Local government: agricultural land: subvention payments.

The Williamson Act authorizes a city or county to enter into 10-year contracts with owners of land devoted to agricultural use, whereby the owners agree to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation. Other existing law sets forth procedures for payments to reimburse cities and counties for property tax revenues not received as a result of these contracts. This bill would appropriate $40,000,000 to the Controller from the General Fund for the 2014–15 fiscal year to make subvention payments to counties to reimburse counties for property tax revenues not received as a result of these contracts. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations related to the preservation of agricultural land.