Friday, May 23, 2014 marked the last day for fiscal committee to meet and either pass, or hold fiscal bills which had been placed on the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Suspense File this legislative session.  The status of these bills, and RCRC’s position, are outlined below.  Please contact the RCRC Government Affairs staff at (916) 447-4806 with any questions.

Assembly Appropriation Bills

AB 1451 (Holden): Concurrent Enrollment. AB 1451 would help provide rural high school students with access to higher education opportunities. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations CommitteeRCRC Position:Support

AB 1540 (Hagman): Concurrent Enrollment. Current law restricts a principal from recommending more than 5% of the total number of students in the same grade-level from concurrent enrollment in a summer session course. AB 1540 would reinstate the 5% enrollment cap through 2017 and would add computer science courses to the exemption list.  Status: Failed passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support

AB 1661 (Bonta): Healthy Options for Everyone Act of 2014.  AB 1661 would create a standard definition for “food desert” within statute and would allow local governments to create Healthy Options for Everyone (HOPE) incentives zones, whereby fresh food vendors could operate within specified food desert areas. Status: Failed passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support

AB 1739 (Dickinson): Groundwater Basin Management: Sustainability.  AB 1739 would require a sustainable groundwater management plan to be adopted, except as provided, for each high or medium priority groundwater basin by any groundwater management agency as defined.  Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.   RCRC Position: Pending with Amendments Requested

AB 1799 (Gordon): Land Use: Mitigation Lands.  AB 1799 would exempt a governmental entity or special district from the requirement to provide an endowment for long-term stewardship of mitigation lands if the entity provides evidence that it possesses an investment-grade credit rating and provide a resolution or contractual agreement to enforce the mitigation requirements.  Status: Failed Passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Support

AB 1894 (Ammiano): Medical Cannabis: AB 1894 would establish a state-run statewide regulatory framework for licensing medical marijuana dispensing facilities and cultivation sites.  Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Concerns with Amendments Requested

AB 1961 (Eggman): Land Use: Planning: Sustainable Farmland Strategy.  AB 1961 would require each county with significant agricultural land to develop on or before January 2, 2018 a sustainable farmland strategy. Status: Failed Passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Oppose Unless Amended

AB 1970 (Gordon): Global Warming Solutions Act: Community Investment.  AB 1970 would create the Community Investment and Innovation Program which would provide funding to local governments in the form of grants and other financial assistance to develop and implement greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction projects.  Status: Failed passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Support

AB 2241 (Eggman): Local Government: Agricultural Land.  AB 2241 would change the rescission fee charged by a county when land under Williamson Act contract or land designated as a farmland security zone enters into a solar-use easement to 10% of the fair market value of the property and  allows for counties that choose to utilize this approach to retain half of the rescission fee.  Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee as amended to add a five year sunset.   RCRC Position: Support

AB 2363 (Dahle): Electricity Procurement.  AB 2363 would require the development of integration adders so that the Commission may accurately consider the full costs and benefits of the various technologies in its renewable portfolio standard decision-making by October 1, 2015. Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Support

AB 2373 (Hernandez): Probation Officers: Funding: AB 2373 would require county Boards of Supervisors to approve probation officers’ requests for staff and resources as part of a county’s probation department’s notification to the presiding judge of the superior court that they have insufficient resources to conduct a variety of responsibilities.  Status: Failed passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Oppose

AB 2402 (Buchanan): Weed Management.   AB 2402 would appropriate $2.5 million from the General Fund to the Noxious Weed Management Account within the California Department of Food and Agriculture and specify the allocation of the funds from the Noxious Weed Management Account to the various entities.  Status: Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee as amended to delete the appropriation.  RCRC Position: Watch as Amended

AB 2703 (Quirk-Silva): County Veterans Service Officers.  AB 2703 would allocate $6,000,000 from the General Fund to counties for the purpose of funding various CVSO activities, and would create a formula through which those funds would be allocated. Status:  Passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support

 

Senate Appropriation Bills

 

SB 848 (Wolk): Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality, and Flood Protection Act of 2014. SB 848 would repeal the provisions of the proposed 2012 Water Bond and would, if adopted by voters, authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $6,825,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a safe drinking water, water quality and water supply program.  Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Amendments Requested

SB 942 (Vidak): Special Elections: SB 942 would require the State to pay for the cost of special elections - proclaimed by the Governor - to fill a vacancy in the office of a member of the State Assembly, State Senate, or the U.S. House of Representatives that has occurred between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2014.  Status:Failed passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Support

SB 1137 (Torres): School Transportation Apportionments. SB 1137 would reimburse school districts for 50% of approved transportation costs. Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support

SB 1168 (Pavley): Groundwater Management.  SB 1168 would establish the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act which declares the Legislature's intent to have all groundwater basins and sub-basins managed by local entities pursuant to an adopted sustainable groundwater management plan.  Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position:  Pending with Amendments Requested

SB 1262 (Correa): Medical Marijuana: Regulation of Physicians, Dispensaries, and Cultivation Sites: SB 1262 wouldrequire the State Department of Public Health to license dispensing facilities and cultivation sites that provide, process, and grow marijuana for medical use, among various other things.  Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Oppose Unless Amended

SB 1268 (Beall): Natural Resources Climate Improvement Program. SB 1268 would establish the Natural Resource Climate Improvement Program.  Status: Failed passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support

SB 1270 (Pavley): Surface Mining Operations.  SB 1270 would shift the annual inspection, review and approval of financial assurance responsibilities of surface mining operations from local governments to a state agency. Status: Failed passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee.   RCRC Position: Oppose

SB 1278 (Leno): Animal Control Officers: SB 1278 would require animal control officers to complete a course in the exercise of powers of arrest/serving warrants as well as require continuing education requirements.  Status:Failed passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Concerns

SB 1292 (Hueso): Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.  SB 1292 would increase the maximum amount of a construction grant award from $3 million to $5 million for a water system serving severely disadvantaged communities.  Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Support

SB 1341 (Mitchell): Medi-Cal: Statewide Automated Welfare System. SB 1341 would require SAWS to be the system of record for Medi-Cal, and contain all Medi-Cal eligibility rules and case management functionality.  Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Position: Support

SB 1364 (Fuller): Telecommunications Universal Service Programs: SB 1364 would expand and extend the funding base for the state’s universal service and telecommunications programs which help support the deployment of communication services in California.  Status: Passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  RCRC Position: Support

SB 1410 (Wolk): Wildlife Management Areas: Payments.  SB 1410 would appropriate $19 million from the General Fund to the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) to make payments to counties for past due PILT obligations.  SB 1410 also appropriates $2 million annually, beginning in the 2014-2015 fiscal year, to DFW for ongoing annual payments to the impacted counties.  Status: Failed Passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee.   RCRC Position: Support