It might be fun and interesting to be Governor of California for most of the year, but not for the 30-day period following the close of each legislative year. This is the period provided in the California Constitution for the Governor to sign or veto all bills passed by the Legislature. Bills which are neither signed nor vetoed during this period become law automatically, so the Governor has a big incentive to act either way.
Although the sheer volume of bills enacted has been declining in recent years (term limits has been posited as one possible explanation, or maybe there just isn’t much left to legislate about) there were still 962 bills forwarded to Governor Schwarzenegger when the California Legislature adjourned at 3:35 a.m. on the morning of September 12. Suffice it to say, the tedium of watching legislators slog through bills at 3:00 in the morning makes a rerun of The Teletubbies look exciting.
When the deadline for signing bills expired on Sunday, October 14, the Governor had signed 750 bills into law. The remaining 212 bills which were vetoed constituted 22% of the total, which is consistent with the percentages in recent years. It still represents plenty of new laws…and don’t go smoking with the kids in the car!
For CEA, the bills signed covered a wide variety of subject areas, from mobilehomes to property taxes, notaries and others. A complete accounting of all of the bills is available through the CEA website, but some of the highlights are as follows:
AB 339 (Cook): Mobilehomes
Sets a reliable process for escrow to respond when made aware of disputes between buyers and mobilehome dealers. Chapter 543, Statutes of 2007.
AB 402 (Ma): Changes in Ownership
Includes foster children in the law which excludes some transfers between parents and children in the definition of changes in ownership. Chapter 45, Statutes of 2007.
AB 434 (Silva): Notaries
Requires notaries to provide photostatic copies of line items in notary journals, upon request, within 15 business days of the receipt of the request, unless exigent circumstances prevent compliance. Chapter 496, Statutes of 2007.
AB 804 (Huff): Independent Escrow Companies
Modifies language in advertisements which refer to the Escrow Agents Fidelity Corporation, and clarifies the law concerning charges when escrow closing is delayed. Contains other technical changes. Chapter 237, Statutes of 2007.
AB 886 (Runner): Notaries
Makes extensive changes to notary statutes, including provisions relating to notarizations upon personal knowledge, thumbprint requirements, requirements to provide access to notary journals upon demand by law enforcement, and others. Chapter399, Statutes of 2007.
AB 980 (Calderon): Transfer Fees
Imposes requirements upon the imposition and collection of “private transfer taxes”, depending upon whether the fees were imposed before or after January 1, 2008. Chapter 689, Statutes of 2007.
AB 1168 (Jones): Social Security Numbers
Prohibits the recordation of documents containing full nine-digit Social Security numbers, and creates a program for county recorders to redact full numbers included in recorded documents back to 1980. Imposes a $1 per document surcharge for the redaction program. Chapter 627, Statutes of 2007.
SB 385 (Machado): Mortgages
Requires state-licensed lenders to comply with new federal guidelines on “nontraditional mortgage products” and subprime mortgages. Contains no direct obligations on escrow. Chapter 301, Statutes of 2007.
SB 559 (Kehoe): Changes in Ownership
Clearly excludes from the definition of change in ownership transfers between registered domestic partners which occurred between January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2006, and authorizes assessors to reverse any reassessment which occurred during this period in that circumstance. Chapter 555, Statutes of 2007.
SB 644 (Correa): Social Security Numbers
Deletes the requirement that abstracts of judgment or other court documents contain the nine-digit Social Security number, instead requiring just the last four digits. Chapter 189, Statutes of 2007.
