Photo courtesy Humboldt County.

It’s a legislation bonanza today. Gov. Brown signed the weed bills, Congressman Jared Huffman brought more than $200,000 in USDA grants to the district, and now Assemblymember Jim Wood announces that his bill on the Williamson Act has also been signed by Brown.

The bill closes a loophole that dates back to the massive budget cuts and funding grabs from the days of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It seems Humboldt County got screwed out of more than $200,000 back in 2011 when the state negotiated a deal with a private landowner to cancel that landowner’s Williamson Act contract, leaving county officials out of the negotiation.

Henceforth, counties will get to be at the table for such deal-making.

Here’s a press release from Assemblyman Jim Wood’s office explaining things further:

Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) applauded Governor Brown for signing AB 707 into law last night. The bill, authored by Wood and sponsored by the County of Humboldt, now requires the State to notify local governments if the State’s cancellation penalty fee assessment, within the Williamson Act, differs from the County’s original assessment. 

Under the Williamson Act, the State provided subvention payments from the State’s General Fund to counties for the loss of local resources to lands under Williams Act contracts. However, these subvention payments to local jurisdictions were eliminated, under Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration, to help balance the State’s budget. 

Due to the elimination of subvention payments, some local jurisdictions passed ordinances that impose an additional local cancelation penalty fee. If a property owner wanted to cancel a contract with the Williamson Act before the ten year period, the landowner must petition the local Board of Supervisors or City Council to terminate a contract. The County of Humboldt is one local jurisdiction that has a local cancelation penalty fee.

In 2011, a private land owner and the State negotiated a cancellation penalty fee which left the County of Humboldt out of the conversation. The Humboldt County Assessor originally assessed the property at $1.9 million, but the value after a deal was cut between the state and landowner was only $227,000.

Humboldt County received $28,375 from the cancellation instead of $237,375 – over $200,000 was lost to the County. This is a tremendous difference for the County; these few hundred thousand dollars may not sound like much, but to our rural neighbors, it was a substantial loss.

AB 707 removes the ability for a landowner and the State to negotiate a cancellation penalty fee that leaves out the County. The bill ensures local governments are continuously notified throughout all conversations that involve the cancelation of a contract under the Williamson Act. 

“Local governments should never be left in the dark when negotiations are happening that directly affect them. AB 707 ensures that cities and counties always have a seat at the table. I’m thrilled that the Governor agreed with me as well, said Wood.”