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The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandates—Regional Water Quality Control Boards


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The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandate—Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board

May 5, 2025 - In this budget post, we discuss a municipal stormwater mandate issued by the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2009 for local governments in Orange County.

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The 2022-23 Budget: Municipal Stormwater and Urban Runoff Discharges Mandate

February 28, 2022 - Provides our comments and recommendation to approve the Governor's proposal to fund the Municipal Stormwater and Urban Runoff Discharges mandate.

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The 2016-17 Budget: Local Government Mandates--Reasonable Reimbursement Methodology

March 17, 2016 - Through a complex, often convoluted, process that has engendered much discussion and disagreement over the years, the state must reimburse local governments for their activities to implement certain state mandates. State law requires the Commission on State Mandates (CSM) to determine whether new state laws, executive orders, or regulations affecting local governments create state-reimbursable mandates. Generally, local governments may submit claims for state mandate payment based on one of two methods: (1) claiming of actual costs or (2) a reasonable reimbursement methodology (RRM). A budget trailer bill proposal from the administration would change the requirements for developing an RRM. We recommend the Legislature reject this proposal and perhaps consider targeted alternatives.

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[PDF] Analysis of Newly Identified Mandates

May 31, 2013 - Pursuant to Chapter 1124, Statutes of 2002 (AB 3000, Committee on Budget)

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The 2015-16 Budget: Paying for a State Mandate on Local Child Protective Agencies

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.

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[PDF] Mandates: Overview of Process and Issues

May 28, 2003 - Presented to Assembly Special Committee on State Mandates on May 28, 2003.

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An Assessment: Governor's Local Government Proposal

May 24, 2004 - The administration's local government proposal would make far-reaching changes to state-local finance. Our review of the proposal indicates that it would greatly increase the stability of local finance and increase accountability in the mandate process. We also find, however, that the proposal locks in place the current flawed state-local fiscal structure, imposes added fiscal stress on many local governments, and is not structured in a fashion that addresses long-term state fiscal goals. For the Legislature's consideration, we provide various recommendations to bring the proposal into greater alignment with legislative goals and state fiscal objectives.

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New Mandates: Analysis of Measures Requiring Reimbursement

December 30, 2003 - In 2002 and 2003, the Commission on State Mandates determined that 23 sets of state laws impose state-reimbursable mandates on local governments. The commission estimated the state's cost to reimburse local agencies for these mandates is about $400 million. This report reviews the newly identified mandates, and offers recommendations as to whether each mandate should be repealed, funded, suspended, or modified.

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K-12 and Community College Mandates

February 23, 2006 - The Governor’s budget proposes $133.6 million from the General Fund to pay for the costs of state-mandated local programs in K-12 education and community colleges in 2006-07. We find that the amount proposed in the budget bill for mandates falls short of fully funding ongoing mandate costs; the mandates claims process could be streamlined and simplified by reimbursing districts on a per-pupil basis for all K-12 mandates; recent action by the Commission on State Mandates (CSM) on the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) mandate raises issues about how the state should address local implementation costs of this program; and funding for state truancy mandates could be used more effectively by transforming these programs into a categorical program aimed at reducing truancy and dropouts.

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[PDF] Analysis of Newly Identified Mandates

May 3, 2010 - Semiannual report

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[PDF] Analysis of Education Mandates

February 26, 2014 - Traditionally, the state has reimbursed local educational agencies (LEAs) for performing mandated activities by requiring them to submit detailed documentation of their costs. In recent years, the state has tried to simplify this process by creating two alternative reimbursement structures. The reasonable reimbursement methodology (RRM) provides reimbursement for a particular mandate using a formula developed in a quasi-judicial forum. The education mandates block grants (one for schools and one for community colleges) provide reimbursement for all active education mandates using a per-student rate established in the budget. Whereas the rarely used RRM process has been very adversarial (once involving litigation) and resulted in long reimbursement delays, nearly all LEAs have chosen to participate in the block grants. Given their overlapping purposes and the comparative advantages of the block grants, we recommend the Legislature repeal the RRM for education mandates.

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[PDF] Analysis of Newly Identified Mandates

June 2, 2011 - Pursuant to Chapter 1124, Statutes of 2002 (AB 3000, Committee on Budget).

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[PDF] Key Elements of Mandate Reform—Major Recommendations Proposed

May 10, 2004 - Presented to Assembly Special Committee on State Mandates on May 10, 2004.