January 31, 2011 - The Governor proposes (1) $52 million to pay for noneducation mandates and (2) to suspend mandates relating to absentee ballots and open meetings. In this handout we summarize the Governor’s proposals and discuss alternatives for legislative consideration.
May 27, 2016 - State law tasks the Commission on State Mandates with determining whether new state laws or regulations affecting local governments create state-reimbursable mandates. Typically, the process for determining whether a law or regulation is a state-reimbursable mandate takes several years. State law further requires our office to analyze any new mandates identified by the commission as part of our annual analysis of the proposed state budget. In particular, state law directs our office to report on the annual state costs for new mandates and make recommendations to the Legislature as to whether the new mandates should be repealed, funded, suspended, or modified. In this budget post, we discuss the Sheriff Court-Security Services mandate.
February 3, 2011 - Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 4 State Administration and General Government
February 1, 2011 - Presented to Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration
March 16, 2018 - County governments in California administer most local, state, and federal elections pursuant to various requirements established under state and federal law. The Governor’s budget proposes providing counties $134 million to replace their voting equipment. This proposal assumes counties implement a the new “vote center” model of voting. Given the condition of counties’ voting equipment and the state’s interest in effective county administration of elections, state assistance for purchasing new voting equipment is warranted. We recommend that the Legislature direct the Secretary of State to distribute funds based on counties’ equipment costs for implementing the vote center model—assuming the state covers half of those costs.
March 13, 2012 - Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration, Hon. Joan Buchanan, Chair
May 13, 2022 - This post provides our comments and recommendation to approve the Governor's proposal to fund the prepaid postage mandate for vote by mail ballots.
June 24, 2009 - Pusuant to Chapter 1124, Statutes of 2002 (AB 3000, Committee on Budget)
February 24, 2015 - This report evaluates the Governor's budget proposal to suspend the Interagency Child Abuse and Neglect Investigation Reports(ICAN) mandate. To address certain limitations in the Governor's proposal, we recommend the Legislature (1) adopt the Governor’s proposal but consider augmenting the grant program’s funding to increase the likelihood of county participation, (2) require local law enforcement agencies to carry out ICAN activities as a condition of receiving certain state allocations, and (3) develop a long-term plan to retire post-2004 mandate backlog, including ICAN claims.
March 30, 2017 - Despite reaping regular benefits from county administration of elections, the state only sporadically provides funding to counties for election activities. The state has a clear interest in secure, timely, and uniform elections. We recommend the Legislature develop a new financial relationship between the state and counties to (1) direct statewide elections policy and (2) provide a reasonable and reliable level of financial support that reflects the benefits to the state of county elections administration. The pending implementation of a new voting model via 2016 legislation, SB 450, provides an opportunity for the Legislature to consider how to structure such a financial relationship to ensure consistency across counties as well as address other elections issues.
May 31, 2013 - Pursuant to Chapter 1124, Statutes of 2002 (AB 3000, Committee on Budget)