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LEGISLATIVE WRAP UP from page 1 a a As soon as we have compiled and analyzed all pertinent legislation, we will publish our annual SIGN and VETO requests in Priority Focus to help you prepare letters from city ha; in support or opposition to legislation. To review final versions of these bills, and how your legislators voted on them, go to www.cacities.org /legislativesearch. For a summary of actions on bills in a particular subject policy area, be sure to also check the League's website at www.cacities.org/ issuesandadvocacy. Thank you for all your help, especially those city officials at the recent Annual Con- ference who took the time to go "across the street" and lobby their members on key city issues. CITY OFFICIALS MADE THE DIFFERENCE City officials attending the League's Annual Conference made a difference on many bills. Here's one example reported by League Lobbyist Amy Brown. "We did not .stand a chance of beating a gut- and -amend bill that would have increase a 4850 time from one year to two (AB 1362) if it were not for the quick response by our re- gional representatives who called upon their members attending the League conference. Within one hour I had more than 25 people walking (running) the halls of the Capitol with copies of our letter in their hands, telling their Senators and Assembly members NOT to vote for AB 1362. As a result, the bill did not even come up for a vote. It was buried in the Assembly Appropriations Committee the next day. With the help of those fire chiefs, police chiefs, human resources directors, finance directors and elected officials, I was able to squash this sucker.!" PAGE 2 /PRIORITY FOCUS KEY BILLS from page 1 • ' • • Budget - Related Issues /Legislation Redevelopment Cuts. During the last weeks of the session, there was growing interest by certain legislative circles in increasing, to $250 million, the $135 million cut to local redevelopment agencies (RDAs) included in the state budget. The rationale was to use this money to restore funding to other programs that fallen under the budget ax. City officials were instrumental in bringing "sunlight" to this issue. They delivered a loud and clear message that no more cuts should be made to local governments. Although prospective author Senator Mike Machado told local officials on Mon- day evening and Tuesday morning that he was going to carry the legislation on the RDA cuts, by Tuesday at noon he had changed his mind. VLF Hardship Provisions. One of the more disappointing developments during the end of the session was the "discovery" that the state had miscalculated its budget figures, jeopardizing the "hardship" money that had been adopted in the budget provisions relating to the VLF shift. The $40 million set aside was intended to help ease the VLF revenue loss in FY 2003 -04 for those cities and counties with a high percentage of VLF dollars in their local general funds. There were 12 cities listed as qualifying for the hardship money. Several attempts at the end of the session to secure a legislative fix for the problem ran into the typical end -of- session procedural hurdles and politics. As a result, Senator Dean Florez has promised to carry legislation in January to correct the problem, if an administrative solution cannot be worked out with the Controller's office between now and the start up of the 2004 session. Triple -Flip with a Twist. The recent state budget left a number of issues still unresolved as they relate to local government funding. Following up on a proposal offered during the budget debate, Assembly Member Darrell Steinberg proposed to permit local governments to choose, under the umbrella of the triple -flip, to replace sales tax growth with property tax growth, and to permit that property tax to grow throughout the scheduled five - year period of the triple -flip. Continued on Page 3 Visit the League's Official Web Site -- www.cacities.org