SACRAMENTO — The Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC) Wednesday opposed Senate Bill 1222 for its attempt to limit local government in carrying out its operations during a hearing of the Assembly Local Government Committee.
“As an organization, we should oppose things that hinder the ability of rural counties to conduct their business and serve their communities,” Lee Adams, RCRC board member and Sierra County Supervisor, said. “Senator Mark Leno”s SB 1222 does exactly that — it ties the hands of cities and counties by dictating permitting fee requirements for rooftop solar energy systems when cities and counties already have formulas in place to address such matters.”
SB 1222 would place a cap on building permit fees on rooftop solar residential and commercial systems, as well as require local agencies to justify “reasonable costs” in a finding and ordinance for any costs higher than $400 and $1,000 respectively, according to an RCRC release. The bill undermines local government decisions by setting in statute fee levels without regard to individual county or city costs and is duplicative since counties must already provide a mitigation fee study when establishing the fee, according to the release.
An existing law, the Mitigation Fee Act, already specifies that a local government fee may not exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service for which the fee is charged, according to the release.
“The only SB 1222 does is add another unnecessary and burdensome mandate to local governments,” Adams said.
RCRC staff analysis of SB 1222 rightly identified the bill as imposing a reimbursable state mandate as the ” additional administrative burden places a higher level of service on local entities than the current standard specifying that a fee cannot exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service for which the fee is charged,” according to the release.
RCRC is an association of 31 California rural counties that advocates before the state legislature, Congress and state and federal government agencies on behalf of rural issues. Headquartered in Sacramento, county supervisors comprise RCRC”s governing board.
