Court facilities.

Existing law establishes the State Court Facilities Construction Fund for the planning, design, construction, rehabilitation, renovation, replacement, leasing, or acquisition of state court facilities. Existing law levies a state court construction penalty, as specified, upon every fine, penalty, and forfeiture imposed and collected for all criminal offenses and all parking offenses for which a parking penalty, fine, or forfeiture is imposed. Moneys deposited in the county treasury under those provisions must be transmitted to the Controller for deposit in the State Court Facilities Construction Fund. Existing law further requires that any amounts required to be transmitted by a county to the Controller under these provisions be remitted no later than 45 days after the end of the month in which the penalties were collected. Any remittance made later than this time is considered delinquent and is subject to specified penalties. Upon receipt of a delinquent payment, the Controller is required to calculate a penalty on the delinquent payment by multiplying the amount of the delinquent payment at a daily rate equivalent to 112% per month for the number of days the payment is delinquent. Existing law requires the county to pay the penalty amount calculated pursuant to these provisions to the Controller, as specified, and requires the Controller to deposit these moneys in the State Court Facilities Construction Fund. This bill would require the fines, penalties, and forfeitures imposed and collected pursuant to the above provisions be remitted to the State Treasurer, as specified. The bill would require the Controller to calculate the interest on the delinquent payment, as specified, and would revise the formula for calculating the penalty. The bill would also require a county, city and county, or court to pay the interest or penalty amounts calculated under these provisions, as specified, to the State Court Facilities Construction Fund or the Immediate Critical Needs Account of the State Court Facilities Construction Fund. The bill would authorize the Controller to permit a county, city and county, or court to pay the interest or penalty amounts under a payment schedule if the interest or penalty amount causes a hardship to that entity. Further, the bill would require that payment be made by the entity responsible for the error or other action that caused the failure to pay, as determined by the Controller in a notice given to that party by the Controller, and would define that entity as including a party that collects the funds but is not responsible for remitting them to the state if that party failed to provide or delayed providing the remitting party with information necessary for remitting the funds. The bill also provides that these changes apply to all delinquent payments for which the Controller has not issued a final audit before January 1, 2014.