The Legislature concluded its business for 2018 on Friday, August 31. The following is a summary of the status of bills that CASH has engaged on.  Our next legislative update will be after the September 30^th deadline for the Governor to sign or veto bills.  The CASH advocacy team will do a comprehensive update on the state budget, key legislation, and regulatory issues at the CASH Fall Conference in Newport Beach.

AB 195 (Obernolte) – Local Bond Ballot Labels

This bill was chaptered into law in 2017, making significant changes to the requirements for local bond ballot labels.  AB 195 requires the ballot label to include the amount of money to be raised annually and the rate and duration of the tax to be levied.  This is misleading and confusing to voters when applied to bonds.

Over the past year, CASH worked with a large coalition pursuing a fix to AB 195, pushing for a resolution before the Legislature adjourned for summer recess on July 6.  We were successful in getting Budget Trailer Bill SB 863 into print, which would have provided a two-year-suspension to the AB 195 provisions for local bonds. However, the Legislature ultimately did not take SB 863 up for a vote, as they were awaiting assurance from the Governor that he was prepared to sign the bill.  That assurance did not come before the August 10 deadline for schools and other public agencies to file local bond resolutions with their counties for the November 2018 election. CASH will continue to work with the coalition of stakeholders to pursue a permanent solution through the legislative process in 2019. (Chapter 105/Statutes of 2017)