 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, to adjust that amount in accordance with the most recent available data on growth in the California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, except as specified. (10) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.