BILL NUMBER: AB 274INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials (Assembly Members Alejo (Chair), Dahle (Vice Chair), Gonzalez, Gray, McCarty, and Ting) FEBRUARY 11, 2015 An act to add Section 25269.9 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to hazardous substances. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 274, as introduced, Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. Oversight costs: uncollectible accounts. Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to comply with specified procedures when recovering oversight costs for corrective action taken pursuant to the hazardous waste control laws or for removal or remedial actions taken pursuant to the Carpenter-Presley-Tanner Hazardous Substances Account Act. The department is required to take specified actions with regard to uncollectible accounts, including reviewing all current outstanding receivables and making an appropriate adjustment for estimated uncollectible amounts. The department is authorized, if warranted, to write off or write down those receivable amounts. This bill would define the term "uncollectible account" and, in addition to the authority specified above, would authorize the department not to pursue an uncollectible account and to write off that uncollectible account. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 25269.9 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 25269.9. (a) The Legislature finds and declares both of the following: (1) The department should prioritize its cost recovery efforts to make the most efficient use of its resources available for that activity. (2) It is not cost effective or practicable to seek recovery of an uncollectible account, as defined in subdivision (b). (b) For purposes of this section, "uncollectible account" means an oversight cost that meets all of the following conditions: (1) The oversight cost was incurred by the department on or after July 1, 1987, but not later than December 31, 2013, while overseeing a cleanup action pursuant to the authority specified in subdivision (a) of Section 25269.2. (2) The amount of the uncollected cost is not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000). (3) The department will not incur further oversight costs with regard to that cleanup action. (4) The department's estimated cost to pursue the oversight costs exceeds the value of the oversight costs. (c) In addition to the authority specified in Section 25269.8, the department is not required to pursue an uncollectible account and may write off that uncollectible account. (d) The requirements of Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 13940) of Part 4 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code shall not apply to any action taken by the department pursuant to subdivision (c).