Natural Heritage Preservation Tax Credit Act of 2000.

(1) Under the Natural Heritage Preservation Tax Credit Act of 2000, property may be contributed to departments, as defined, any local government, or any nonprofit organization designated by a local government or department, based on specified criteria, in order to provide for the protection of wildlife habitat, open space, and agricultural lands. The act defines "donee" as a department within the Natural Resources Agency to which a donor has applied to donate property, a local government requesting approval of a donation of property to it, or a designated nonprofit organization. This bill would expand the definition of "donee" to include a local government that has submitted an application directly to the Wildlife Conservation Board. The bill would make related changes. (2) The act limits the total amount of tax credits to $100,000,000 and prohibits tax credits from being awarded after the 2007–08 fiscal year without further statutory authorization. This bill, instead, would prohibit tax credits from being awarded after the 2014–15 fiscal year without further statutory authorization, and would delete the monetary limit on the award of tax credits pursuant to the act. (3) Existing law provides that, whenever a program or project to be undertaken by a public entity will result in the displacement of a person, the displaced person, as defined, is entitled to payment for actual moving and related expenses as the public entity determines to be reasonable and necessary. This bill would exclude as a displaced person, for those purposes, a person displaced by willingly donating or selling his or her property for the purposes of protecting fish and wildlife habitat, providing recreation areas, or preserving cultural or agricultural resources and open space, or any person who occupies on a rental basis the property donated or sold. The bill would provide that this exclusion does not apply when a sale is in response to an eminent domain proceeding.