Amador County – California Assembly Bill 1191 by Alyson Humber (D-District 10, Lodi) to help restore Vehicle License Fees and “triple flip” taxes to Amador County and its cities advanced out of the Assembly Local Government Committee last week and was referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

The Local Government Committee voted 9-0 Tuesday in Sacramento to send AB-1191 to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. Several local officials were in attendance, including Sutter Creek City Manager Sean Rabe, who said the actions were taken quickly by the committee. He said Supervisor Richard Forster spoke to the Committee before its vote.

The Local Government Committee Chair, Cameron Smyth (R-Distrct 38, Santa Clarita) summarized Huber’s bill on the Assembly website. Smyth in the summary said the bill “creates a process for cities and counties to seek reimbursement for lost revenues due to legislation in 2004 that enacted the ‘Triple Flip’ and the ‘Vehicle License Fee Swap’.”

The bill would amend revenue and Taxation Code, and, according to Smyth’s summary it “requires the county auditor to submit a claim to the Controller for the total amount of the difference” between the “countywide adjustment amount for that fiscal year and the in-lieu local sales and use tax revenues actually received by the county and each city in that county, if there is not enough property tax otherwise required to be allocated under provisions of the ‘Triple Flip’.”

It also “requires the Controller, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to deposit the amount of the claim into the Sales and Use Tax Compensation Fund,” and “requires the county auditor” to “allocate to the county and to each city in that county the amount of the difference that was calculated by the county auditor.”

Huber’s AB-1191 was co-sponsored by the California State Association of Counties and the Regional Council of Rural Counties. Registered supporters included Amador and Mono county Boards of Supervisors, the cities of Ione, Jackson and Sutter Creek, and the town of Mammoth Lakes.

Smyth noted that AB-1191’s “supporters argue the process contained in this bill will remedy a loophole that was not only unanticipated, but was also not part of the agreement that was made back in 2004 in which local governments swapped funds and were promised to be kept whole from such swaps.”

Opposition, Smyth noted, argued that while goals were “laudable” to establish a “reimbursement process that makes certain local governments whole due to unforeseen losses stemming from the Trip Flip and VLF Swap,” it “in no way guarantees that the Legislature will take action each fiscal year to appropriate these funds, especially in tight budgetary times.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.