Education finance: Streamlined Temporary Mandate Process Act of 2011.

(1) Under the California Constitution, whenever the Legislature or a state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service on a local government, including school districts and other local educational agencies, the state is required to provide a subvention of funds to reimburse the local government for the costs of the program or increased level of service, with specified exceptions. This bill would enact the Streamlined Temporary Mandate Process Act of 2011 to be a voluntary, temporary, streamlined alternative mandate reimbursement process for local educational agencies, as defined, to be in operation from the 2011–12 fiscal year to the 2014–15 fiscal year, inclusive. If a governing board of a local educational agency chooses not to participate in this process, this bill would require the governing board to explain the reasons for its decision at a duly noticed public meeting, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would list 38 mandates currently applicable to local educational agencies that would be suspended for the 2011–12 fiscal year to the 2014–15 fiscal year, inclusive. The bill would further provide that a local educational agency choosing to participate in the streamlined temporary mandate process would annually self-certify that it has complied with the underlying intentions of all statutes governing the operation of the mandates to which the bill applies, except for any requirements regarding compliance and claiming issues. The bill would require that a participating local educational agency be found by an auditor to be in material compliance with the requirements of the bill, as specified. The bill would require that funding for the streamlined temporary mandate process be based upon an equal amount per unit of prior-year enrollment for each of the participating local educational agencies, with the funding level to be determined by an appropriation made in the annual Budget Act. The bill would require that there be an appropriation, of no less than an unspecified amount, in each annual Budget Act during the term of this bill that would be adequate to encourage participation by eligible local educational agencies in the streamlined temporary mandate process. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish and convene a task force, including specified membership, charged with developing a permanent state process for mandate reimbursement that is cost effective for local educational agencies and responsive to state policy goals. These provisions would become inoperative on July 1, 2015, and would be repealed on January 1, 2016. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.