AgdaPkt 2005-06-13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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£4- /6 BUDGET UPDATE from page 1 .................. 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cities are watching carefully to see what the May Revise, but as budget discu$sions continue, conference committee does with the $593.4 the League and other supporters of this funding are million appropriation proposed by the govemor concemed that there will be pressure to allocate the and adopted in the Senate to provide early Prop 42 funds to other purposes. repayment of about half of the $1.1 billion vehicle license fee (VLF) gap loan that the state took from cities and counties in 2003. The Assembly did not take this item up in the budget subcom- mittee, which placed the item in conference. On May 31, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez held a press conference in which he outlined a number of altemative proposals to those con- tained in the govemor's May Revise proposal. These included adding $3.1 billion to schools and paying for it, in part, with an income tax hike on the state's top eamers. Among the proposals, however, was that the $593.4 million VLF gap loan repayment would b~ placed in the budget reserve, where presumably it would be available for appropriation in FY 200&- 07 when the state has said it plans to repay ~e. entire VLF gap loan. The LOCAL Coalition ("Leave Our Commu- nity Assets Local"), of which the League is a member, issued this press statement on June 1: "LOCAL does have concerns about the Assem- bly Democrat plan that would postpone repay- ment of more than $600 million in Vehicle Li- cense Fee loans to cities and counties until 2006-2007. We belie'¡le it is fiscally prudent to repay these loans in this budget year as pro- posed in the governor's May Revise. The State should use unanticipated revenues to pay down its debt. " LOCAL Presses for Prop 42 Fun~ing. The League and city officials are àlso work- ing with their LOCAL coa!ition partners to stress to local media and their legisiators the impor- tance of preserving full funding of Proposition 42 for transportation projects, including local street and road maintenance funding. Both the Senate and the Assembly budget committees have approved this item as proposed in the govemor's The LOCAL coalition held press conferences yesterday in four cities this week to highlight the specific local road maintenance and other projects that would benefit from the availability of the Prop 42 funding. Additional press conferences are planned for other cities next weck (see "Local Officials Stress Need for Full Prop 42 Funding"), The Budget Conference Committee plans to continue its work next YJeek, closing down on Friday, June 10. Call orWrlæ Your Legisl8i1:ors. Cities should contirme 10 stress to their legisla- tors the importance of preserving Prop 42 funding and the early VLF repayment. Be sure to use specific examples of projects th~t your city will finance with the Prop 42 fUhds, and how the early return of half of the VLF gap loan will help fund specific services in your city. To access a sample letter, please visit the League's online Advocacy Center at WWIN.cacities~orgladvocacycenter. ~-'-'"' St~y Up~to-Date on Bills That May IrfìpactYour City ~cBcities.ora/bi Iisearc h Become a regular user of the League's online Legislative Tracking System, The League's website is your gateway to all the information you need: bills sorted by subject areas, show- ing the bill history, current status, committee analysès, votes, and much more. You can even view League letters of support or opposi- tion, and access the League lobbyist working on the bill., PAGE 4/PRIORITY FOCUS Visit the League's Official Websiteuwww.cacities.org