Source: http://ca.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20110225_0001536.CA.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 14:23:49+00:00

Document:
EDMUND G. BROWN, JR., AS GOVERNOR, ETC., ET AL., RESPONDENTS.
The opinion of the court was delivered by: Croskey, J.
ORIGINAL PROCEEDINGS in mandate. Petition for writ of mandate is denied.
Under California Constitution, article XIII B, section 6, subdivision (a), whenever the state mandates a new program or higher level of service upon a local government, the state is required to provide a subvention of funds to reimburse the local government for the costs of the mandated program or increased service. In this case, we are concerned with a mandated program for which the state is several hundred million dollars in arrears in its payments to local governments. In November 2004, the voters approved Proposition 1A, which added to section 6 of article XIII B a provision requiring that the state begin reimbursing local governments for the amounts due. (Cal. Const., art. XIII B, § 6, subdivision (b).) Under that provision, in each year, for each unreimbursed mandate, the Legislature is required to either: (1) appropriate, in the annual Budget Act, the full amount due that year toward repaying the local governments for the unreimbursed mandate; or (2) suspend the operation of the mandate. (Cal. Const., art. XIII B, § 6, subd. (b)(1).) In the instant case, we are concerned with a mandate for which the Legislature appropriated the required amount in the Budget Bill, and the Governor exercised his power of line-item veto to eliminate the appropriation (Cal. Const., art. IV, § 10, subd. (e)).
In this original proceeding, we are asked to determine if the Governor had the power to veto the appropriation of reimbursement funding for the mandate, or if, to the contrary, the discretion to make an appropriation of mandate reimbursement funding is exclusively vested in the Legislature. We conclude that the Governor was constitutionally permitted to exercise his veto in this manner. We therefore will deny the petition to declare the Governor's veto void.
The factual background leading to the instant proceeding is undisputed. A brief overview of the law governing mandate reimbursement and the history of the particular mandate at issue will help to place the instant dispute in proper context.
Following the adoption of Article XIII B, the Legislature enacted a comprehensive statutory and administrative scheme for enforcing it.*fn2 (See Gov. Code, § 17500 et seq.) Of particular relevance to the instant dispute is Government Code section 17581, which provides that if the Legislature identifies a particular mandate in the Budget Act as one for which reimbursement is not provided for that fiscal year, the local agencies are not required to comply with the mandate during that year.
For a number of years, the Legislature chose not to fund certain mandates, but did not identify the mandates in the Budget Act as those for which no reimbursement would be provided. Instead, the Legislature funded the mandates in the token amount of $1000. This had the effect of not automatically suspending the operation of the mandates, but leaving them virtually unfunded.*fn3 Local agencies advanced considerable funds complying with drastically underfunded mandates, with the expectation of ultimately obtaining reimbursement from the state.
This state of events led to Proposition 1A, which was approved by the voters in November 2004. Proposition 1A, which was placed on the ballot by the Legislature, with the support of local governments,*fn4 added, among other things, section 6, subdivision (b) to Article XIII B. That subdivision provides that, for every fiscal year, "for a mandate for which the costs of a local government claimant have been determined in a preceding fiscal year to be payable by the State pursuant to law, the Legislature shall either appropriate, in the annual Budget Act, the full payable amount that has not been previously paid, or suspend the operation of the mandate for the fiscal year for which the annual Budget Act is applicable in a manner prescribed by law." (Cal. Const., art. XIII B, § 6, subd. (b)(1).) The full arrearage may be paid over a term of years. (Cal. Const., art. XIII B, § 6, subd. (b)(2).) By statute, that period has been established to be 15 years. (Gov. Code, § 17617.) Thus, with respect to a reimbursable mandate, for each fiscal year, the Legislature is required to choose to either fully fund the annual payment toward the arrearage or suspend the operation of the mandate.
In California, the state and local education agencies*fn6 were initially responsible for providing not only special education, but all related services, to students with disabilities.*fn7 This was changed with the enactment of Chapter 26.5 of the Government Code, entitled "Interagency Responsibilities for Providing Services to Children with Disabilities."*fn8 (Gov. Code, § 7560 et seq.) Under this statute, local education agencies remained responsible only for education services. (Gov. Code, § 7573.) Related mental health services were to be provided by the State Department of Mental Health or community mental health agencies. (Gov. Code, § 7576.) We refer to these related mental health services as "Chapter 26.5 services."
As local mental health agencies had not previously been required to provide Chapter 26.5 services to special education students, local mental health agencies argued that these requirements constituted a reimbursable state mandate. In a series of three successive opinions, the Commission on State Mandates concluded that these requirements constituted a reimbursable state mandate, and discussed, in detail, exactly which expenses were reimbursable. (Nos. CSM-4282, 97-TC-05, 02-TC-40/02-TC-49.) Thus, there is no dispute in this case that the Chapter 26.5 services obligations at issue do, in fact, impose a reimbursable state mandate on local mental health agencies. We refer to this as the "Chapter 26.5 mandate."

References: § 6
 § 6
 § 10
 § 17500
 § 6
 § 6
 § 17617
 § 7560
 § 7573
 § 7576