AB 273 Suggests Mandating Court Collections through Franchise Tax Board

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Assembly Member Joel Anderson (R - El Cajon) recently introduced AB 273 suggesting that it would make Court collections easier and more effective if the Franchise Tax Board performed collection services instead of Local Courts.  Passage of this Bill would have an unknown effect on our current employees working in collections in our Local Courts.  The Bill, first read on Feb. 12, 2009 has been in Committee for a series of hearings, some postponed by the author.  Nonetheless, the Assembly Committee on Judiciary chaired by Mike Feuer criticized the proposed legislation as premature as earlier legislation from 2007 (AB 367) has already created a task force to assess and make recommendations about Court collections - their report is not due until December of 2009.  Any legislation now disposing of the issue would pre-empt the findings of that task force, and may indeed be in conflict with those recommendations.

The Judicial Council has also come out in strong opposition to AB 273, and the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) opposes it amidst concerns that eliminating the Court’s discretion in collection referrals is disruptive to progress toward a uniform, comprehensive Court-ordered collection system.  Other possible concerns are the issue of clear delineation between legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.  The issue of collections flowing from judicial processes could reasonably be viewed as more associated with judicial functions (with the Courts retaining jurisdiction for judicial action over non-compliance), rather than a legislative or executive function through the Franchise Tax Board, whose primary function is to correctly assess and collect taxation revenues imposed by the State.

You can obtain information about AB 273 here:  AB 273 - Text (Introduced 2009)

The History of AB 273 is here:  AB 273 (Anderson, 2009) - History

This Bill has been analyzed by the Assembly Committee on Judiciary:  Assembly Committee on Judiciary Assessment

The Current Status of the Bill is here:  AB 273 (Anderson, 2009) - Current Status