Senate Floor Alert

 

OPPOSE

 

AB 1051 (Goldberg) – Capital Facilities Fees

 

 

AB 1051 exposes public agencies and schools to unlimited fees for capital projects, even for projects that do not serve them.  It gives municipal utilities the benefits of operating as an investor owned utility without any of the government oversight and regulation.  AB 1051 allows municipal utilities to shift the cost of new development to public agencies and schools and it legitimizes the millions of dollars municipal utilities have overcharged their government customers.

 

AB 1051 eliminates the following

important aspects of the longstanding legislative compromise of AB 1350 between the municipal utilities and public agency customers arising out of the San Marcos court case:

 

q       AB 1051 removes the requirement that municipal utilities must charge public agencies “nondiscriminatory” capital costs, the definition of which in existing law requires a proportionate allocation of capital costs by customer usage whether those costs are part of the monthly rates or levied as one-time fees. 

 

q       AB 1051 removes the “actually serving” protection for schools and state agencies which requires municipal utilities to charge for only the capital costs related to those facilities that “actually serve” the school or state agency.

 

q       AB 1051 removes the requirement that municipal utilities must negotiate capital cost increases in excess of the Implicit Price Deflator.

 

q       AB 1051 removes the burden of proof on municipal utilities to show that capital costs, excluding capital facilities fees as newly defined under AB 1051, are “nondiscriminatory” and do not “exceed the amount necessary to provide capital facilities for which the fee is charged.”

 

q       AB 1051 removes essential notice requirements for municipal utilities related to capital cost increases levied on schools and state agencies. 

 

Vote No on AB 1051 (Goldberg)