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November 12, 2003 - Current state standards for utilization of higher education instructional facilities can be simplified and made more flexible. We recommend restating these standards on the basis of "annual hours of station use per year." This would both simplify the standards and accommodate year-round operation.
October 24, 2003 - Chapter 421, Statutes of 2001 (AB 1402, Simitian) authorizes school districts to enter into "design-build" contracts for specified construction projects and to submit specific information about these projects to the LAO upon completion of construction. This interim report describes the design-build process and reports that, thus far, no districts have reported to the LAO that they are using the design-build authorization provided by Chapter 421.
February 19, 2003 - The 2003-04 Governor's Budget proposes to fully fund all phases of eight major capital outlay projects that use lease-revenue bonds as their source of funds. We recommend budget bill language requiring notification of proposed project augmentations or scope changes.
February 19, 2003 - As in the past, we recommend the Legislature fund higher education capital outlay based on year-round operation, statewide priorities and criteria, reasonable construction cost guidelines, and appropriate utilization of existing facilities.
February 19, 2003 - Assembly Constitutional Amendment 11, which will appear on the March 2004 statewide ballot, would establish the California Twenty-First Century Infrastructure Investment Fund, a dedicated financing source for state and local infrastructure projects. We provide background on state capital outlay planning and funding, explain how the measure works, and describe the measure's potential fiscal impact. (Reprint.)
February 19, 2003 - We review the administration's report, 2002: California's Five-Year Infrastructure Plan, its first legislatively mandated plan for funding public sector capital outlay needs. We examine its strengths and suggest improvements for future plans. (Reprint.)
February 5, 2003 - Assembly Constitutional Amendment 11, which will appear on the March 2004 statewide ballot, would establish the California Twenty-First Century Infrastructure Investment Fund, a dedicated financing source for state and local infrastructure projects. We provide background on state capital outlay planning and funding, explain how the measure works, and describe the measure's potential fiscal impact.
December 19, 2002 - We review the administration's report, 2002: California's Five-Year Infrastructure Plan, its first legislatively mandated plan for funding public sector capital outlay needs. We examine its strengths and suggest improvements for future plans.
February 20, 2002 - We recommend the Legislature provide funding for higher education capital outlay based on statewide priorities and criteria, using reasonable construction cost guidelines, and based on year-round operation. We also recommend the Legislature consider the extent to which existing buildings at a campus are underutilized when making capital outlay funding decisions, and consider UC research revenue as a primary source of funding for UC research facilities.
February 20, 2002 - We recommend that the Legislature ask the Bureau of State Audits to conduct a performance audit of the Department of General Services relative to its project management activities to evaluate (1) the appropriateness of fees charged, (2) the method of determining fee levels, and (3) the quality control process in place for budget development.
February 20, 2002 - We recommend the Legislature defer approval of new capital outlay projects until the infrastructure plan has been submitted and the Legislature has had an opportunity to review it. We also recommend the Legislature appoint a select committee to make recommendations on how the Legislature might effectively respond to the infrastructure plan when it is submitted.
January 31, 2002 - We find that three key types of building standards are not being used uniformly by the three segments of higher education. This has resulted in construction costs that are higher than necessary and possible over-statement of facilities needs. As a result, we recommend various improvements to make standards more useful to the Legislature.