Bill to forgive $15M in outstanding court fees for juvenile delinquents

Appropriations committees are known as the place in the California Legislature where bills go to die.

Created as a check on potentially expensive measures, these committees appear likely to take down more than their usual number of potential laws this year.

Tuesday's meeting of the Assembly Appropriations Committee followed days of lawmakers bemoaning the fact the economic shutdown has left the state budget unable to do things like provide direct relief to renters in danger of eviction. It ended with most of the dozens of bills on the agenda being placed on the dreaded suspense file, to be taken up at a make-or-break hearing on Thursday.

One measure that did make it through was SB 1290, despite a potential $15 million price tag. That's the approximate amount of money left over in outstanding fees owed by parents and guardians of juvenile delinquents prior to the passage of SB 190 in 2018, which banned charging parents the cost of detaining criminals under 21. Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, wrote SB 190 and is coauthor on SB 1290.

The bill's other author, Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, argued most of this money will never be collected anyway. Seven counties, including Orange and San Diego, announced this year they were ending attempts to collect more than $75 million of court costs for criminal juveniles, she said.

"These fees are documented to have collection rates as low as 1%," Carillo said. "Counties often spend more on the efforts to collect these debts than they actually receive."

Among the bills up on Thursday are a pair of follow-ons to recent highly publicized new laws. SB 776 would make police use of force records subject to public disclosure even if they did not result in death or great bodily harm. It's being carried by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. She also wrote 2018's SB 1421, making police records subject to the California Public Records Act.

Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, an attorney, has carried several bills over his career to regulate debt collection practices. His SB 908 would force bill collectors to be licensed by the Department of Business Oversight. It carries a potential annual price tag of $10 million a year, while SB 776 could cost $5.6 million annually, according to Assembly Appropriations analyses.

-- Malcolm Maclachlan