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9. A -(v STEINBERG from page ............. ............................... AB 1221 would exchange half of the local Bradley -Bums sales tax revenue for an equivalent amount of property tax. Assembly Member Steinberg said he introduced the measure to encourage cash - strapped cities and counties to reduce their reliance on sales tax in exchange for receiving the more stable revenue source of property tax. He stated that his long -tens goal is to help local governments address the problem of housing that does not currently produce sufficient property tax at the local level to pay for increased service demands. Trust Issue an Obstacle to League Support Mr. Steinberg directly addressed the "trust issue ": the concern of many city officials that property taxes that became available today under AB 1221 could be taken away tomorrow if the legislature chose to do so. "You should not trust the legislature," he said, acknowledging that legislature could change the rules to redistribute revenues at any time. But he said that he encourages city officials to "take the emotion away', and see that cities are just as vulnerable today under the current sales tax/ property tax arrangement as they would be under what he sees as a more desirable arrangement that would be put in place by his bill. He said that he would support measures that strengthen constitutional protections for local revenues, to make them less vulnerable to state take - aways. But he frankly acknowledged that he did not want to hold up what he sees as the meaningful reform offered by AB 1221 on the possibility of achieving constitutional reform. Board members raised a number of questions relating to the different impacts AB 1221 would have on different cities. These included concerns about how the bill would affect cities with redevel- opment agencies, and cities with no or low prop- erty taxes; the need to preserve local land use authority; impacts on smaller cities; and cash flow and accounting issues relating the implementation of a bill like AB 1221. Mr. Steinberg acknowledged that more work was needed to clarify these issues to minimize or offset the impacts the bill could have in these and other cases. "Cities currently have lots of respon- sibilities, but very few resources," he said. "I want to more closely align resources and responsibili- ties." "Let's change the rules," he said. The board expressed appreciation to Mr. Steinberg for his willingness to discuss the bill, but later voted to continue to oppose the bill unless amendments were taken to constitutionally protect local revenues. BUDGET from page 1 ............... The Assembly Budget Subcommittee #4 also has responsibility for some of the reimbursable local government mandates. The Governor's proposed 2003 -04 budget recommended deferring all reimbursable state mandate costs once again. The Legislative Analyst's Office recommended that the legislature take action on mandates and either fund the liabilities or eliminate them ako- gether. The state currently has 59 ongoing man- dates representing $300 million in annual costs. Last week, the subcommittee decided to suspend the city and county obligations under the reimburs- able mandate for Regional Housing Numbers. Regarding other reimbursable mandates, they deferred action so that each mandate can be reviewed individually to determine whether to recommend suspension, deferral or repeal. The Senate is rumored to be delaying action on the budget until after release of the Governor's May Revision on May. Meanwhile, both houses are out of town until April 21 on Spring Recess. In other state budget news, the Legislative Analyst reported at a Chamber of Commerce meeting this week that her budget deficit estimate has increased by $2.8 billion. PAGE 6 /PRIORITY FOCUS Visit the League's Official Web Site --www.cacities.org