LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 4, as amended, Evans. Education
Transportation finance.
(1) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools of
each county, among other specified duties, to make annual visits to
each school in his or her county at reasonable intervals to observe
its operation and to learn of its problems. Existing law requires
that the priority objective of those visits be the determination of
whether each school has sufficient textbooks, as defined.

This bill would revise the definition of sufficient textbooks for
the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years and, during those fiscal years,
would require a county superintendent of schools to use that revised
definition to determine whether a school has sufficient textbooks.
The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2010, and
repeal them on January 1, 2011.
(2) Existing law requires a revenue limit to be calculated for
each county superintendent of schools, adjusted for various factors,
and reduced, as specified. Existing law reduces the revenue limit for
each county superintendent of schools for the 2008-09 fiscal year by
a deficit factor of 4.396%.
This bill would instead reduce the revenue limit for each county
superintendent of schools for the 2008-09 fiscal year by a deficit
factor of 7.839%, and for the 2009-10 fiscal year by a deficit factor
of 13.360%.
(3) Existing law specifies that the amount apportioned for revenue
limits for a school year that are be deemed to attributed to the
minimum funding obligation for school districts and community college
districts for the following fiscal year shall be $715,118,000.

This bill would change that amount and set the amount at
$1,101,655,000 for the 2008-09 and each school year thereafter.

(4) Existing law requires the Controller to draw warrants on the
State Treasury in favor of the county treasurer of each county in
each month of each year in prescribed amounts and in a prescribed
manner.
This bill, commencing with the 2008-09 fiscal year, would require
the warrants for the principal apportionments for the month of
February in the amount of $2,000,000,000 to be drawn in July of the
same calendar year and would require those warrants to be applied
toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and
community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of
the California Constitution for the year in which they are drawn.

(5) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 requires the
State Allocation Board to require school districts applying for
funds under that act to deposit, into a specified account for ongoing
and major maintenance of school buildings, an amount equal to or
greater than 3% of the total general fund expenditures of the
applicant school district.
This bill, for the 2008-09 to the 2012-13 fiscal years, inclusive,
would reduce that deposit requirement to an amount equal to or
greater than 1% of the total general fund expenditures of the
applicant school district.
(6) Existing law requires a governing board of a school district
to discuss proposals and plans for expenditure of funds for the
deferred maintenance of school district facilities at a regularly
scheduled public hearing. Existing law requires the governing board
to make a report on the district's spending priorities for the
current fiscal year to the Legislature, with copies to the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education,
the Department of Finance, and the State Allocation Board, by March 1
of any year that the school district does not set aside prescribed
funds for the deferred maintenance of its facilities.

This bill would make this report requirement inoperative for the
2008-09 to 2012-13 fiscal years, inclusive.
(7) Existing law directs that an amount of moneys be transferred
in the annual Budget Act from the Proposition 98 Reversion Account to
the School Facilities Emergency Repair Account. The amount to be
transferred is required to equal 50% of the unappropriated balance of
the Proposition 98 Reversion Account or $100,000,000, whichever
amount is greater. The moneys transferred are required to be used for
the purpose of addressing emergency facilities needs.

This bill, for the 2009-10 fiscal year, would reduce the amount
required to be transferred pursuant to the requirement above to zero.

The bill would prohibit funds provided to school districts from
the School Facilities Emergency Repair Account for the purpose of
emergency repair grants from being used either to supplant funds
provided to local educational agencies for the deferred maintenance
of school facilities pursuant to specified statutes or for deposit
into a school district deferred maintenance fund for expenditure for
specified purposes.
(8) Existing law requires, for the 1990-91 fiscal year and each
fiscal year thereafter, that moneys to be applied by the state for
the support of school districts, community college districts, and
direct elementary and secondary level instructional services provided
by the state be distributed in accordance with certain calculations
governing the proration of those moneys among the 3 segments of
public education. Existing law makes that provision inapplicable to
the fiscal years between the 1992-93 and 2008-09, inclusive.

This bill would make that provision inapplicable to the 2009-10
fiscal year.
(9) The California Constitution requires the state to apply a
minimum amount of funding for each fiscal year for the support of
school districts and community college districts. The Superintendent
of Public Instruction and the Director of Finance, by January 1,
2006, are required to jointly determine the outstanding balance of
the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community
college districts pursuant to the California Constitution for the
1995-96 to 2003-04 fiscal years, inclusive. Existing law, commencing
with the 2006-07 fiscal year, annually appropriates $150,000,000 from
the General Fund to the Controller for allocation to school
districts and community college districts for the purpose of
discharging in full the outstanding balance of the minimum funding
obligation to school districts and community college districts
pursuant to the California Constitution. Existing law cancels that
annual appropriation for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
This bill, in addition, would provide that, if the Superintendent
and the Director of Finance jointly determine that, for the 2008-09
fiscal year, the state has applied moneys for the support of school
districts and community college districts in an amount that exceeds
the minimum amount required for that fiscal year pursuant to the
California Constitution, the bill would deem $1,100,590,000, as of
June 30 of that fiscal year, as a payment in satisfaction of the
outstanding balance, as defined, of the minimum funding obligation
under that section for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 fiscal years, as
specified.
(10) Existing law requires a revenue limit to be calculated for
each school district and each county superintendent of schools and
requires the amount of the revenue limit to be adjusted for various
factors.
This bill would, for the 2011-12 fiscal year, require the
Superintendent to compute an equalization adjustment for each school
district so that the prior year base revenue limit per unit of
average daily attendance of a school district is not less than the
prior year base revenue limit per unit of average daily attendance
above which fall not more than 10% of the total statewide units of
average daily attendance for the appropriate size and type of school
district.
(11) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to
determine a revenue limit for each school district in the county,
and requires the amount of the revenue limit to be adjusted for
various factors. Existing law reduces the revenue limit for each
school district for the 2008-09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of
4.713%.
This bill would instead reduce the revenue limit for each school
district for the 2008-09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 7.844%,
and for the 2009-10 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 13.094%.

(12) Existing law establishes various categorical education
programs and appropriates the funding for those programs in the
annual Budget Act. That act authorizes local educational agencies to
expend up to 10% of the amount apportioned under specified
categorical education programs for the purposes of any other program
for which the recipient is eligible for funding, as specified.

This bill would instead reduce by a percentage, calculated as
specified, the appropriations made in the Budget Act of 2008 to
school districts and county offices of education in enumerated items
that fund specified categorical education programs. The bill would
authorize school districts, for the 2008-09 to 2012-13 fiscal years,
inclusive, to use the funds received pursuant to any of those budget
items, with specified exceptions, for any educational purpose, to the
extent permitted by federal law. The school districts and county
offices of education would be required, at a regularly scheduled,
open, public hearing, to take testimony from the public, discuss, and
approve or disapprove the proposed use of funding, and to report to
the State Department of Education, in the existing annual
Standardized Accounting System reporting process, the purposes for
which the funds were used and the amounts used for each of those
purposes. The department would be required to collect and provide
this information to the appropriate legislative policy and budget
committees and the Department of Finance by February 28, 2010.

(13) Existing law establishes the Class Size Reduction Program
under which a participating school district or county office of
education reduces class size to 20 pupils per class in kindergarten
and grades 1 to 3, inclusive. If a school district or county office
of education receives funding for a class but fails to reduce the
size of that class to 20 pupils, the school district or county office
of education suffers a reduction in its next principal apportionment
of state funds.
This bill would reduce the amount of this penalty for the 2008-09,
2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 fiscal years, as specified.

(14) The Pupil Textbook and Instructional Materials Incentive
Program Act requires the governing board of a school district to hold
a public hearing and make a determination as to whether each pupil
in each school in the district has sufficient textbooks or
instructional materials in the subjects of mathematics, science,
history-social science, and English/language arts that are aligned to
the adopted content standards and that are consistent with the
content and cycles of the curriculum framework adopted by the State
Board of Education. Existing law subjects school districts that
receive funds from any state source to this and specified
requirements only in a fiscal year in which the Superintendent of
Public Instruction determines that the base revenue limit for each
school district will increase by at least 1% per unit of average
daily attendance from the prior fiscal year.
This bill would delete the condition related to the increase in
revenue limit funding so that school districts would be subject to
the requirements when they receive funds for instructional materials
from any state source.
(15) Existing law establishes the Instructional Materials Funding
Realignment Program that requires the State Department of Education
to apportion funds to school districts and requires the governing
board of a school district to use that funding to ensure that each
pupil is provided with a standards-aligned textbook or basic
instructional materials by the beginning of the first school term
that commences no later than 24 months after those materials were
adopted by the State Board of Education, except as specified.

This bill, until July 1, 2010, would exempt school districts from
that requirement.
(16) Existing law establishes a statewide system of public
postsecondary education that includes, among other segments, the
various campuses of the University of California, which is
administered by the Regents of the University of California.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that no new
General Fund augmentation be made available for contributions to the
University of California Retirement Plan.
(17) Existing law appropriates $39,780,000 from the General Fund
to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, in
augmentation of an amount appropriated pursuant to a specified item
in the Budget Act of 2008, to provide a 0.68% cost-of-living
adjustment to apportionments to community college districts for
expenditure during the 2008-09 fiscal year.
This bill would repeal this provision.
(18) Existing law appropriates $388,283,000 from the General Fund
to the State Department of Education for 10 specified programs
according to a specified schedule, and requires the department to
encumber these funds by July 1, 2009. This appropriation reflects the
June 2009 principal apportionment that is deferred to July 2009.
Included in this appropriation is $52,583,000 for home-to-school
transportation.
This bill would eliminate that appropriation for home-to-school
transportation and instead would appropriate $570,000,000 for class
size reduction in kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive. The bill
would increase the total appropriation from $388,283,000 to
$905,700,000 to reflect the February 2009 principal apportionment and
the 2009 payment for class size reduction in kindergarten and grades
1 to 3, inclusive. The funds appropriated would be applied toward
the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community
college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the
California Constitution for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

(19) The Budget Act of 2008 appropriates $200,000,000 from the
General Fund to the Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges for expenditure during the 2009-10 fiscal year.

This bill would increase that appropriation to a total of
$540,000,000, and would defer the disbursal of those funds until July
2010. The amount appropriated would represent $115,000,000 of the
January apportionment to community college districts, $115,000,000 of
the February apportionment to those districts, $55,000,000 of the
March apportionment and $55,000,000 of the April apportionment, and
$200,000,000 of the June apportionment of those districts. The funds
appropriated would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements
for school districts and community college districts imposed by
Section 8 of Article XVI of the California constitution for the
2009-10 fiscal year.
(20) Existing law provides no cost-of-living adjustment for
specified education programs for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

This bill would add the categorical block grant for charter
schools to the list of programs not receiving a cost-of-living
adjustment for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
(21) The Budget Act of 2008 makes various appropriations for
purposes of public education.
This bill would reduce or eliminate specified appropriations made
in that Budget Act.
(22) This bill would appropriate $198,446,000 from the Public
Transportation Account in the State Transportation Fund to the State
Department of Education for purposes of home-to-school
transportation, to be allocated as specified.
(23) This bill would appropriate $420,268,000 from the Mass
Transportation Fund to the State Department of Education for purposes
of home-to-school transportation, to be allocated as specified.

(24) The Budget Act of 2008 makes various appropriations for
purposes of child care and development programs.
This bill would reduce specified General Fund appropriations made
in that Budget Act for those purposes. The bill also would
reappropriate the unobligated balances from other specified
appropriations to the State Department of Education for CalWORKs
Stage 2 Child Care services, as specified.
(25) This bill would reappropriate for the 2008-09 fiscal year
prescribed amounts or the unexpended balance of specified
appropriations made in specified prior Budget Acts to the State
Department of Education for allocation to the Class Size Reduction
Program in kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive.

(26) This bill would appropriate $958,283,000 from the General
Fund to the State Department of Education for 11 specified programs
according to a specified schedule and would require the department to
encumber these funds by July 31, 2010. The bill would provide that,
for purposes of satisfying the minimum annual funding obligation for
school districts required by the California Constitution, the
appropriated funds are General Fund revenues appropriated for school
districts and community college districts for the 2010-11 fiscal
year.
(27) Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the
California Community Colleges to adopt regulations providing for the
payment of apportionments to community college districts on a
schedule to include an advance apportionment on or before July 15 of
each year, and a first and 2nd principal apportionment on or before
February 20 and June 25 of each year, respectively.

Existing law requires the Controller to draw warrants on the State
Treasury in favor of the county treasurer of each county in each
month of each year during the fiscal year from the State School Fund
to the school districts under the jurisdiction of the county
superintendent of schools of the county, to the county school service
fund, and to the county school tuition fund of the county. Warrants
for 6% of specified amounts allowed to the county school service
funds and 6% of specified amounts apportioned to school districts and
county school service funds for classes maintained by county
superintendents of schools and to the county service fund are
required to be drawn in July. For the 2008-09 fiscal year only the
entire amount of the July warrant for the county school service fund
and a specified percentage of the amount of the July warrant for
school district apportionments, county school service fund
apportionments for classes maintained by the county superintendent of
schools, and county school tuition fund apportionments are deferred
to the warrants drawn in September.
This bill would defer $200,000,000 of the July 2009 community
college advance apportionment to October 2009. The bill also would
defer $1,000,000,000 of the July 2009 and $1,500,000,000 of the
August 2009 apportionments for local educational agencies that
maintain kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to October
2009.
(28) This bill would appropriate $540,000,000 from the General
Fund to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
for expenditure during the 2010-11 fiscal year according to a
specified item in the Budget Act of 2009. The bill would defer until
July 2011 the disbursal of those funds. The amount appropriated would
represent $115,000,000 of the January apportionment to community
college districts, $115,000,000 of the February apportionment to
those districts, $55,000,000 of the March apportionment and
$55,000,000 of the April apportionment, and $200,000,000 of the June
apportionment to those districts. The bill would provide that, for
purposes of satisfying the minimum annual funding obligation for
community college districts required by the California Constitution,
those funds are General Fund revenues appropriated for community
college districts for the 2010-11 fiscal year.
(29) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, the Controller, and the Director of Finance to develop
standards and criteria to be reviewed by the State Board of Education
and to be used by local educational agencies in the development of
annual budgets and the management of subsequent expenditures from
those budgets.
This bill, for the 2008-09 fiscal year only, would authorize the
governing board of a school district or county office of education to
use up to 100% of the balances, as of June 30, 2008, of restricted
accounts in its general fund or cafeteria fund, excluding restricted
reserves committed for capital outlay, bond funds, sinking funds,
federal funds, and balances in designated programs.

(30) This bill would require the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to reduce the principal apportionment for school
districts and county offices of education for the 2008-09 fiscal
year, as necessary, if, during that fiscal year, the Controller has
disbursed funds from the appropriations reduced by the bill in
amounts greater than the amounts remaining in those appropriations
following the reductions and the Superintendent determines there is
no other way to recover the funds that have been disbursed during the
2008-09 fiscal year.
(31) This bill would set the cost-of-living adjustment for
community day schools, for specified items in the Budget Act of 2009,
and for specified items in the Budget Act of 2008 for the 2009-10
fiscal year at 0% notwithstanding the cost-of-living adjustment
specified in existing statutes.
(32) This bill would require funds appropriated pursuant to
specified items in the Budget Act of 2009 to be encumbered by July
31, 2010.
(1) The Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law imposes a tax of $0.18 per
gallon on motor vehicle fuel, commonly referred to as gasoline. The
Diesel Fuel Tax Law imposes a tax of $0.18 per gallon on diesel fuel.
These revenues, after certain deductions for nonhighway fuel uses,
are deposited in the Highway Users Tax Account. Approximately 1/3 of
the revenues in the account are apportioned by various formulas to
cities and counties, and most of the remaining revenues are deposited
in the State Highway Account after specified transfers to the
Bicycle Transportation Account and the State Parks and Recreation
Fund. Under Article XIX of the California Constitution, the portion
of fuel tax revenues that is derived from use in motor vehicles upon
public streets and highways is restricted for expenditure on street
and highway and certain mass transit guideway purposes, and up to 25%
of these and other vehicle-related revenues that are available for
street and highway purposes may be pledged or used for the payment of
principal and interest on voter-approved bonds issued for those
purposes.
This bill would modify the apportionment of fuel tax revenues
designated for street and highway and guideway purposes for the
2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal years. For those years, the bill would
provide for 65% of revenues to be deposited in the State Highway
Account and 25% to be deposited in the Transportation Debt Service
Fund. Of the remaining 10% of revenue, additional fuel tax revenues
would be transferred to the Transportation Debt Service Fund in an
amount equivalent to 25% of vehicle weight fee revenues for the
2009-10 fiscal year only, certain amounts would be made available to
the Bicycle Transportation Account and the State Parks and Recreation
Fund, and the remaining revenues would be
apportioned to cities and counties by certain
formulas.
(2) Existing law, pursuant to Proposition 116 of 1990, creates the
Public Transportation Account as a trust fund in the State
Transportation Fund, provides that revenues are to be deposited in
that account from specified portions of the sales taxes on gasoline
and diesel fuel, and provides that moneys in the account are
available for expenditure only for transportation planning and mass
transportation purposes. Existing law creates the Mass Transportation
Fund in the State Treasury and provides that for the 2009-10 to
2012-13 fiscal years all of the gasoline sales tax revenues commonly
known as the "spillover" that would otherwise be deposited in the
Public Transportation Account shall be deposited instead in that
fund. Existing law specifies the transportation purposes that may be
funded by the fund, including payment of debt service on
transportation general obligation bonds by transfer of funds from the
Mass Transportation Fund to the Transportation Debt Service Fund.
Existing law creates the Transportation Debt Service Fund in the
State Treasury for the purpose, among other things, of using
transportation revenues rather than the General Fund for the payment
of debt service on transportation bonds or to reimburse the General
Fund in that regard.
This bill, for the 2009-10 fiscal year, would provide that up to
$225,044,000 from the Public Transportation Account may be used to
reimburse the General Fund for current debt service payments on
transit-related general obligation bonds and up to $101,826,000 from
that account may be used to reimburse the General Fund for
home-to-school transportation expenditures. The bill would also
provide for transfer from the Mass Transportation Fund to the
Transportation Debt Service Fund of any amount of the "spillover"
funds received during the 2009-10 to 2012-13 fiscal years necessary
to offset the cost of debt service payments made from the General
Fund during any fiscal year for transportation-related general
obligation bond expenditures.
This bill would also authorize the Director of Finance to
reimburse the General Fund, from revenues transferred to the
Transportation Debt Service Fund from the Highway Users Tax Account,
any amount necessary to offset the cost of debt service payments made
from the General Fund during any fiscal year for
transportation-related general obligation bond expenditures
consistent with specified provisions of Article XIX of the California
Constitution.
(3) Existing law establishes the Aeronautics Account in the State
Transportation Fund. Existing law imposes a per gallon jet fuel tax
on aircraft jet fuel dealers and requires that the funds be deposited
in the State Treasury to the credit of the Motor Vehicle Fuel
Account in the Transportation Tax Fund. Existing law requires that
moneys deposited to the credit of the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account
attributable to the distribution of motor vehicle fuel for use in
propelling an aircraft in the state be transferred to the Aeronautics
Account in the State Transportation Fund.
Existing law requires funds in the Aeronautics Account to be used
to pay the Controller and the State Board of Equalization for their
pro rata costs in carrying out the duties imposed on them by the
Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law and to pay the Department of
Transportation for the administration of the State Aeronautics Act.
Existing law allows the remaining balance of moneys in the account to
be used for preapproved eligible projects that are for airport and
aviation purposes, to make allocations to public entities for the
aquisition or development of airports if the department determines
that it is feasible, and to allow the California Transportation
Commission to provide local matching funds for federal Airport
Improvement Program Grants.
This bill would suspend these grants and funding programs for the
2009-10 fiscal year. The bill would require $4,000,000 to be
transferred from the Aeronautics Account to the General Fund, upon
the order of the Director of Finance. These provisions would be
repealed on January 1, 2011.
(4) Existing law, the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air
Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006, authorizes the issuance
of general obligation bonds for various transportation purposes,
including $2,000,000,000 for local street and road improvement,
congestion relief, and traffic safety. Existing law requires a city
or city and county that receives an allocation of those funds in the
2008-09 fiscal year to agree to encumber the funds before July 1,
2009.
This bill would instead require a city or city and county that
receives an allocation of those funds in the 2008-09 fiscal year to
agree to encumber the funds before July 1, 2010.
(5) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation, in
consultation with transportation planning agencies, county
transportation commissions, counties, and cities, to carry out
long-term state highway system planning. Existing law authorizes the
department, to the extent that it does not jeopardize the delivery of
projects in the adopted state transportation improvement program, to
prepare a project studies report for capacity-increasing state
highway projects. Existing law requires the department to review
project studies reports performed by an entity other than the
department. Existing law authorizes a local entity to request the
department to prepare a project studies report for a
capacity-increasing state highway project that is being proposed for
inclusion in a future state transportation improvement program. If
the department determines that it cannot complete the report in a
timely fashion, existing law authorizes the requesting entity to
prepare the report.
This bill would require the department to be reimbursed by a
requesting entity for any work performed by the department when it
reviews or prepares these project studies reports.
(6) This bill would make other related changes.
(33)
(7) The California Constitution authorizes
the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the
Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor
issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a
special session for this purpose, on December 19, 2008.
This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency
declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2008,
pursuant to the California Constitution.
(34) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.