The state Legislature returned from their Summer Recess on August 21 to resume work on the 2017 bills that are still moving through the legislative process, which concludes on September 15. There are several major policy arenas the Legislature is grappling with that affect counties, including Housing; Bonds for affordable housing, parks, and water; and the Cap-and-Trade Expenditure Plan. In addition, there are several bills winding their way through their final committees and floor votes that could have substantial impacts, even negative impacts, on counties that staff and our advocates are actively monitoring and working.
Housing Package
Although a vote was anticipated on Friday, Sept. 1 on the "Housing Package," the Legislature did not vote on the package due to legislator absences. However, a vote is expected at any moment now. The Housing Package apparently consists of bills SB 2, SB 3, and SB 35.
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Senate Bill 2 (Atkins) would place an additional $75 per document (up to $225 per transaction) recording fee on many property-related transactions. The bill is expected to generate approximately $225 million a year, which would help pay for low-income home development and local planning. Amendments announced this week allocate half of the first year’s revenue for local planning. Starting in 2019, funding for developing affordable housing and related uses would be allocated 70% to local government, 30% to state, via both formula allocations and a competitive program.
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Senate Bill 3 (Beall) is now a $4 billion bond issue, with $3 billion earmarked for low-income home projects and $1 billion dedicated to a veteran’s home-ownership program that will run out of funds next year without the additional revenue.
Permit Streamlining: As the Committee may recall, the Governor has conditioned his support for additional taxes and general fund spending for housing on the approval of measures meant to streamline the process for approving and building housing. SB 35 (Wiener) is widely viewed as the leading streamlining proposal.
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Senate Bill 35 would require local governments in jurisdictions where housing production for a particular income category has lagged behind the planned amount set forth in a local housing element to offer qualifying housing development projects a state-mandated process that bypasses discretionary review. Qualifying projects would have to be located in an urbanized area or urban cluster, meet specified thresholds for affordability, and be constructed by a skilled and trained workforce paid prevailing wages, among other requirements.
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SB 35 Infill Definition: CSAC has asked for the urbanized area definition in SB 35 to return to the language included prior to July 14 (and in each policy committee hearing). The prior language limited the applicability of SB 35’s new process in unincorporated areas to sites eligible for SB 226 CEQA streamlining. This language ensured that SB 35 streamlining would only occur in areas where counties already have some ability to expedite environmental review for housing.
Other SB 35 Concerns: CSAC also joined with a broad coalition expressing concerns about the use of building permit issuance, rather than local government entitlements, as the benchmark for determining whether qualifying projects will be streamlined in a particular jurisdiction, among other issues. SB 35 was referred to Assembly Rules for amendments.
There are potentially other bills to be taken up in the "Package" that address the issue of inclusionary housing, aiming to overturn the 2009 State Appeals Court ruling that exempted rental units from inclusionary zoning ordinances. There are two identical bills, AB 1505 and SB 277, that address this subject. However, the Governor has vetoed a similar bill in the past and did not support inclusionary housing ordinances as the Mayor of Oakland.
CSAC's analysis of these bills is included in Attachment A.
Bonds: Among the bills to be included in the Housing Package is SB 3, which would authorize $3 billion in bonds for affordable housing programs. In addition, there are multiple proposals for water bonds submitted to the Attorney General, and there are two versions of a park bond in the Legislature, AB 18 and SB 5, which the Legislation Committee has previously discussed.
Cap-and-trade expenditure plan – Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittees are discussing how to spend revenues from the cap-and-trade program. With the state’s cap-and-trade program successfully extended, the Legislature will consider how to spend close to $2 billion with some of those funds earmarked to fund components of the extension agreement, including backfilling the loss of the state fire fee and General Fund losses that result from extension and expansion of the manufacturer’s tax credit. Recall that voters will consider ACA 1 in June 2018, approved as part of the extension package, which would require a 2/3 vote of the Legislature for cap-and-trade expenditures starting in 2024.
Update on Hot Bills in the Capitol
Contracting Out for Counties – AB 1250, by Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, would impose nearly insurmountable conditions before counties could enter in to a personal services contract. CSAC has been leading the effort to activate significant and diverse opposition. Targeted advocacy efforts over the legislative recess have focused on specific members in anticipation of Senate action on the bill in the coming weeks. Efforts to stop this measure in the Senate remain very active. AB 1250 was moved from the Appropriations Suspense File to the Senate Rules Committee. A number of Senators on the Appropriations Committee spoke on the bill expressing concerns with infringing on county service delivery, but also indicating support for labor and their supposed intent to ensure contracting out is done in a manner that is transparent and cost effective.
Small Cell Technology – SB 649, by Senator Ben Hueso, seeks to establish a new, streamlined and, from the local government perspective, extraordinarily problematic regulatory process for small cell wireless facilities. Despite amendments taken in the Assembly, the measure continues to inappropriately limit local government authority over regulating the right-of-way and imposing appropriate fees and charges. Local government groups – including CSAC, the League of Cities, and more than 100 individual cities and counties – remain in active opposition to this measure. The Department of Finance is opposed to the bill, as are the Teamsters, Labor Federation and Communication Workers. Staff in the Governor's office are indicating concerns about the over-reach of the bill. The coalition opposed is still working on the floor strategy and target legislators; there were 65 members of the Assembly who have not voted on the bill as yet.
Bail Reform – SB 10, by Senator Robert Hertzberg, seeks to significantly reform the state’s bail system by requiring (1) Establishment of county-level pretrial services agencies; (2) Use of a risk assessment tool to determine an arrestee’s likelihood to reoffend and return to court, and (3) Preparation of a pretrial services report with recommendations for conditions of release for – with certain exceptions – persons arrested and booked into jail. As amended, the bill now provides specificity on timeframes associated with the mechanics of proposed release reforms. However, details identifying the agency responsible for state oversight functions for pretrial service agencies remain unspecified. Governor Brown, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Senator Bob Hertzberg and Assembly Member Rob Bonta recently committed to working together on Senate Bill 10 throughout the fall and will revisit the bill in the second year of the 2017-2018 legislative session.
Single Payer Health Care - SB 562, by Senator Ricardo Lara, the single payer health care measure, remains on hold following a late-June announcement by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon that he planned to park the measure for the foreseeable future. SB 562 arrived in the Assembly with a very large price tag and no mechanism by which to pay for it. Speaker Rendon’s message that accompanied his decision to hold the bill stated that while he supported the concept of single-payer health care, the bill was “woefully incomplete.”
County Governance - SCA 12, by Senator Tony Mendoza, would seek statewide voter approval to expand the number of supervisorial districts and create a directly elected county executive officer in counties with a population of 5 million or more after the 2020 census. Currently, only the County of Los Angeles would be subject to the measure’s provisions, but SCA 12 would establish a gravely troubling precedent in that it would allow voters in all 58 counties to weigh in on matters that are strictly local in nature. Opponents to SCA 12 include CSAC, individual counties, various statewide county associations, labor groups, the NAACP, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, among others. No organizations, officials, or individuals are listed in support of the measure. The measure was heard on August 21 in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 1479 (Bonta) - California Public Records Act - This bill would mandate that every local agency assign a Supervisor of Record to review each public records act denial prior to the final determination being issued. Additionally, the measure establishes new and punitive damages assessed to agencies above and beyond plaintiffs' attorney fees established in current law. This bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee with amendments to remove the civil penalties. UCC has removed its opposition to the bill due to the amendments removing civil penalties. County staff remains concerned about the impacts of this bill. The bill has passed the Senate and is in the Assembly for concurrence.
AB 1404 (Berman) - CEQA: infill exemption - HELD - This bill would expand the infill exemption to include proposed developments occurring within the unincorporated areas of a county. The bill was, unfortunately, held in the Senate Appropriations Committee, meaning it is no longer an active bill.
Other Major Bills Pending on the Senate and Assembly Floor
AB 668 (Gonzalez-Fletcher) - Voting Modernization Bond Act of 2018
This bill would provide $450 million to counties to modernize voting systems.
Status: Pending on the Senate Floor.
CSAC and UCC Position: Support.
AB 1603 (Ridley-Thomas) - Myers-Milias Brown Act
This bill would authorize collective bargaining under the MMBA for employees of private companies that contract with public agencies and includes clinics, county hospitals to the list of employees authorized to collectively bargain.
Status: Pending on the Senate Floor.
CSAC and UCC Position: Oppose. (Bill sent to BOS for action on Sept. 12, 2017)
SB 182 (Bradford) - Transportation network company: participating drivers: single business license
This bill would prohibit any local jurisdiction that requires a driver to obtain a business license to operate as a driver for a transportation network company and subsequently requires that driver to obtain more than a single business license.
Status: Pending on the Assembly Floor.
CSAC and UCC Position: Oppose.
All of the key bills that the Urban Counties of California (UCC) are monitoring and working are included in Attachment B.
The Master List of bills that Contra Costa County staff and advocates are monitoring is Attachment C. |