State mandates.

Under the California Constitution, whenever the Legislature or a state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service on any local government, including school districts, the state is required to provide a subvention of funds to reimburse the local government, with specified exceptions. Existing law establishes a procedure for local governmental agencies to file claims for reimbursement of these costs with the Commission on State Mandates or the Legislature. Existing law provides that a local agency or school district is not required to implement or give effect to any statute or executive order, or portion thereof, that imposes a mandate during any fiscal year and for the period immediately following that fiscal year if the Legislature specifically identifies the statute or executive order, or the commission's test claim number, in the Budget Act, and that suspended mandate is included both within the schedule of reimbursable mandates shown in the Budget Act and is specifically identified in the language of a provision of the item providing the appropriation for mandate reimbursements. This bill would require the Director of Finance, on and after January 1, 2012, if the budget submitted by the Governor to the Legislature proposes a suspended reimbursable state mandate, as defined, to provide to the Legislature all proposed statutory changes necessary to repeal the suspended reimbursable state mandate. This bill would also require that a provision in the Budget Act that identifies a mandate for the fiscal year as one for which reimbursement is not provided to identify specifically, to the extent practicable, each affected law. The bill would provide that if a section of law is not specifically identified in the Budget Act, the suspension of that mandate would not be affected if the other requirements are met with regard to specifically identifying the mandate.