October 15, 2007
TO: People Interested in Local Government, Public Finance, and Land Use
FROM: Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod
SUBJECT: Local Government Bills During 2007
Land Use Planning & Development
Now that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has finished acting on bills, I want you to know about some of the more interesting bills affecting public finance, land use, and local governance that came to the Committee this year. The urgency bills took effect when they were chaptered; regular bills take effect on January 1, 2008. The Committee will take up the two-year bills when the Legislature returns in January, and then we will work on the newly-introduced bills.
LOCAL FINANCE
SB 444 (Senate Local Government Committee) conforms standby charge statutes to the requirements of Proposition 218. Status: Signed; Chapter 27, Statutes of 2007.
SB 547 (Correa) provides up to $20 million of annual state funding to the counties with the lowest shares of property tax allocations. Status: Senate Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
SB 605 (Alquist) authorizes Santa Clara County to increase its vital records fees by up to $4 to fund the coordination of their domestic violence programs. Status: Senate Local Government Committee; two-year bill.
SCA 12 (Torlakson) adds stormwater fees to Proposition 218’s voter approval exemption for sewer, water, and garbage property-related fees. Status: Senate Floor; two-year bill.
AB 83 (Lieber) creates the PARE program to pay counties for the schools’ share of the costs of running the property tax system. Status: Senate Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
AB 239 (DeSaulnier) authorizes Contra Costa and San Mateo counties to charge $25 fees on recorded real estate documents to fund affordable housing. Status: Senate Local Government Committee; two-year bill.
AB 263 (Arambula) corrects errors identified by the State Controller’s Office which cause the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District to over-contribute property taxes to ERAF. Status: Signed; Chapter 490, Statutes of 2007.
AB 373 (Wolk) makes dozens of changes to the Mello-Roos Community Facilities District Law and the School Facilities Improvement District Law. Status: Signed; Chapter 670, Statutes of 2007.
AB 938 (Calderon) creates new procedures that will allow local officials to charge regulatory and user fees to pay for stormwater and urban runoff programs. Status: Senate Environmental Quality Committee; two-year bill.
AB 1170 (Krekorian) imposes deadlines on deciding state mandates test claims and completing audits of state mandates reimbursement claims. Status: Senate Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
AB 1222 (Laird) enacts consensus reforms to the state mandate reimbursement process. Status: Signed; Chapter 329, Statutes of 2007.
AB 1260 (Caballero) clarifies how local officials should comply with Proposition 218’s notice and protest procedures for property-related fees. Status: Signed; Chapter 280, Statutes of 2007.
AB 1261 (Caballero) revises the statute governing public-private infrastructure agreements. Status: Senate Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
AB 1275 (DeSaulnier) authorizes counties to increase their vital records fees by up to $4 to fund the coordination of domestic violence and child abuse programs. Status: Senate Local Government Committee; two-year bill.
LAND USE PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
SB 5 (Machado) requires more planning for flood protection, including a new Central Valley Flood Protection Plan and amended general plans and zoning ordinances. Status: Signed; Chapter 364, Statutes of 2007.
SB 167 (Negrete McLeod) allocates money from Proposition 84 to help cities and counties revise and implement their general plans and to improve regional planning. Status: Senate Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
* SB 732 (Steinberg) allocates money from Proposition 84, including loans for revising local general plans and improving regional planning. Status: Assembly Floor; two-year bill.
SB 821 (Kuehl) requires the California Research Bureau to report on the implementation of the state law that requires cities and counties to impose conditions for water availability on larger subdivisions. Status: Assembly Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
SB 934 (Lowenthal) allows public officials to create up to 100 Housing and Infrastructure Zones, to be financed with property tax increment revenues. Status: Senate Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
AB 162 (Wolk) expands the requirements for flood management in city and county general plans. Status: Signed; Chapter 369, Statutes of 2007.
AB 1066 (Laird) requires the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research to include information and advice about rising sea levels in OPR’s General Plan Guidelines. Status: Senate Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
AB 1253 (Caballero) allocates money from Proposition 84 for local and regional planning. Status: Amended and used for a different topic; no longer relevant to land use planning.
REDEVELOPMENT
SB 437 (Negrete McLeod) requires redevelopment agencies to report their project areas’ time limits in their annual reports and five-year implementation plans. Status: Signed; Chapter 90, Statutes of 2007.
AB 887 (De La Torre) requires redevelopment officials to give more information to property owners who are subject to condemnation and to pay higher benefits when using eminent domain to condemn small businesses. Status: Senate Floor; two-year bill.
LOCAL POWERS & GOVERNANCE
SB 76 (Florez) requires school district officials to receive the same ethics training as other local government officials. Status: Assembly Appropriations Committee; two-year bill.
SB 103 (Cedillo) requires local officials to report their economic development subsidies. Status: Vetoed.
SB 141, SB 142, and SB 143 (Senate Local Government Committee) are the annual Validating Acts. Status: Signed as Chapter 6 (urgency), Chapter 216 (urgency), and Chapter 217, all Statutes of 2007.
SB 144 (Senate Local Government Committee) is the annual Local Government Omnibus Act, making 23 relatively minor and noncontroversial changes to the state laws affecting local agencies’ powers and duties. Status: Signed; Chapter 343, Statutes of 2007.
SB 233 (Cox) broadens the definition of “project” for counties’ design-build authority. Status: Signed; Chapter 584, Statutes of 2007.
SB 343 (Negrete McLeod) requires that agenda materials which are distributed within 72 hours of local legislative bodies’ meetings be made publicly available at a specified location. Status: Signed; Chapter 298, Statutes of 2007.
SB 416 (Ashburn) allows all counties to use the design-build contracting method. Status: Signed; Chapter 585, Statutes of 2007.
SB 964 (Romero) clarifies the Brown Act’s prohibition on serial meetings and prohibits an agency from discriminating when providing writings to its local legislative body. Status: Vetoed.
AB 701 (De La Torre) doubles the statutory salary schedule that applies to city councilmembers and clarifies how city councils can further raise their salaries. Status: Vetoed.
AB 1496 (Swanson) requires cities and counties with civil service systems to classify all employees, with exceptions, and imposes the same standards and procedures for temporary employees as school district merit systems. Status: Senate Local Government Committee; two-year bill.
AB 1580 (La Malfa) and SB 516 (Aanestad) create two new special districts in Shasta and Siskiyou Counties to take over the State Department of Water Resources’ watermaster duties. Status: Signed as Chapter 416 and Chapter 434, both Statutes of 2007.
AB 1634 (Levine) requires cat and dog owners to spay or neuter their animals, with exceptions. Status: Senate Local Government Committee; two-year bill.
LAFCOs & BOUNDARY CHANGES
SB 162 (Negrete McLeod) requires LAFCOs to consider environmental justice when they act on boundary changes. Status: Signed; Chapter 428, Statutes of 2007.
SB 819 (Hollingsworth) permanently allows LAFCOs to consolidate special districts that were not formed under the same principal act. Status: Signed; Chapter 98, Statutes of 2007.
AB 745 (Silva) makes protest petitions subject to the same requirements to disclose contributions and expenditures that apply to application petitions. Status: Signed; Chapter 109, Statutes of 2007.
AB 1744 (Assembly Local Government Committee) makes nine changes to the state laws affecting LAFCOs and local agencies’ boundaries. Status: Signed; Chapter 244, Statutes of 2007.
* This bill did not come to the Senate Local Government Committee.
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The best way to get copies of these bills, their analyses, histories, voting records, and any veto messages is from the California Legislature’s official website: www.leginfo.ca.gov.
More information about the Committee’s work is available at www.sen.ca.gov/locgov.
