AB 1754: State general obligation bonds: requirements.

Existing law, the State General Obligation Bond Law, generally sets forth the procedures for the issuance and sale of bonds governed by its provisions and for the disbursal of the proceeds of the sale of those bonds. Existing law specifies various provisions required for inclusion in a bond act. Existing law requires any state bond measure approved on or after January 1, 2004, to be subject to an annual reporting process, with the head of the lead state agency administering the bond proceeds reporting certain information about the projects being funded to the Legislature and the Department of Finance. Existing law permits this information to be provided on the agencys internet website or the states open data portal under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes the costs of the report to be included in the cost of administering the bond act unless prohibited by the bond act.

For any state general obligation bond measure that is approved by voters on and after January 1, 2027, this bill would require a bond act to include specified information about the objectives of the bond expenditure and related data. The bill would also require the head of the lead state agency administering the bond to post on its internet website a notification that contains, among other information, details about the programs and projects authorized to be funded by the bond. The bill would require each state agency subject to these provisions to provide a written report to the Department of Finance, the Legislative Analyst, and specified legislative committees that contains certain information regarding the general obligation bond, in accordance with the above-described provision permitting this information to be provided on the agencys internet website or the states online data portal. The bill would require the report to include, among other information, whether the project, grant, or other expenditure of bond proceeds has been done in a timely manner. The bill would require a bond act to include a provision requiring the cost of the report to be included in the cost of administering the bond act, and would require the cost of compliance with the above-described report requirements be included in the cost of administering the bond act. The bill would also make non-substantive and conforming changes to certain cross-references.