Analysis of the 2004-05 Budget Bill Legislative Analyst's Office February 2004

Commission on State Mandates (8885)

The Commission on State Mandates is responsible for determining whether local government claims for reimbursement of state-mandated local costs should be paid by the state. If the commission determines that a statute, executive order, or regulation contains a reimbursable mandate, the commission develops an estimate of the statewide cost of the mandated program and includes this estimate in a semiannual report. After receipt of this report, state law specifies that the Legislature appropriate funding in a "claims" bill to pay the newly approved mandates. Subsequent-year costs of the mandate are then funded through the budget, under each affected department.

Administration's Mandate Proposal

Consistent with the Legislature's intent as expressed in Chapter 228, Statutes of 2003 (AB 1756, Committee on Budget), the administration's budget plan includes no funding for mandate reimbursements. Instead, all 2004-05 mandate costs (approximately $600 million) and all unpaid mandate claims from 2003-04 and earlier (over $2 billion) would be deferred to an unknown future date. We discuss the state's growing mandate liabilities in "Part V" of the Perspectives and Issues.