Voluntary contribution: Revive the Salton Sea Fund.

Existing law authorizes an individual taxpayer to contribute amounts in excess of his or her personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds. Existing law also contains administrative provisions that are generally applicable to voluntary contributions. This bill would allow an individual to designate on his or her tax return that a specified amount in excess of his or her tax liability be transferred to the Revive the Salton Sea Fund, which would be created by this bill. The bill would prohibit a voluntary contribution designation for the Revive the Salton Sea Fund from being added on the tax return until another voluntary contribution designation is removed or a space is available and would require, once the designation is added, specified information to be on the tax form, including the purposes for which the contribution would be used. This bill would require money contributed to the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board and the Controller for reimbursement of costs, as provided, and to the Natural Resources Agency for distribution of competitive grants to provide funds or supplement funding of the state, county and local agencies, nonprofit organizations, and projects identified as necessary for the restoration and maintenance of the Salton Sea and to develop a mechanism to provide ongoing public awareness, as specified. The bill would provide that these provisions would remain in effect only until January 1 of the 5th taxable year following the first appearance of the fund on the tax return, but would further provide for an earlier repeal if the Franchise Tax Board determines that the amount of contributions estimated to be received during a calendar year will not equal or exceed the minimum contribution amount, as defined, for that calendar year, in which case these provisions would be repealed on December 1 of that year.