AgdaPkt 2007-06-04 - Laserfiche WebLink

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8A Page 5 Resources and Environment Air Quality. The May Revise allocates $111 million from Prop. 1 B #o fund air quality improvements along California's main highways and trade corridors (port electrification and diesel truck retrofits). Williamson Act. The $40 million Williamson Act local property tax backfill program to counties is eliminated in the May Revise. Debt Repavment and Local Government f=inances Economic Recovery Bond Repayment. The May Revise includes a $1.6 billion increase in Economic Recovery Bonds {ERBs) prepayments, for a total of $3.1 billion prepayment in the 2007 budget. Prop. 57, the Economic Recovery Bond Act, authorized the state to issue ERBs and established the "triple-flip" mechanism for repayment of those bonds. Triple-flip uses aquarter-cent of the local sales and use tax for debt service, replacing that money to cities and counties with additional property tax. The Administration plans to fully repay the ERBs by August 2009. Yacht Tax. The "Yacht lax" loophole, which would result in GF revenue gains of $35 million in use-tax obligation, is being permanently closed by the May Revise. Mandate Claims. The budget has no funding for mandate claims for costs incurred by focal governments in FY 2007-08. Payment of these claims would be deferred to FY 2008-09. This is the same proposal as released in the Governor's January 2007 Budget. Commission on State Mandates Process. The May Revise proposes changing the current process by which the Commission on State Mandates determines mandates and the reimbursement guidelines. The May revise also includes: • $654,000 far additional support to the Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission including contracts with an economist, health care experts, actuaries and other staff and berating resources. A $950,000 appropriation and the creation of 10 new positions in the Public Utilities Commission to be used for implementation of the Video Competition Act, AB 2987 (Nunez/Levine) from 2006. General Notes on the Mav Revise Overall, the May Revise proposes to increase GF spending in FY 2007-08 by $1.5 billion or 1.5 percent above the level of spending in FY 2006-07. Gov. Schwarzenegger said "we got creative" when putting together the revised budget, which included several new ideas: A proposal to sell EdFund -California's student loan guarantee agency -- which would account for a net one-time increase in state revenues of $980 million. A proposal to consider selling along-term license to operate the State Lottery was also in the May Revise. The Administration believes a competitively bid lease would provide billions of dollars in additional fiscal benefits to the state's GF. The Governor cited this as a potential source of revenue to pay off the Economic Recovery. For a comprehensive nonpartisan summary of the May Revision, visit the Legislative Analyst's Office at www.lao.ca.aov.