Economic development.

(1) Existing law defines specified terms relating to economic development and authorizes the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency and its secretary to expend specified funds. This bill would renumber these provisions, and would instead authorize the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development and its director to expend these funds. (2) The Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act establishes the Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, governed by a board of directors composed of 5 members. The act requires the bank to annually submit to the Governor and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee a report of its activities for the preceding fiscal year. The act also requires the bank to establish criteria, priorities, and guidelines for the selection of projects to receive its assistance that includes compliance with the State Environmental Goals and Policy Report, or its successor. Existing law prohibits review of the expenditures of the bank's infrastructure bank fund, except for by the Legislature, as specified. This bill would modify the bank's annual reporting requirement to, among other requirements, be instead transmitted to the Governor and the Legislature, and require the executive director of the bank to post the report on the bank's Internet Web site. This bill would waive compliance with the State Environmental Goals and Policy Report, or its successor, as a factor for receiving the banks's assistance, if the report has not been updated, as specified. This bill would modify the Legislature's review of the bank relating to the infrastructure bank fund, to among other things, include the amount of credit and liabilities of the fund, based on an audit of the fund at the close of the prior fiscal year. (3) Existing law, the Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013, until January 1, 2018, continues in existence the California Small Business Expansion Fund, a continuously appropriated fund which includes General Fund moneys, and authorizes all or a portion of the funds in the expansion fund to be paid out to a financial institution or financial company that will establish a trust fund and act as a trustee of the funds, as specified. Existing law authorizes the program manager, as defined, to create one or more accounts in the expansion fund and the trust fund for corporations participating in one or more programs authorized by the Small Business Financial Assistance Act of 2013 and the California Disaster Assistance Act, as specified. Existing law, on and after January 1, 2018, eliminates the authorization to utilize funds in the expansion fund and the trust fund for corporations participating in one or more programs pursuant to the California Disaster Assistance Act. This bill would continue the authorization to utilize funds in the expansion fund and the trust fund for corporations participating in one or more programs pursuant to the California Disaster Assistance Act, as specified.