Locals to Request Payment for Older Claims in 2023 State Budget

As they did in the spring of 2022, the three (3) primary statewide local agency associations (CA State Association of Counties, the League of CA Cities and the CA Special Districts Association) are planning to request payment for older, previously unpaid, state-mandated cost claims for local agencies.  The amount owed by the State of California to Locals is identified in the AB 3000 Report which is prepared and published by the State Controller’s Office (SCO) each October 31. 

In October 31, 2022 AB 3000 Report, the SCO identified more than $888.5 million in State of CA liabilities to Local Agencies for unpaid state-mandated cost claims.  This amount is comprised of $829.7 million in claim costs and an additional $58.9 million in accrued interest.  Unlike most ongoing Annual Claims, most of the costs that appear in the AB 3000 Report do not contain a payment trigger identified in the California State Constitution. Thus, their balances (and interest) is allowed to accrue.

As I did in March 2022, I made a Public Records Act request to the SCO to receive the itemized claim detail for each local agency in the state of CA that had outstanding claims in the 2022 AB 3000 report.  In-turn, I shared this data with all three statewide associations.

With interest rates increasing more than ten-fold during the last 15 months (from 0.2% to currently 2.6%) and continuing to rise, there is some pressure on the State Legislature to address this outstanding liability as $1.8 million in annual accrued interest is minimal, however, $23 million in annual interest may start to get some people’s attention. Fingers-crossed!