Finance: investment trust blue ribbon task force.

The California Constitution provides for the election by the people of the Treasurer and the Controller. Existing law requires the Treasurer to receive and keep in the vaults of the treasury or to deposit in banks or credit unions all moneys belonging to the state, as specified. Existing law requires the Controller to superintend the fiscal concerns of the state. Existing law requires the Controller to audit all claims against the state, and authorizes the Controller to audit the disbursement of any state money, for correctness, legality, and for sufficient provisions of law for payment. This bill would establish the investment trust blue ribbon task force to consider the viability of establishing the California Investment Trust, which would be a state bank receiving deposits of state funds. The task force would be required to consider how the investment trust could strengthen economic and community development, provide financial stability to businesses, reduce the cost paid by state government for banking services, and provide for excess earnings of the trust to be used to supplement General Fund purposes. The bill would establish the membership of the task force, which would include the Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, or his or her designee, and specified individuals with a background in finance appointed by the Legislature, and the Governor, Controller, and Treasurer, or their designees, and would require the task force to be staffed by an organization selected by the task force that is a nonprofit corporation, or other private corporation that has specified expertise, including expertise in public finance and public institutions models. The bill would require the task force to report to the Legislature by December 1, 2012, on specified issues relative to the California Investment Trust, including, among other things, its recommendations relating to the viability of establishing the trust and its impact on state government services, as specified. The bill's provisions would become inoperative, and would be repealed, on January 1, 2017.