5:45 a.m. – I pick up a box of coffee for myself and my fellow
poll workers. I already have some fruit and other snacks to
share. It’s going to be a 15- or 16-hour workday, so we’ll need
all the help we can get. Despite the 5 a.m. wake-up call and the
long hours, I avoid comparing myself to Ivan Denisovich. I
volunteered for this, after all, and I always enjoy it. I have
the blank ballots, scanner, and some other supplies in my car,
and the rest of the equipment, like the voting booths, are
waiting for us at the polling place.
The Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments
is holding a hearing next Tuesday, October 23, to talk gather
information about barriers to voter participation.
Three panels will discuss barriers for different groups,
including minority groups and voters with disabilities.
SB 1272 (Kehoe) – Support
Chapter No. 507, Statutes of 2012
SB 1272, by Senator Christine Kehoe, extends the term of central
committee members to four years from two. This change, though
minor on its face, would be a major benefit for county election
offices, for two main reasons.
AB 1098, by Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter, would have
allocated Vehicle License Fee revenues to cities that either
incorporated or annexed inhabited land since August 2005,
including those that did so in the future.
Currently, the great majority of Vehicle License Fee revenues
fund 1991 Realignment and 2011 Realignment, with a small portion
paying for DMV and FTB (Franchise Tax Board) administrative
costs.
AB 1098 (Carter) – Request for Veto
As Enrolled on September 5, 2012
AB 1098, by Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter, would allocate
Vehicle License Fee revenues to cities that either incorporated
or annexed inhabited land since August 2005, including those that
do so in the future. The author amended this language into the
bill on the day before the end of the legislative session and is
identical to SB 1566 (Negrete McLeod), which died in the Senate
Appropriations Committee in the spring.
SB 1156 (Steinberg) – Support
AS Enrolled on August 29, 2012
SB 1156, by Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, would
create a structure for continuing redevelopment-like activities
in certain areas, mostly those in areas with ready access to
transit services.
AB 2618 (Ma) – Support
As Enrolled on August 16, 2012
AB 2618, by Assembly Member Fiona Ma, would ensure that
purchasers of cars at auction pay the appropriate amount of sales
or use tax on those transactions.
SB 1156 (Steinberg) – Support
As Proposed to Be Amended
SB 1156, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would
create a structure for continuing local economic development
activities in transit priority areas and for the manufacture of
renewable energy equipment.
While it might seem like election season is already in full
swing, it’s still only August and the real onslaught won’t begin
for a couple more weeks.
Which makes this the perfect time to look at voter registration
in California. The data viz below contains a bunch of information
about it. Click on the picture to link to an interactive version.
Which counties have a Democratic or Republican registration
advantage, and how much of one? Which have the highest
concentration of “no party” voters (darker green indicates higher
percentage)?
AB 1050 (Ma) – Pending
As Amended September 8, 2012
AB 1050, by Assembly Member Fiona Ma, would create a structure
for collecting various state charges from prepaid wireless
customers. Before the most recent amendments, the bill also would
have provided for the collection of utility users taxes, but it
now contains only language expressing the intent of the
Legislature to come up with a way to collect the local taxes on
prepaid wireless sometime in the future.
CSAC’s Government Finance and Operations policy committee will
meet by phone to consider a position on Proposition 31, the
Government Performance and Accountability Act. Proposition 31 was
created by California Forward and is championed by the California
Forward Action Fund.
SB 1156 (Steinberg) – Support in Concept
As Amended June 27, 2012
SB 1156, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would
create a structure for continuing economic development activities
similar to redevelopment in certain areas, mainly transit
priority areas.
SB 1156 (Steinberg) – Support in Concept
As Amended June 27, 2012
SB 1156, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would
create a structure for continuing economic development activities
similar to redevelopment in certain areas, mainly transit
priority areas.
While June is known chiefly for its budget debates, it is
also a busy time for bills, as the deadline for most bills to
pass out of policy committee looms.
AB 1191 (Huber) – Support
As Amended on January 23, 2012
AB 1191, by Assembly Member Alyson Huber, would provide counties
and their cities a process to seek reimbursement for revenues
lost as a result of the triple-flip and the VLF swap. CSAC and
the Regional Council of Rural Counties are jointly sponsoring the
bill.
AB 1692, by Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski, would renege on last
year’s negotiated agreement on the municipal bankruptcy
process.
Last year’s AB 506 implemented a voluntary process whereby local
agencies could enter into a neutral evaluation with their
creditors and other stakeholders. This process is available to
precede or avert bankruptcy. The final result of the bill was the
product of many hours of negotiation between the author, Governor
Brown, Senator Wolk, and local agencies.
SB 1151 (Steinberg) – Support in Concept
SB 1156 (Steinberg) – Support in Concept
These two bills, SB 1151 and SB 1156, by Senate President Pro Tem
Darrell Steinberg, would create a structure for continuing
redevelopment activities in the future.
The LAO released a
curious document this week. They’ve been doing a lot of
thinking about
Facebook. On the one hand, who doesn’t spend a lot of time
thinking about Facebook?
As part of his May Revision, Governor Brown this week proposed a
trailer bill that would make a number of changes to the
redevelopment dissolution process. That language is
available here.
The bill as proposed would affect the disposition of pass through
agreements, clawback of improper payments, the role of the
Department of Finance, the dispersal of cash assets, and several
other issues of interest.
Counties are encouraged to review this language and provide any
comments to Geoffrey Neill.
AB 2618 (Ma) – Support
As Amended on April 18, 2012
AB 2618, by Assembly Member Fiona Ma, would ensure that
purchasers of cars at auction pay the appropriate amount of sales
or use tax on those transactions.
The following is an update on the status of Agriculture &
Natural Resources bills that were heard in various Committees
this week. For more detailed information on the bills, please
refer to last week’s legislative bulletin, or
the CSAC legislative tracking link on
our website.
AB 1692 (Wieckowski) – Oppose
As Amended on April 16, 2012
AB 1692, by Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski, would alter the
“neutral evaluation” process that local agencies may elect to
pursue prior to or instead of declaring bankruptcy.
SB 1151 (Steinberg) – Support in Concept
As Amended on March 29, 2012
SB 1156 (Steinberg) – Support in Concept
As Amended on March 29, 2012
These two bills, SB 1151 and SB 1156, by Senate President Pro Tem
Darrell Steinberg, would create a structure for continuing
redevelopment activities in the form of county-city joint powers
authorities.
SB 954 (Liu) – Support
As Amended on March 1, 2012
SB 954, by Senator Carol Liu, would authorize the State
Controller to, at the request of a county or city, offset any
payments due to people from the unclaimed property held by the
state in order to pay debts those people owe the county or
city.
AB 1436 (Feuer) – Oppose Unless Amended
As Amended on March 20, 2012
AB 1436, by Assembly Member Mike Feuer, would create a process
for potential voters to register to vote and vote in the final
two weeks before an election, and is very similar to last year’s
SB 641, which failed to pass the Assembly Appropriations
Committee. Currently, citizens must register at least fifteen
days before an election to vote in that election.
Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 heard an issue of interest to
counties at their meeting on Tuesday, March 20. The item relates
specifically to Amador and Mono Counties, which find themselves
in or near the position where all of their school entities
qualify as “basic aid” schools. Because of this, they have no
source of reimbursement for the ‘Triple Flip’ and ‘VLF Swap’
financing mechanisms.
AB 1963 (Huber) – Request for Comment
As Introduced on February 23, 2012
AB 1963, by Assembly Member Alyson Huber, would reduce the state
sales and use tax rate to 4% and extend the tax to cover most
services, instead of only tangible property. It would also reduce
the personal income tax rate for most filer to 6.5% and increase
the standard deduction from $1,880 to $22,500 for single filers,
double that for joint and head of household filers.
As drafted, the sales and use tax would apply to all services
except:
SB 1156 (Steinberg) – Pending
As Introduced on February 22, 2012
SB 1156, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, states
the Legislature’s intent to authorize counties and cities to
transfer the housing assets and responsibilities of dissolved
redevelopment agencies to new joint powers authorities. The new
JPAs would also be allowed to facilitate career technical
education, and they could exercise certain financial powers, such
as implementing local transactions and use taxes and issuing
bonds.
AB 1692 (Wieckowski) – Pending
As Introduced on February 15, 2012
AB 1692, by Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski, would add successor
agencies to the list of local public entities allowed to file for
bankruptcy protection.
AB 1585 (Pérez) – Pending
As Introduced on February 2, 2012
AB 1585, by Speaker John Pérez, would make several changes
related to the redevelopment agency dissolution process, and in
particular to issuance of new bonds, enforceable obligations,
employees, and housing funds and responsibilities.
AB 1413 (Fong) – Support
As Amended on January 5, 2012
AB 1413, by Assembly Member Paul Fong, would fix several issues
related to the statutory implementation of Proposition 14. In
doing so it would make future elections less expensive for
counties.
The law requires the Secretary of State to release registration
numbers as of 154 days before statewide elections. She released
them today.
You can read in all the other news reports about how many
Republicans there are, how many decline-to-state voters, yaddah,
yaddah. But what you won’t hear from the news is that the
Secretary’s report also breaks down registration by Supervisorial
district.
That’s right, you can check out the party registration in your
district (or your boss’s district). Not that I’m suggesting local
races aren’t nonpartisan.
AB 1413 (Fong) – Support
As Amended on January 5, 2012
AB 1413, by Assembly Member Paul Fong, would fix several issues
related to the statutory implementation of Proposition 14. In
doing so it would make future elections less expensive for
counties.
AB 1191 (Huber) – Sponsor
As Amended on January 4, 2012
AB 1191, by Assembly Member Alyson Huber, provides counties and
their cities a process to seek reimbursement for revenues lost as
a result of the triple-flip and the VLF swap. CSAC and the
Regional Council of Rural Counties are jointly sponsoring the
bill.
AB 1413 (Fong) – Support
As Amended on January 5, 2012
AB 1413, by Assembly Member Paul Fong, would fix several issues
related to the statutory implementation of Proposition 14. In
doing so it would make future election procedures clearer for
voters and less expensive for counties and, in turn, the
state.
For the state’s General Fund, four months are head and shoulders
more important than the rest. From highest to lowest: April,
June, January, and December.
Let’s hope April, June, and January bring in the cash, because
December didn’t do so hot.
State Controller John Chiang announced today that cash receipts
in December were below all expectations.
ACA 4 (Blumenfield) – Support
As Introduced on December 6, 2010
A month remains before the Legislature returns to Sacramento to
begin the second year of their two-year legislative session.
Several bills that did not make it through the process last year
are likely to see some action in the first part of 2012. ACA 4 is
one of those bills.
CSAC’s Government Finance and Operations policy committee will
meet in two weeks at the 117th Annual Meeting.
The committee will hear a presentation from the Legislative
Analyst’s Office about their fiscal forecast. They will review
what the sluggish recovery of the economy means for the state
budget, and what that, in turn, means for counties.
The measure to guarantee counties revenue for realignment wasn’t
the only initiative filed this week. California Forward, which
has been working on state reform issues for several years, also
filed a ballot measure, the Government
Performance and Accountability Act.
Unemployment is up for the third month in a row. More sectors are
losing jobs than gaining them. The government sector in
California has shed 27,300 jobs over the past year. State
revenues are coming in below budgeted amounts. Baseball season is
almost over. There’s bad news everywhere you turn these days.
But there is good news, and you don’t even have to do much
digging, you just have to know where to look for the real story.
Let’s start small.
The number of non-farm jobs rose from last year to this for the
eleventh straight year.
AB 506 (Wieckowski) – Neutral
Chapter No. 675, Statutes of 2011
AB 506, by Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski, was, until the final
days of the legislative session, the latest iteration of the
municipal bankruptcy bill that CSAC and our partners have been
fighting in recent years.
SBX1 8 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) – No Position
Vetoed
Earlier this week, Governor Brown vetoed SBX1 8. This bill would
have modified the provisions of the budget that eliminated
redevelopment agencies unless they provided more money for
schools and other interests.
The Governor in his veto message said he thought it unwise to
modify legislation that was currently pending review by the
Supreme Court. The Court has said it will rule on the
redevelopment lawsuits by January 15.
