AB 561: Sales and use taxes: exclusion: public safety first responder vehicle and equipment: local public employee retirement: employer contributions.

(1)Existing sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, measured by sales price. The Sales and Use Tax Law defines the terms gross receipts and sales price.

This bill, for any public safety first responder vehicle and any equipment required on a public safety first responder vehicle that is purchased by a local public agency, would exclude from the terms gross receipts and sales price, amounts of the gross receipts or sales price in excess of $300,000. $800,000 of an individual item.

This bill would require a local public agency that purchases a public safety first responder vehicle or any equipment required on a public safety first responder vehicle subject to this partial exclusion to calculate, as specified, the total amount of sales tax reimbursement to a retailer or use tax that the local public agency would have paid in the absence of the partial exclusion, minus any amounts actually paid, and make an employer contribution to the local public agencys retirement fund in that amount. The bill would declare that this requirement addresses a matter of statewide concern and would apply equally to all cities and counties in this state, including charter cities and charter counties.

(3)The Public Employees Retirement Law establishes the Public Employees Retirement System and sets forth the provisions for its administration and delivery of benefits to its members. That law authorizes any public agency, defined to include specified local agencies, to contract with the Board of Administration of the Public Employees Retirement System to participate in, and make all or part of its employees members of, that system. That law also establishes the Public Employees Retirement Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund for, among other purposes, payments for the benefit of the members of the system and their survivors and beneficiaries. That law requires that employer contributions of the state, school employers, and contracting agencies be credited to the fund.

To the extent that this bill would increase the amount of employer contributions credited to the Public Employees Retirement Fund by a local public agency that contracts with the board to participate in the Public Employees Retirement System, thereby increasing the amount of money in a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.