BILL NUMBER: SB 450	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 28, 2010
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  SEPTEMBER 12, 2009
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  SEPTEMBER 4, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Lowenthal
    (   Coauthor:   Assembly Member  
Bonnie Lowenthal   ) 

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2009

    An act to add and repeal Section 40440.13 of the Health
and Safety Code, relating to the South Coast Air Quality Management
District.   An act to add and repeal Section 52124.2 of
the Education Code, relating to class size reduction, and declaring
the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. (PU
20090SB__019394ENR ) 



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 450, as amended, Lowenthal.  South Coast Air Quality
Management District: CEQA: permits.   Class size
reduction: Long Beach Unified School District.  
   (1) Existing law allows a school district that maintains
kindergarten or grades 1 to 3, inclusive, to apply to the
Superintendent of Public Instruction for an apportionment to
implement a K-3 Class Size Reduction Program. The purpose of the
program is to ensure that instruction is received in classrooms where
there are not more than 20 pupils. The Controller is required to
deduct an amount equal to the amount received by the school district
for class size reduction from the district's next principal
apportionment or apportionments of state funds if the district does
not implement its class size reduction program for all grades and
classes for which it received funding.  
   This bill would authorize the Superintendent to approve funding
for the Long Beach Unified School District for the 2009-10, 2010-11,
and 2011-12 school years for a class size reduction program if the
class size exceeds 20 pupils, or the class is housed with another
class, and specified criteria are met, including criteria relating to
closures on Catalina Island resulting from the May 2007 fire and
resultant debris flow hazard due to weather-related conditions. These
provisions would become inoperative on July 1, 2012, and would be
repealed on January 1, 2013.  
   (2) This bill would state the findings and declarations of the
Legislature concerning the need for special legislation.  
   (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.  
   (1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a
lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and
certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a
project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a
significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative
declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.
CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative
declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the
environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that
effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as
revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA
exempts certain specified projects from its requirements. 

   Under existing law, every air pollution control district or air
quality management district in a federal nonattainment area for any
national ambient air quality standard is required to establish by
regulation, a system by which all reductions in emissions of air
contaminants that are to be used to offset certain future increases
in the emission of air contaminants are banked prior to use. The
South Coast Air Quality Management District (district) promulgated
various rules establishing offset exemptions, providing Priority
Reserve offset credits, and creating or tracking credits used for
offset exemption or Priority Reserve projects. In Natural Resources
Defense Council v. South Coast Air Quality Management District
(Super. Ct. Los Angeles County, 2007, No. BS 110792), the superior
court found the promulgation of certain of these district rules to be
in violation of CEQA.  
   This bill would authorize the district to issue permits in
compliance with specified rules promulgated by the district,
notwithstanding this court decision. The provisions of the bill would
be repealed on May 1, 2012.  
   (2) This bill would state the findings and declarations of the
Legislature concerning the need for special legislation. 
   Vote:  majority   2/3  . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee:  no   yes  .
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    Section 52124.2 is added to the 
 Education Code  , to read:  
   52124.2.  (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter,
the Superintendent may approve funding for the Long Beach Unified
School District pursuant to this chapter for the 2009-10, 2010-11,
and 2011-12 school years for classes in which the K-3 Class Size
Reduction Program is implemented that either exceed 20 pupils or are
housed with another class, if the following conditions are met:
   (1) The school district certifies that the number of pupils
enrolled in a district school increased as a direct result of the
closures on Catalina Island resulting from the May 2007 fire and
resultant debris flow hazard due to weather-related conditions, and
this growth increased the number of pupils enrolled in classes in
which the K-3 Class Size Reduction Program is implemented.
   (2) The school district certifies that it lacked sufficient
classroom space or credentialed teachers to accommodate the
enrollment increase from the closures on Catalina Island resulting
from the May 2007 fire and resultant debris flow hazard due to
weather-related conditions.
   (b) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2012, and as
of January 1, 2013, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that
is enacted before January 1, 2013, deletes or extends the dates on
which it becomes inoperative and is repealed. 
   SEC. 2.    The Legislature hereby finds and declares
that due to unique circumstances relating to the Long Beach Unified
School District, a general statute cannot be made applicable within
the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
Constitution. 
   SEC. 3.    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:
 
   In order to provide timely essential relief to the Long Beach
Unified School District which would otherwise experience a loss of
state funding as a result of mandatory fire and weather-related
school closings on Catalina Island, it is necessary that this bill
take effect immediately.  
  SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares
all of the following:
   (a) As a result of the superior court decision in Natural
Resources Defense Council v. South Coast Air Quality Management
District (Super. Ct. Los Angeles County, 2007, No. BS 110792) holding
that the South Coast Air Quality Management District (district)
violated the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public
Resources Code) in the promulgation of certain district rules, the
district is unable to issue over a thousand pending permits that rely
on the district's internal offset bank to offset emissions.
   (b) The district may also have to set aside several thousand
permits that were previously issued in reliance on the district's
internal offset bank.
   (c) Prompt legislative action is necessary as an interim measure;
otherwise projects will be stopped from going forward or frozen in
place, representing significant losses to the economy and the loss of
numerous well-paying jobs.
   (d) Nothing in the case described in subdivision (a) requires the
setting aside of any permit issued by the South Coast Air Quality
Management District to any essential public service, that relied on
Rule 1309.1, nor any permit that relied on Rule 1304, between
September 8, 2006, and November 3, 2008.
   (e) It is the intent of the Legislature that the district process
the permits of essential public services first when issuing permits
pursuant to Section 40440.13.  
  SEC. 2.    Section 40440.13 is added to the Health
and Safety Code, to read:
   40440.13.  (a) Notwithstanding the decision of the court in
Natural Resources Defense Council v. South Coast Air Quality
Management District (Super. Ct. Los Angeles County, 2007, No. BS
110792), the south coast district may issue permits in reliance on,
and in compliance with, south coast district Rule 1304, as amended on
June 14, 1996, and Rule 1309.1, as amended May 3, 2002.
   (b) Nothing in this section affects the decision in the case
described in subdivision (a) concerning the adoption, readoption, or
amendment, or environmental review, of south coast district Rule
1315.
   (c) In implementing subdivision (a), the south coast district
shall rely on the emission reduction credit tracking system used
prior to the adoption of Rule 1315, until a new tracking system is
approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and is
in effect, at which point that new system shall be used by the south
coast district in implementing subdivision (a). The south coast
district shall make information concerning the credits, and the
tracking of these credits, available to the public.
   (d) This section shall remain in effect only until May 1, 2012,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
is enacted before May 1, 2012, 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 unique circumstances concerning
the South Coast Air Quality Management District.