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Budget Status of State Water Project

February 21, 2007 - We recommend that funding for the State Water Project (SWP), the state’s main water conveyance system connecting Northern and Southern California, be brought "on budget." This is because SWP’s current off-budget status makes it difficult for the Legislature to comprehensively address the state’s water policy issues, particularly in light of SWP’s increasing fiscal and programmatic ties to other state on-budget programs, such as the CALFED Bay-Delta Program.

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Flood Management Issues

February 21, 2007 - The budget reflects a major infusion of funding, mostly from bond funds, for flood management. We make a number of recommendations to ensure that a systematic approach is used to complete improvements and repairs to the state’s Central Valley flood control system, including requiring the Department of Water Resources to provide a plan for independent review and oversight of its flood-related capital outlay projects.

Report

Resources Bonds

February 21, 2007 - The budget proposes over $2.3 billion in bond funding for various resources programs, most of which comes from two resources bonds approved by voters in November 2006. The state would spend substantially higher bond amounts than in the current year, particularly for flood management. To ensure the effective and efficient implementation of the new bonds, we recommend that the Legislature set funding priorities to guide new programs created by the bonds; establish appropriate cost-sharing arrangements; ensure related programs are coordinated; and exercise oversight by holding hearings, establishing reporting requirements, and controlling administrative costs. review infrastructure

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Sex Offender Proposals Generally Consistent With New Laws, But More Detail Required

February 21, 2007 - The Governor's budget includes two proposals related to the management of sex offenders under parole supervision. We recommend approval of the proposal implementing recommendations of the High Risk Sex Offender Task Force, but find that the proposal to implement new state laws lacks important implementation details and is overbudgeted. We further recommend the creation of a in-prison sex offender treatment pilot program, funded from savings generated by our recommended technical adjustments to the Governor's proposal.

Report

The State Has Inadequately Maintained Its Major Investment in Prison Infrastructure

February 21, 2007 - The state faces a growing and costly backlog of special repair work due in part to the way the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has managed and organized the responsibilities for keeping prisons in good repair. We recommend adjustments to an administration proposal to increase spending for these purposes by $46 million, as well as further actions by the Legislature to protect the state's major investment in correctional infrastructure.

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Enhancing Public Safety by Increasing Parolee Employment

February 21, 2007 - Estimates are that a majority of state parolees are not regularly employed, a factor which research has shown to be linked to offending. We identify several steps the Legislature should take to increase rates of parolee employment, including targeting funding to cost-effective programs, continuing federal funding, looking outside of California for successful approaches, requiring the department to track parolee employment rates, improving the contracts for parole referral programs, and improving case management.

Report

Governor's Prison Overcrowding Package Is More Balanced But Too Big

February 21, 2007 - The Governor requests a total of $9.6 billion for a 14-part package of proposals designed primarily to address overcrowding in state prisons and county jails. While the package offered by the administration has merit, we identify a number of concerns, in particular that the package would result in a large surplus of state prison capacity and provide the wrong mix of beds. We recommend that the Legislature consider an alternative package that would also address overcrowding but result in a more limited surplus of prison beds, provide a better mix of beds, and reduce state costs.

Report

Juvenile Population Shift Warranted But Construction Funding Not Justified

February 21, 2007 - The Governor's budget proposes to shift some juvenile offenders from the state to the local level and enact a new state grant program to build county juvenile facilities. We find the juvenile institutional population shift proposed by the administration to be fundamentally sound policy, in part because the juvenile system is a generally a local responsibility. Accordingly, we recommend its approval by the Legislature with some technical modifications. However, our analysis indicates that the administration's proposal to provide $400 million in lease-revenue bond funding to build 5,000 new local juvenile beds is not justified given the current surplus of 4,000 such beds statewide.

Report

The California Prison Receivership: An Update

February 21, 2007 - The federal court appointment last year of a Receiver to take over the state's prison medical care system is already resulting in a number of actions intended to improve inmate care as well as significant uncertainties regarding the state costs and savings likely to result from his actions . Our analysis indicates that the Legislature faces uncertainties over the extent of costs and savings resulting from the actions of the Receiver. We also find that there are opportunities for legislative oversight of these major changes in the prison medical system, such as legislative hearings to better understand the fiscal and operational implications of the remedial plan that the Receiver is to submit to the federal court along with metrics to measure progress in improving inmate medical services.

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An Update on the Implementation of Proposition 69

February 21, 2007 - Although the Department of Justice has taken steps to reduce a backlog of samples in the Proposition 69 DNA Program, it faces difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff and an expected increase in samples in 2009 that will likely increase the backlog.

Report

Courthouse Bond Proposal Deserves Close Scrutiny

February 21, 2007 - The Governor proposes to place a $2 billion bond issue on the ballot for courthouse construction and to establish public-private partnerships to leverage additional resources for this purpose. We withhold recommendation on the bond issue pending further review, but recommend rejection of the legislation for the partnerships.

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Addressing Issues in the Traffic Congestion Relief Program

February 21, 2007 - Seven years into the Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP), only 26 of the 141 projects have been completed. In addition, many project sponsors have yet to identify full funding for their TCRP projects. While development work continues on many projects, delayed state funds and cost increases continue to threaten project delivery. Nevertheless, we recommend actions that the Legislature can take to ensure that funds are used to deliver projects in a timely manner and to ensure that the California Transportation Commission has adequate flexibility in implementing the program.

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Appropriating Proposition 1B Funds

February 21, 2007 - Proposition 1B authorizes about $20 billion in bond funds for transportation. The measure allocates specific amounts of bond funding for particular transportation uses, and requires that the funding be subject to legislative appropriation. The budget requests three-year appropriations of these funds and proposes budget bill language that would allow the administration to transfer appropriated funds among Proposition 1B programs. These proposals run counter to the bond measure’s intent that the Legislature appropriate specific amounts for particular transportation programs. Accordingly, we recommend that the Governor’s proposals be rejected.

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Eliminating Spillover

February 21, 2007 - The passage of Proposition 42 rendered the "spillover" mechanism unnecessary. In order to simplify the state’s transportation funding structure, we recommend the enactment of legislation to eliminate the spillover mechanism for generating revenue into the Public Transportation Account (PTA) beginning in 2008-09. This would also reduce the volatility of revenues into the PTA. While eliminating the spillover would result in less funding for transit operations through the State Transit Assistance program in some years, it would increase the predictability and stability of annual funding. Moreover, additional funds could become available for broader transportation uses.

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Employee Compensation in 2007-08: Prison Pay Surges

February 21, 2007 - The Governor’s budget would increase state employee compensation costs by an estimated $1.2 billion in 2007-08. Item 9800 includes $972 million ($468 million General Fund) of this amount. The remainder is included in departmental budgets--principally the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The vast majority of the funds address costs related to current labor agreements, court orders, and arbitration decisions.