Governor's Signature Still Needed on Financial Relief Bill for Local Cities

At issue is $20.75 million that would be made available for the benefit of Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Menifee and Wildomar.

By Alexander Nguyen | City News Service

Legislation to provide overdue revenue to four Riverside County cities -- one of which is barely able to pay its debts -- was not included in the bevy of bills signed into law this week by Gov. Jerry Brown as part of the 2015-16 fiscal year budget, but an inland lawmaker expressed optimism that the state senate will still get the proposal to the governor’s desk.

“I am continuing to work with the senate leadership and my colleagues to ensure this budget trailer bill is passed, enacting the governor’s commitment reflected in his May revision of the state budget,” said Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside. “And I am confident this item will be voted on soon. I look forward to getting this budget bill to the governor for his signature and finally providing relief for our cities.”

At issue is $20.75 million that would be made available for the benefit of Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Menifee and Wildomar. The money would be allocated under Assembly Bill 113 in the form of a credit to Riverside County, with the stipulated amount covering part of the county’s contract with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

In exchange for the credit, the county would need to forgive the four cities some of their past-due payments for county services, thereby allowing them to plug holes in their budgets.

The state Assembly approved AB 113 in March, but it has been hung up in the senate, undergoing scrutiny since that time. The proposed legislation has a number of components, a few of which have met deep resistance from the League of California Cities. The organization’s biggest bone of contention is AB 113’s further empowerment of the California Department of Finance in the dissolution of individual cities’ and counties’ redevelopment agencies.

RDAs were phased out by the Legislature and governor in 2011, leaving unresolved projects and unpaid debts in many jurisdictions. The Department of Finance has the authority to say when these projects and debts have been satisfactorily disposed, but according to the League, the agency has been too arbitrary.

According to Roth’s office, AB 113 must be ratified by the Legislature no later than Sept. 11 and signed into law by the governor by Oct. 11.

Under legislation he introduced earlier this year, Roth sought a more direct route to restore the millions of dollars stripped away from the cities. Senate Bill 25 states that, beginning in the next fiscal year, vehicle license fee revenue would be allocated to the four cities based on a formula that factors in population and local property tax assessments.

SB 25, which is stalled in the Assembly, is similar to a bill that Roth carried last year, SB 56, which received majority support in both houses of the Legislature, but was vetoed by the governor, who cited concerns about digging into the general fund to make the funding available.

For the same reasons, Brown also vetoed an Assembly bill seeking to restore funding to the cities in 2012. Other bills have been submitted but lost traction in the Legislature.

The four cities were entitled to roughly $15 million from the state when the Legislature approved -- and the governor signed -- SB 89 into law. The act shifted funds owed to cities that incorporated between 2004 and 2011 into a “Law Enforcement Services Account” established to offset expenses incurred by counties and municipalities under the governor’s public safety realignment plan.

Wildomar incorporated on July 1, 2008; Menifee incorporated on Oct. 1, 2008; Eastvale incorporated on Oct. 1, 2010; and Jurupa Valley incorporated on July 1, 2011 -- two days after SB 89 took effect. The nascent city was the hardest hit financially, losing half the funds anticipated in its first fiscal year budget.

Jurupa Valley in 2014 filed notice with the Riverside County Local Agency Formation Commission that it may have to disincorporate and go back to county control without a financial rescue.