BILL NUMBER: AB 1053 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 17
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE MAY 29, 2014
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR MAY 29, 2014
PASSED THE SENATE MAY 5, 2014
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY MAY 19, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 1, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 7, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Cooley
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act relating to local government, and declaring the urgency
thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1053, Cooley. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District: return of
improperly collected money.
Existing law authorizes the formation of a fire protection
district and further authorizes an established district to raise
revenues, including, but not limited to, levying assessments for fire
suppression services pursuant to a specified procedure. Existing law
also authorizes a district to charge fees to cover the costs of
providing certain services or enforcing certain regulations and to
waive those fees under specified conditions.
This bill would authorize the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire
District, until January 1, 2015, and notwithstanding any other law,
to return money it improperly collected from payees due to a clerical
error in the district's administration of a special tax levied from
2005 to 2012, inclusive. This bill would make legislative findings
and declarations as to the public purpose served by this act.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to
the necessity of a special statute for the Sacramento Metropolitan
Fire District.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Integrity and accountability in government demands that when a
subdivision of the state discovers that it improperly collected
money from the public due to a clerical error, that it be authorized
to return the money to the members of the public from whom the money
was mistakenly collected.
(b) This act, by authorizing an efficient return of money that the
Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District improperly collected in the
form of a special tax due to an unintentional clerical error, serves
a public purpose by maintaining public confidence in the imposition
and collection of special taxes to pay for public improvements and
services, correcting an unintentional error and restoring accuracy in
the district's finances, providing transparency and accountability
in the proper collection and use of public funds, and by avoiding the
potential public expense of defending against costly litigation
filed by those parties from whom money was mistakenly collected.
SEC. 2. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, the Sacramento
Metropolitan Fire District may return to a payor any money the
district improperly collected from the payor due to a clerical error
in the district's administration of the special tax known as the
Special Fire Tax for the Rancho Murieta and Sloughhouse area levied
from 2005 to 2012, inclusive.
(b) This act shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2015,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
is enacted before January 1, 2015, deletes or extends that date.
SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is
necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the
meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution
because of the unique and limited need of the Sacramento Metropolitan
Fire District to return money it improperly and unintentionally
collected in the form of a special tax.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
To remedy as soon as possible the mistaken collection from the
public of fire district special tax amounts, it is necessary for this
act to take effect immediately.