legislature

2017–18 legislative session winding down
The Legislature has until Friday, Aug. 31, to conclude its business for the 2017–18 legislative session and send bills to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will have until Sept. 30 to sign his final slate of legislation bills as Governor of California. Several of CSBA’s 2018 sponsored bills have final hurdles to clear before reaching the Governor’s desk, while the Assembly Bill 195 ballot label issue looks unlikely to be resolved in advance of the November election.
CSBA sponsored bills

Several key CSBA co-sponsored bills are slated to be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee in early August, including Assembly Bill 2808 (Muratsuchi, D-Torrance), which would significantly increase the level of the Local Control Funding Formula base grant targets, and AB 1951 (O’Donnell, D-Long Beach), also known as the Pathways to College Act, which would allow local educational agencies the flexibility to administer an alternate assessment (for example, the SAT or ACT) for 11th-grade students in place of the Smarter Balanced Summative Test.

AB 276 (Medina, D-Riverside), the CSBA co-sponsored charter school transparency bill that would require charter school adherence to the Brown or Bagley-Keene Act, California Public Records Act, Political Reform Act of 1974 and Government Code 1090, will also be heard by the Appropriations Committee after passing the Senate Education Committee in June with support from the California Charter Schools Association.

Appropriations Committees in both houses will take up their respective suspense files on or before Aug. 17, determining which bills requiring significant funding appropriations will continue to move forward in the final weeks of the session. If passed by Appropriations, remaining bills face final votes on the Senate and Assembly floors before heading to Gov. Brown.

AB 195 ballot label requirements

Prior to adjourning for its July recess, the Legislature did not take up Senate Bill 863, which would have provided a temporary two-year suspension for local bond measures from the ballot labeling requirements of AB 195, a bill signed into law last year. As a result, local bond measures in consideration for the November general election ballot are likely to be subject to the requirements of AB 195, which requires information be put onto ballot labels that can be confusing to voters and could hurt the chances that bonds will pass.

While a temporary solution to this issue can still be reached during the current legislative session, the Legislature does not reconvene until Aug. 6 — as such, there will be little time for SB 863 to be heard, sent to the Governor and signed in order for the delay to apply to local bond measures being placed on the upcoming November ballot. It is estimated that, when the required AB 195 language is used, support for local bond measures may be negatively impacted by 10-plus percentage points. CSBA members considering local bond elections in November are advised to proceed cautiously, based on knowledge of their local communities and data.

  • LCFF base grant increase, charter transparency and Pathways to College Act bills still on the move
  • Delay of ballot label requirements for local bond measures not heard before July recess
While a temporary solution to this issue can still be reached during the current legislative session, the Legislature does not reconvene until Aug. 6 — as such, there will be little time for SB 863 to be heard, sent to the Governor and signed in order for the delay to apply to local bond measures being placed on the upcoming November ballot.
Done for the year
Among the bills which are considered “dead” or will not advance in 2018 is SB 831 (Wieckowski, D-Fremont), which would have put a cap on school impact fees for the development of accessory dwelling units (i.e. “granny flats” or “in-law units”) at $3,000 per ADU. The bill was held in the Assembly Local Government Committee in June. CSBA helped lead a coalition effort in opposition to the bill, as it would have significantly reduced a critical source of revenue that LEAs rely on to meet their school facilities needs. Two other bills also pertaining to ADUs were active in 2018: SB 1469 (Skinner, D-Berkeley) was held in Senate Appropriations in May and will not advance, while AB 2890 (Ting, D-San Francisco) was amended in April to remove any effect on school impact fees.

Visit www.csba.org/legislativenews for additional updates as the 2017–18 legislative session nears its end. CSBA’s “What’s New for 2019” report detailing all newly signed bills will be released to members in early October following Gov. Brown’s Sept. 30 signing deadline.

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