Local agencies: refunding bonds: pension obligations.

Existing law generally authorizes local agencies to issue bonds and distinguishes between different types of bonds for this purpose. Existing law regulates the issuance of refunding bonds by a local agency, which are issued for the purpose of refunding other indebtedness, as specified. The California Constitution prohibits a county, city, town, township, board of education, or school district from incurring a debt or liability in any manner or for any purpose exceeding in any year the income and revenue provided for the year, without approval by 23 of the voters of the public entity voting at an election to be held for that purpose, except for certain debts issued for public schools, as specified. Existing case law has qualified this prohibition by creating certain exceptions that have been judicially deemed not to implicate it, including for revenue bonds and for obligations imposed by law. The California Constitution generally authorizes the Legislature to provide maximum property tax rates and bonding limits for local governments. Existing law authorizes a local agency that intends to issue refunding bonds to do so without submitting the question of the issuance to a vote of the qualified electors of the local agency. This bill would require that refunding bonds to be used to refund pension obligation bonds with specified characteristics be approved by 55 percent of the voters of the local agency voting on the proposition that authorizes the indebtedness. The bill would apply this requirement to bonds issued on or after January 1, 2021, for the purpose of refunding pension obligations, and the bonds to be refunded have a maturity date of more than 36 months after the date the bonds are issued. Existing law requires a legislative body of a local agency that determines to issue refunding bonds to adopt a resolution providing for the issuance of the bonds and prescribes the required elements of the resolution. This bill would require, for refunding bonds to be issued for purposes of refunding specified pension obligation bonds, that the above-described resolution be available on the internet website of the legislative body for 30 consecutive days prior to the issuance of the bonds. The bill would also generally prohibit a resolution providing for the issuance of refunding bonds from being placed on the consent calendar of a public hearing. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.