Sacramento - Assembly Member Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) will meet tomorrow in a study session with the Gilroy City Council to talk about a measure she has introduced to help school districts raise the local funds they need to build safe and updated schools. Assembly Bill 2173 will give school districts the ability to levy higher fees on building developers to help provide schools for the students that new housing and commercial developments generate.

The study session will take place in the Gilroy City Council Chambers, address, from 10:30-12:00 noon. In addition to AB 2173, Assembly Member Caballero will talk about the state budget, and other bills she has introduced to reward communities that build affordable housing, facilitate the development of local infrastructure and prevent youth violence.

"This bill grew out of discussions I had last year with members of the Gilroy school board," said Caballero. "We were all deeply concerned because our current laws regarding developer fees are simply outdated."

She added: "AB 2173 would ensure that developers pay their fair share of the costs to build the schools our communities so badly need to keep up with population growth."

Current law links the amount of fees imposed on building developers to fixed state per-student grants. Recent studies by the state and other groups have shown these formulas to be deficient in paying for new schools. AB 2173 will correct this deficiency by linking developer fees to actual costs, a step toward ending the decade-long cycle of under-funding for schools.

AB 2173 also proposes to rid the law of anachronistic policies by repealing conditions that are required of school districts in order to be able to impose a higher level of fees when their needs exceed what the State can pay. The prerequisite conditions include operating multi-track year-round education schools and/or having a high percentage of portable classrooms. These requirements run counter to current state policies.

"We plan to work closely with the building community over the few next weeks and months on this issue," said Caballero. "They have been partners with local governments in promoting good schools in the past, and I look forward to working with them on continuing that tradition."

The bill is sponsored by the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, an association of school districts and county boards of education that was formed in 1979 to work for school infrastructure.

The bill has been assigned to the Assembly Education Committee. No hearing date has yet been set.