State Auditor: analysis of regulations.

(1) Under existing law, the State Auditor is required to perform financial and performance audits as directed by statute. Existing law also requires the Office of Administrative Law to review existing regulations, at the request of a legislative committee, to determine if they meet specified standards. If the office determines that the regulations do not meet those standards, existing law requires the office to order the repeal of those regulations, pursuant to specified procedures. This bill would require the State Auditor to survey and perform a cost-benefit analysis of specified regulations that impose a cost on private persons or business, publish a catalog of these regulations and other findings related to them in the California Regulatory Notice Register, and consider public comment on them. The bill would require the State Auditor, if he or she determines that any of the regulations yield more costs to private persons or business than benefits, to notify the adopting agency in writing of the reasons for its determination and to publish this determination and the reasons for it in the California Regulatory Notice Register. The bill would require the adopting agency to respond in writing to the State Auditor regarding whether the agency will amend or repeal the regulation or decline to do so. The bill would require the State Auditor to review and consider all information submitted by the agency in this connection and, if the State Auditor confirms that the cost of a regulation to private persons or businesses exceeds its benefits, he or she would be required to prepare a statement specifying the reasons for its determination and to recommend to the Legislature that it enact legislation that will function to amend or repeal the regulation at the current legislative session. The bill would require that this catalog, analysis, and review process be subject to public comment, as specified. This bill would also require that all regulations adopted after January 1, 2011, be repealed 10 years after their effective date unless the State Auditor determines, as specified, that the benefits of the regulation to private persons or businesses exceed its costs. (2) 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 January 8, 2010. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 8, 2010, pursuant to the California Constitution.