Major Mandate Reform a Priority in 2004

摘要

Almost everyone agrees that the state's current process for determining a reimbursable state-mandated program and providing cities with their appropriate payment needs a major overhaul. Many people hope that this is one example to which Governor Schwarzenegger referred in his January State of the State speech when he said, "I don't want to move boxes around; I want to blow them up." The League and its local government partners, along with the state controller, Legislature, legislative analyst and even the state auditor, all appear to agree that the mandate reimbursement process is severely flawed. Some of these parties have begun offering solutions, while others are considering proposals for the Legislature to consider this year. How much longer can local government tolerate the current system? Local agencies' patience has been exhausted by the state's failure for the second straight year to appropriate funds to pay the approved local government mandates, as well as the subsequent extension of those delayed payments for another year, as proposed in the governor's initial 2003- 04 state budget. One can only hope that the governor's decisions were a result of the short amount of time he had to draft the budget - or an oversight.