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January 25, 2002 <br /> Issue #4-2002 <br /> <br />HOT BILLS <br /> <br />AB 640 (Jackson). Coastal. LCP Amendments. <br />AB 680 (Steinberg). Land use: sales tax and property tax revenue allocation. <br />H.R. 3397 (Harman). Homeland Emergency Response Operations (HERO) Act. <br /> <br />ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE AMENDS AND PASSES SACRAMENTO <br />SALES TAX REALLOCATION MEASURE <br /> <br /> On Thursday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee followed its unspoken custom of <br />permitting as little public testimony as possible on legislation and passed AB 680 (Steinber.q), with <br />amendments. This bill would reallocate sales tax among cities and counties in the Sacramento <br />region according to a specific formula. <br /> <br /> Assembly Member Helen Thomson (D-Davis) had voiced strong opposition to the measure <br />for the past two weeks. She offered several amendments to address flaws that she had <br />identified. In the hearing the author accepted two of the amendments and was then able to pass <br />the bill on a partyline vote (all the Democrats on the committee voted "yes", and all the <br />Republicans voted "no".) AB 680 now goes to the Assembly floor for a vote that must take place <br />before January 31, 2002. If passed by the Assembly, the bill will go to the Senate to work its way <br />through the Senate process. <br /> <br /> Many of the consequences and shortcomings of AB 680 are clear and identifiable, but just as <br />many are not. If nothing else, AB 680 is a terribly complex bill and becoming more so with each <br />stop in the legislative process. The bottom line is that AB 680 is the first bill to give the State the <br />authority to redistribute local sales taxes! This should be a concern to all cities, not just those in <br />the Sacramento region. The state now has the authority to redistribute local property taxes and <br />can manipulate the Vehicle License Fees (VLF) or the general fund backfill for VLF. The history of <br />state actions on those two revenue sources should make any city official suspicious of AB 680. <br /> <br /> Contact your Assembly Member and ask for a "NO" vote on AB 680 when it reaches <br />the Assembly floor next weekl <br /> <br /> Page I of 6 <br /> <br /> <br />