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II A-Z5 Legislative Bill Action ................................ ............................... SB 157 (Bowen and Alpert). Sales and Use Taxes: Uniformity. SB 157 creates the Simplified Sales and Use Tax Administration that establishes 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. The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) takes effect when at least 10 states, accounting for at least 20% of the population of states that impose a sales and use tax, enact provisions of the SSUTA. With legisla- tion adopted by Ohio effective July 1, 2003, the SSUTA moves closer. If legislation passed by Minnesota and Washington are deemed to con- form sufficiently to the SSUTA, the 20% population factor will be met and multistate retailers will have need to take the necessary steps to implement the collection of sales and use tax. Staff: Jean Korinke, Status: AsRevTax;Hrg -7/7, Position: Support. TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC WORKS AS 1022 (Oropeza). Vehicles. Automated Enforcement Systems. On Friday, June 27, the League's Transportation, Communications and Public Works Policy Committee took the position to Oppose unless amended on AB 1022. The bill was heard in the Senate Transportation Commit- tee on July 1 and was amended to remove the strict requirements that cities were required to "consider" when installing the cameras at intersec- tions. Staff: Natasha Fooman; Status: Sen, Position: Oppose Unless Amended. AB 453 (Yee). Public Works: Contracts. Com- pensation of Contractors. AB 453 overturns a longstanding principle of contractor's bearing risk: "there's nothing unlawful about retaining [work performed], what is unlawful is paying anyone with public funds for a contract that is void." As amended on July 26, AB 453 provides that when a project for the construction, alteration, repair or improvement of any structure, building, road or other improvement is competitively bid and a protest is made, the contract may be entered into pending final decision on the protest. If the con- tract is later determined to be invalid due to a defect or defects in the competitive bid process, this bill entities the contractor who entered into the contract with the public entity to be paid the rea- sonable cost, specifically excluding profit, of the labor, equipment, materials and services furnished by the contractor prior to the date of the determina- tion, subject to conditions. They further argue that this bill would reduce the incentive for bidders to comply with bidding regula- tions, knowing that they would still receive some payment unless fraud could be conclusively proven. This would "invite a new level of games- manship in the bidding process," as well as increased litigation. Staff: Natasha Fooman; Status: SenApps, Position: Oppose. SB 966 (Alarcon). Contractor's Costs. SB 966 authorizes a contractor to bring an action in court of competent jurisdiction to recover from a public agency any increased costs incurred by the contractor as a result of (1) any decision that classifies, after the time at which the awarding body accepts the contractor's bid, a project as a "public work," or (2) a change, after the time at which the awarding body accepts the contractors bid, in the prevailing wage rate. The League has received an opposition letter from California Redevelopment Association, but so far the League has not received any opposition letters from cities. The author has offered amendments to SB 966 which was intended to address two concerns raised by public agencies. First, the original section 1781 (a) (2) was deleted from the bill. Second, the original section 1781 (a) has been amended to narrow the circumstances in which a contractor may recover "increased costs." The amendments seeks to address concerns that a contractor who assumes in its bid pricing that a project would be a prevailing wage project might be able to claim entitlement to reimbursement for "increased costs" when a decision issues that a project does indeed require the payment of prevail- ing wages. Visit the League's Official Web Site-- www.cacities.org PRIORITY FOCUS/PAGE. U