State and local government.

(1) Existing law establishes various funds in the State Treasury. Existing law requires the Controller to notify the Governor and the Pooled Money Investment Board when the General Fund is or will be exhausted. The Governor is then authorized to order the Controller to direct the transfer of all or any part of the moneys not needed in other funds or accounts, with specified exceptions, to the General Fund from those funds or accounts, as determined by the Pooled Money Investment Board. Existing law requires that all moneys so transferred be returned to the funds or accounts from which they were transferred as soon as there are sufficient moneys in the General Fund to return them. Interest is required to be paid on certain of these loaned moneys. This bill would specifically authorize the Controller to loan moneys from certain specific funds to the General Fund. The bill would require, with respect to these funds, that, with a specified exception, interest be paid on all moneys loaned to the General Fund. The bill would not authorize any transfer that would interfere with the carrying out of the object for which the funds were created. (2) The California Lottery Act establishes the State Lottery Fund. The act, an initiative measure, provides that certain provisions may be changed by a bill that furthers the purposes of the act and is passed by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and signed by the Governor. This bill would, until September 30, 2009, authorize the Controller to loan moneys in the State Lottery Fund to the General Fund. The bill would require that interest be paid on all moneys loaned to the General Fund. (3) Existing law appropriates from the General Fund any unapplied money, as defined, in any amounts necessary to pay the interest on, and the principal of, any notes issued as the notes become due and payable. Existing law appropriates $250,000 from the General Fund without regard to fiscal years, to be set aside in the State Notes Expense Account, to be used to pay expenses incurred by the Treasurer, the Controller, or the Department of Finance in providing for the preparation, sale, issuance, advertising, legal services, or any other act which, in the Treasurer's discretion, is necessary to carry out provisions of law relating to the issuance of warrants by the Controller. The bill would provide that when any payment on a note or any payment to the provider of a credit enhancement or liquidity facility for a note is due, that payment shall be made subject only to the prior payment of payments required by law to be paid before the note or provider payment and payments that by the terms of the note or credit enhancement or liquidity agreement are permitted to be paid before the note or provider payment. The bill would authorize the Controller, with the approval of the Pooled Money Investment Board, to fix a maturity date for registered warrants that does not interfere with the payment of bonds, revenue anticipation warrants, and refunding warrants. (4) This bill would declare that certain of its provisions further the purposes of the California State Lottery Act, the Mental Health Services Act, the DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime and Innocence Protection Act, and the California Children and Families Act of 1998. (5) 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. (6) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.