SB 676 (Wolk) is scheduled to be heard on the Senate Floor in the next few days. It is a minor bill that is sponsored by the County of Yolo and one that should earn support of people concerned with transfers of wealth and those that value local control.
Yolo County studied how much it cost to provide some of these services where the fee we could charge was controlled by state law. Some of these fees had not been adjusted for more than 20 years despite the increased cost of providing the service. This bill that was introduced by Senator Wolk addresses some of the issues that were discovered in that study.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say that Publisher Jon decides to play in a local soccer league run by the City of Irvine. Good for Jon, bad for his teammates, and maybe good for Irvine. Does anyone think that the general fund and all the taxpayers in Irvine should subsidize Jon’s soccer? I certainly don’t. I want Jon to pay exactly his share of costs for Irvine to run the soccer league. No more. No less.
So why would it be ok for the taxpayers to subsidize the issuance of a certificate showing weather their are any liens on Jon’s house, filing papers at the Orange County Clerk’s office, or sealing his juvenille records? The taxpayers should not have to subsidize these actions by Publisher Jon at all — that is what SB 676 is all about. The local governments need to set these fees at an amount that will cover the cost of service.
Now some of you will scream that this is another example of local governments trying to gouge the taxpayer. If you don’t like the fees charged by that local government then take it up with your City Council or County Supervisor. They are likely to be far more responsive than the State Legislature.
The argument against this bill is committee was that the Legislature should not give up control of setting these fees. Ok fine. Don’t stop here then. As a Supervisor I vote on hundreds of fees — take them all out of my hands. Let the Legislature set them all. What is so special about these fees? The answer is nothing. Further, since some of these fees have not been adjusted in more than a decade the Legislature has shown that it is not competent in the way it handles these fees anyway.
I really do believe in local control on many issues. However, that also needs to come with the local authority to make decisions on the best way to run the programs that the state mandates us to run. SB 676 (Wolk) is a true test of a belief in local control.
It is my hope that the bill will be approved by the Senate.