2014-15 Budget Trailer Bills
Counties should be aware that several budget trailer bills were acted on by the Legislature in the closing days of session to clarify and correct certain provisions of the 2014-15 budget. A few with provisions relevant to public safety / justice budget items are highlighted below; all of these measures passed both houses and will be acted on by the Governor by the end of the month:
AB 1476 (Assembly Budget Committee) – Changes to 2014-15 Budget Act
AB 1476 makes a variety of changes to the 2014-15 Budget Act (SB 852), including the following adjustments or corrections to justice-related budget items of interest.
- Deletes from the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) a $5 million appropriation associated with social innovation bonds. (This item is restored and redirected to the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) in SB 875.)
- Clarifies that the $11.3 million appropriated to the BSCC is to be directed to probation departments for express purpose of addressing the limited-term increase in post-release community supervision population resulting from the increased credit earning required in the February 2014 three-judge panel order.
- Appropriates $27 million from the Judicial Branch’s Immediate and Critical Needs Account for preliminary plans and working drawings for the New Sacramento Court House.
SB 875 (Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee) – Public Safety Trailer Bill Clean-up
- Appropriates $5 million to the BSCC for the social innovation financing program (redirected from OPR, as noted above). As detailed in last week’s Bulletin, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins’ measure, AB 1837, is the accompanying legislative vehicle to establish the social innovation program.
- Makes technical changes to parole hearing notification process (by authorizing regular rather than certified mail notification in certain instances)
SB 877 (Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee) – Jail Construction Bond Clean-Up
- Eliminates duplicative language authorizing an additional $500 million in state lease-revenue bond capacity for local jail rehabilitative facilities. SB 863 remains the stand-alone measure that codifies these provisions. (SB 877 strips unnecessary and repetitive language from AB 1468, the previously enacted public safety trailer bill.)
Split Sentencing
Judicial Council Releases Draft Rule of Court on Presumption – Comments Due September 19
The Judicial Council’s Criminal Law Advisory Committee has released proposed amendments to rules 4.411 and 4.411.5 of the California Rules of Court and adoption of a new rule to govern the imposition of mandatory supervision under Penal Code section 1170(h)(5). The new and revised rules of court were necessitated by from the enactment of a presumption of a split sentence included in this year’s public safety trailer bill (AB 1468). The advisory committee proposal includes criteria for court consideration and contents and requirements for related probation reports. The rules must be adopted by January 1, 2015; deadline for comments is 5:00 p.m., Friday, September 19, 2014. See this memo for additional details on the proposal; instructions on how to submit comments can be found here. CSAC strongly encourages counties and other interested parties to provide input on this important rule.