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Senate and Assembly Appropriations Suspense File
Friday, May 27, 2016 marks the last day for both the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees to meet and either pass or hold fiscal bills that have been placed on the “suspense” file this legislative session. The status of these bills, and RCRC’s position, will be available on our website upon completion of their respective committee hearings.
Assembly Appropriations Bills
AB 1550 (Gomez): Greenhouse Gases: Investment Plan: Disadvantaged Communities. Assembly Bill 1550 would require 25 percent of the annual proceeds from California’s Cap-and-Trade program to be allocated to projects that directly benefit low income households statewide. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 1572 (Campos): School Transportation. Assembly Bill 1572 would require a public, noncharter school to provide free transportation to a pupil attending school that receives Title 1 Federal Funding. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 1578 (Rodriguez): Emergency Medical Services: Mobile Field Hospitals. Assembly Bill 1578 would appropriate $2 million from the General Fund (GF) to the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) to provide maintenance and upkeep of mobile field hospitals (MFHs) within the Mobile Field Hospital Program. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 1596 (Mathis): Veteran Service Organizations. Assembly Bill 1596 would appropriate $3 million from the General Fund to support grants to veterans’ service organizations. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 1642 (Obernolte): State Responsibility Area: Fire Prevention Fees. Assembly Bill 1642 would extend the period of time owners of structures have to pay or request redetermination of the fire prevention fee from 30 days to 60 days. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 1672 (Mathis): Veterans Treatment Courts: Judicial Council Survey. Assembly Bill 1672 would require the Judicial Council to conduct an assessment of veterans’ treatment courts statewide. Status: Passed put of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 1780 (Medina): Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: Sustainable Freight Corridors Program. Assembly Bill 1780 would permanently allocate 25 percent of all annual proceeds from California’s Cap-and-Trade program to the Sustainable Freight Corridors Program, leaving only 15 percent in discretionary funds annually. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Oppose
AB 1815 (Alejo): Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Assembly Bill 1815 would allocate technical assistance funds to the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to assist disadvantaged and low-income communities in developing project funding proposals. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support if Amended
AB 1958 (Wood): Forestry: Timberlands: Restoration and Conservation. Assembly Bill 1958 would authorize the Board of Forestry to grant a timber harvest plan (THP) exemption for the removal and commercial harvest of trees to restore and conserve California black or Oregon white oak woodlands, under specified conditions. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 1965 (Cooper): Vehicle Retirement and Replacement. Assembly Bill 1965 would expand the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program Plus-up in disadvantaged communities and in additional areas with poor air quality to increase the retirement and replacement of high-polluting vehicles. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support if Amended
AB 2029 (Dahle): Timber Harvest Plans: Exemptions. Assembly Bill 2029 would extend and expand the provisions of the existing Forest Fire Prevention Pilot Program. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2146 (Patterson): Forestry and Fire Protection: Greenhouse Gas Emission. Assembly Bill 2146 would, among other things, allocate up to $200 million of AB 32 cap-and-trade revenues to CalFIRE for activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by uncontrolled forest fires. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2292 (Gordon): Disadvantaged Communities/CalEnviroScreen. Assembly Bill 2292 would require the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to update the California Communities Environmental Health Screening (CalEnviroScreen) Tool to include additional, specific economic indicators. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2293 (Garcia): Green Business and Green Assistance Program. Assembly Bill 2293 would establish the Green Assistance Program in CalEPA, and move the Green Business Program from the Department of Toxic Substance Control to CalEPA. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2314 (Bigelow): Disaster Relief: County of Calaveras. Assembly Bill 2314 would provide state funding to backfill property tax revenue losses as a result of the Butte Fire in Calaveras County. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2507 (Gordon): Access to Telehealth. Assembly Bill 2507 would require health care service plans (health plans) and health insurers to reimburse telehealth services to the same extent as services provided through in person. Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2564 (Cooper): Clean Vehicle Rebate Program. Assembly Bill 2564 would require the ARB to adopt regulations to establish eligibility for the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) based on income levels. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2678 (Gray): State-designated fairs: funding. Assembly Bill 2678 would dedicate the State portion of the sales and use tax collected from transactions at fairgrounds except for Los Angeles to support small - and medium-sized fairs. Status: Gained passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
AB 2781 (Garcia): Supplemental Environmental Projects. Assembly Bill 2781 would direct 10% of all penalties collected by California Environmental Protection Agency boards, departments, and offices to fund environmental projects in disadvantaged communities using Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code for the definition (CalEnviro Screen) of a disadvantaged community (DAC). Status: Gained passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Opposed
Senate Appropriations Bills
SB 937 (McGuire) Disaster Relief: County of Lake: Fires. Senate Bill 937 would provide state disaster-related relief to local agencies impacted by the wildfires that occurred in Lake County in 2015. Status: Held in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
SB 995 (Pavley): Well Standards. Senate Bill 995 would require the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to update well standards for certain types of wells based on existing knowledge. This bill would also require DWR to establish an advisory panel to identify critical gaps in existing knowledge about the best practices for well construction, alteration, maintenance, and destruction for these wells. Status: Gained passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support if Amended
SB 1028 (Hill) Electrical Corporations: Utilities: Wildfire Mitigation. Senate Bill 1028 would require utilities regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to file wildfire mitigation plans with their governing boards. Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
SB 1118 (Berryhill): Disaster Relief. Senate Bill 1118 would provide state disaster-related relief to local agencies impacted by the wildfires that occurred in Calaveras County in 2015. Status: Held in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
SB 1170 (Wieckowski): Public contracts: water pollution prevention plans: delegation. Senate Bill 1170 would prohibit a public entity, charter city, or charter county from delegating to a contractor the development of a plan, as defined, used to prevent or reduce water pollution or runoff on a public works contract, except as provided. The bill would also prohibit a public entity, charter city, or charter county from requiring a contractor on a public works contract that includes compliance with a plan to assume responsibility for the completeness and accuracy of a plan developed by that entity. Status: Gained passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Oppose
SB 1188 (McGuire): Wildlife management areas: payment of taxes and assessments. Senate Bill 1188 will return the ‘may’ back to ‘shall’ in Fish and Game Code Section 1504 making future PILT payments required rather than permissive. Status: Gained passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
SB 1212 (Hueso): 211 Information and Referral Network. Senate Bill 1212 would expand the state-wide 2-1-1 network into all 58 of California’s counties. Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
SB 1380 (Mitchell): Homelessness Coordinating and Financing Council. Senate Bill 1380 would establish the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC). Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support
SB 1383 (Lara): Short-Lived Climate Pollutants. Senate Bill 1383 would require the Air Resources Board (ARB) to approve and implement the comprehensive strategy to achieve, from 2013 levels, a 40% reduction in methane, a 40% reduction in hydrofluorocarbon gases, and a 50% reduction in anthropogenic black carbon, by 2030 Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Concerns
SB 1396 (Wolk): Inner Coast Range Conservancy. Senate Bill 1396 would establish the Inner Coast Range Program within the Wildlife Conservation Board. The Inner Coast Range region as defined in the legislation includes all or part of the following counties: Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Tehama, Trinity and Yolo. Status: Gained passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Pending
SB 1463 (Moorlach): Electrical Lines: Mitigation of Wildfire Risks. Senate Bill 1463 would require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to prioritize communities that are at high risk from the consequences of wildfires when determining areas in which it will require enhanced mitigation measures for wildfire hazards posed by overhead electrical lines and equipment. Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support