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2Z Legislative Bill Action ................................ ............................... The following are summaries of just a few of the legislative bills that are currently being acted upon by the League of California Cities. For more information about these and other bills, please visit the League website's new "Issues and Advocacy" page (www.cacities.orq/ issuesandadvocacv) — a one -stop location to access information about legislation, policy issues and related developments. You can track information on bills (www.cacities.org /legtracking), locate legislators and legislative committees, send letters to legislators or the media through the online Advocacy Center, research League policy positions, access useful related links, and much more. REVENUE AND TAXATION SB 114 (Torlakson). Financial Assistance. Relocation of Vehicle Dealers and Big Box Retailers. Local government agencies would be prohibited from offering incentives to lure big box retailers or vehicle dealers to their area from another jurisdiction in their local market area. Frequently, cities are placed in an awkward situation when a large retailer comes calling with an offer of large sales tax revenues in exchange for special offers to the retailer to move from another local city or county. SB 114 eliminates that situation. Staff: Jean Korinke, Status: AsLG; Hrg -6 -18. Position: Support. SB 103 (Alpert). Sales and Use Tax. SB 103 provides clarification to which retail busi- nesses must collect sales and use tax on pur- chases made in California. If a retailer offers services or repairs on its goods by staff or con- tractors located in California, the retailer is consid- ered to have a retail presence in California. Pro- cessing of orders by electronic means from a location outside of California does not exclude a retailer from the obligation to collect taxes if the retailer is engaged in business in the state. The retailer will be deemed to be engaged in business in this state if it has directly or through a subsid- iary a substantial interest in a California retailer and sells the same lines of goods under a similar retail name in California. Staff: Jean Korinke, Status: SenR &T;Hrg -3 -26, Position: Support. SB 157 (Bowen and Alpert). Sales and Use Taxes. Uniformity. SB 157 creates the Simpli fied Sales and Use Tax Administration that estab- lishes a board to represent California in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP). The bill specifies certain criteria that must be agreed upon by all members of the SSTP before California may sign the agreement. Staff: Jean Korinke, Status: AsR &T;Hrg -6-23, Position: Support. TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS AB 478 (Ridley). Vehicle. Removal. Dis- posal. AB 478 seeks to reduce the costs of storing and disposing of abandoned vehicles by reducing the time a vehicle must be held prior to disposal. AB 478 reduces from fifteen to seven days, the amount of time a public agency must wait after sending a notice to the vehicle's owner prior to disposing of a suspected abandoned vehicle. Additionally AB 478 increases the maxi- mum dollar value, from $300 to $500, of a vehicle that may qualify for disposal. The bill is sponsored by the City of Los Angeles. AB 478 passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 5-0 on 6/10/03. Staff: Natasha Fooman; Status: SenFlr, Position: Support. AB 365 (Jerome Horton). Department of Motor Vehicles. Access by City Attorneys. AB 365 emanates from an incident in 2002 when the Los Angeles City Attorney was denied telephone access to licensee photographs contained in Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) files. Accord- ing to the author, city prosecutors had previously been afforded the same access to DMV records PAGE 10 /PRIORITY FOCUS Visit the League's Official Web Site-- www.cacities.org