2014-15 State Budget Conference Committee to Convene

Members of the 2014-15 Joint Legislative Budget Conference Committee (Conference Committee) were announced late this week.  The Conference Committee will be co-Chaired by Senate Committee Budget Chair, Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), and Assembly Budget Chair, Assembly Member Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). Other members include Senators Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), and Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), and Assembly Members Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), Jeff Gorrell (R-Camarillo), and Shirley Weber (D-San Diego).

The purpose of the Conference Committee is for members in both houses to meet and discuss Budget issues where the Senate and the Assembly approved different actions pertaining to the same Budget item. The Conference Committee will work to reach an agreement for each Budget item, and will then generate a Conference Report which will become the foundation for the final Budget. 

A few key items of interest to RCRC’s member counties that the Conference Committee will address include cap and trade expenditures, funding for local jail construction, Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, funding for trial courts, and the early repayment of loans for local transportation needs (HUTA).

Unfortunately, state Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) is not amongst those items currently slated for discussion in the Conference Committee. PILT was heard in the Senate Budget Subcommittee and the item was held open awaiting the Department of Fish and Wildlife providing updated dollar amounts of the monies owed. However, the Subcommittee did not revisit the issue of PILT, nor did it appear on subsequent agendas, and therefore received no follow-up hearing or action. On the Assembly side, PILT was never taken up for consideration in the Assembly Budget Subcommittee. Since there was no action on the item by the Budget Subcommittees in either house, PILT is not currently scheduled for consideration by the Conference Committee. 

RCRC is requesting the assistance of legislators who represent counties owed PILT monies to help place PILT on the “not in conference (NIC)” list of items that should be discussed and acted upon during the deliberations of the Conference Committee, even though they did not end up there in the normal course of business.

There is no schedule yet for when the Conference Committee will begin.

For additional information regarding the Conference Committee or other Budget items, please contact RCRC Governmental Affairs staff at (916) 447-4806.